It happens all the time: Businesses begin preparing their latest product, service, or program offering, and they're so focused on getting it out there that they miss the opportunity to build market awareness.
Often, businesses think they need to have their product or service ready to go before they start implementing their product marketing strategy. But if movie producers waited to announce their movies until everything was filmed, edited, and ready to show, audiences would be caught off guard and likely wouldn't show up for the premiere.
Successful film premieres come from weeks or even months of preparation, with many studios announcing film plans before they've even secured the entire cast or crew. That allows time for audiences to generate buzz and get excited for more information about the film.
It's the same in business: You have to start marketing your products or services even before they're 100% ready so that you can build excitement, anticipation, trust, and interest.
1. A prelaunch product marketing strategy gets the conversation started and generates buzz
The top reason to start marketing while your product or service is still in the development phase is to begin a conversation.
To set your product up for success, you need to be intentional about your product marketing and build a plan that gets the conversation going early, before your product launches, and then continues the conversation so you stay relevant and top of mind.
When you get the word out, you open the floor for anticipation and intrigue. Then, when you launch, your audience will be ready and waiting.
Teasing your offering early on also allows you to roll out a little information at a time to keep people curious and interested, and it starts creating recognition with your brand and services. Before you have even released your products, you will have started generating interest.
A 6-8 weeklong prelaunch period helps get the word out and set you up to get your product or program to market faster, and to a more receptive audience.
2. It creates a receptive and engaged audience to sell to
Once the conversation is started, you've paved the way not only to get your product to market faster but also to deliver it to an engaged and interested audience.
As you continue nurturing through the prelaunch period, it's important to first sell your audience on you—your business, your ideas, your brand—and give people a chance to get to know you before you ask them to buy your program. Doing so establishes trust and respect with prospective buyers, so when you launch they are more willing to purchase from you.
Nurture encourages you to spend time really building high-value relationships with your audience. It's a marketing strategy that instills brand loyalty, encourages word-of-mouth marketing, and helps you better understand whom you're catering to in the long run so you can tailor your marketing and advertising even more in the future.
Whether you already have an audience or you're building one from scratch, weekly nurturing will benefit your product launch. It keeps your service at the forefront of your audience's mind, so they won't forget when it's time for launch.
Consistency is important here—so keep the conversation going with regular touchpoints. Even if you have an organic audience, you still need to nurture. They won't pay attention to what you have coming up unless you've given them a reason to.
3. It ensures you have an audience for your product launch
If you start launching without early advertising, you'll run out of people to speak to and launch to. Word-of-mouth is great, but in this digital era people need to be able to find you and your service, and advertising gets your name out there.
When you spend time marketing your product or program while you're actively developing, you ensure that you'll have an audience ready to listen when you're ready to launch.
Launching something without any premarketing is like delivering the climactic scene of a movie without any buildup: Audiences miss pieces of the story and don't know why they should care, and they might even walk out of the show. But when you advertise early, you give them that critical first piece of the story. They will already have an understanding of what you're offering and why they should keep an eye out for the climactic launch.
When your audience has a reason to care about your launch, they'll show up for it, so you won't be announcing your latest program to a bunch of empty seats. Taking the time to market in tandem with development helps you build that launch audience and ensure that your marketing initiatives will continue growing, even beyond your launch.
More Resources on Product Marketing Strategy
Mastering Product Marketing for Sales Effectiveness for MOFU and BOFU [B2B Forum]
How to Use Product-Market Fit to Drive Business Growth
Can You Ensure Your Product Launch Isn't a Dud? Yes, Rapid Market-Testing Can Do That
