Planning an effective product launch campaign takes time and dedication, but the effort pays off in spades. By working with influencers ahead of an actual launch event, brands can generate buzz about their new offerings to ensure they reach the appropriate audiences.
Seeding your product early with influencers allows them to test it and share their opinions with their followers, creating genuine excitement amongst your target market. Furthermore, influencers can create and share behind-the-scenes content through posts or Stories which creates genuine buzz around it all.
1. Build a Relationship
Influencers bring an air of authenticity and relatability to product launches that other marketing techniques cannot. When used effectively, influencer campaigns drive brand recognition and sales – making them a critical element in any new product launch strategy.
As with any relationship, setting clear goals and expectations when working with influencers is key to developing successful partnerships. This includes outlining what types of content your influencer partners should post during and post-campaign; doing this allows for easy collaboration while preventing miscommunication down the road.
As a brand, it’s also essential that you understand the KPIs for your campaign and choose an attribution model early. This helps identify which influencers would best match up with the campaign while tracking ROI more easily.
Once your goals have been set, find influencers who genuinely enjoy sharing your products with their audiences. Whether it’s someone with a large or niche following, aim for mutually beneficial partnerships – influencers with larger followings may reach more consumers while those with smaller ones provide targeted engagement and access for specific consumers.
Before your product launch, influencers can help build pre-launch excitement by sharing behind-the-scenes (BTS) content with their followers. Estee Lalonde recently took advantage of Instagram to promote her partnership with self-care brand MIRROR WATER by posting videos showing her using its bath salts.
For an even more effective strategy, encourage influencers to include links in their posts that take followers directly to your website or product page. This ensures they provide their audiences with an optimal experience that drives conversion and revenue growth.
2. Ask for Text Reviews
Influencers can provide invaluable social proof when introducing new products, and are particularly important when marketing niche products as influencers are seen by audiences as peers who can provide an opinion as to if a particular item will work for them.
Your brand can take advantage of influencers to increase its visibility by asking them for text reviews that can be featured on your site and ads, increasing brand visibility. Include this request when reaching out to influencers as part of your campaign brief.
When approaching influencers for collaboration on product launches, be sure to introduce yourself and express your appreciation of their content. This will help break down any barriers to communication and may prevent them from considering your pitch as spam.
Instagram direct messages are an effective way of reaching out and making cold introductions, though you must keep it short and specific. Generic compliments won’t make an impactful statement to an influencer; therefore it is also important to note how long you have been following their account and appreciate its content.
If you want to move beyond gifting and create more of an ongoing performance-based relationship, invite influencers to participate in your brand ambassadorship program. That way they can continue sharing the features they like about the product over an extended period.
Collaborations such as this should only be undertaken between high-profile influencers with large followings who can maintain authenticity in their outreach efforts. For example, beauty influencer Molly Mae partnered with hair enhancement brand Beauty Works to launch her own product lines under her own label; giving the influencer more stake in the partnership while simultaneously increasing engagement from followers.
3. Create Content
Product launches provide the ideal opportunity to attract attention and build trust for new offerings, but to do it successfully requires meticulous planning – including working with influencers who will create on-brand content and assets that showcase them effectively.
Before working with influencers for your product launch, make sure you establish clear campaign goals and expectations up-front so as to work efficiently together throughout. Discuss timeline, deliverables and payment structures so everyone is clear about what they’re expecting from one another.
Influencers are experienced communicators, and know exactly how to convey a message that resonates with their followers. When selecting influencers for your launch campaign, make sure they match with your brand image and tone of voice as this prevents forced or inauthentic partnerships – the last thing you want!
If you’re introducing a new skincare product line, look for influencers who are enthusiastic about sharing their skin-care routines and passionate about using products like yours. This will create authentic and trustworthy content for your audience that shows its true benefits.
Make the most out of your product launch and increase sales revenue with these additional marketing tactics, from influencer marketing to in-person events and brand ads. By integrating multiple strategies together, you can maximize its impact and drive up revenues significantly.
4. Schedule Posts
Product launches can be similar to traditional PR campaigns in that their goal is to raise brand awareness and increase sales revenue. Influencers can play a vital role in product launch campaigns by helping create buzz around it and driving customer demand for it.
Product launch campaigns should be carefully organized months, or even years in advance to account for influencer gifting, photoshoots, video production and other campaign elements. To identify suitable influencers for the campaign, the first step should be identifying your goals; whether that means raising brand awareness, increasing conversions or improving reputation will all have an effect on what type of partnership will work best and the number of influencers needed in order to meet them.
Influencers can assist your product by featuring it on social media accounts and Stories with shoppable links to streamline purchase paths and maximize sales revenue. In addition, influencers may write blog posts with reviews of and helpful advice for using your products; this can be especially effective if they include their selfies with them as this provides customers with additional social proof for purchasing the item.
Ecommerce brands can leverage existing relationships with journalists and third-party influencers to promote product launches without incurring additional advertising expenses. Glossier used content generated by influencers to share on its website as well as digital and out-of-home (OOH) ads without incurring paid media expenses – helping spread word of Glossier’s new product more widely without incurring additional spending costs for promotion.
5. Follow Up
Influencers can be an invaluable way to spread the word about your product launch, providing authenticity and relatability that brands simply can’t. 87% of shoppers admit making a purchase after being recommended an influencer; therefore influencer marketing must form part of any product launch strategy.
To ensure a successful product launch, it’s crucial that influencers receive your products on time for launch day, and remain available to answer questions and address comments from their followers. By engaging influencers throughout, it will increase trust with your audience – increasing chances that they share their enthusiasm for your product with their own audiences.
Keep initial contacts short and personal. It can be awkward reaching out to an influencer directly and pitching products and services; to build rapport more easily it is best to introduce yourself via outreach email, let them know you enjoy their content, and express appreciation of this. Doing this helps establish rapport quickly – increasing the odds that they accept the collaboration opportunity.
Demand that influencers post behind-the-scenes footage of your product creation process. This gives followers of those influencers an inside glimpse and allows them to form opinions before its launch.
Influencer marketing campaigns can be an efficient and cost-effective way to generate pre-launch excitement and sales for your new product launch. In order to be successful, however, you need to set clear goals and plan in advance so the campaign can run on schedule – we suggest starting this planning at least two months in advance to allow time for photoshoots, giveaways and video production as part of your plan.