From Concept to Consumers: 5 Key Strategies to Successfully Introduce Your Product to the Market

Product marketing isn’t easy. At The Launchpad Agency, we often get calls from entrepreneurs and companies that have great new products, but just don’t know how to bring it to market. And we’re here to tell you that success is more than just having a great product, it also takes proper new product launch strategy and execution to really make your endeavor a hit with your target customers.

Are you ready to launch? Here are some tips to get you started on your journey to a successful product launch.

Take a deep dive into the competition

When you aspire to bring your product to market, you should always begin by taking a hard look at the competition. As many product marketing courses teach, you should perform a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis. To begin, make a list of businesses that offer products similar to yours, even if you think your product is unique without competition. It is important to put yourself in your prospective customer’s shoes. What could they buy instead of your product to solve the same problem that your product does? 

Once you have a defined list of competitors, it is time to research! What marketing strategies do they use? You should review their product positioning, ads, brochures, websites, social media pages, and anything else that you can find. How will your new products stand up against others in the marketplace? Perhaps, and most importantly, who will be the biggest threat to your success? 

Target the ideal audience

At this point, you should have a good idea of who your target audience is. Studying the competition can help with that too! Who is purchasing from them and who is interacting with their product posts? A good understanding of who your market is will give you an advantage in designing effective marketing strategies. At LaunchPad, prior to developing any marketing campaign, we develop customer avatars to clearly identify who we are developing the content for.

Your best customer prospects have a need for your product. You just need to figure out what product sell points are going to best pique the interest of your target audiences. How is your product going to be beneficial to them? Remember, it is better to fill a need than to create one. 

Develop your unique product marketing strategy

You should have a vision of what you can create to stand out from the competition and capture your customer’s attention! Develop clear, simple, and engaging content that conveys your product’s message. Why should customers buy from you and not your competitors? What value does your product deliver to consumers? The bottom line is that your product and messaging should be unique and meet the needs of your best prospective consumers. 

Once you have developed the perfect messaging, where will you advertise your product? How do you best engage your target audiences where they spend the most time online? Digital marketing has brought product marketing to the next level. There are a multitude of channels to choose from. How do you decide which one is right for you?

Through digital marketing, your potential customer base has increased ten-fold compared to traditional marketing methods. At LaunchPad, our battle-tested new product launch strategy involves an integrated approach with a strategic blend of PR, online advertising, social media, and email marketing all working together to engage the target customers in the channels where they spend the most time.  

We have tested all the channels and we have found that Facebook consistently delivers the best ROAS. Now this varies depending on the product of course,  but whether you are running Facebook or Google ads, a social media platform’s built-in targeting tools provide the most efficient way to reach your audience. 

Test your marketing approach

Being flexible with your marketing approach is essential to product success. You will need to change your product marketing and maybe even your message, as your audience and their needs change. Test your messaging with anyone that will listen to get feedback. 

Best of all, use the audience that you currently have such as a customer email database and social media to get invaluable feedback that you need for optimal changes that can help enhance your new product marketing strategy. For instance, you can email a survey to past customers asking them for their feedback on your product, key features, and pricing. Offering a raffle prize for everyone who completes the survey is a good way to increase participation.  

PR and 3rd Party Validation

Public relations often play a vital role in new product launch marketing. Getting a great product review from a trusted media source can grow product awareness and drive a lot of sales. Nowadays, product reviews on YouTube and trusted blogs can carry as much weight as an article in a traditional publication, so don’t discount social influencers as they can deliver a great ROI. 

It’s also important that any samples you send to the press for review are in good shape and work as advertised so that they can get an accurate feel for the product you’re selling. We like to also include a reviewer’s guide with tips and tricks to ensure a good positive first experience. Monitor the results of your efforts in the first weeks and months of your campaign and be ready to adapt your campaign as needed. For instance, if you get a great review on CNET, you can use this in your e-commerce efforts and add 3rd party validation to the ad copy which greatly increases the ad performance and conversion rates.

Don’t be afraid to call in the big guns

Yes, we’re a full-service product marketing agency, so it may seem like we are biased, but it is never a mistake to get an expert on your team to do some of the heavy lifting. Marketing experts like us stay in business because we’ve been on hundreds of campaigns and know what to do and how to navigate the landscape. Our combined team of experts covers a lot of ground including go-to-market campaigns, crowdfunding, PR, advertising, email marketing, social media, branding, and more, so we know what it takes to create a successful new product launch.

Do you have a campaign you’re looking to launch and have a question? Contact us here.

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