Eight ways to create a buzz around a product launch

When you launch a new product you need customers to take notice. Below we give you eight ways to create the best possible buzz around a product launch.

When Apple launched a new product the whole world practically holds its breath with excitement. The media spends weeks scouring for leaked photos of the product from Foxconn factories in China and scores of fanboys around the globe sit glued to their Apple Macs to watch as they are unveiled.

There aren’t many retailers in the world that can drum up that kind of frenzy around one of their products. But when you are launching something new which you think deserves attention, there are certain techniques that you could use to create excitement and give initial sales a decent boost.

Depending on how much effort you want to put into launching something new, there is a method for you.

Here are our tips for creating a buzz around your new products:

Email people who have bought similar or related products

Look at your existing itinerary and work out what kind of products are related to your new one. Think about the kind of people you are aiming your product at and make a list of things they could have already bought. Once you have a definitive list, look through your data and extract the emails of people who have bought these products.

You can create quite a personalised message to these customers. For example you could say: “We know that you bought this item back in xxxx and thought you might like to know about our forthcoming launch of xxxx”

This not only highlights your new product to potential buyers but gives people the impression that you are thinking of them personally which is good for retaining their custom.

Offer a trial to your influencers

Many brands have what are known as “influencers” or “brand ambassadors”. These are your loyal customers who are vocal about your products They may have blogged about you in the past or have recommended you to their social media networks.

When you are launching something new you should think about offering them a free trial pre-launch. This way you should get some valuable peer-to-peer recommendations as well as extra publicity through the various channels they are active in. This is also a good way to keep this high-value customers on-side.

Get some press

You should approach journalists in your trade press with your new product offering them some fantastic high res imagery of the new product as well as information about when it will be available on your site. The likelihood of this being effective for you depends on your industry but if you do get a product into the press, your sales are likely to get a huge boost.

For example, products featured in Shortlist, the free men’s magazine almost always sell out.

Use your visually-lead social media channels to post teasers

Before you’ve officially launched you new product drum up some excitement by posting teasers on certain social media channels. Take a photo of the corner of a new product or film snippets of it from different angles. Instagram, Pinterest and even Vine are great for giving little visual clues about what your products are which really engages your audiences and gets them guessing what is could be.

Start up a conversation around the product

When you’re using LinkedIn or Facebook you could start a debate which is related to your product to get people thinking about related topics. Get people’s opinions going and make the topic that people are willing to discuss. Then feed in the information about your new launch.

For example if you were launching a new children’s product that helps at dinner time you could get a conversation going about different methods of getting unwilling children to have their food.

Run a competition

Once you have launched your product offer a free one to the winner of a competition. You could either run the competition on your own site and through your social media channels or offer it out to the media as a prize. Media organisations are often looking for prizes to offer their readers so by offering your product you will get some publicity.

Write a post for your blog

You can feature your new product on your blog either before or after the launch in order to gain some extra attention. You could simply write about the product and express why people should be excited about it or you could try and do something a little different.

Why not make a little video to show off the new addition to your site or create something shareable like an infographic which discusses the stats and facts around the new item?

Give your new product pride of place on the homepage

When you launch something new you want to make sure that people see it. Even if someone doesn’t engage with your brand on social media channels or through email marketing, they will see your newly launched offering if you should about it on your homepage.

Create a product of the week section if you don’t already have it and pop your new product in there which a great product image. You’ll certainly garner some extra attention.