How to market a product in 13 effective steps
- Ana Cvetkovic
- Feb 3, 2024
- 11 min read
Updated: Jul 9, 2024
This post was last updated on February 4, 2024.
When you’re an entrepreneur, months—and even years—of hard work culminate in one exciting milestone: launching your product. Factors in and out of your control will affect whether your product succeeds. Learning how to market a product is one of those things you can control and a worthwhile investment in your time and resources.
The best product launches drive action. They inspire people to want what you're selling so much that they'll wait in line to be the first to own it. But it takes a strong brand and eCommerce marketing strategy to achieve this level of success. The good news? You don't need to be a tech giant to successfully launch a new product.
We’ve rounded up the best product marketing strategies you can use as you learn how to build a website from scratch and launch your product online.
Want to manage your entire product marketing strategy in one place? Build your eCommerce website on Wix today.
What is product marketing?
Product marketing refers to the promotion of products or services to a specific customer base. It's connecting what you offer with the people who need it most. It's the process of understanding and reaching your customers in a way that resonates with them.
The first step in learning how to market a product is market research. This involves discovering who your customers are and what their needs are, usually through focus groups. This information helps you collect demographics to create buyer personas and sell to your customers more effectively.
With this marketing intelligence, you can build a strong brand around your product. Writing a unique selling proposition that identifies your product’s benefits over competitors is part of the branding process.
Creating a competitive pricing strategy is also critical to product marketing. Beyond ensuring you make a profit, your product’s price should reflect its perceived value.
After laying the groundwork for brand-building, the final step in product marketing is developing a strategy for promoting the product, which you can read about below.
What are the goals of product marketing?
The ultimate goal of product marketing is selling goods or services to their intended audience. When you learn how to market a product well, product marketing can also:
Educate customers by giving them the information they need to make a purchasing decision. This goal is especially important if you’re learning how to market a new product that customers have never seen before or don’t realize they might need.
Create product awareness by familiarizing customers with the product and brand. Even when this doesn’t lead to immediate sales, awareness is the first step in the customer journey along the marketing funnel and can boost sales over the long term.
Position the product by establishing how it compares to what’s already out there. Marketing positioning can establish something as a luxury good or as a value item, for example.
Expand your customer base by attracting additional customer segments beyond the original target audience.
Strengthen brand reputation by creating positive associations with the product.
Increase market share by boosting sales and customer retention and outperforming competitors.
How to market a product online and offline
01. Use a multi-step email campaign to build anticipation
If you want to know how to market a product online, look no further than your inbox. Email is a powerful tool, and it’s no less important when it comes to marketing your new product.
Consider sending a series of emails in the months, weeks, and days leading up to launching a new product. Highlight various benefits of your product. Tease its unique features. Feature quotes from beta users.
As an example, your email marketing campaign could look something like this:
10 days before launch: Introduce the product and highlight key features
Eight days before launch: Share how the product can be used in everyday life
Five days before launch: Offer a “limited time” discount for the new product
One to three days before launch: Tease the product with compelling content (e.g., a behind-the-scenes look at how it’s made)
Launch day: Announce that the product is now available for purchase
Of course, your campaign could span any number of days or approaches. The key is to build up anticipation over time versus sending one, bulky email that’s easy to miss in an inbox.
Wix users have a powerful email marketing platform built into their website management dashboards. Use it to automate campaigns, design beautiful emails and access analytics.
02. Invest in ads to reach a wider audience
No matter how grand or modest your budget, it’s worth experimenting with ads. Whether you test Facebook ads, Instagram ads, Google search ads or a combination of these—paid channels allow you to reach new audiences immediately.
Did you know: Wix users can get ads up and running quickly via Wix’s out-of-the-box integrations with Google and Facebook Ads? Harness Wix’s powerful machine-learning algorithm to automatically optimize and target your ads.
As you build out your email campaign, keep these tips in mind:
Use attractive visuals: Leverage colorful, high-quality images and videos that catch your customers’ eyes. Make a point to display the most compelling features of your product and showcase your item in action.
Keep copy short and focused: Announce your product and highlight its most compelling and unique selling points. Remember to show, not tell.
Include a CTA: Tell your recipients exactly what you’d like them to do with a call to action. Invite them to visit your website to learn more about your product, or to sign up for your emails to get notified when your product drops.
Consider retargeting: Run a retargeting campaign that engages people who’ve already purchased from or visited your site before. Retargeting ads tend to be very affordable and highly effective.
03. Use cross-selling and upselling techniques to promote your product
First things first, what’s the difference between cross-selling vs upselling? Cross-selling promotes related products to customers, while upselling focuses on motivating customers to purchase more of something, or a more expensive version of something that they’re interested in. Include upselling and cross-selling in your strategy as you explore tactics for how to market your product.
Let's say you sell winter gear in an online store and you're introducing a new line of scarves. You can cross-sell scarves to customers who are buying a coat, or upsell them by bundling a coat together with the scarf.
In this way, cross-selling and upselling can be an effective, more natural way to recommend your new product. With a platform like Wix eCommerce, you can easily add “related products” modules to your product pages, just like fashion brand Celia B did to create its "Recommended Products" product gallery. This strategy encourages impulse buying in an ethical way.
04. Use live streaming to give customers an authentic look at your product
If you want to know how to market a product online, live stream shopping is the authentic, personal and interactive way to go. You can use it to give customers a detailed look at how your product is made and how it can be used in everyday life.
Whether you record an unboxing, give a product demonstration or host a Q&A, a live streamed event allows you to connect with users in real time. Here are a few pointers when launching your own stream:
Select the right on-screen talent: Find a brand ambassador, like someone on your team or an influencer, to be the face of your broadcast. The person you choose should be comfortable on screen and know your product inside and out.
Invite people to join your event: Reach out to customers, prospects, journalists and influencers prior to your event as opposed to hoping they come across your event when the time comes.
Incentivize participation with special promos: Tease free giveaways or special discounts to those who attend your live stream or get others to sign up.
Stream to multiple channels: While you’ll want to be mindful of which channels attract which types of audiences, you can stream your event to multiple platforms at once. Wix Video, as an example, lets you stream videos directly on your eCommerce site and pull from live videos on YouTube, Facebook and other live streaming channels.
Follow up with attendees: After you’ve wrapped up your live event, make sure to reach out to your attendee list while your product is still top of mind. Encourage them to purchase your product or pre-order it if your product has yet to be launched.
05. Host a flash sale to inspire purchases (and generate FOMO)
People love a good sale, especially when the discounts are significant. One way to sell products quickly and create a sense of urgency is by running a flash sale.
With a flash sale, you offer a special discount on your products for a limited time—usually 24-48 hours. Flash sales are often used to clear out existing inventory, but they're also a great way to generate excitement (and sales) for new products.
Pro tip: announce your flash sale in advance via email and social media to give customers time to plan their purchase. You can also use a countdown clock on your website to count down the days until your product sale event. Wix users can easily add a fully customizable countdown clock with Wix’s integrated app.
06. Announce your new product with home page and on-site banners
Our next technique for how to market your product is to use the valuable real estate on your homepage to introduce and showcase your new product. Homepage announcements and banners can be useful for directing visitors to a dedicated product landing page or promoting a special offer.
Or, Celia B highlights new products on a separate site page, specifically for items that are "new in" their store.
If you’re using pop-up or slide-in banners, make sure that they're easy to spot. At the same time, avoid intruding on your customer’s experience by limiting animated banners to one per page. Pay special attention to the user’s experience on mobile. Ensure that your banners are easy to read, plus easy to click out of if customers aren’t interested.
Wix merchants can announce new products through pop-ups, banners, badges and more.
07. Accept pre-orders before your launch date
A strong pre-order campaign can be beneficial to your marketing plans and inventory management. It allows you to create a sense of urgency, plus gauge interest in your product even before you manufacture it.
As a general rule of thumb, start accepting pre-orders four to six months in advance.
You can reserve pre-orders for people who are a part of your email list or enrolled in your loyalty program. Alternatively, you can offer pre-orders to the general public to drive the most activity. Consider coupling pre-orders with special offers, such as a gift for the first 100 pre-orders.
08. Get your product on the first page of Google search results with SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the key to helping customers find your product online after your marketing has worked its magic and driving traffic to your website. Make sure customers looking for your product and brand on Google and other search engines can find them easily by implementing SEO best practices, such as:
Selecting a target keyword you want your product to search for
Using that keyword throughout your website’s product page in the product name, description, meta description and URL
Submitting sitemaps to Google (Wix does this automatically for its users)
Check out the Wix SEO Hub for more tips.
09. Educate and spread the word with content marketing
Ecommerce content marketing is pivotal for shaping how your product is introduced to the world and how you keep the momentum going. Among the various tactics you can employ, the following are instrumental for integrated marketing and getting the word out about your new product:
Regular blog posts or gift guides for inspiring purchases optimized with targeted keywords to boost your SEO rankings
Customer stories showcasing how real consumers have benefited from using your product
FAQs helping to alleviate any doubts
Tutorial videos showing how to use and get the most out of your product
Comparison pages articulating how your product differs from competitive products
Size charts, infographics and quizzes helping your customers to select the right products for themselves
10. Create buzz with PR
Public relations, also known as earned media, involves influencing the press to create news content about your company. One of the best PR tools for product marketing is a press release announcing the official launch of your new product.
A press release should include pertinent details about your product and answer the questions who, what, where, when, why and how. Increase the odds of the press covering your launch by making it more newsworthy. For example, you could release your product by trying to break a world record or getting a celebrity to endorse it.
Make sure to pitch only to relevant media outlets. If you’re pitching a story about a celebrity using your new product, a celebrity-focused magazine like People would be more likely to be interested in it than a publication that covers global affairs, like Foreign Policy, for example.
11. Encourage and leverage customer testimonials and reviews
Consumers are more likely to trust their peers than advertising claims. Solicit customer reviews and testimonials and leverage them in your product marketing plan to attract more customers and increase sales. Here’s how to use reviews to your advantage:
Embed a reviews widget on product pages
Automate emails that ask customers to write reviews after they’ve received a product
Send new products to your best customers and ask them to review them
Create graphics out of reviews and share them on social media
Incorporate reviews in ad campaigns and commercials
Add the Wix Reviews app to your website and start collecting reviews ASAP.
12. Go viral with an influencer marketing campaign
Launch an influencer marketing campaign to drum up interest in your product before it’s been released to the public. Identify content creators and celebrities who would naturally be interested in your product, and reach out to partner with them to create promotional content. While some influencers will work for free products, others will only create content for a fee, so make sure to set aside a budget for your campaign.
13. Stay top of mind with social media marketing
Product marketing isn’t a one-and-done deal; it’s an ongoing process. Social media marketing is a continuous product marketing channel that helps you stay top of mind for existing and potential customers.
Use Wix Social Media Marketing to schedule regular posts on the social media platforms where your customers spend the most time (that’s where market research comes in handy).
Inspiring product marketing examples
Read all about how Samsung and HelloFresh matched their products with the best marketing tactics to reach their ideal customers. These examples are masterclasses in how to market a new product to the right audience.
Samsung Frame TV
Televisions are a must-have in most homes, but are an eyesore for interior design lovers. With the Frame TV, Samsung revolutionized televisions by adding a screensaver-like feature that displays artwork when the TV is not in use.
Through clever product marketing, Samsung has made this technology a must-have for the design-minded home. Traditional marketing for televisions targets video gamers, sports fans, movie lovers and techies and highlights image, sound quality and price. However, these selling points aren’t the focus of Samsung’s product marketing approach for the Frame. In fact, you can get a TV with much better image and sound quality for a fraction of the price of the Frame, but that’s not what’s most important to the Frame’s target market.
Samsung does everything possible to make you think the Frame is art instead of a TV. First there’s the name. Then there are the countless images of the Frame surrounded by artwork in gallery wall settings on its product page. And, we can’t forget about accessories like an easel-like TV stand and snap-on frames.
Samsung’s product marketing strategy also involved an influencer marketing campaign centered around a room makeover video series with interior designer Emily Henderson. Thanks to Samsung’s efforts, the Frame has become the go-to TV for professional interior designers and enthusiasts.
HelloFresh
HelloFresh is a meal delivery service that delivers subscribers pre-portioned ingredients to make several recipes each week. Before HelloFresh and its competitors, people who wanted to make meals at home had to do the boring parts of cooking, like planning what they’ll eat in advance and going to the grocery store to buy ingredients.
Through its market research, HelloFresh has found a market of customers who like the convenience of dining out often and can afford to do so, but want to cook more but can’t be bothered with the prep work. Their marketing efforts position the subscription as a good value (but it isn’t cheap), convenient and sustainable, as it creates less food waste than cooking on your own.
The company employs many product marketing strategies, including YouTube commercials and mailers. HelloFresh also relies heavily on referrals and lets customers send friends discount codes or free boxes to incentivize them to join.
How to market a product FAQ
How do you market a product from scratch?
Some ways to market a product from scratch are to use paid marketing, then organic marketing once you have established a baseline of traffic, then focus on converting more of the traffic on your website into customers.
How do you attract customers to buy your product?
How do I market a product effectively?
What are the 4 Ps of marketing?
How do I drive repeat buyers?
What is the best way to promote a new product?
Why is product marketing important?
What challenges come with bringing a new product to the market?
What is the difference between a factor market and a product market?
Anna Cvetkovic
CEO, BLOOM Digital Marketing
Ana is the founder and CEO of BLOOM Digital Marketing, as well as an award-winning multimedia marketing storyteller.
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