Involve the Customers Before the Product Launch
From small startups to large corporations, every business is familiar with the exciting time of a new product launch. Building a product or service that is destined to succeed requires an effective introduction of the new baby to a large, receptive target audience. The best way to launch a new product is by building anticipation through an online contest.
Why should you involve customers before the product launch?
Creating a pre-launch buzz can benefit your business strategy in many ways.
First, online contest platforms and social media give you excellent tools for commanding your clients’ attention. If you manage to drum up some interest before the product is launched, you build a primary audience excited to explore the innovation.
Second, involving target clients at the pre-launch stage is a good way to build your reputation. For example, you can offer the product as a prize for the winner of an online contest, encourage shares of visuals that represent your new product logo or name on social media, and present branded freebies.
Engagement is one more aspect that is greatly responsible for pre-launch benefits. Some online contests focused on product launches ask people to contribute to the creation of the logo, name, or the product features. This builds trust with the target audience and gives people the feeling that the new product is based on their personal needs and preferences.
The key elements of a successful product launch
A flawless product launch has a distinct formula. Here are the core elements that make your campaign successful:
- Value offer. Prior to starting the new product, you have to research the market and find answers to three core questions:
# Does the new product resonate with clients’ needs?
# Are there any businesses that can substitute your product?
# Does the financial profile of the product and the target market match your budget?
# If you get three positive answers, it means you’re on the right track and can create a reasonable value offer for the new product.
- Functionality focus. The concept of any new product extends from the purposes that it serves. Developing functionality and testing the features are the core processes that further dictate buying behaviors. Once you’re done with functionality, think of the features that you can underline in your pre-launch campaign to magnify attention.
- Positioning. It’s not only about the new functions, but also about what you can achieve with these functions. Offer clear information on how the product solves the problems of your clients or encourage people to test it and record the process in the frame of a video contest.
- Feedback. Consider turning your pre-launch campaign into a platform for capturing clients’ concerns and thoughts. Basically, if you manage to engage people before the event launch, you provide an avenue for accepting feedback which can help you ultimately make improvements.
The product launch strategy
How do we build the strategy that helps businesses magnify pre-launch activities and turn the new product into a star before the launch? Check out this short step-by-step guide:
- Find space in the market. Understand the needs of the target audience and find a way to respond to them. Creating a unique value is a major factor impacting your sales and the way people interact with your brand. One failure to satisfy the audience, and you can be in trouble.
- Create a buyer persona to cater to. The image of your client will help you develop the right functionality, select the strategy for product positioning, and launch.
- Craft the message and serve it in a unique way. This is the stage where you have to transform the value into a message and make sure that it is consumed by a buyer persona. Go for the pre-launch buzz and set-up a catchy photo contest online or ask people to create the name for the new product. The spotlight is all yours!
- Keep people updated about the launch details. Never forget your key purpose which is the promotion of the new product. Thus, if you manage to engage the audience at a pre-launch stage, make sure the audience is well informed about the upcoming, main event.
How to involve customers before the product launch
The best pre-launch campaigns share one common quality: the promise of a reward. Engagement is possible only if the target audience has a clear possibility of benefiting from participation in some way or another. Here are some suggestions for effective pre-launch anticipation building:
- Building a product together. Set up a pre-launch contest that asks the audience to contribute to product creation. Picking the best name, visualizing the concept or logo, recording unconventional product use – these are only some of the numerous suggestions.
ProTip: Leverage visuals. Photos and videos are the most beloved forms of online communication which will make the campaign creative and easy to engage the public.
- Fueling curiosity. This can be the great choice for well known businesses with a good reputation and a large client base. Introduce a pre-launch contest that asks the audience to guess the features, target segments, or the colors of the new product to let your existing customers know about the upcoming launch.
- Capturing random users. If you’re new in the field and don’t have a huge client base yet, one of the most effective product launch strategies is creating a virality-driven contest online. Encourage people to share or tag friends, and you’ll get the chance to reach as many prospective clients as possible before the product is launched.
The most successful new product launch examples
To catch the wave of inspiration, check out 2 successful product launches with pre-launch activities:
Create your Taste
To announce the launch of its new in-house touch screens, McDonald’s recently organized an online contest encouraging people to create their perfect burgers. The participants named their custom creations, developed the recipes, and posted the concepts on the official website. The winners, selected through public voting, helped magnify engagement and drew the attention of wide audiences.
Test Taste
One of the most epic product launches in the history of Starbucks was the development of an Instant Coffee alternative to their brewed coffee. To magnify this, the business set up a pre-launch contest in which 4 million of Starbucks online followers were challenged to test the tastes of two coffee types and guess “which is which.” The great product test incentive!
Conclusion
Launching a new product is daunting, no matter what your current market standing is. However, if you think of audience engagement in a creative way, you can gain loyal clients before the world sees the new product.
To magnify pre-launch activities through contests, test the automation of the online contest management platform – get started with Judgify