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Good Marketing/Sales Pre-Launch Strategies?

Marketing, social media, advertising

3feetfromgold

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What are the best pre-launch marketing techniques you have seen from other companies?

Currently working on a product pre-launch and I became curious about this question which may help others in the same situation. It sucks to wait around while the product is being built so what are some ways to build momentum while you wait?

Some that I've thought of/come across:
  • Building a waitlist via a landing page coupled with a lead magnet (discount code, e-book)
  • Kickstarter campaign (only works for physical products)
  • Producthunt (good for tech but now over-saturated with growth marketers)
  • Building an email newsletter with regular updates and content
  • Building a blog with related content
  • Building up social media with giveaways
  • Create a waitlist but integrate a referral program. Users who refer friends get bumped up to the top of the waitlist or receive discount code/free product
 
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policebaton

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depends on your industry and really what your audience responds to, for instance I come from an engineering product marketing background, and our audience eats up whitepapers and deep information for pre promotion. Showing them a problem that this new product solved gets them very excited and engaged to enter their emails or staying tuned or visting back to your "thought leader" type of website for more later.

For instance a whitepaper or article showing data on a new blend of rubber for tires, explaining the science behind it, and the data it shows in your pre research on how much longer it lasts or keeps air in them or whatever it is.
 

3feetfromgold

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depends on your industry and really what your audience responds to, for instance I come from an engineering product marketing background, and our audience eats up whitepapers and deep information for pre promotion. Showing them a problem that this new product solved gets them very excited and engaged to enter their emails or staying tuned or visting back to your "thought leader" type of website for more later.

For instance a whitepaper or article showing data on a new blend of rubber for tires, explaining the science behind it, and the data it shows in your pre research on how much longer it lasts or keeps air in them or whatever it is.

Agreed. I've seen some whitepapers for technical industries and I come from a technical product background as well. Do you find that there is a difference between the audience signing up and the market you are going after? For instance, early adopters in tech will eat up whitepapers but are users because of the technology. They tend to want to try the product out for the technology to see how cool it is. However, pragmatists want to use the product for the benefits and these are the ones who are long term customers.
 

policebaton

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No not particularly, the two groups you have explained are not fixed. A lot of the time there are people who will get the whitepaper just because it strikes them as "wow how did they do that?" and want to hear more, and then later turn into the long term customer using it for the benefits, first beginning as just an interest in new technology. Hence the benefit of making your whitepaper landing page/advertisement intriguing to that audience :).

I have a book called "marketing to engineers" by rebecca gier which has great info on the technical audience, as well as a site called CFE media which has all kinds of data on technical audience marketing. Definitely recommend checking them out.
 
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3feetfromgold

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No not particularly, the two groups you have explained are not fixed. A lot of the time there are people who will get the whitepaper just because it strikes them as "wow how did they do that?" and want to hear more, and then later turn into the long term customer using it for the benefits, first beginning as just an interest in new technology. Hence the benefit of making your whitepaper landing page/advertisement intriguing to that audience :).

I have a book called "marketing to engineers" by rebecca gier which has great info on the technical audience, as well as a site called CFE media which has all kinds of data on technical audience marketing. Definitely recommend checking them out.

Cool thanks! Will check out these resources for sure.
 

freddyshelton

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SMS Marketing. It is best strategy to aware audience about your pre-launch business and attract new customers towards your business. As it have high open rates than others and it doesn’t require any internet connection.
 
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Last edited:

carlos_

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My intuition says definitely to the landing page - I don't know enough to say whether you should offer a discount just for any visitor

Think: Who are you competing against? and where are they spending there money
This website was recommended on the forum recently:
Similarweb.com - Digital World Market Intelligence Platform

Are your competitors on there? this website has a section with analysis on where a given site get's it's traffic from. All your competitors getting traffic from Instagram? then you should pony up a bit of cash to get some Instagram traffic to your landing page.

If product isn't ready yet, at least get the visitors email address
 

ApparentHorizon

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SMS Marketing. It is best strategy to aware audience about your pre-launch business and attract new customers towards your business. As it have high open rates than others and it doesn’t require any internet connection.

http://static.MailCheat(Chimp).com/...wsuits/package/sms-spam-laws-and-lawsuits.pdf

Be careful with this one...it's one thing to send out emails which you can ignore and don't cost anything.

it's another to accidentally send to someone who still pays per text message.

Penalties range from $1,500 - 10,000 per message, if you do it wrong.

Even if you spoof your caller ID, you can still be traced.

(Source: I paid off my car and from idiots spamming my phone thinking they were slick)
 
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amp0193

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I just did a successful pre-launch. I defined success as being able to pay the manufacturer with customer money.

Months 1-3 - Testing prototype and working with factory to finalize design. In the mean-time sharing lots of images on social media, and grinding instagram to get followers.

Month 4 (3 months before I would have the product in stock) - Start production, Launch the web-site, and open for pre-orders. For the first 2 weeks, the price is 30% off. Tell as many news outlets (locally and nationally), and my social media following, as I can about the launch of the new business.

As the 2 week 30% discount comes to an end, bombard social media and whatever email list you have with emails letting them know when the price will be going up.

Month 5 - Bump the discount up to 25%, continue pushing free media coverage, as the launch of the business is a newsworthy event.

Month 6 - Use customer pre-order money to pay the 70% balance to the factory. Raise discount to 15% (I'm currently here... and it seems like 15% isn't enough of an incentive for customers to pre-order. Oh well).

Month 7 - In stock at full price and online. Add in paid traffic: Adwords, facebook, Amazon (I was running Adwords through month 6 and have gotten very poor conversions on the pre-sales... like 0% from targeted searches. So, I think waiting until in stock is probably best for paid traffic). Get pre-order customers to share social media images of their new product, and get the social proof snowball rolling.
 

amp0193

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(Source: I paid off my car and from idiots spamming my phone thinking they were slick)

Haha, care to elaborate? Did you sue them for harassment or something?
 

AdamMaxum

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For a product launch - 100% agree w/amp on that strategy.

Detail the process of creating the product from start to finish and get people interested/involved....basically do a "progress thread" via social media and anywhere else that makes sense to do so. Start buying social ads to promote your page/journey on social media. Build an email list at the same time if possible. And everything else amp said.

Your product should be solving a need of some kind. Find where those people exist and make yourself known early and often.
 
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ApparentHorizon

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Haha, care to elaborate? Did you sue them for harassment or something?

A significant portion of my clients are in the legal industry, so I had one of them draft up C&D. (Got 1-2 SMS' per day for a week straight...)

They then sold my number to someone else who didn't even bother to spoof their ID.

There's software that can find out the source (a quick google will bring up a few). It's not foolproof, but my concern is seeing a great method for marketing, being taken up by people with little experience. It's one thing to ruin a marketing scheme because everyone and their grandmother exploits it. (We'll adapt) It's another to get your a$$ handed to you by the FTC.

Both companies got served with papers and they settled for an undisclosed amount before it got ugly.

I've found it harder to trace robocalls, but for some reason they're not as annoying as texts.
 

Surf16

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Months 1-3 - Testing prototype and working with factory to finalize design. In the mean-time sharing lots of images on social media, and grinding instagram to get followers.

Month 4 (3 months before I would have the product in stock) - Start production, Launch the web-site, and open for pre-orders. For the first 2 weeks, the price is 30% off. Tell as many news outlets (locally and nationally), and my social media following, as I can about the launch of the new business.

As the 2 week 30% discount comes to an end, bombard social media and whatever email list you have with emails letting them know when the price will be going up.

Month 5 - Bump the discount up to 25%, continue pushing free media coverage, as the launch of the business is a newsworthy event.

Month 6 - Use customer pre-order money to pay the 70% balance to the factory. Raise discount to 15% (I'm currently here... and it seems like 15% isn't enough of an incentive for customers to pre-order. Oh well).

Month 7 - In stock at full price and online. Add in paid traffic: Adwords, facebook, Amazon (I was running Adwords through month 6 and have gotten very poor conversions on the pre-sales... like 0% from targeted searches. So, I think waiting until in stock is probably best for paid traffic). Get pre-order customers to share social media images of their new product, and get the social proof snowball rolling.[/QUOTE]

Amp0193 - great info!

Couple questions.

1. In month 1-3 what images did you share? Was it a concept image?

-I am waiting for a 3D Design of my product that isn't on the market yet. I have been working on a Landing page and studying Copywriting to make it perfect in the mean time.

Should I create the landing page with stock photos and start peaking interest now before I have the 3D images?

I was going to use the Landing page to collect emails and attain if the product is viable.

Thanks for any advice.
 

amp0193

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Amp0193 - great info!

Couple questions.

1. In month 1-3 what images did you share? Was it a concept image?

Not a concept, it was a physical prototype.

Should I create the landing page with stock photos and start peaking interest now before I have the 3D images?

I'd at least wait for renders. You want it to be what you're actually going to be selling.
 
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