The hours, weeks, and months spent bringing a new product or service for your business from an idea to reality have reached the end. In the next phase, you’ll introduce it to your current and potential customers, expanding your business in the process. Congratulations!
But there’s one sticking point in this final phase – a friend of a friend heard that you’re supposed to create a new domain name and or website for the new offering. A new website? You may be now thinking of the weeks it took to create your current business website and wondering how you missed budgeting for such time and expense for this new offering to have a website. No need to hit the panic button and bring the scheduled introduction to a halt, you don’t need a new domain or website for a new product or service. Sure, if you have limitless marketing money for such things, this could be an option. But for many businesses, creating a new domain or website to promote an individual product or service is unnecessary.
Instead, there are many ways you can approach your new product or service in terms of promotion. Commonly, businesses use campaigns, landing pages, and content offers to spread the word. It doesn’t matter which of these routes you choose, any promotion will require planning, organizing, and strategy long before the promotion itself begins.
Campaign
There are two ways you can approach using a campaign to promote a new product or service – the Apple way or the Beyonce way. For Apple, the lead up to the launch happens over weeks and months, leaning on social media and using it to your advantage. The Beyonce way has little or no buzz before the product arrives innocuously overnight, but quickly gains steam through word-of-mouth and digital marketing.
Social Media
We talk all of the time about the power of social media, but it’s easy to overdo it during a campaign. With so many ideas and concepts for posts coming together, we understand the excitement. Post variation is nearly required but with a little flowing creativity, they can be quite effective. Snap a quick photo of someone writing notes on the project or a short video of behind the scenes production without giving away details is common. Custom hashtags fit perfectly in here and can help build anticipation around the impending launch. Encourage your followers, fans, and customers to join in with the hashtags. The same hashtags can be used for a Twitter chat to continue promoting the offering once it has launched, for example.
Email Marketing
Another steadfast way to get the word out about a new product or service is through email marketing. With the various segmented email lists you have, target those who the new product or service would help or address an issue they have. This can be known based on customer feedback or based on a buyer persona. Offer behind the scenes photos and or videos of the creation process to your email subscribers and house everything on email-only landing pages. Letting people in on the process is another way to use email marketing for engagement.
Traditional Mailers
While not the first move for new product or service launches in the digital age, traditional mailers can still reach customers who aren’t active on social media and email. Self-mailers and postcards are popular sizes and leave plenty of room for letting people know about the new offering through whatever attention grabbing design and copy you come up with.
Landing Pages
Any landing page created for the new offering should be specifically tied to the marketing campaign. The product page will have content aimed to appeal to all customers of your business, with education as the main goal. Using landing pages for a new offering removes most of the usual distractions found on product pages and keeps the focus on the new item with a single message.
Landing pages generally take one of three forms. The most common are the short and simple click through. This page takes a customer directly to the shopping cart or calendar to book an appointment, for example. A lead capturing page looks to collect information about people interested in the product or service with emails to follow up afterward. A microsite is meant to be its own mini-website within your existing website, including with its own URL. These are usually used for large campaigns for brand launches or a popular product.
Content Offer
Having a content offer attached to the new offering can sweeten the pot, per say, whether it is a discount, coupon, free consultation or trial, or demonstration. Whatever you decide to go with, be triple sure it is high quality and has a value to your audience. People don’t like to give out their contact information for little in return. Conversely, putting your best foot forward will lead to repeat customers and hopefully new ones as returning customers tell friends and family about your business. Also, previously created blogs related to your new offering can be packaged and used as an additional content offer.
How Can Online Marketing Help a Company Spread the Word About New Services or Products?
It’s all about the strategy and planning you put into the marketing of your new offering. Online marketing is the final product of everything you do leading up to the launch itself. It also gives you yet another presence online. Using online marketing can be viewed as an example of how engaged your company is with all things digital and that you understand the importance of it.
Elevare Can Launch Your Product to New Heights
Whether you’re launching your first or seventh new product or service, Elevare can help you reach as many current and potential customers as possible. strong background in local search citations, marketing, social media and more. working with clients from before, during, and after a campaign is finished, our goal is you to have as much success as possible. Whatever your plan is, we’re here to help put it in motion.
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