Once a company decides to launch a new product, the first step is to frame the launch holistically. In today’s digital world, you want to be sure you’re reaching your customer at multiple touchpoints, creating a 360-campaign that includes digital, PR, and more. This strategy ensures you are meeting your customer where you are with the end result of bringing new consumers into your sales funnel and turning them into loyal, long-term buyers.
How A PR Agency Can Elevate Your Product Launch
Product launches are a busy time for any company — you have to start planning and acting months before the official product launch date, and continue making noise long after. Without fail, unforeseen obstacles pop up, or reformulations are needed. A great way to give significant time back to the company is by leaning on a PR Agency. The agency will craft proper brand messaging, tap their industry connections for coverage before and after the launch, and create elevated social assets and strategies to get the consumers talking about your product. This way, the company can work on the product development and financial pieces of the puzzle.
A PR Agency’s 6 Steps To A Holistic Product Launch
Research Competitors and Define Your Audience
This process should begin at least 4-6 months out from your launch date. These two steps go hand-in-hand, as you want to find the white space your competition doesn’t occupy. Your PR Agency can conduct an in-depth competitive analysis among like-minded brands, delivering key insights into the white space to own on social and in the media landscape. This research can help narrow down the messaging you want to utilize during your new product launch. As for your target audience, you should still cater to your loyal customers, but also seek to find a new set of potential fans based on what’s revolutionary about your product.
Draft Your Key Messages And A Press Release
As you begin to solidify your space within the competitive market, it’s time to finalize your key messages. Working collaboratively on this with your PR team will help decipher what will resonate with your audience. You should always start with the why and tell a story throughout your key message points to reach the ethos of your buyer. If they don’t feel a connection to the product, they will be less likely to purchase regardless of any other tactics employed. Supplemental key messages should rely on data points, such as nutritional benefits, if you’re a food product, or if you are a sustainable brand, sharing where your ingredients are sourced. Once these are nailed down, the PR team will create a press release announcing the new product. Within a press release, it’s important to also promote your brand’s credibility. If you have other fan-favorite products, remind your reader of them. If there is a launch event or a social play integrated into your holistic campaign, be sure to provide those details, or let readers know if there is a landing page they should check out as more details are revealed closer to the launch date.
Tease the Product
Before your product is available to the masses, your PR team can tease the product to create consumer buzz as well as help you collect important feedback from your target audience. There are numerous ways to approach teasing a product— you can send it to a few of your loyal customers; you can share it with your organization and agency partners for feedback; or most commonly, you can rely on your social profiles to do teaser posts – either releasing photos of your new product or having it blurred out as a “guess what’s coming” post to encourage comments. ChocXO Chocolatier launched new product packaging and two new product skews in 2021 and teased the product on social to drum up awareness a few days before the official launch for purchase on the website. Once launched, the brand offered discounts and giveaways to keep the excitement drumming.
Score an Exclusive Under Embargo
With your press release in hand, a PR agency can create an embargoed pitch that is shared with select Tier A media outlets offering an exclusive interview pertaining to the product launch. The interview should be interactive, whether you’re providing creative assets or bringing a camera crew out to film on-site so that when the story is released on launch day, it shows an insider scoop that drives consumers to want your product even more. To score your exclusive, be sure to have a credible spokesperson or brand ambassador ready to speak on your behalf.
Incorporate Experiential and Influencers
Influencers are a great resource for creating buzz across social. One myth about influencer programming is that it always has to be pay for play. Many influencers are open to receiving gifts and creating unboxings to showcase on stories. To make the creative more enticing, work with your PR agency to develop a mailer showing off your new product. Mailers are a great way to showcase relevance – adding in trendy and useful items targeted toward your audiences’ interests is a great way to encourage social shares and have consumers rave about your brand. Last year, our client Zesty Paws sent out a mailer to top-tier media editors and 48 influencers, resulting in over 3.1M reach across Instagram. If you send mailers to media and influencers ahead of the launch day and ask them to post the day of the launch, this can catapult your reach with little to no extra spend.
Stay Relevant
What you do to remain relevant and top of mind for consumers after your launch has passed should be a crucial part of your strategy. You may have consumers interested in your product, but not yet at the point where they’re pressing “purchase.” The good news is there are ample ways to remain in the news and well-liked within the social algorithm. Your PR firm can continue to create refreshing and unique pitch angles with your product to share with media outlets and editors, and your social team has their finger on the pulse of what’s trending across platforms and how to best incorporate your product organically.
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