How to Make Your Product Launch Go Viral

Creating marketing buzz is essential to getting your online store or product launch off to a successful start. Launching an eCommerce store can be a nerve-wracking experience, but it won't be that daunting if you have a well-thought-out pre-launch strategy in place.

72% of new products fail to meet their revenue targets. While other market forces may have a bearing on this statistic, you can mitigate their effects by implementing a great buzz marketing strategy to generate the hype your store needs at the very beginning. Building online buzz early is a powerful product launch strategy; it creates the necessary anticipation so that you’ll have customers waiting to make a purchase as soon as your store or product goes live.

But, you need to back this up with a few things. You’ll need to ensure your product quality is beyond reproach, and have your distribution channels set up. And, you’ll also have to have a good fulfillment strategy in place. This is where Easyship can help.

You can work with our experts in the lead-up to your store or product launch to build a shipping and return policy that will work for your store and your customers. You’ll also be able to use the platform to streamline your shipping process with automated rules and labels, and access to affordable courier services.

4 Tips to Generate Buzz Pre Product Launch

Generating buzz marketing before a product launch takes time and effort; the same applies to an online store. But, that shouldn’t scare you off - it’s worth the effort! If you play your cards right - and use the right buzz marketing techniques - your online store (and product launches) will be successful. Here are a few tips to help you make your product go viral:

1. Timing is everything

When it comes to creating a lot of buzz marketing for your product launch, timing is everything. Here are the things you should keep in mind when thinking about how to go viral with timing.

• Center Your Product Launch Strategy Around Relevant Events: The key here is to build your product release around relevant events, holidays, or peak eCommerce seasons. For example, launching your store or line or new summer clothes a few weeks before summer is likely to generate enough buzz to give you viral status - much more so than launching this in winter. The same applies to when you have a product launch for the holidays - do it a few weeks before Christmas, for example, to take advantage of peak gift-buying.
• Determine When Your Buzz Marketing Campaigns Will Run: Four to six weeks before your product launch is a good time to roll out your buzz marketing campaign. This gives you enough time to generate a following, create chatter, and build relationships. Give your launch date a product-centric name, and focus your strategy on paid and organic marketing. Use paid marketing to build anticipation for your launch date to give your audience a date to remember and create a sense of urgency. Timely marketing campaigns will help the first wave of your inventory sell out, giving you a better chance of meeting your revenue targets quickly.

2. Go viral by leveraging social media

Social media is a powerful tool that can help you connect and communicate with your future customers. Here are several ways you can leverage social media to create buzz marketing for your online store before the product release.

• Work with Influencers: Your customers may not be inclined to believe what you have to say about your store and products. But, having a key opinion leader - or influencer - who already has a big, loyal following showcase your product on their channels can be a game-changer for your product launch. According to Kissmetrics, the earlier you get influencers on board, the better. So, start early to build relationships with social influencers, thought leaders, media, and industry experts to help you generate hype and drive traffic before your launch.
• Create a Hashtag: Tweets with hashtags are 55% more likely to be retweeted. Creating a branded hashtag is a powerful way to build buzz and create brand recognition. This is especially so when you use a fun hashtag that’s easy to remember. Also, tapping into local trending hashtags will help you spread the word about your product release date.
• Create Fun and Engaging Posts: Remember that social media is a two-way street - you don’t want to overwhelm your audience with promotional content, you want them to engage with your posts. Creating fun social media posts that draw in your audience is a great way to develop relationships, build a following, inspire engagement, and help your followers develop a positive image of your brand.
• Giveaways and Contests: Even if your product or online store isn’t live yet, you can still run contests on social media. These incentives will promote sharing, sign-ups, referrals, and build a group of people and potential customers that will flock to buy on the product launch day.

3. Tease with suspense

One of the best ways to build buzz marketing before a product release is to allow the excitement to build and rumors to swirl. You can create suspense with the following teasers.

• A Big “Coming Soon” Message: Having this type of communication on your social media channels and websites hints to potential buyers that great things are on the way and creates a sense of excitement.
• Post Teaser Videos on YouTube: These might be interviews with influential people expressing their feelings and excitement about your new product release or store, or it might be people within the company speaking about their excitement about the launch. Either way, it’s a great way to get people interested.
• Behind-the-Scenes Sneak Previews: Giving your potential customers a sneak preview of your creative process is a great way to create suspense without giving away too many details and leaves people wanting to know more.

4. Promote content

Another way to generate buzz marketing before the launch of your online store or product - or even to promote your brand - is through content marketing. You can achieve this with the following:

• Guest Posting: Providing guest posts to blogs or other websites that have influence in your space or industry can be a useful way to reach the right audience. These people are already predisposed to listening to what you have to say and being interested in your brand - just make sure to add a link to your landing page.
• Sharable Infographics: 41.5% of makers say that infographics and original images are the most engaging way to reach an audience. They’re particularly valuable when it comes to generating buzz for a new product release because they display facts and statistics creatively and engagingly.
• Guest Podcasts: Appearing as a knowledgeable guest on someone else’s (popular!) podcast gives you a chance to speak directly to your audience. Make sure that the podcast’s audience is similar to your own, and be sure to present a compelling store for your product launch in order to really generate the buzz you need.

How to Go Viral: Don't Forget to Measure Your Online Success

After your product launch, it’s vital to measure the success of your product marketing campaigns and see the impact of your efforts. You can do this by using specific metrics to gain valuable insights about your online store and customer base and identify areas for improvement. Here are some of the most important metrics that you should track to measure your online success.

Conversion rates

A conversion rate measures the percentage of visitors to your store who perform the desired actions – say, make a purchase or sign up to your email newsletter. To work out your conversion rate, simply divide the number of customers who purchased a product by the total number of visitors, then multiply by 100.

Average order value

This metric measures the average value of each purchase in your store. You can calculate this by dividing the total value of all your sales by the number of carts.

Customer acquisition cost (CAC)

This is the amount of money you spend on advertisements and sales promotions to acquire new customers.

Shopping cart abandonment rate

This metric tells you the percentage of shoppers that add items to their shopping cart but leave without completing the purchase. You can win them over later through remarketing tactics - like sending discounts to people who abandon their carts - or by simplifying your checkout process.

Revenue by traffic source

This metric shows you the channels that send buyers to your store. This will help you figure out how to spend more on channels that are sending more business your way, helping you increase your conversion rates.

Customer lifetime value (CLV)

This metric shows you the total amount you earn from a customer throughout your business relationship. It has to be higher than your Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) to make a profit.

After your product launch, you need to remain at the top of your customers’ minds with proactive social media and email marketing. Spend more time, effort, and even money to promote your brand so that you can maintain and build your audience. Otherwise, you risk losing your customers to the competition.

Get Your Products Off to a Great Start with Pre-Launch Buzz

It’s not easy to predict what will go viral and what will not, but using the above product launch strategies will help you generate buzz to promote your brand or product before it launches and propel it to viral status on launch day. Don't forget that product launch success comes with its share of orders that requires fulfillment within a short timeframe, and this is where Easyship can help.

Easyship streamlines your shipping process by giving you access to over 250 cost-effective couriers, branded tracking emails and pages, auto shipping labels, and customs forms that will ensure a smooth flow of orders from your online store to your buyers’ doorstep without any delays.