Tools to Market a New Product

Tools to Market a New Product By Matthew Yubas

Marketing Communications are the tools used to inform, influence, and encourage. Though sometimes viewed as only advertising and promotion marketing communications takes advantage of all possible mediums to make future customers aware of your product and business. Marketing communications can effectively raise awareness, produce sales leads, generate interest, and motivate purchases.

Start With Awareness Any transaction between sellers and buyers begins with awareness. Awareness is created with marketing communications tools such as:

• Advertising • Direct mail • Direct email • Magazine articles • Newsletters • Personal networking • Product reviews • Press releases • Speaking appearances • Trade shows

Tools that produce awareness, stimulates buyers and motivates them to get more information about your product. Then, buyers will investigate your product further by:

• Calling you • Sending you email • Returning your direct mail postcard • Searching for product reviews or discussions on the Internet • Talking to existing customers • Talking to opinion leaders • Visiting a retailer who carries your product • Visiting your website

When buyers investigate your product, don’t drop the ball. Make sure that every communication (mail, email, telephone) with a potential customer is professional and timely. Imagine you create the fancy advertising and slick direct mail. But when potential customers call your company, the receptionist is uninformed and unprofessional. Or, your email to the potential customer is full of spelling and grammar mistakes. In both of these examples you’ll likely make a bad impression. Everything that touches the customer must be of the highest quality.

Influence the Buyer You have to convince the buyer that your product is the solution to their needs. Buyers have a mental checklist of benefits, features and functions that will satisfy their desires. You should know what’s on that list by researching the market and talking with people. Since people can be skeptical at first, you need to provide facts and opinions to validate your product claims. Provide testimonials of satisfied customers and get product reviews from credible organizations. Show lab test results, certifications, and survey results. You can further influence a buyer’s fact finding mission by:

• Providing excellent customer service with prompt and accurate information • Having a website that educates and informs • Designing packaging that stands out and clearly explains how the product benefits the customer • Including a risk-free money-back satisfaction guarantee • Offering free samples, free trial periods, low introductory special price, or free shipping

When buyers investigate your product, you’ll influence them more by providing clear facts and figures rather than hype. Especially if your product and company are small or little known, third-party endorsements will ease buyer’s concerns.

A Simple Plan Your marketing communications plan does not have to be complicated. A simple, yet effective, communications plan to launch a product could simply involve:

1. Submitting a product for trade magazine reviews 2. Placing advertisements in trade magazines 3. Issuing a press release when the product is available 4. Purchasing leads from trade magazines and sending direct mail to the subscribers, and then following-up responses with a telephone call 5. Providing a website that has objective information about your product 6. Buying search engine keywords to drive traffic to your website

This simple marketing plan uses readily available tools to raise awareness and influence the buyer.

Conclusion Talk to retailers, distributors, and marketing consultants to find out which communications methods have successfully generated sales for your type of product. Study how competitors market and sell their products. If they’re successful, model a similar approach. Keep in mind you have to first create awareness in order to produce sales leads, generate interest, and motivate purchases. Using all the marketing tactics at your disposal – e.g., press releases, trade shows and advertising – will give potential customers opportunities to learn about your product.

Next Step This article gives you an overview of marketing a new product. For further information, my book Product Idea to Product Success, takes you through the process of marketing your product, step-by-step.

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