You've put your heart and soul into developing a new product. But how do you make sure it gets into the hands of customers without any hiccups? These tips will help small business owners and freelancer have a successful new product launch.
Craft a well-defined buyer persona
Who is the ideal customer for your new product launch? What are his or her demographics, buying behavior and pain points? Most importantly, what would drive this customer to make a purchase? This becomes your buyer persona.
This persona is nothing more than a fictional profile you will use to determine the core audience to whom you will market and sell your product.
Even though you're ascribing data to a fictional persona, it should be realistic data. One way to assure this is to interview real individuals in the target audience to collect their feedback before crafting a persona.
Choose an appropriate launch type
A hard launch makes your product available to your entire target market at the same time. You may want to choose this launch type if you need to get a product to market quickly to maintain a competitive advantage.
With a soft launch, you introduce a product in waves to various segments of the target market. A soft launch is a good option if you want to generate buzz around your product over a longer period of time. You also don't have to break the bank with a soft launch.
This is because one segment of the market can adopt the product early and spread positive reviews about it to other market segments.
Use concise, persuasive sales messaging
The sales pitch that your sales team will give to customers to get them to adopt your product is crucial. It must be brief and to-the-point, highlighting how your product works and how it resolves the customer's pain point.
Are there other products in the market that do the same thing or resolve the same problem? You should also make it clear what makes your product special.
Remember that customers are unlikely to give up their old ways and adopt your product unless you give them a compelling reason to do so.
Let customers try the product
Nothing can persuade a customer to use your product more than firsthand experience with the product.
Provide free product trials or samples in-store or online before or during the launch phase to increase audience interest. If you can't be physically present when the customers try the product, ensure that the product includes instructions on how to use it.
Make sure that buying a full version of the product is as easy as possible. Let's say you are offering a free in-home trial of a product. Following the trial period, the customer should easily be able to purchase the trial product in person, online or by phone.
You don't want the customer to have to scrounge around the website looking for how to buy the product.
Make the launch memorable
New products go to market every day and customers have limited budgets. That means that it's not enough to stand out in your business niche. You also have to stand out from other products being marketed to customers in other niches.
You can do this in a number of ways. Create a catchy television spot, social media campaign or buzz-worthy launch day event. Do something that will get customers to remember and talk about your new product launch.
