Effective Marketing Hacks to Launch Your Product through Blogging

Marketing Hacks through Blogging

Here’s a question for you: do you know how many products are being launched on a yearly basis? In the U.S. alone, 21,435 foods and beverages were launched in 2016. That’s only a fraction of the total number of all kinds of products launched globally. How big is that number? That’s a difficult question to answer, especially if we want to include software products in our calculation.

There’s a more important question that concerns marketers: why don’t we hear about each and every one of those products through the media? You already know the answer to that: it’s all about the marketing. Poor marketing is the reason why 14% of the startups fail.

On the day when a new product is being launched, you reach a milestone after all that hard work and finances invested in product development. If you prepared your target audience to expect the product with a successful product launch campaign, the overall promotion will be much more successful.

How exactly do you perform a successful product launch marketing campaign? Today, we’re suggesting a rather unusual method to include in your approach: blogging.

Most digital marketers realize that blogging is a beneficial aspect to any marketing campaign. However, we’re rarely using it as part of a pre-launch strategy, so it’s time to make a difference there.

We’ll suggest marketing hacks that unlock the potential of blogging as part of a product launch campaign.

1. Focus on Brand Building

The blog will be an important part of the brand-building process. You’re aware of the fact that you’re entering a competitive market, so you need to make your brand recognizable even before the product gets out there.

Establish the main aspects of branding:

• Name
• Logo
• Colors
• Catch phrase
• URL

You’re usually focused on these elements when building the official website and social media pages for the product. The blog is not only about content, though. It should incorporate all signs that make your brand visible.

According to the results of Demand Gen’s 2016 Content Preferences Survey, 47% of buyers viewed 3-5 pieces of content before engaging with a sales representative. They want to know more about the brand before they take action.  It’s clear that the web presence of your brand is more than setting up a functional site.

A sophisticated blog will perform multiple roles: informing the audience about the brand, increasing awareness, making them expect the launch date, attracting people to pre-order the product, and getting valuable feedback. When you start developing the brand before the launch, you’ll benefit from all these aspects of blogging.

2. Share Useful Content

Yes, your SEO goals will demand more content on a regular basis. Your main motivation for a pre-launch campaign is to get the word out there, so you want your brand mentioned as many times as possible. You’ll also engage in guest posting and social media promotion. Does that leave you with enough time to get high-quality content out there?

Here’s the deal: your focus is somewhere between quantity and quality. You need to find the balance. Do you know where the point of balance is? Useful content!

Every single piece of content you share should help a potential customer achieve some goals by using your product. Here are few tips that will help you think of topics your audience will benefit from:

• Invite the blog visitors to ask questions. Ask about the problems they face. Ask how they perceive your solutions and how they would use it. Their feedback will reveal the gaps in information. When you realize there’s something someone doesn’t know, elaborate that issue in a new blog post. Think of it this way: through the posts, you’re having a conversation with your potential users.
• Here’s a surprising revelation: the blog doesn’t have to be limited to topics related to the product. Every single guide on blogging tells you the same thing: pick a niche and stay committed to it. Well, you’ll still pick a niche. However, you won’t limit it to the product, so it will give you more space to think of topics useful for your target audience.

Take Dollar Shave Club as an example. In the blog section (conveniently named DSC Original Content), what do you see? All kinds of content a man would be interested to read. There’s a wide audience for this product: men who shave. They have all kinds of interest, so the creators of this blog think of a useful topic almost every single day. These are only few of the examples:

• Should You Rinse the Razor After Every Stroke?
• If You Drank a Lot as a Teen, Your Brain May Be Permanently Messed Up
• Here’s What Business Casual Really Looks Like

Yes, some of the topics are related to shaving, but most of them focus on what men want to read. The content is still very useful, and it helps the blog gain on quantity and quality at the same time. Nice!

3. Ask for Their Emails

Although you can post content that’s not specifically related to the product, the main aim of blogging is to create buzz about the product before launching it. All other content should only support that purpose by bringing more visitors to your site.

Did someone mention visitors? You want loads of them! You don’t only want random visitors who saw your Facebook ad or those you targeted through the SEO campaign. You also need loyal visitors, who will return to your blog to read the new content.

Your first goal is to drive traffic, and you’re doing that through the blog content and its promotion on social media. When you get people on your blog, you should invite them to submit their email address. They won’t do it just because they want to do you a favor. They will do it only if they get something in return.

• Make the offer attractive. Present a video or a catchy pop-up that invites them to sign up if they want to get more.
• Tell them that if they become part of your email list, they will be the first ones to know the date of the product launch. They will be able to preorder the product. Plus, they will all get a discount code.
• The emails have to be great. Pay attention to the graphics and implement the colors and logo of your brand.

4. Call Them to Action

When you’re working on a new piece of content for the blog, think: what will the takeaway be? It’s not only about teaching your target audience how to use the product and making them want it. You want them to feel urged to take some kind of action.

That action may involve signing up to the email list, leaving a comment to ask a question, or pre-ordering the product.

Even if the post is not directly related to the product, it should still offer actionable tips. Let’s take Dollar Shave Club’s blog as an example again. Here’s how the post What Happens During a Brain Freeze ends:

Is there a cure for brain freeze? The obvious answer is to simply stop drinking the frosty beverage or downing the frigid ice cream, which should quickly allow the headache to subside. But since we all know slushies are too good to put down, try pushing your (warmer) tongue up to the roof of your mouth, or drink something lukewarm to normalize the temperature in the back of your throat. This should warm your brain up just in time for another slurp.

You see? No matter how silly the topic seems, you can still get a useful blog post out of it. This blogger leaves you with the thought that you have to try this. That’s the kind of impression that makes a blog memorable. When you trigger action in your target audience, they will recognize your brand the next time they see it.

5. Let Data Set the Foundation for Your Overall Marketing Campaign

To create a strong marketing campaign for the launch of a new product, you need to understand the needs of your audience, make a plan, and stick to it. Is that enough? No.

What posts drive the highest number of visits to your blog? Which ones attracted many signups? How many likes and shares did your last post get? What types of visual triggers your audience reacts to?

Let’s make it simple: you need metrics, so you’ll know how to adjust the marketing campaign as you proceed with it. Most marketers are focused on three main metrics:

• Traffic
• Users
• Conversions

The blog gives you much more information you can benefit from. If for example, you notice that, on average, the visitors read 3 posts before signing up for updates, you can serve 3 suggestions of related content under every post.

If you notice that an infographic didn’t drive as much attention as you expected, you can simply cut down on this unproductive type of content and focus on videos, lists, or anything else your audience really reacts to.

Create spreadsheets to track all data you can gather from your blog. It tells you what your audience wants. When you analyze them, you’ll adjust the product launch marketing campaign to make it more successful.

The blog will be useful in all stages of the launch campaign:

• During the idea phase, the feedback of your target audience will help you develop a better product.
• During the branding process, the blog will help you create awareness.
• You can use the blog to set a strong foundation for the launch.
• Finally, you’ll inform people about the launch date and you’ll publish calls to action.

The tips above should help you use the blog in the right way. Do you think it’s time to start planning how you’ll handle the blog?

Effective Marketing Hacks to Launch Your Product through Blogging: About the Author

Lisa works for TopAussieWriters.com in her free time, helping the team create honest and reliable essay writing service reviews. She found her true calling in business consulting. Lisa is also helping young entrepreneurs to scan the market, evaluate their ideas and bring new businesses to life.