Planning to unleash a new podcast on the world?
Cooking up a brand new service for your audience?
Congratulations!
Prepping for a launch is an especially stressful and exciting time. You have energy, big goals and plenty of plans.
BUT before you get caught up in dreaming of that moment you actually go live, you might need to do a few things first to ensure your launch is super successful. Reaching your business goals has never been easier with the help of Socialgreg. Check out their wide range social media services and get a stronger digital presence.
The truth is, a launch won’t be very successful without some pre-launch marketing.
You might be wondering, why market something that isn’t ready to sell? Here’s the thing: your audience is inundated with messages these days and it can be difficult to stand out among all that noise. That puts a lot of pressure on you to reach that audience on launch day and immediately follow it to start making sales and get your strongest start.
That’s where a pre-launch marketing strategy comes into play.
The goal of pre-launch marketing strategy is to generate and build some excitement around your launch so that when you finally do open the doors, your customers will be scrambling to click “buy.”
When you utilize pre-launch marketing, you start priming your audience to keep their eyes and ears open for your big announcement. As you market during pre-launch, you’ll increase curiosity around your new product and you’ll be more likely to reach your audience when you do launch.
If you know that you are going to launch something big in 2019, make sure you try these 4 pre-launch marketing strategies!
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1. Use email marketing and build your email list
An email list is still one of the best marketing tools for entrepreneurs and if you don’t have one, it’s time to start building one!
Of course, you really can’t just throw up a landing page and tell people to enter your email to be the first to know about your new product, service or business.
Why not?
Giving an email is an exchange of value and your audience has to trust that you are going to provide something valuable to them in exchange for their email address.
In the example below, WorkWeek clearly determines who their app is for, what it’s about and how it can benefit their audience. They don’t give away all the details on their features so there’s still a bit of curiosity surrounding the app but it provides just enough of a promise of value.
Your other option is to offer a free resource that relates to your launch. This route is smart if you are opening a business, selling a course or a service or announcing an event and you haven’t built up an audience yet.
This type of free resource is also known as a “lead magnet” because it attracts potential leads to your business. If you are launching a course on how to become an Instagram influencer, then you might create a free checklist that outlines 5 steps for getting started as an Instagram influencer. You know that if anyone who signs up for the checklist is probably interested in learning about or becoming an Instagram influencer, then they’ll probably be interested in a course on it!
The idea is to give enough value that your audience experiences your expertise and learns enough that they’ll want to pay for more information.
Once you start building that list, you’ll be able to email them directly with news of your launch when the time is right.
2. Build buzz with social media
During your pre-launch phase, you may want to tease your audience with an idea of what’s coming. This builds curiosity among your followers and will make them eager to hear more about your launch.
You can show sneak peek images, behind the scenes videos or snippets of your new website. The key to building curiosity is not to share just enough so that your audience wants to know more but not enough that they won’t be interested to learn more about it.
A few ideas worthy of a sneak peek:
- Sharing a captivating module title of your new course
- An image that shows part of your new product
- Your new logo
- An audio clip of your new podcast
If you’re an Instagrammer, you can also break up a larger image to share piece by piece as you lead up to your announcement.
You can also schedule all of these updates in advance using MeetEdgar. This saves you hours of time that you can then spend on perfecting your product.
3. Tap into influencers and affiliates
There are influencers and thought leaders in every industry and if you can tap into them, they can be a huge asset for your brand.
Consider this, 49% of consumers depend on influencer recommendations! And your influencers and affiliates don’t need to have celebrity-sized audiences. They just need to have an engaged audience that is similar to your ideal audience.
You can connect with these influencers and offer them free product or affiliate commission on purchases in exchange for shares or mentions of your launch. By using unique links and special codes for each influencer, you’ll be able to see which audience reacted best and who you can partner with in the future!
4. Host an event around your launch
Hosting an event around your launch is one of the best ways to get eyeballs on you when you launch your big project into the world!
You could host a Facebook Live or schedule a Facebook Premiere when you want to announce to your fans about your launch. Remember to promote it in advance so people will be notified when you go live.
Or you could go big and do an entire week of events for your launch. You could offer giveaways and surprises on your social media pages or in your emails as you lead up to your big announcement. This way you’ll be building engagement and excitement right up until the very last minute!
Your pre-launch is a crucial piece of your launch so plan for it accordingly! You want to build that momentum so that you can keep it going as your business, blog, course or podcast grows with it.
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