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Your brand has been working on a new product– an amazing one!
However, there is just one challenge you can’t seem to get around: how to inform your audience about the product.
Enter: social media.
Why social media? Because your product will have the potential to reach millions of people in a day (if done correctly 🤓).
It’s okay if you don’t know how to go about it or unsure of how to get started.
In this guide, we’ll discuss:
We’ll also share top tips to ensure the product launch is a success on social media, so stay tuned.
Let’s get right to it.
The first and most important step of an effective product launch strategy is to define the goals of your campaign.
Doing so will help you specify how you’re going to effectively introduce a new product to your audience using your social media platforms.
According to recent statistics, 4 in 10 consumers are finding new products on social media. This tells us that many brands are launching their products via social media, and the competition is high.
While there is creative freedom, millions of potential customers, and multiple ways to reach customers, you have to ensure your product launch is unique. It needs to be completely different from what your competitors are doing so it appeals to your target audience.
That’s no easy feat. How are you going to get that done?
By setting goals for your campaigns and key performance indicators(KPIs).
Wondering what goals mean in this scenario?
It means what success would mean for your brand.
Your goals also need to be clear and measurable – that’s why you need to set KPIs.
Measuring your goals helps you to check if you’re going according to plan. This helps you identify when or where there are problems.
After outlining your goals, you can come up with creative strategies that will help you reach them.
That said, let’s move on to the next step.
While we’ve covered how to define your campaign goals, setting a product launch timeline is even more crucial in terms of saving time, money, and resources.
Considering there's so much that needs to be done in a short period of time, you’re going to need a launch timeline to make sure you don’t miss anything important.
When we say ‘so much to be done’, we mean:
The pre-launch stage consists of every action that needs to be taken before the launch to raise awareness, build hype and anticipation.
The launch stage is when you launch your product and implement all the goals you have outlined earlier on.
The post-launch stage involves measuring your progress after the launch, collating feedback, optimizing the product, and promoting it.
Think of a timeline as a valuable tool that helps you monitor your progress so you can plan effectively.
What’s more is everyone on your team will know:
The date of your product launch can be set as your deadline so you can create your timeline backward to where you are now.
Don’t worry if creating the timeline seems like too much work.
To save you some time, we’re sharing a free product launch timeline template you can download and use immediately - or, whenever you’re ready (the sooner, the better!)
Let’s see the next step.
You have the goals and timeline for your project launch ready, it’s now time to decide what platform it will be launched on.
As a business owner, you may have the urge to run campaigns on every social media platform at least once.
It sounds like a good option, but it’s not viable.
A more sustainable approach would be running your campaigns on platforms that’ll give you the best return on investment (ROI), and that’s in line with your launch goals.
Let’s break it down a little.
If your goal, for example, is to increase brand awareness among a Gen Z audience, launching your product on TikTok might be a good option considering 41% of its users are between the ages of 16 and 24.
Maybe you want more sales with your new product launch?
85% of the orders from social media are attained from Facebook.
You get where this is headed, don’t you?
It’s safe to say that when choosing a platform, your goals should be taken into consideration including where you’ve previously interacted with your target audience.
So on your end, you need to find a way to infuse your objectives into your marketing strategy, because every platform requires a different approach, and the way your audience interacts with them differs.
The idea might remain the same but you should tweak it to suit each platform’s requirements.
How about we go on to a more fun step your audience would love?
This next step in your product launch is what distinguishes your campaign amidst the competition on your social media platform.
You need creative designs for teasers, sneak peeks, and new product ads during the build-up till the launch day to set the tone of your marketing campaign.
So, what are creatives?
They are pieces of content specific to your social media accounts that appear in the form of:
But, whichever one you choose for your product launch needs to be consistent in terms of maintaining your brand’s voice.
Where should you start from, then?
Your social media creatives need to have visual flair and a campaign message. In other words, be creative so that people are encouraged to engage with your content when it goes live.
The visual flair includes coming up with color schemes, designing style templates, and deciding which imagery would be best for your social channels.
Once your visual style is defined, you can then outline a campaign message and decide how you want to pass it across.
The message doesn’t have to be too elaborate. It can be a couple of sentences or phrases that describe the campaign.
The campaign message can be delivered in the form of videos, images, branded hashtags, blog posts, or even stories.
Keep in mind that the type of content depends on what social media channels are in use and the demographics of your target audience.
On to the next step!
Aside from putting quality content out there, getting affiliated with social media creators and bloggers can help create a certain hype around your product launch. Your target audience will become excited about it because it’s coming from someone they love and follow.
Creators are social media influencers who put out content regularly. They’ve got a large following upon whom they have some level of influence over, hence the name “influencers”.
This partnership can be performed alongside your current marketing strategy and is a good way to promote your business to a specific audience.
How can you get this done?
Is partnering with social media creators a viable option for your business?
You see, studies have shown that businesses earn $5.20 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing.
That’s a huge return on your investment.
Also, consumers have said there is a higher chance of them following influencers who look like everyday people.
These are just a couple of reasons why working with social media creators can be a good fit for your product launch.
Now before we show you examples of product launches on social media, let’s take a look at some tips to ensure your launch is successful.
There is a lot of careful planning that goes into launching your product on social media, from setting your goals to designing creatives for your campaign.
We’ve shown you how to get that done, but we also understand how difficult it can be - especially if you’re just starting out.
That’s why, in this section, we’re giving you actionable tips on how to ensure you have a successful product launch on social media.
An important part of launching your product is getting the word out there. As such, you need the right content to engage your target audience.
What kind of content can be referred to as ‘right’? Anticipatory content!
It’s content that builds the hype and curiosity around your product before it’s launched.
They are also called teaser campaigns and include content such as:
You could make them with your creative team or outsource them to professionals.
An anticipatory content can look like this Kickstarter’s campaign on Facebook:
The post has images, a video, copy describing the product’s features, and a clickable CTA.
It’s one thing for you to create content for your target audience, but what guarantee is there that it will be effective?
That’s where creative testing comes in.
It helps you identify what sort of creative will work best and which should be discarded.
You could carry out A/B or split testing for your social media creatives.
The results from your testing can provide you with insight into the types of creative content your audience prefers, not just for the launch, but for future purposes too.
When planning a social media campaign for your product launch, it’s good practice to focus on the offline aspects too. It is also referred to as word-of-mouth marketing.
It’ll help create anticipation around your product and get people talking about it both offline and across social networks too.
It can be anything from influencer hangouts to offline product launch events or launching a hashtag campaign prior to the official launch date.
When there’s an offline event, you can be certain that there would be a rave about that product online.
Still have doubts about this strategy?
Consider that, in 2021, Apple launched a social media campaign with the hashtag #shotoniPhone to promote its line of smartphones.
Image Source: Instagram
People who had iPhones brought them out to take pictures of the real world and posted it with the hashtag.
The campaign has garnered over 24 million posts on Instagram – telling you how many people jumped on it.
Creating offline Instagrammable moments not only creates awareness, but you also don’t have to spend a dime, like Apple in this example.
You want to build anticipation and get people talking about your e-commerce product, right?
Running a referral program can do that for you.
After you’ve gotten people engaged through your quality content, take a step further by getting them to get more people involved.
Customers love referral programs because of the bonus offers they get from them.
And it’s easy to get carried away with how much your business would lose, but you should be more concerned about how much you stand to gain.
Why?
According to 60% of marketers, referral programs generate a higher volume of leads.
Another 78% of B2B marketers say the leads generated by referral programs are of high quality.
By setting up a referral program, you can generate buzz around your product and get people curious about what you’ve got in store.
So, how can you get started with referral marketing?
Feel free to book a quick demo with Viral Loops and explore the power of referral marketing.
Author’s Tip: Ensure to keep the buzz going not just during the pre-launch but at the launch and post-launch too; this will help you get sustainable results.
Let’s take a look at some other inspiring examples before we wrap this up.
Want to see some great examples of product launches on social media from brands you already know?
While they might not share the same demographics as your target audience, they can inspire you on how to make sure your launch is successful.
Let’s begin by looking at Dior’s product launch on Facebook.
This is a pre-launch by Dior for their Dior Addict lipstick. You can already guess what the goal here was, right?
Awareness!
The call to action only says Discover more which tells you the product isn’t yet launched and buzz marketing is still in play here.
Nike’s social media marketing was also done on Facebook.
The goal here was also to increase awareness of their product, and they did just that.
Samsung’s social media marketing campaign was carried out on Instagram.
Video content in this case sparks curiosity and builds up hype before the product launch.
Here again, we see the product directing the social media strategy to a successful launch.
There’s no doubt that Canon’s target audience is professional photographers, right?
According to statistics, 98% of top photographers say Instagram is their most used social media platform.
We can only assume that this launch campaign brought the brand results and helped them build awareness and anticipation.
Similar to the examples we already discussed, fashion brand Tom Ford also used social media to communicate a new product launch to their audience.
Tom Ford’s product launch’s goal was to introduce their new perfume and make people want to buy it.
Let’s wrap this up with some final words.
Keep in mind that your social media posts for the upcoming launch need to be based on existing metrics obtained from previous campaigns.
We hope that you’ve picked up some useful tips on how to launch your products on social media without the hassle.
For more resources around making your product launch a success, visit our blog.
Thanks for reading and good luck launching your products on social media!
Written by:
Nikitas is responsible for growth at Viral Loops and also helps customers on 1-on-1 basis to reach success with their referral campaigns. Let's connect on LinkedIn
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