In the contemporary landscape, product marketing has expanded beyond physical borders, delving into the vast digital territory. In this era of constant interconnectivity, understanding how to promote a product both online and offline becomes crucial to reach diverse audiences and maximize impact. We will explore effective strategies that merge the best of both worlds, offering a comprehensive approach to reaching consumers wherever they may be.
When it comes to product marketing, we are referring to the promotion of products or services targeted at a specific customer base. It involves connecting what you offer with the people who need it most, understanding and reaching your customers in a way that resonates with them.
The first step in learning how to market a product is market research. This involves discovering who your customers are and what their needs are, often through focus groups.
This information will help you gather demographic data to create buyer profiles and sell to your customers more effectively.
With this marketing information, you can build a strong brand around your product. Crafting a unique selling proposition that identifies the benefits of your product over those of your competitors is part of the branding process. Creating a competitive pricing strategy is also fundamental to product marketing. Beyond ensuring that you make a profit, the price of your product should reflect its perceived value.
After laying the groundwork for brand building, the final step in product marketing is to develop a strategy to promote the product.
We'll tell you about the best practices to keep in mind later in the note.
What are the objectives of product marketing?
The ultimate goal of product marketing is to sell goods or services to your intended audience. When you learn how to market a product effectively, product marketing can also:
Educate customers
By providing them with the information they need to make a purchasing decision. This objective is especially important if you're learning how to market a new product that customers have never seen before or aren't aware they might need.
Create product awareness
Familiarize customers with the product and brand. Even when this doesn't lead to immediate sales, awareness is the first step in the customer journey along the marketing funnel and can increase long-term sales.
Position the product
Establish how it compares to what's already available. Marketing positioning can establish something as a luxury good or as a value item, for example. Expand your customer base by attracting additional customer segments beyond the original target audience.
Strengthen brand reputation
Create positive associations with the product. Increase market share by driving sales and customer retention and outperforming competitors.
Now, considering the above, we can answer the big question "How to market a product online and offline"?
The best practices in 13 steps to implement.
1. Use a multi-step email campaign to build anticipation
If you want to know how to market a product online, look no further than your inbox. Email is a powerful tool, and it's no less important when it comes to marketing your new product.
Consider sending a series of emails in the months, weeks, and days leading up to the launch of a new product. Highlight various benefits of your product. Tempt with its unique features. Showcase quotes from beta users.
As an example, your email marketing campaign might look like this:
10 days before launch: Introduce the product and highlight key features
Eight days before launch: Share how the product can be used in everyday life
Five days before launch: Offer a "limited-time" discount for the new product
One to three days before launch: Tempt with the product through compelling content (e.g., a behind-the-scenes look at how it's made)
Launch day: Announce that the product is now available for purchase.
Of course, your campaign could span any number of days or approaches. The key is to build anticipation over time rather than sending a single bulky email that's easy to overlook in an inbox.
2. Invest in ads to reach a wider audience.
Regardless of how large or modest your budget is, it's worth experimenting with ads. Whether you try ads on Facebook, Instagram, Google, or a combination of these, paid channels allow you to reach new audiences immediately.
Adds developed by Estudio CKS for Daemon Services
When developing your email campaign, keep these tips in mind:
Use compelling images: Take advantage of colorful and high-quality images and videos that grab your customers' attention. Make sure to showcase the most compelling features of your product and demonstrate your item in action.
Keep the text short and focused: Advertise your product and highlight its most compelling and unique selling points. Remember to show, not tell.
Include a call to action (CTA): Tell your recipients exactly what you'd like them to do with a clear call to action. Encourage them to visit your website for more information about your product or to subscribe to your emails to receive notifications when your product launches.
Consider retargeting: Run a retargeting campaign that engages people who have already purchased from or visited your site before. Retargeting ads are often very cost-effective and highly effective.
3. Use cross-selling and upselling techniques to promote your product
First things first, what's the difference between cross-selling and upselling?
Cross-selling promotes related products to customers, while upselling focuses on motivating customers to buy more of something, or a more expensive version of something they're interested in, or something that complements their initial interest.
Include upselling and cross-selling in your strategy as you explore tactics on how to market your product.
Let's say you sell winter gear in an online store and you're introducing a new line of scarves. You can "cross-sell" scarves to customers who are purchasing a coat, or upsell them something additional by bundling a coat together with the scarf. This way, upselling and cross-selling can be an effective and more natural way to recommend your new product. With a platform like Wix eCommerce, you can easily add "related products" modules to your product pages. This strategy encourages impulse purchases ethically.
Cross-selling developed by Estudio CKS for Imaginer
4. Use live streams to give customers an authentic view of your product
If you want to know how to market a product online, live streaming is the authentic, personal, and interactive way to do it. You can use it to give customers a detailed view of how your product is made and how it can be used in everyday life.
Whether you're recording an unboxing, giving a product demo, or hosting a Q&A session, a live streamed event allows you to connect with users in real time.
Here are some tips when launching your own stream:
Select the right on-screen talent: Find a brand ambassador, such as someone from your team or an influencer, to be the face of your stream. The person you choose should feel comfortable on camera and know your product inside out.
Invite people to join your event: Reach out to customers, prospects, journalists, and influencers ahead of your event rather than waiting for them to stumble upon your event when the time comes.
Incentivize participation with special promotions: Offer free gifts or special discounts to those who attend your live stream or get others to sign up.
Stream on multiple channels: While you'll want to consider which channels attract which types of audience, you can stream your event on multiple platforms simultaneously.
Follow up with attendees: After you've concluded your live event, be sure to reach out to the attendee list while your product is still fresh in their minds. Encourage them to purchase your product or pre-order it if it hasn't been launched yet.
5. Host a flash sale to inspire purchases (and create urgency)
People love a good deal, especially when the discounts are significant. One way to sell products quickly and create a sense of urgency is through a flash sale.
With a flash sale, you offer a special discount on your products for a limited time, typically 24 to 48 hours. Flash sales are often used to clear existing inventory, but they're also an excellent way to generate excitement (and sales) for new products.
Ventas Flash developed by Estudio CKS for Blue Blood Socks
Professional Tip: Advertise your flash sale in advance through email and social media to give customers time to plan their purchase. You can also use a countdown clock on your website to count down the days until your product sale event.
6. Announce your new product with banners on the homepage and site
Our next technique on how to market your product is to use valuable space on your homepage to introduce and showcase your new product. Advertisements and banners on the homepage can be helpful in directing visitors to a dedicated product landing page or promoting a special offer.
Website developed by Estudio CKS for Vibrar Sano
If you're using pop-up or sliding banners, make sure they're easy to spot. At the same time, avoid intruding on the customer experience by limiting animated banners to one per page. Pay special attention to the mobile user experience. Ensure your banners are easy to read and easy to close if customers aren't interested.
7. Accept pre-orders before the launch date
A solid pre-order campaign can benefit your marketing plans and inventory management. It allows you to create a sense of urgency, as well as assess interest in your product even before manufacturing it.
As a rule of thumb, start accepting pre-orders four to six months before. You can reserve such orders for people who are part of your email list or enrolled in your loyalty program. Alternatively, you can offer pre-orders to the general public to drive activity.
Consider combining pre-orders with special offers, such as a gift for the first 100 pre-orders.
8. Place your product on the first page of Google search results with SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is key to helping customers find your product online after your marketing strategy has driven traffic to your website. Make sure customers searching for your product and brand on Google and other search engines can easily find them by implementing SEO best practices, such as:
Selecting a target keyword for your product to appear in searches.
Using that keyword throughout your website's product page in the product name, description, meta description, and URL.
Submitting sitemaps to Google.
Website developed by Estudio CKS for Corrine Stoewsand
9. Educate and spread the word with content marketing
Content marketing for ecommerce is crucial for shaping how your product is presented to the world and how you maintain momentum. Among the various tactics you can employ, the following are key to integrated marketing and promoting your new product:
Regular blog posts or gift guides to inspire purchases, optimized with specific keywords to improve your SEO rankings.
Customer stories showcasing how real consumers have benefited from using your product.
FAQs that help dispel any doubts.
Tutorial videos demonstrating how to use and get the most out of your product.
Comparison pages explaining how your product differs from competitor products.
Size charts, infographics, and quizzes that help your customers select the right products for them.
10. Create anticipation with public relations
Public relations involve influencing the press to create news content about your company. One of the best public relations tools for product marketing is a press release announcing the official launch of your new product.
A press release should include relevant details about your product and answer the who, what, where, when, why, and how questions. Increase the chances of press coverage of your launch by making it more newsworthy. For example, you could launch your product attempting to break a world record or getting a celebrity endorsement.
Make sure to pitch your story only to relevant media. If you're pitching a story about a celebrity using your new product, a celebrity-focused magazine like People would be more likely to be interested than a publication covering global affairs, such as Foreign Policy, for example.
11. Encourage and leverage customer testimonials and reviews
Consumers tend to trust their peers more than advertising claims.
Request customer reviews and testimonials and use them in your product marketing plan to attract more customers and increase sales. Here's how you can leverage reviews to your advantage:
Embed reviews on product pages.
Automate emails requesting customers to write reviews after receiving a product.
Send new products to your top customers and ask them to review them.
Create graphics from reviews and share them on social media.
Incorporate reviews into advertising campaigns and commercials.
12. Make your product go viral with an influencer marketing campaign
Launch an influencer marketing campaign to generate interest in your product before it is released to the public. Identify content creators and celebrities who would naturally be interested in your product and collaborate with them to create promotional content. While some influencers will work in exchange for free products, others will only create content in exchange for payment, so be sure to budget for your campaign.
13. Keep your product on your customers' minds with social media marketing
Product and service marketing is not a one-time process; it's an ongoing process. Social media is a marketing channel that helps you keep your product or service in the minds of your existing and potential customers.
Plan your posts to do so in an orderly and scheduled manner.
Content for social networks designed by Estudio CKS for Frozen Eats
Now that you have the information, it's very important that you know that at EstudioCKS we take pride in offering websites that are not only visually appealing and functional, but also equipped with the necessary tools to boost your online and offline presence. As a Wix agency partner, we ensure that our clients have access to a wide range of digital marketing tools to power their strategies.
They have at their disposal a powerful email marketing platform integrated into their website management panels, ready-to-use integrations from Wix with Google and Facebook Ads. In turn, e-commerce pages can easily add tools like a countdown clock for a flash sale, announce new products through pop-ups, banners, badges, and much more.
Want to collect feedback from your customers? No problem! They can be easily added to your website and start collecting reviews as soon as possible.
At EstudioCKS, we are committed to providing our clients with the necessary tools to succeed in the digital world and beyond.
