5 Ways To Support Your Product Launch With Content Marketing

failed product launches that crash and burn into flames of wasted time and money. In fact, 71% of fast-growing businesses have plans and document their strategies, which helps them grow faster and be more prosperous. So what does this ample preparation and a documented plan involve? For starters, it needs the full support of content marketing. But not just any content marketing strategy will do. Yours needs to be a buyer-focused content marketing strategy that will earn a buyer’s complete trust during your product launch. A buyer-focused plan doesn’t mean you have a list of content types you have to check off; it’s a plan where your focus is providing useful content that answers your buyers’ questions during each stage of the sales cycle. In a recent study, 86% of B2B marketers said they use content marketing. These marketers understand content marketing is an essential part of ensuring their company’s commercial success. It will also ensure your product launch is a success, and here are five ways content marketing can support your product launch.

1. Gets buyers’ attention and keeps them engaged.

Before buying products, customers research online to help them make purchasing decisions. They look at keywords and themes, which you can provide to answer their questions and ease their pain points via online content. Use written content, like blog posts, and visual content, like infographics and videos; whichever ways are best to explain your product and are the content form your customers prefer. Buyers want and need to learn about your product — what it is, what it does, how it works, why they need it, what benefits it provides them, etc. — before they’re ready to talk to your sales department. And the best way to capture a buyer’s attention is to be on the channels they’re on, where they’re searching for their information, and providing content in their preferred form. This helps you kick start a relationship with these customers, build rapport with them, inform them about your product and hopefully keep them engaged with your brand.

2. Provides real-life examples buyers can relate to.

Don’t just tell your customers and potential customers how features of your new product are going to benefit them — show them! And show them with data-driven case studies of customers already using and benefiting from your product. Consumers relate better and are more trusting of their peers rather than a brand, so if you have customers saying how great your product is, it will encourage others to buy your product because they want those benefits as well. Case studies take some time, planning and trust on your part and the customers you use, but it’s worth it and will propel your launch to the next level.

3. Keeps the discussion going after your launch.

After spending blood, sweat, tears and hours of your life getting ready for this product launch and seeing it through, you can’t just forget about it once the official launch is over. Use content marketing to the keep the hype up and keep the discussion about your product and brand going after the launch. Think of your first round of content that captures buyers’ attention as your introduction with those buyers. Now that the introduction is over, it’s time to maintain and build good customer-brand relationships with more content, i.e. emails, monthly newsletters, online surveys, whitepapers, etc. This stage of your content marketing strategy is still focused on your customers, it’s just now solely focused on educating them. Instead of focusing on getting a sale, educating consumers helps your prospects learn at their own pace and establishes your company as the trusted resource in your industry.

4. Guarantees your sales team’s messaging to customers is correct.

Besides making your content accessible to your customers, make it easily accessible to your sales team. A great product launch amounts to nothing unless there’s selling. Your sales and marketing teams have to work together closely because while your marketing team develops the message and content marketing strategy for your product launch, your sales team is your key revenue driver for said product and oftentimes the top channel for marketing communications. So to ensure your sales team effectively discusses your new product with customers, provide them easy access to any new and updated content about your product. 

5. Reassures your entire company is on the same page.

Content about your product should be shared with your customers and your sales team, but there’s one piece of content you need to create beforehand that’s exclusively for your employees — a way to get everyone on the same page. A fruitful product launch needs a clear message that’s agreed upon and consistently expressed across your company. You achieve that goal by producing a document outlining the message of your product launch within your company walls. Sixty percent of marketers who have a documented strategy rate themselves favorably with regard to effectiveness, while only 32% who have a verbal strategy do. Have your marketing team create this document before your product launch, and be sure they include:

• The product and its features
• The buyer persona(s) you’re targeting
• The benefits offered by the product and its features to your specific buyer persona(s)
• How your product is different than others it’s similar to in the market.

When your entire company sees eye-to-eye on the messaging of your product launch, your message is sharply and clearly conveyed when it’s time to actually launch your product. Product launches make or break a company. You want to be a commercial success, not a commercial failure, and content marketing supports making your company a commercial success story, boosting visibility of your new product and driving more sales. May your product launch — with the support of content marketing — take your company to infinity and beyond.]]>