With the sudden surge in online purchasing, the need for the e-commerce industry has exponentially increased. Many business owners have moved from brick and motor stores to e-stores where they can sell their wide range of products to anyone and anywhere.
The reason is that consumers now prefer to buy their products from the comfort of their homes with the ability to transfer funds online and get the product at their doorstep. This modern world of technology has compelled many companies to launch their products via e-commerce sites. Although such product launches have cut down the worries of creating an event, the online product launch has its share of planning.
Proven tips that you can use before planning an online product launch-
Research Your Competitors
Whether you believe it or not, your competitors are out there hungry for whatever number of customers your business has been able to garner. Although the competition might seem unfair to have a successful product launch via e-commerce sites, you have to devote your time and energy to keep tabs on what your competitors are up to.
Once you have a clearer idea of how your product will turn out, then the first thing to do is monitor your competitors.
Doing so, help your brand to build its business on numerous e-commerce sites while making your product stand out. Moreover, your brand will have the edge in this competition, thus enabling you to plan your further strategies accordingly.
Develop a USP
While creating or planning to launch a new product, it is pivotal that we develop a unique selling point for the product itself. Simply put, a unique selling point makes your product different from the products in the market, enabling the business to distinguish itself.
Take Nutrena’s Loyall dog food as an example, and the company uses a process named Opti-Cook, which makes the food easier to digest. This process involves ingredients such as rice, thus reducing the amount of gas and waste a pet can produce. Moreover, a strong USP can help your product to garner launch day sales through numerous e-commerce websites.
Identification
Whenever a product is being launched through online channels and e-commerce websites, it requires utilizing cyberspace in the most efficient way to inform the consumers. Doing so makes the consumers more aware of what your product offers, thus giving them a chance to identify your product properly.
As Steven Haines, an author of the book “The Product Manager’s Desk Reference,” explains, the launch of a new product hinges particularly on the brand’s ability to measure the succeeding outcomes. Along with monitoring traffic and tracking sales, your brand has to cope with the trend of discount codes to identify your product.
Multiple e-commerce platforms
Over the few years, many e-commerce sites have gained recognition, and that gave birth to some new and trustable sites as well. E-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Shopify, and eBay have created a realistic and simple approach for business owners to attract their target audience and necessary revenues. When your business is new, you can take up the chance of launching your product via multiple e-commerce to establish your brand.
E-commerce sites allow your business to avoid many large and upfront investments while efficiently serving niche markets, making it easier to distribute the products online. Launching a product via multiple e-commerce platforms enables your business to reach consumers anywhere and anytime.
Pre-Launch Buzz
While working on launching a product via an e-commerce site, most founders and developers make the mistake of focusing solely on the production aspect. Hence, when the product is finally launched, the sales can backfire in the worst possible way because many people still haven’t heard what the product is.
So the next possible step is to get the consumers excited by creating a pre-launch buzz before the product is launched virtually. You can build hype in many ways, such as offering sneak peeks, promoting the product using social media influencers, behind-the-scenes videos, and many more.
Analyze Your Market
We all know that launching a product on e-commerce platforms is not a simple task, so you have to have proper market knowledge. A proper market study gives the brand a better understanding of when the product should be launched with the best possible outcomes.
The processes involved in the market analysis are an assimilation of market conditions, recognizing market opportunities, and developing strategies accordingly. One should also keep the price sensitivities of online channels in mind if your products have similar competition in the market. In such cases, the key factors to a successful product launch are prices, product consumption, and delivery.
Full Inventory
Although it’s a no-brainer, having a full inventory is one of the first things you have to keep in mind before launching a new product on e-commerce sites. As business owners, nobody wants to make the mistake of being out of stock as it will surely invoke a buyer’s disinterest.
So as a result, buyers will tell other buyers to keep from a particular brand, thus affecting the brand presence in the e-commerce market. However, suppose such an unfortunate situation does occur within a month of product launch. In that case, one such way is temporarily raising the price to slow the velocity of sales while hinting at a possible discount in the absolute future.
Product descriptions
Many brands are tempted to stick with the product descriptions that come from the manufacturer to save time. The time saved for such idleness will eventually lead to duplicate content that won’t work well with Google’s search algorithms. Hence, it is imperative to write your product descriptions to persuade the customers of your product.
While writing a product description, you must include a proportionate number of keywords (used best for SEO purposes) that are suited naturally to your products. In this way, it will help your products to show up in relevant searches, thus establishing your brand’s presence.
Landing Page for Product
When you’re about to launch a product in an e-commerce store, you have likely done everything to drive traffic to your product’s landing page. Creating a fine landing page for your new item is extremely important because it is the first impression a buyer will have of your product.
So along with carefully crafted product descriptions, you might want to work on the visual appeal of your product as it is a great way to involve new consumers every day. To boost further traffic, you can also include social sharing buttons on the landing page itself, with which people could share the product page across social media platforms.
Timing and Pre-ordering
As the term suggests itself, pre-order is when you order an item in an e-commerce or physical store even before the product has been manufactured or hasn’t been on sale yet. So if you’re launching a new product soon, a pre-ordering strategy can be highly beneficial for your brand.
Many brands have used pre-ordering to build momentum before the launch by making customers excited about their products. One can make the most out of the pre-ordering strategy by timing the product launch during a holiday or during the festive season. In that way, a brand will have enough time to execute its marketing campaign while analyzing the results before the official launch date.
Cross-promotion plan
Cross-promotion is a widely used technique where you promote your new product by collaborating with other additional companies. It is an effective and inexpensive way to launch a product while generating more sales by incorporating your brand’s marketing efforts.
By cross-promoting with other companies, your brand gains the ability to tap into an already established community. For instance, a make-up company can partner up with a company that sells bath products to provide shared discounts and deals. In simple terms, you can cross-promote each other’s brands with the hope of a successful product launch.
Testimonials or Reviews
Online shoppers generally tend to believe other shoppers. So when you’re planning to launch a new product online, you must consider using testimonials or reviews to your product’s advantage. Having a bunch of good reviews for your product will not only help your product rankings but also plays a role in converting potential customers to buyers.
Although Amazon’s terms and conditions don’t allow any brands to ask for a positive review, you can always remind the buyers to leave a review once they’ve made their purchase. Some might not consider this important, but 90% of consumers would not purchase a product if it didn’t have any reviews.
Provide Relevant Content
Here, the rule is when your product is ready to be launched, start talking about it by creating relevant content. Contents have always driven shoppers to the sites with their use of useful and entertaining presentations while getting the word out about your new product.
Blogging is one example many brands use to answer questions potential buyers ask, thus building buyers’ trust. These blogs guided by SEO writers can help your product to pop up in many search results.
There are also other ways, such as videos, podcasts, and articles with which content can be created to support the product launch. Each of the ways mentioned should convey the message of how helpful the new product can be for potential buyers.
Comprehensive Media Campaign
A media campaign is the best way to reach a specific market by listing the most enthralling benefits of your new product before its e-commerce launch. This campaign should touch upon aspects such as highlighting the competitive pricing, what makes the product unique, and why potential consumers won’t enjoy a similar product offered elsewhere.
You can also incorporate the promotional strategies in the campaign to introduce the product via web-based platforms, print, and broadcast. Online product demonstrations, newspaper, magazine advertisements, and Television and radio commercials are an important part of the media campaign.
Get Influencers
Our social feeds show that many brands hire known influencers to review and use their product to build social proof that can’t be beaten. And why wouldn’t they? Influencers have built themselves a large reach and a loyal following by presenting their way of living through digital storytelling.
Whether promoting a trip to someplace or a new line of clothing, influencers are able enough to paint a story that encourages their followers to mimic their decisions. So, like many other brands, go ahead and hire an influencer to talk about your new product before the launch.
Visual Storytelling
All those market research and analysis can be used better by developing a story around your product. And what is better than visual storytelling that answers the consumers’ specific needs? Some of the storytelling ways you can use are-
- Behind-the-scenes videos: First, you must engage your audience’s attention with the product’s journey. By showing them the product development phase, you can make the customers intrigued to see the final result.
- Sneak peek videos: If your product is best suited to keep its secret before the launch, then revealing some details to build buzz is the way to go.
- Product demonstrations: Demonstrate the best features of your product and make the customers’ live easier.
Email Campaign
An email campaign should be an important part of your well-functioned product launch plans. Although many consumers don’t react well to excessive amounts of emails, informing them with fewer emails about the launch day discounts is an effective method of product promotion.
In this way, the product’s launch date will be etched in their minds, and at the same time, your brand has built itself an e-mail list full of potential buyers.
Social Media Usage
When used correctly, social media can make or break a product launch, and the results speak for it. There are many reasons why one should use social media before launching a new product, and some of them are-
- Word of Mouth: Allowing influencers to spread the good word about your product will only work as a ‘for’ before the product launch.
- Anticipation building: Weeks before the product launch, you can start posting hints and images regarding what’s to come can certainly build anticipation.
- Hashtags and Giveaways. A unique hashtag to promote the online product launch goes a long way. You can also use your branded hashtags for giveaway contests.
- Early adopters: Go ahead and attract the people who want to be the first to try out our new product because this is your target market.
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Marketing | Branding | Blogging. These Three Words Describe Me in The Best Way. I Am a Self-Taught Marketer with 10 Years of Experience. Helping Startups/ It Companies/ and Small Businesses to Enhance Their Business Through Branding and Marketing Ideas. On A Mission to Help Small Businesses to Be a Brand.