Promoting your product can be a fun and creative process if you know approach a campaign. Smart marketers know that they need to first identify product differentiators, attack a marketing campaign and then track the results to ultimately see a strong return on investment (ROI).
What Makes Your Product Special?
Everyone has something to sell. The market is saturated with offers and ideas that can often turn into white noise for the consumer. How do you break away from the pack of screaming ads and get your target audiences' attention? What makes your product special?
By asking yourself why is your product special, you will begin to extract the essence of what separates you from the pack. For example, if you want to promote a checking account you need to examine the product and determine why customers would find this attractive.
One way to help you identify differentiators in your product is to shop the competition. Choose several market competitors and learn as much about their product as you can. Compare and contrast your product to theirs, and determine if your product is even ready for marketing.
Some companies determine, after close examination, that they need to revise their product before promotion in order to elevate it from the competition.
However, once you feel confident that your product has something to offer that the rest can't, write down what makes your product special and focus on those differentiators throughout the promotion.
Additionally, some companies will add a special limited-time component to their campaigns. For example, if you are a candle company you might offer a 20-percent discount for a few weeks. The 20-percent discount would be a great way to boost your visibility.
Launch Your Promotional Campaign
Once you have your differentiators in mind you can now build your promotion. Think of your audience when choosing marketing mediums. You want to make intelligent decisions on which media you purchase and where your message is heard.
There are endless communication channels, which include direct mail, newspapers and magazines, television, radio, Internet or new media marketing, sales and in-store incentive programs.
For example, if you are marketing kids T-shirts you may want to try some of the new media channels such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. You may also want to run a newspaper ad, send direct mail to your best customers and even hold in-store promotions.
On the contrary, if you were promoting investment accounts you would stick primarily to direct mail and hit the customers most likely to use your services. You could also hold a cocktail party for your top investment customers and use it as a sales forum.
Tracking Your Results are Critical to Determining Success
If you track your promotional channels you extract a wealth of information relating to whether your product was well received and if your promotional channels reached your audience.
Some companies will track results manually and have their sales force ask customers where they heard of the promotion. Other companies that promote their product online are at an advantage because they can download, click through and visit reports.
Other ways to track is through using a coupon or including a response mechanism on direct mail, newspaper or television advertising. The customer needs to bring the ad or coupon into the store to earn the discount.
Post campaign you can evaluate the promotion as a whole. Identify what worked and what didn't work. Then ask why it didn't work or work well. Evaluating the campaign will allow you to improve upon your product and your promotional skills to receive a higher ROI next time.
Tags: your product, direct mail, their product, your product special, your promotional, 20-percent discount