Memorable Ways to Launch a Product to Wow Customers

Marketing to consumers offers a brilliant challenge: You know you have an amazing product. And if only you could get people to try it, they would love it, social media marketing articles you think.What many marketers don't understand is that the way you furnish a product to consumers is super important for their initial hands-on experience. When done in an innovative and unexpected fashion, it provides context, builds equity and communicates value. People are busy. They have full schedules, plus a range of "screens" continually competing for their attention. If you want to capture a piece of their time, you need to be clever and engaging. For instance, Coca-Cola's Happiness Machine and Honest Tea's Honest Cities campaign stopped consumers in their tracks to sample products and fueled a wave of social-media chatter with videos that went viral.Uber showed consumers how easy its app was to use by creating a series of campaigns in which people ordered (and had to sign up to do so) something fun to be delivered to the office. Uber's ice cream truck went global and a subsequent campaign, Uber Kitten, delivered kittens to offices in Seattle, San Francisco and New York in honor of National Cat Day, raising funds for the SPCA. We are known by the company we keep. A company can communicate volumes about a new brand or a refreshing of an old one simply by associating it with brands that already have equity with the targeted audience. To introduce Lincoln's new MKZ to a target of discerning tastemakers in L.A. (a notoriously jaded market when it comes to cars), we created an exclusive event series structured around the brand's pillars of design, architecture, social media marketing experts food, photography and fashion.We leveraged influencers in each segment to create engaging content and invite their networks, seamlessly integrating the car into the experience. A concierge service offering test drives at homes and offices the following week gave attendees an opportunity to learn more about the car and engage more deeply with the brand on their terms.

Enlist the friend-to-friend network

According to Nielsen’s Global Trust in Advertising Survey in 2012, 92 percent of respondents in 56 different countries said they trusted word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and family above all other forms of communication. social media marketing blog An introduction to a new brand from a trusted friend is incredibly powerful and can significantly compress the time from awareness of a product to its trial and then adoption. This is also true when a product is related to a sensitive topic, such as family health. To introduce German-based Bionorica’s Sinupret for Kids Syrup in the U.S., one of the key tactics of our multi-pronged campaign was to engage influencer moms in key markets and provide them tools to share their discovery with friends. This resulted in more than 135,000 passionate advocates who further spread the word.So, in closing, let’s go over this one more time, corporate social media managers everywhere. Here’s a word of caution: Yes, trending on Twitter is a generally good thing, especially if you’re a corporate marketer. No, trending on Twitter for pornographic shocker brand tweets like this one is not a good thing, again, especially if you’re a corporate marketer.Please slow down. Please pay closer attention. Please handle your brand with care. Please think before you tweet. Your job depends on it and a whole lot more.Tweets with photos are more likely to get retweeted which will then increase your brands exposure. Keep in mind that Twitter recently adjusted its presentation to give more exposure to photos. If you use other people's photos, make sure you credit them. If someone mentions you in a tweet, say "Thanks!" If someone you are following shares a useful article, tell them! That is how you get noticed. On the flip side, if someone doesn’t respond to you, don’t sweat it. social media marketing pricing Everyone is doing a million things these days. Everyone has bad days, but you don't need to take to Twitter to share yours. Of course this doesn’t mean you need to pretend everything is perfect either. There is definitely a balance…you’ll figure this one out! Important: Whatever you do, don't start or participate in a Twitter fight. Nothing good comes from that.

This is the new world of advertising

Traditional radio commercials were zapped by satellite radio. Television ads were nuked when digital video recorders careened on scene. And now, even digital recorders are being outrun by instant streaming. social media as a marketing tool Mute buttons, spam filters, pop-up blockers all are ways audiences keep slipping through marketer’s fingers.What if people actually wanted to engage with your brand? What if, instead of ducking behind junk settings and filters, people actually pushed a button of their own free will to watch your brand in action? Snapchat introduces a groundbreaking forum, one where people are interested in what you have to say and offer. Remember when YouTube grew in popularity and politicians began to realize the simpler, less professionally-staged videos were ranking better with audiences than pristinely polished ones? Savvy marketers are realizing the same is true of Snapchat. The app is supposed to be less-than-perfect, and that’s why people love it. The bonus for businesses is that you have the chance to kick your shoes off at the edge of the dance floor and have a little fun.If you hadn’t heard of Snapchat before Facebook’s stunning $3 billion offer (or before you started reading this article), you’re not alone. That’s part of what adds to the inherent allure of the app. The number of users is growing exponentially, but it’s still new enough to make those who use it “in the know.”The Snapchat frontier is still wide open for adaptive marketers who are ready to start exploring. Those who hit the ground running will have the biggest impact, plus the chance to define the ways marketers will use an emerging genre. Can anyone say, “Innovator Award”?If you don't know what to tweet about, try looking at the calendar. effective social media marketing For example, when it is St. Patrick's Day, tweet something green (like your green shoes or green beer). If it the anniversary of your storefront opening, offer a special discount code to fans. You reached 1,000 followers? Awesome! Thank your fans for your support - and they'll likely start tweeting about you. Check out what is trending that day. (If you're using your phone, “Trends” can be seen when you swipe left; on the web, you'll find them to the left of your feed.) Do you have anything to add to the conversation?