It is preferable to start marketing with a beta version or when you have the final product ready. Without having a working version of your product, you run the risk of raising the expectations of your target customers or investors higher than you would like it to be. It is important to manage customer and investor expectations, so that you have room for error and are confident of delivering higher than promised. If you can manage expectations on both fronts, it will create trust and solidify a positive image not only of your team but also but also that of your product & company.
Wise use of Social media
Use social media to your advantage, by using a single platform you can reach out to customers from various geographies, cultures, and tastes. Be frequent and consistent about the posts on the social media. If you have a B2B business model, use Twitter and LinkedIn, however, if your product is targeted towards the general public, use Facebook. Use a list of keywords that will help you to be readily searchable on various search engines.
Paid services can be very effective
Try small investments on the platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube etc. Use Facebook’s Pay-to-Play services, along with sponsored tweet and using LinkedIn’s premium services. LinkedIn has a number of extremely valuable paid features, including a Sales Navigator that makes finding leads and contacts effortless. Paid services sees a lot of engagements.
Content is king
Don’t use a lot of words. Refrain from using ‘a lot’ of technical jargons. And remember the keyword here is ‘a lot’. While using technical words helps at times to showcase your product’s features, overusing it might not go well with the target audiences who like it to be short and simple. Use infographics, which make your posts more engaging. It’s very powerful and could easily get viral.
Think about the message you want to convey to your audiences rather than just promoting your product. Content matters a lot, but if the message is not clear, all the investments and the marketing will be a waste. It is an instrument to make a mark for your brand and product.
Well-designed Stationery
When you are using media to reach out to the audiences, don’t be afraid. Be creative. Get innovative with your business card. Print out informative infographics and turn those into flyers. Add discount coupon at bottom. Offer group discounts. Send out coupons to be used during festive occasions.
PR is a highly effective tool
Get a PR team. If the budget doesn’t allow you, hire a freelancer. Create a press kit. Make a list of contents to be published, also make sure they are categorized according to the type of media where they are supposed to appear (Video, Tweet, Posts, Mails and Print). Reach out to the journalists for the contents to be published. Participate in trade shows, they are good platform to reach out to various mediums.
Continuously Interact with the client
Allow the user to subscribe to your contents, as well as, allow guest blogging to increase the interaction. Be innovative with the customer. Address their concerns. Show that it’s not just the product that you care about, it’s the customers that matter more to you.
While you are engaged in the promotion of your product, don’t lose your focus on the product. Make sure you aren’t engaging too much in the promotion while ignoring the development of your product. If you feel that business promotion is taking away a lot of your time, hire an agency or freelancers to do parts of it for you. Again, several free tools are available in the market that can help you to automate your CRM or marketing function