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Note: This posting has been guest written by Angie Picardo. Angie Picardo is a staff writer for NerdWallet. Her mission is to help entrepreneurs stay financially savvy, and save some money with a Karmaloop coupon code.
You’ve made a new product— hooray! But how can you get people to buy it? Here are some tips for ways to get the word out and how to make sure your customers are satisfied.
Make sure customers know how to use it. How something should be used is not always as obvious as we think it should be. Consumers usually need very clear instructions with limited options to make sure they can understand the product. There are a few ways to deal with this. One option is making an honest video explaining how the product is used and extra information about it. Many people try to search for tips and videos when they don’t understand something, so make sure your video is the first search result.
Use viral marketing. Viral marketing can be tricky, but when done well, it’s extremely effective. The most important part in making your product go viral is making people feel something or react. It can be happiness, anger, idiocy, or anything, but people need to have some kind of emotional response or it won’t “click.” Viral marketing also works best when the message is something unexpected. No one ever shares ads or products that look just like everything else they’ve already seen 1000 times. Finally, for viral marketing to be successful, you have to be willing to let it go viral. Allow your video to be embedded, encourage sharing on social media sites, and let people make parodies. The more people engage with the product, the better.
Let social media do the work for you. It pays for anyone with an interest in product promotion to build up a presence on social media. That means having an active Twitter account, a Facebook fan page, and maybe even a Reddit account. When you let fans or followers know about a product, don’t be afraid to engage with them. People like to be able to feel like their feedback is heard and have a voice in products they care about. One way to do this is asking questions of your followers. “What’s the first thing you do when you get [new product]?” or “Where will you take [new product]?” of if you’re very brave, “What’s something we could improve on [new product]?” Another strategy that works well with social media is using lots of images either of the product in action or in the form of “sneak peeks.” People who value a product or company enough to follow it on social media like to be “in” on the process and showing them a few photos of the product in development or being shipped can be exciting for loyal fans.
Give free samples to bloggers or social media celebrities. If you’re having a hard time establishing a large following for your company or product, try working through someone with a wider platform. Plenty of popular bloggers, Twitter personalities, and people with YouTube channels are happy to accept a free sample or demonstration of your product in return for a review. Users like to see reviews from people whose opinions they already listen to and it lets everyone see the product through the eyes of someone well known.
One of the most important things in advertising products is being honest. Especially when advertising online, users are quick to call out companies that don’t seem genuine or that promote in a “shameless” way. Make sure that your engagement with your customer base doesn’t just focus on the product, try to find ways to make yourself interesting even when a new product isn’t coming out, and it will be easy to promote a product when the time comes.
– Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
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What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time
If you had to picture your product becoming wildly successful, what would you see in your mind’s eye? I’m betting that you wouldn’t be picturing a whole bunch of people sneezing – that was never part of your product development definition. However, if you take just a moment and think about it, what we really want to have happen is for our products to become contagious and for all of our target customers to “catch” it. How can product managers make this happen?