Marketing can be one of the most exciting parts of a business or product launch. Thanks to technology, you have more ways to market than ever.
But all of that excitement and all of those choices can leave business owners a little overwhelmed. With so many social media platforms, so many third-party apps and opportunities how do you choose the avenue that’s right for your brand? In our experience from running an agency and working with clients, we’ve zeroed in on the key marketing steps for product-based businesses.
Before you do anything, ask yourself this question: If I were to look up my brand online today, what would I find? The first step in establishing yourself online is your website. Then comes social media. Make sure your accounts are all set up and easy to find and that they represent your brand properly. This means that your profile image, business name, caption and even account name (handle) should be the same across all platforms. Your goal is to create a consistent, seamless identity that fits perfectly with your website and your brand. A clear, consistent social media presence paves the way for a successful product launch. You want your customers to be able find you, and your product, quickly and easily.
GET YOUR ORGANIZATION ON
One of the most common marketing mistakes we see is lack of organization. Remember all of those marketing options we talked about earlier? Excitement for them can quickly turn into overwhelm. Banishing that overwhelm takes organization. Create a strategy for your social media channels, schedule your posts in advance, build newsletter or product launch templates, create an email marketing schedule, and manage press outreach through templates. Remember, these schedules and templates are for your use only, so they don’t have to be anything fancy–a simple Excel sheet or Google Doc will do the trick. But maintaining some sort of organization is absolutely necessary if you want to succeed with your product launch.
DON’T LET EMAIL OVERWHELM YOU
The very idea of “email marketing” can be intimidating. After all, there’s strategy, list building, template design, copy and everything else to keep in mind–who wouldn’t be overwhelmed? But email marketing is key to any product-focused business, and of the utmost importance for any product launch.
We promise it doesn’t have to be hard. Do yourself a favor and sign up for MailChimp, our favorite email marketing platform and one of the most user-friendly platforms out there. View their tutorials, create a simple schedule based around your product launch and promotion (keeping in mind upcoming holidays and shopping trends) and then just get going. It’ll get easier, we promise.
EMBRACE THE THIRD-PARTY APP
Why do we love third-party apps? Let us count the ways. Thousands of marketing apps for product-based businesses are on the market, with more being added every day. These apps are there to make your job (and your life) easier, not harder. From social media scheduling tools to apps like Shoppost and Penny that help convert your Instagram followers to shoppers, these apps are must-haves if you’re selling products. And speaking of email marketing, MailChimp also offers a series of third-party apps that sync with Shopify and more.
If managing this still feels like too much to handle, there are next steps you can take–like enrolling in a course, joining an online community of like-minded business owners or even asking for help. If you’d like a little more help, we’d be happy to help manage the process for you. At DesignGood Studio, we work with product based brands to help build their businesses and get the word out to the right audience, and we’d love to work with you. Contact us today to learn more!
LEARN. CONNECT. ACT.
Learn more about DesignGood
Connect via Facebook and Twitter
Act by joining the DesignGood community by signing up for their newsletter
FROM THE EDITOR
At Conscious, we are inspired by stories that cause us to think differently and think big-picture and so we set out to tell stories with the help of leaders and influencers in the social good community. You can read more stories like this when you Sign-up for the Weekly and Subscribe to Conscious Magazine.
