The ability to sell your products all around the world using the internet and associated technologies has opened up a vast market for businesses everywhere. Finding a way to make your product stand out from the competition can be a challenge, but is essential in terms of looking forward to ensure maximum brand exposure in what can be an incredibly competitive market. By considering the ways in which you market your product, you can ensure you are successfully marketing your product in the most effective way possible.
Identifying your niche
Having a niche is one of the most effective ways of defining what your product is and who it is for. Understanding your niche is an integral part of the marketing process, and should be finalized and understood early on in the process. If you are not only familiar, but further aware and confident of your niche, you will be able to easily identify and structure an effective and meaningful marketing campaign. By knowing who you are selling to, you can decide on your color scheme, social media marketing, language and overall brand. For instance, if you’re marketing to teenage girls, your campaign will reflect this.
Defining your nicheshould, therefore, be established sooner rather than later. You should also be able to explain and define your niche in a few sentences. This will be more attractive to potential customers, as they too will see a company that is confident in what they can offer.
Having the right product
How you market your product should not only be handled in a confident and professional way, but should also be as accurate as possible. This may seem an obvious statement to make, but a common pitfall for some companies is getting ahead of themselves in the marketing process and making claims that do not accurately represent and describe the product. Staying on track is an essential part of the process, this includes in meetings when you are dealing with potential customers where you could get carried away with your speech and suggest that your products offer something additional that you may not be able to deliver later on.
Of course, having a promotional mindset is important in such an environment, but so is providing the exact product the client or customer is expecting. All aspects of your product must tally with everything that has come before, as trying to gain clients in an underhand manner will most likely have a damaging effect on your reputation, which can be detrimental for any business, in particular,a business in the early stages of starting out.
Having the right packaging
If you have a quality product, then presenting the product in packaging that aesthetically represents the product will ensure you are maximizing the product’s potential further. Every stage of product development needs consideration, as a lack of attention to detail in the design process could impact your potential outreach. For instance, if your target market is women who follow a health and wellness lifestyle, then your packaging needs to be pure in color (think white, light, subtle blues and beautiful cursive writing).
Aesthetics are everything. As well as being eye-catching, original and relevant, your packaging should tie in well with your branding and company ethos. Doing your research here is important. For example, if you are selling a certain product, is another packaging on the market for similar products a certain color or typeface? Standing out from the crowd does involve a balance of originality, however staying on track within the general theme of the product can also mean it isn’t lost due to more trusted color schemes or branding patterns, for example.
If you are unsure of how to create packaging that accurately denotes how you wish the product to come across to customers, outsourcing may be the answer. Companies such as Jansy specialize in providing such services.
Getting your marketing right
As outlined above, locating your business in the right niche and identifying your target market are key steps in your marketing plan. Another vital element aforementioned is to identify is your USP, or in other words, your unique selling point. What do you offer your customers that only your business can provide? If you’re having trouble finding your USP, this can be worked out and developed through discussion, effort and thought. There are many resources online that can help you identify what is special about you or your business, so try a few of the methods they recommend to see if you can locate that elusive uniqueness. It doesn’t have to be overly complicated and can be location-specific. Whatever your USP is, understanding this from early on and further staying true to this is fundamental to any business. Your USP will usually tie in strongly with your niche
Branding
Companies the world over use branding to help build their reputation and exposure. Larger more successful companies have got to that point due to providing products and services with branding that people recognize, trust and understand. Because consumers know these brands, they feel confident about purchasing them because due to their familiarity, trustworthiness,and reputation. It is important, therefore, to establish a strong brand that accurately denotes what you are offering early on, and it is further important to ensure that the branding is memorable, thorough and consistent.
Altering your brand in the early days can come across as unprofessional and may be noticed by potential customers. Create your brand with care to make sure it reflects you, your product and your company. Create the graphic elements and taglines that go with your brand very carefully too, as the words and images will stick in people’s heads and bring up associations when they are shopping. You need to be original, simple and striking to create an effective brand, and if this is something you don’t feel fits into your skills zone, use an outside agency to bring your brand to life. Regardless of the product, make sure you research color schemes and effective graphic design so that your specific branding will maximize your product’s potential and make it stand out from competitors.
Marketing Techniques to Implement
Using what is available to you can further assist in maximizing your potential client reach. This means setting up social media accounts and being dedicated to updating these and giving them the time needed to ensure the accounts are intriguing, informative and in keeping with your niche and USP. Depending on what product you are providing, this could involve running exclusive competitions and giveaways, or may simplyinvolve consistent and relevant photo sharing to present customers with a strong aesthetic that can easily be found on a website or social media platform. Ensure all accounts and websites are mobile-friendly, as many potential customers may find you this way.
You should include email marketing, social media marketing as well as more traditional methods such as flyers and events where you invite the general public. Be noticeable online (use Instagram, Facebook and Twitter), and make sure you have a website that is fullyfunctional. You also need to introduce SEO into your marketing campaign, as well as PPC.
Now you have your quality products, you’ve identified the precise niche and customer profile for the range, and you’ve got your marketing tools, USP and branding sorted. If you’ve planned well and your strategies are precise and well-placed, you will have greatly increased your chances of making your mark.
Passion in the product
Another essential factor and seemingly obvious marketing technique is simply having passion and belief in your product. Having honest enthusiasm will be noticed and will help spur you on throughout the process of building your customer base, in particular, if any process isn’t completely plain sailing. By ensuring you know your niche, and taking time to develop branding, you will know you have given the appropriate amount of time and effort to boost your product’s potential. You will thereforetrulybe able to offer an original product or service, in a most confident way. Results may be garnered over time, however, through implementing the above points, you can hope to stand out in the market and see positive results from early on.
