Launching a new product is exciting. As the creator you may know all it has to offer, but you will need to communicate that and excite consumers. Social media is a valuable platform that allows you to reinforce your brand, share messages, and launch new products. While some of us may only watch TV or listen to the radio an hour or so a day, most of us open our social media platforms several times a day. As a business owner, you will want to understand social media marketing and use it to grow sales.
Why is launching a new product on social media important?
Any small or midsize business launching a new product should consider how properly utilizing social media can contribute to a widely successful product launch. Launching a new product can be a hectic time that requires many moving parts to come together to form a cohesive front to support the product launch. Some of those moving parts include the eCommerce website itself, the fulfillment team, customer service, marketing, IT, and management. All of these moving parts are responsible for their own contributions to a successful product launch. In the confusion and chaos, some businesses may overlook the importance that social media can play in a successful launch. Sometimes social media can be viewed as an afterthought. That is a mistake, and here is why. Here are the top reasons why social media is part of any successful product launch.
- Social media allows you to reach your target audience: When you use social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram, for example, you can run targeted promotions to the exact demographic that you have identified as your target market. Leading up to a product launch, it may be extremely beneficial to run target promotions to the gender, age, location, and special interest demographics of the populations who are going to most enthusiastically respond to your new product or service.
- Build hype around your product or service before the launch: Before you even launch your product, you can use social media to start to create hype around a new product by releasing product teasers. If a product teaser is done properly, you can grow an email list of potential customers before the product goes live. There are some key characteristics of an enticing product teaser. First, the teaser should provide a glimpse into the function and/or capabilities of the product without providing a full demonstration. Second, it should excite and make people curious about the product. Third, the teaser should be visually captivating. Last, the teaser should be 100% shareable across multiple social media platforms.
- Social media allows you to interact with potential customers: Unlike radio and television, which is a one-way flow of communication, social media is an interactive form of communication between companies, and both their existing and potential customers. Once a product is launched, customers can create chatter on social media, ask questions, and continue to build hype around a product. A company needs to be proactive and respond to inquiries promptly and be an active and willing participant in the conversation.
Social media can be extremely helpful to a successful launch of a new product. By building hype, targeting desired demographics, and engaging with existing and potential customers through social media, a company may exponentially increase the chances their product will be a success.
How can social media help sell a new product?
Social media is a unique medium for advertising for many reasons. First, social media allows a company to match its social strategy and brand image to its intended customer. Through specific targeting tools used by ad platforms like Facebook Ads, for example, a company can target social media users by their gender, age range, location, and special interests. Second, companies can create original and thoughtful content and control how frequently their content is broadcast across the platform. The idea is to find the sweet spot between being loud enough to not get drowned out without posting too frequently the message becomes a nuisance to users. Third, a company can build its own community and network with existing and potential customers alike.
Which social media platforms are best for launching a new product?
Before a company launches a new product, extensive market research should be conducted to determine who the target market is. This research also can be used to help determine which social media platforms would potentially produce the best results upon launch of the product. For example, for a product or service that is intended for a Gen Z audience, a social media platform like Tik Tok may produce better results than a platform like LinkedIn. Knowing your audience, and which social platforms that particular audience engages with the most, is instrumental to successfully launch a new product on social media.
Tips to launching a new product on social media
Launching a new product can be an exciting yet overwhelming event for any company. By using social media, a company may be able to reach more people, but at the same time, reach people that are more likely to be interested in its product or service. When a company is ready to launch a new product, social media should be one of the most important tools in its arsenal. Here are some tips for launching a new product on social media.
- Identify your goals: Identifying your goals will help you create milestones that you can hold yourself accountable for accomplishing. Your goals should be specific enough that you and your team can develop creative strategies to achieve them.
- Set a timeline and dates around the product launch: Do some market research to help determine when the perfect launch time would be based on what kind of product or service you are launching. Once you have a launch date, that is your deadline. Working backward from that deadline, create a day-to-day schedule and hold yourself to that schedule. Allow yourself a little flexibility when creating the schedule to account for minor setbacks.
- Choose social media to promote on: Social media is not a one size fits all approach. You will need to do your research to determine which social media platforms would work best for your product or service and then focus your energy and resources on those platforms.
- Develop an influencer marketing strategy: Using a social media influencer marketing campaign may be a good way to help your brand reach a wider audience through a social media influencer who is trusted by their followers. They may be trusted by their followers to recommend products because the influencer is seen as an authoritative source in their specific niche.
- Develop campaign assets: Campaign assets refer to the media you will use in your social media marketing campaigns. Media like the photos, videos, graphics, and GIF files will need to be commissioned. You will also want to create photos and videos featuring your product.
- Launch your campaign: When you launch your campaign and product or service, you should have all your assets ready to be released in a strategic manner. Go ahead and launch your product at the predetermined time.
- Monitor and track performance: Take note of what resonated well with your target audience and what did not. Also, take note of which social media platforms worked best and which you may be able to avoid in the future. Did you make the goals that you set before the launch of the product? If not, how can you adjust to better meet your goals on the next campaign?
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Launching a new product can be expensive. Regardless of the cost, you will want to make sure the product is created and launched the right way. Of course, you will want to make sure your anticipated ROI is healthy before investing. Once you have projected sales goals and outlined a budget, you will need to find a way to make it happen. Kickfurther can help your business reach its goals by ensuring that you have the funding you need. Kickfurther was created by an entrepreneur who once struggled to qualify and find affordable inventory financing. After experiencing a real struggle, he created Kickfurther with the mission to provide affordable inventory financing for businesses. Kickfurther is up to 30% cheaper than other options. Business owners can secure the funding they need while taking advantage of flexible repayment plans.
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