The Power of Social Media in Product Launches

Posted in PLM Files on July 26th, 2010 by Yvonne_PLM – Be the first to comment

gro 04 The Power of Social Media in Product LaunchesOne of the ways we build a buzz during a product launch is to harness the power of Social Media.

Social Media is huge and unlikely to go away in hurry but the size and diversity of the different Social Media channels means a careful strategy must be put in place if you want to be successful.

The following aspects of your strategy should be considered.

1. Social Media Channel

The right social media channel has to be selected to make sure it matches the target demographic associated with the launch or all your tweeting or friending will be in vain.  You wouldn’t for example use faceboook for up-market luxury goods such as private jet charters as that demographic just does not spend time on that channel.

2. Social Media Branding

It is extremely important during a launch to ensure that the same branding is used across all channels that are used.   Consistency in your branding provides clarity of your message, helps with familiarity and builds trust and rapport with your prospective buyer.

3. Social Media Follow Through

It is all very well starting a social media campaign to support your launch but it must be maintained to provide customer service which builds your longer term loyalty and credibility.  You still need to prove that you are more than a one hit wonder to effectively build your business

Social Media if done correctly will provide significant traffic to your website during your launch and will continue increasing your revenues long after the launch cycle has been completed.

Effective Product Pricing

Posted in PLM Files on July 20th, 2010 by Yvonne_PLM – Be the first to comment

Pricing is always tricky. 

If you want sell something online, pricing could be the single most important decision you will take during your product launch.   Competition is fierce and with many alternatives on the internet, you need to be comparable with the competition.   But do you?pricing

Conventional wisdom usually mentions Cost Plus, Discounting (loss leaders and the like), Target return pricing based on an ROI you want to acheive and Value-based pricing where your price is based on the value it creates for the customer.  The definition of Value based pricing can also include “pay for performance” pricing for services.  The important point of conventional pricing wisdom is that the amount that customers pay for your services is directly proportional to how valuable they think your product or service is. 

However many business overlook look the importance of the offer in defining the value of the product. 

In product launches we spend a lot of time evaluating the offer and working out how we can add value to the existing offer to make it more attractive and justify a higher price to fully maximise the profit when launching products to market.  Some of the ways we do this is to enhance the overall value of the offer by adding additional products,  services or information.  We also take a close look at how the branding is positioned as well as making sure there is credible proof of product performance. 

Contact us if you need help in crafting your offer for maximum profitability.

Socialnomics Refresh Video

Posted in PLM Files on May 16th, 2010 by Yvonne_PLM – 1 Comment

If you haven’t considered social media as part of your integrated marketng strategy yet check this out!

Ideal Customer meets Real World

Posted in PLM Files on April 20th, 2010 by Yvonne_PLM – 1 Comment

My mate Jeffrey reckons that 9 times out of 10, people will shut down if you mention the “ideal client”.

Cyclic Matrix Real World Customers And now that he has mentioned it, I look back on my experiences with tracking down the elusive “ideal client” and I know what he means. Your eyes glaze over and it becomes a purely clinical exercise.

However, people are not clinical or cold, nor can they be represented purely by statistics. Humans are warm blooded emotional beings.

Jeffrey has developed a way of making a real emotional connection with your “ideal client”, using Avatars.

It starts with asking about a customer who has really annoyed you. 

He teases these negative attributes out of you relatively painlessly. Then he reverses these negative attributes to establish the positive credentials for the Avatar.

Of course there is a lot more to it than that but the outcome is amazing. You end up with a real connection to real customers.

If you then take that customer Avatar and accurately assess your demographics, you will work out whether you have a target market, how big it is and where to find those real world customers.

Social Networking through LinkedIn

Posted in PLM Files on April 1st, 2010 by Yvonne_PLM – 1 Comment

I recently participated in a discussion about whether LinkedIn was useful for getting business, meaning real hard sales.funnel Social Networking through LinkedIn

Here is what I said.

for me it is very clear…

1. Start the conversation
2. Build the relationship
3. Make the sale.

This is what we do when we are doing online product launches and integrated Internet marketing.

1. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, offline networking etc all start the conversation.

2. Sometimes you also carry on the conversation with social media but you really start to build the relationship in your blog, on the phone, in email and face to face.

3. Only then are you in a position to sell. If you miss the relationship building, whether online or offline, you are back to the bad old days of hard selling whatever medium you use.

LinkedIn is just another funnel of opportunities and prospects with a specific demographic that just happens to be the demographic for my business. Facebook doesn’t work for me. Twitter opens up a few prospects occasionally.

I think there is another important point when talking about LinkedIn in that you need to set it up so you “attract” business. Does your profile work for you? There is no doubt that I attract business on LinkedIn. I was approached, as recently as yesterday, by someone with an attractive business proposition who found me on LinkedIn.

I consider LinkedIn extremely useful if you see it in the context of the 3 points above.

In relation to online marketing you may have heard that the money is in the list.  Well as Jeff Walker says, the money is in the relationship with your list.

We make sure we work VERY hard on creating the relationship with you existing and potential customers when doing an online product launch. 

Yvonne

LinkedIn Logo

The Last Bastion – TV ads are now linked to the Internet

Posted in PLM Files on March 24th, 2010 by Yvonne_PLM – 1 Comment

TV networks have now become intricately linked to the internet and this presents many opportunities for online businesses. 

You can now create TV ads directly from your computer, upload them to major TV networks and book airtime, all from the comfort of your own home! 

Find out how in this video.

Tell us what you think about this and leave a comment.

Not Convinced About Social Media Yet?

Posted in PLM Files on February 10th, 2010 by Yvonne_PLM – Be the first to comment

Let us know whether this changes

your mind about internet marketing!

 

Close Enough to Use the Same Toothpick

Posted in PLM Files on January 31st, 2010 by Yvonne_PLM – 1 Comment

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Toothpick imageNot a pretty thought is it? 

But that is how closely integrated your marketing should be and for SMEs it all starts with keywords.  

After countless conversations with entrepreneurs and business owners about their online presence, this is how I see it.

  

  1. You can’t start off building a new brand online but don’t expect quick results – it will get lost in cyberspace.  Brand building flows out as a side effect from the right marketing approach for the size of your business.
  2. You have to start with well researched keywords that you can build some natural search results using on-page and off-page SEO.  Again, don’t expect dramatic results within 6 months.
  3. Once you have identified the keywords you need to serve your business, they need to be used in ALL of your marketing, both offline and online.  This includes everything from your blog, your tweets, your sales documents, your email campaigns and your company language.

Integrated marketing is not easy to achieve, especially with well established companies that have grown organically but your profitability depends on it. 

You can make a start in the right direction today by reviewing your webpage today and perhaps preparing an SEO plan to get things rolling.

Marketing Product Launch Management

Posted in PLM Files on January 26th, 2010 by Yvonne_PLM – 3 Comments

Business woman pensiveAt last night’s talk about ethical banking, hosted by FastTrack: The Club for Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses , a woman whom I had just met was vigorously shaking her head saying “I still don’t GET what it is that you DO”.  

It is a frequent issue for me when I am talking to people about my product launch management business and what a product launch manager does. 

Product Launch Management is a relatively new discipline, so I have started using an analogy to project management.  I said “it’s just like a project manager.  You have a project management methodology (PMI, Prince II) and project management tools – I use a product launch methodology (Product Launch Formula 2.0) which is a unique way of generating a lot of sales in a very short time, and then there are the tools:  social media, direct email, blogging, press releases, video etc. 

A Product launch manager combines product launch methodology and product launch tools with your product and client list to create sales.  Simple as that!

Making a Buzz Creates Sales (or does it?)

Posted in PLM Files on January 14th, 2010 by Yvonne_PLM – 4 Comments
Bee Photo

Iridescent Green Sweat Bee

Recently Darrell O’Dea, Chief Detonator at Explode Marketing , challenged us to create our own 5 word ePitch.  He needed examples to include in his latest e-book.  Darrell’s ePitch is, “we ghostwrite your e-book” and it is pretty effective in my view!  My own effort however, leaves a little to be desired “making a buzz creates sales” or “an online buzz creates sales”.  

I can kid myself and say, hey, my business is complicated I can’t possibly say what I do in 5 measly words. I mean a product launch manager covers the whole gamut of internet marketing, investigating your product, possibly tweaking it, creating the offer, bundling products, talking to joint venture partners, analysing your website, looking at your assets, managing social media, writing articles and blogs, emailing your clients and ultimately selling loads of your product or service.  That’s 42 words, whew!  But, in our increasingly ADD world, if you can’t say it in as few as words as possible (like 140 on twitter) then you lose people. 

 So I contacted Darrell and said Help! What do you think – how can I improve my 5 word pitch – here’s what he came up with. 

 ‘We Buzz, You Sell’ 

‘We Buzz, You Profit’ 

or 

‘We’ve Caught Your Viral Market’ 

Great stuff I thought, but it was his last idea that really struck a chord with me.  It is so good that I am NOT going to tell you because I want to develop a branding theme around it. 

Try it out yourself – it does wonders on focussing on what your company REALLY does!

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