The last year was full of uncertainties. Whether it was about postponed weddings or canceled events, organizers had to put everything on hold. Statistics suggest around 80% of marketers canceled events they had planned to organize. Every cloud has a silver lining, so did the pandemic. Marketers who wanted to launch their products moved online, and we all saw a trend. It was clear that online launch events have some benefits over physical events, given you are following the online product launch strategy carefully.
What is a virtual product launch?
The principal purpose of organizing a virtual product launch is to let everyone know about your product. Apart from the mode, there are hardly any crucial differences in both events. Start with creating speculations in the market to make your launch even significant. High sales and conversion rates, better reach, and cost-effectiveness are some of the innumerable benefits that virtual product launches have over live events.
What is an effective step-by-step product launch strategy?
You should keep in mind that every product, brand, and market is different. If you’re planning to launch your product virtually, you need to take care of basic guidelines. Here’s a step-by-step product launch strategy you can follow to make your event a great success.
- Research is the key: Never enter a warzone without any preparation, and the market is no less than a warzone. If you are preparing to bring your product to the market, it’s better to study deeply about your competitors. Go through the strategies they followed during their product launch and prepare accordingly. Make sure you know everything about the companies selling products similar to you. Learn from their marketing strategies and what all you can do to make your product stand out.
- Find your target audience- Now proceed further by finding the audience group you would like to target. It will help the organizations create their potential customer base. You can use your social media, mailing lists, and your reach to find which group uses your product the most. Once you get done with creating lists, you know where you want to generate sales from. Now you only need to develop momentum to launch your product most effectively. Your mistakes won’t affect your brand value if you have an extensive reach.
- Follow a well-planned marketing strategy- Now that you know about your target audience and rivals, it’s time for you to develop a proper marketing plan that will help you convert your potential customers into loyal customers. At this point, you have already spent enough money on various things, now plan about how you would earn money. Brainstorm about off-beat marketing ideas and platforms you can use to bring your products into the limelight and grab people’s attention. Promote your product where your target audience engages the most. It can be Instagram, Snapchat, newspapers, or various other platforms.
- Choose a correct virtual launch solution- This is one of the most vital factors you need to keep in mind to host a successful virtual launch event.By inculcating this step to your product launch checklist, you can make a vast impact on your event. In simple language, an online virtual platform can make or break your launch event. Consider a platform that provides various interactive and engaging features. Several platforms like Dreamcast allow you to connect one-on-one with other attendees and reach out to the organizers during the live proceedings. Along with these attributes, take price structure, security factors, and accessibility factors of the platform into consideration.
- Make it a never-seen-before experience- People remember things and details they haven’t seen earlier. Keep this thing in mind and develop your strategy around it. You can give your attendees a close-to-real experience by creating a 3D virtual venue. The virtual walkthroughs will lead the attendees to the spaces where you can display a 3D virtual model of your product. Since not many companies have used this strategy, it will surely grab some eyeballs and keep your attendees hooked.
- Keep the event interactive- Virtual launches require more effort when it comes to keeping the attendees engaged. You can include fun activities like games, quizzes, and riddles to keep the attendees gripped to the sessions. Since with evolving technology, we have limitless options before us. If people find your session dull, they will leave it midway, and you would never want this to happen. To avoid it, inculcate small tasks and activities like live polls and Q&A sessions. They would keep the audience engaged and help you get some relevant information helping you develop a database around your potential customers.
- Partner up with known faces- Collaborate with faces with a decent number of followers to increase the reach of the product. We live in a world where people blindly follow celebrities. Use it cleverly and make the best out of it. You can ask the celebs to promote the product on their social media channels. People love to meet their favorite celebrities, and what better if they get a chance to do so through your event? If you’re launching a new makeup product, you can collaborate with a famous influencer or an actress.
- Collect analytics and follow-up: One of the biggest advantages virtual launches have over live event launches is they allow you to monitor real-time activity data of the attendees during the event. Some platforms allow you to track attendees’ engagement while the event is going on. These data can be of great importance for the future of your brand and company. Keep an eye on the states and use them to get the feedback of all the attendees. You can send them emails or ask them open-ended questions to know what they feel about the product.
A successful product launch is the most determining aspect of promoting your product. Just advertising the product isn’t enough; people should know your product inside and out. How you bring it to the market is also crucial. You can refer to the online product launch strategy discussed above and get your product into the market with a bang with the help of platforms like Dreamcast.