How to launch a creative business: Episode 10: How to launch a new product
Hi and welcome again. Today I’m going to be covering how to launch a new product – this might be a physical item or a new service, course or workshop – it doesn’t matter which, the processes are still the same.
Now, if you’ve read my book (available in my website shop by the way!) then really you can apply all the same principles I teach there relating to an entire business, to this new product or offering.
Firstly, you need an audience of people that are ready to buy – I think we can all agree on that. And hopefully if your brand voice and messaging have been on point up until now with an existing business, then you know what they want and how they want it delivered. If your audience is still very small and new (eg a handful of social media followers, a hundred or so email subscribers etc) then you will almost certainly want to consider an ad launch budget to be able to reach more people that are not yet currently aware of your business.
And this brings me to a little aside – if you truly want your business to be successful, then building your audience is absolutely vital, and to do this you will almost certainly need to invest in some sort of advertising or PR strategy. It comes down to numbers at the end of the day. Now if your core messaging and brand identity (including your voice – how you relate to your potential customers) is really on point then you will no doubt get a higher conversion rate and sell more with a small audience. However, it often takes us a little while to get there, to truly understand and speak to our niche (see my blog post from last week for more info on that), so setting aside some budget for advertising (be it Facebook, Google, or placements on blogs or in magazines or podcasts) will be something you will need to invest in.
And nearly all successful businesses will have relied on advertising in some form somewhere along the way – recognised that they need to reach more people and invested appropriately. And this is where understanding your ideal client profile is so important. So you can set the parameters of your ad to maximise your spend. Correctly identifying who to sell to and what their interests are.
But let’s assume you know your audience, know what they want, you’ve tested it with a small number of people, know it works for them, what now?
Now you need to have a solid marketing plan in place that will convert your lookers into buyers.
1. A good, well-thought-out sales page
You sales page might be a page on your website, or a specific landing page you’ve created in your email marketing system, whatever and wherever it is it needs to contain these key points:
What is the outcome from buying this product or offering, how does it make the buyer feel once they have it? For example with my book my customers are relieved because they don’t have a clue where to start with launching a business, they’re happy because they know it’ll take less time for them to get everything in place rather than having to google it all for themselves. They’re more committed because they have a structure to follow which means they’re more likely to reach their launch date goal. The value I’m giving them is their time and energy back and ultimately that they will be making money (and more money) sooner with my book than if they were to go it alone.
You absolutely want to make the outcomes and benefits clear first and foremost.
You may also want to include then why they should buy from you over anyone else who may have similar products or offerings. Ie your experience, what sets you apart from others that is relevant to this particular item. Eg for me I’ve run my own successful businesses for over a decade, and I’ve helped many businesses launch and thrive over the last few years. I have the experience that people can trust.
How much information you provide often depends on the price of the item in question – low cost offerings will need less information than say a high-priced course or product.
So what else do you need to address – any reasons why someone might NOT buy, eg cost, time, suitability – speak to all the objections someone might put up to stop from buying and counteract them, eg you’ll make your money back in weeks that you’ve spent because you’ll learn how to avoid pitfalls, in the long run you’ll save time by doing this course because you won’t make mistakes, this product might be more expensive but that’s because it has sound sustainability credentials or supports the artist or local community. This product or offering is exactly right for this specific industry or person or character. Use your FAQs to counteract any reasons why someone might not be ready to checkout.
For smaller cost items don’t waffle on too much - people often just want to hit purchase and have it straight away, they don’t want to go through endless salesly pages of info when they have probably already decided to buy.
So some top tips – be clear exactly what is your selling, lead with a benefit or valuable outcome that addresses the specific problem your customer has (eg I don’t know how to launch a business, or I can’t find a local artist to have art for my living room), have a clear call to action (usually a buy now, check out button or similar – you can even make this very specific to you, eg Build Your Website Now, Style Your Home Now, Download Now, Begin Today and so on).
Avoid too many words and paragraphs – bullet points and graphics convert more easily.
Use social proof – testimonials and reviews from your testing phase are one of the most compelling tools in your sales arsenal. Real people saying how much they loved the item, the quality, how it made them feel, what the benefit was to them personally – these are all incredibly valuable things to use on a sales page.
Make sure the sales page is easy to use and works on all devices, especially mobile phones. Make sure you have easy ways to buy (eg stripe or Paypal or Apple Pay) – making people get up to find a credit card if they don’t have to will stop some of your sales.
Guarantees can be useful if you have the capacity to offer them - eg guaranteed not to fade, if you do the work and don’t get results then you’ll get a refund.
Keep distractions to a minimum – avoid lots of other CTAs like newsletter sign ups or pop ups – the sales page is there to do one thing and one thing only, to sell this particular product.
Make sure that people can share and send to their friends all colleagues easily too – people often ask each other before purchasing higher cost items, especially partners. So being able to share across social media platforms is a really useful selling tool.
You may also want to consider a time-limited launch offer or discount, eg 10% off everything in the first week of launch, or buy this and get this add-on free for example. Early Bird deals work well for larger items such as courses or workshops and help you get those early sales quickly too.
So once you have a magnificent new product and sales page, how do you tell people about it?
So these are the main avenues I use:
1. Facebook and Instagram ads – I have a small daily budget that generates me the number of sales I need to meet my financial goals. It took time to get it right and I created different ads with different audiences and different graphics until I landed on one that performs consistently for me. If you have the finances, then I strongly recommend you use an ad agency to work all this out for you and get you there quicker.
2. Social Media – Pinterest, my Facebook Group, and Instagram (with autoposting to Facebook page and Twitter) – packaging up the individual points on the sales page into separate posts with more background.
3. My blog and podcast – speaking again to all the points I’ve mentioned, but also making sure I put my own stamp on it all a lot more. Letting my unique approach shine through as much as possible, and showing who I am a lot more.
4. My email newsletters – this again is an opportunity to show the heart and soul of my business and build relationships with my audience. You can also (depending on your email marketing system) set up nurture sequences of emails on a specific product or service, without necessarily bombarding all your subscribers who may not be interested in all your offerings, eg some may want your products, some only your services for instance. At every turn be clear who you’re talking to, what they need or want, and how you can give it to them.
5. Ads or PR features on blogs or in magazines – I sue these sparingly and they have to be a perfect fit. Unless you’re a big business like Apple no-one wants to be sent a press release. You need to seek out publications that are aligned with your ethos and approach for it to work best. And I would always use an incentive of some kind like a code so you know if it’s working for you. Keep an eye on hashtags like #journorequest or #PRrequest (especially on Twitter) - it may be you can offer some sort of advice or story around your business on a topical item. This in turn will generate more eyes on your new products or services at a time when you need them.
So some final thoughts –
Know your audience, build your audience, speak to your audience. Then just talk to them - a lot more than you might feel comfortable with to start out – you need to sell to people to sell things. It’s simple really. Just approach it in a way that feels honest and authentic to you and you can’t go wrong.
And if you need help with any kind of launch do get it touch – my next coaching spots are opening up in the autumn and I’d love to work with some new creative businesses and take them to the next level.
https://www.katecullen.co.uk/coaching
https://www.katecullen.co.uk/book
