By Yazi Jepson
Millions of product launches have taken place over the years; some experienced success and others have experienced failures. One of the key differences between the two has a lot to do with the type of product launch ideas that were used to launch a new product. Planning your ideas in advance is vital. Below are six product launch ideas that have been used during a successful product launch that you may find to be a useful part of your efforts.
1. Branding and Influencer Marketing
One of the key ways to come up with ideas for product launch is by first establishing relationships with potential customers (before attempting to launch the product.) This can be done through strong business branding and by driving potential customers to your site through various online strategies, such as building credibility through the use of other individuals and influencers in particular. They could consist of entertainers, athletes, politicians or others who have an influence on your target market. They are capable of assisting with getting the word out about your brand (and your upcoming product). They are also capable of reaching hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of potential customers through their own social media platforms.
By having others talk about your brand and your upcoming product on their blogs or social media platforms, they could add links that direct traffic back to your website. Your website would have opt-in features that lead to capture pages designed and ready to convert new leads. This is a great way to have potential customers in place and ready to go before the actual product launch takes place.
2. Build Anticipation and Suspense
Once you have a lead generation strategy in place as indicated in item one above, you can then begin to build anticipation and suspense to your audience by letting them know about the product in advance. You can do this through email marketing and other digital and traditional marketing strategies. It not only build suspense, but it also creates a buzz, while leaving potential customers waiting for more information about the release date of your new product.
By launching a teaser campaign, you can create product launch ideas in advance, alerting your potential clients about the initial launching of a Limited Edition that will only be available during a brief, pre-launch, trial period. To take things a step further, you could also allow this Limited Edition to only be offered to an exclusive group of people. Ideally, those who participate in a beta testing program can provide you with feedback about the product prior to fully launching your product into the marketplace. This allows you to obtain some much-needed feedback and the opportunity to iron out any bugs beforehand.
4. Take Pre-Orders
For those who were not able to receive a Limited Edition of your product or participate in the trial period, you can make pre-orders available to them; that way they can rest assured that they will be able to obtain the product before it gets sold out.
5. Launch an Event Around Your Product
Developing great product launch event allows you to develop promotional strategies that engage your potential customers, which allows you to interact directly with them. You can watch their reactions, and their responses, take photos for your website, take video snippets of their responses, (also putting them on your website,) along with a host of other activities. This is a great way to use this event as a launching pad to capture even more customers.
Some product launch event ideas consist of a promotional party or a grand opening, an in-store event that could include free giveaways, prizes or rewards.
6. Hire a Professional Spokesperson or Model
The use of a promo girl or fitness model will often speak volumes when they are representing your product. Because our society is focused on image, the use of an attractive model to serve as a spokesperson can probably add more mileage to your product launch than you can do on your own. This is because attractive people tend to be more captivating and can draw a large audience pretty effortlessly. The strategy is more effective however, if your product is more relevant to image and attractiveness.
It is very important to develop well thought out and creative product launch ideas to ensure that your product is properly positioned and well received in the marketplace. Establishing ideas for product launch in advance will significantly reduce the risk of failures that are associated with the numerous unplanned product launches that often take place in the marketplace.