launching a new product – our handy tips.
When preparing to launch a new product to the market, the process can be daunting. There are so many things to think about and it’s important that when you launch the product, you cut through the noise as much as possible.
> Here are our ten handy tips to follow when launching a new product:
/ Product Assets
Before you do anything, make sure you have invested in getting product photography and/or videography that does your product justice. These should be clean assets that can be used to produce social media assets and other marketing collateral. When it comes to deciding whether to go for photography, videography or both, it really comes down to how important this product is to your business. If it is a high-value item or a core product, you should invest more into ensuring it is captured in the best way.
/ Product Description
Once you have your assets and the product in hand, instruct a copywriter (or someone great with words) to write a punchy product description for you that can be adjusted for your different channels, i.e. social media, website, blog, newsletters, press releases.
/ Online Assets
Now you have your product photography and/or videography, use these assets and optimise them for your various channels. They will need to be re-designed to suit your brand identity and re-sized for your different platforms.
Online assets to consider:
Twitter Header Banner – Launch Teaser
Facebook header Banner – Launch Teaser
LinkedIn Header Banner – Launch Teaser
YouTube Header Banner – Launch Teaser
Twitter Header Banner – Launch
Facebook Header Banner – Launch
LinkedIn Header Banner – Launch
YouTube Header Banner – Launch
Twitter Social Post – Launch Teaser
Facebook Social Post – Launch Teaser
LinkedIn Social Post – Launch Teaser
Instagram Social Post – Launch Teaser
Twitter Social Post – Launch
Facebook Social Post – Launch
LinkedIn Social Post – Launch
Instagram Social Post – Launch
YouTube – Launch Video
Website Header Banner – Launch Teaser
Website Header Banner – Launch
E-shot/Newsletter - Teaser
E-shot/Newsletter - Launch
Product Demo Video – Launch
Behind-The-Scenes [how it’s made] Video – Launch
/ Build Up
I have included teaser assets listed above as it’s crucial that, depending on the size of the launch, you build up the hype around it. You have invested so much time developing a new product/s, so make sure you invest enough time building up the excitement around it. We would suggest around 2 weeks to tease/promote an upcoming launch.
/ Website Optimisation
Optimising your website for launch is incredibly important. You need to make sure that when the user lands on the website, your product launch is at the forefront. Make sure you spend time on your website spotting all the places that you could utilise to promote the launch. When setting up your website, remember to use keywords on every page and in page titles.
/ Instagram & Twitter Shopping
Depending on your target audience, you might want to consider getting your new products set up with Instagram and Twitter shopping.
/ Schedule
If you have followed the above steps, you have now got all the assets you need to start scheduling your launch across your various platforms. Scheduling is the best way to ensure all of your platforms go live with the launch at the same time so that, when you start teasing the launch, you can provide a specific time and date that the product/s will go live. Our schedule suggestions:
Product listings on the website
Change of header banner on the website from teaser to launch
Blog article about the launch, why this/these products? What work has gone into them?
Social media posts - if you are launching multiple products, schedule these for 5 minutes apart from the launch time you promoted
Newsletters to database (make sure all products link through to the product listing on the website)
There are tons of great websites that help you to schedule your content. Most CMS and email marketing software will enable you to schedule website changes/newsletters in advance and upload blogs.
Instagram in-app scheduler
/ PR
Ahead of your launch date, make sure to send your products to any PR partners, influencers or forums with a product press release. Ask your PR partners to publish the launch press release at the same time as your launch and ask any influencers/forums to publish a review after the launch date.
/ Digital/Paid Advertising
Depending on your budget and the scale of your launch, you might want to invest in some paid digital marketing to further enhance the scale of your launch. Using the assets and the product copy you have written; you might consider investing in one of the following:
Remarketing
PPC
Paid Social
Programmatic
/ Launch
Once everything is scheduled and you’ve done around two weeks of teasing, you are ready to launch. As you have scheduled everything, the most important thing is to ensure every platform goes live when it should do, sometimes there can be glitches so you need to be ready to manually intervene if need be.
Written by Ashlee Bloom – Director
If you need any help with brand strategy or marketing, feel free to connect with Ashlee here.
