7 superb ways social media guarantees a successful product launch
It must come as no surprise that social media has taken the world of business and marketing through a whirlwind of digitalisation and disruption. 75 per cent of marketing done by start-ups and corporations is purely digital, and of that, Instagram marketing holds the top slot. Not only are there 3.48 billion social media users in 2019, but there is also almost a global penetration rate of 45%. This means that nearly half the world’s population is now on social media. The above premise sets up for the apparent success of a product launch if thoughtful, consistent and persuasive marketing techniques are deployed. We’ll show you how:
1. Start with a hashtag
As cliché it may sound, having a memorable and precise hashtag augments the brand’s associative factor. When LAYS – the chips company – launched the tagline #DoUsAFlavor before the launch of its new flavour, it created enough buzz and engagement among the audience to vote for their favourite flavour. Audience members were excited and on the lookout to find out if what they proposed was the flavour that LAYS launched.
2. Celebrate (with) your audience
Your target audience does not want to be fed with promotions. Under the pretext of a celebration or a much-anticipated event, drop clues about your product feature and reveal the details of the product launch subsequently. Amazon did it best at the 2016 SuperBowl, before the release of its newest gadget “The Echo”. The voice-recognition speaker that responds to the word “Alexa”, was heavily used in all its content. This created a non-abrasive, tongue-in-cheek understanding among millions of people who were either attending or watching the SuperBowl about the newest product launch from Amazon, and rightly so.
3. Are you vlogging enough?
Visual content is 40 times more likely to be shared on social media than other types of content. Visually pleasing and aesthetically attractive products must turn to video creation for this reason. Take the most recent viral video content – the Just Do It campaign by Nike. The core messaging of all the brand’s video content is about a progressive world – equality and women empowerment. People consume such brands that choose to advocate social causes.
4. Host challenges and contests; Give giveaways
Everybody enjoys a sportive and spontaneous, fun-loving challenge or contest, and one person who does it best is American talk show host – Ellen DeGeneres. She comes up with the craziest contests and challenges for her audience members on her show. And despite doing it for entertainment, she introduces her products and does giveaways each time from her clothing line – ED by Ellen. The fun quotient of her posts and video has garnered her millions of views and loyal viewers who keep coming back for more.
5. Conduct real-time experiments
Before a product launch, put your product to test publicly if you want a more positive response. When athletic footwear brand Reebok India launched a campaign called #FitnessIsForEveryone, India writer Chetan Bhagat took up a transformation challenge ‘Reboot 100’ featuring the Reebok shoes. Both, Chetan and Reebok extensively captured the 100-day transformation showing his sprinting, work-out pictures and videos with the new Reebok while also inviting others to join in. The campaign was a massive hit as fellow celebrities, and the youth of India took to active participation following the experiment.
6. Find your influencers
Influencer marketing on social media has proven to be exceptionally successful. When Colgate wanted to regain its market share, which it lost to Patanjali, it came up with a herbal toothpaste called Swarna Vedashakthi. Understanding the characteristics of the Indian culture that embraces modern and ancient practices, the campaign featured distinguished artists, dancers, musicians, teachers, comedians and writers whose work fuses traditional and contemporary art forms. By their validation of the toothpaste (before the product launch), followers of such artists became ardent followers of the product suggested by their idols.
7. Share ‘Behind the scenes’ footage
Soon after the product launch, if you were to showcase the nitty-gritty of what went into making the show, event or launch party a success, it is likely that consumers will be thrilled to learn the process. For instance, New York Fashion Week shared a behind-the-scenes video that showed how their Fall Collection 2017 was put together. Nearly 6 million viewers tuned into it. Not only was it interesting for the ultimate buyers, but even competitors, designers, marketers and the like, wanted to be a part of the fun. It offered a preview into the life and work of renowned designers – a treat for the common man. Bridging such gaps, through the power of social media, enables the end-user to relate to your brand and root for your product launches.
There are now more than 50 million small businesses using Facebook Pages to connect with their customers. Four million of those businesses pay for social media advertising on Facebook. Social media advertising statistics show that small-sized companies should consider paying for Facebook ads to gain visibility and surpass competitors relatively easily. LinkedIn marketing is in a league of its own. Creating an online party using the ‘Live’ session feature is also a popular method, which works well with start-ups. Running tutorials, offering workshops, free consultation sessions, the possibilities are endless. These are all proven methods and the route a brand should take depends on its vision, profile of the audience, product feature, benefits, demography and geography.
References:
1 https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/blog/
2 https://wearesocial.com/blog/2019/01/digital-2019-global-internet-use-accelerates
4 https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/visual-content-marketing-strategy