You already have a large following and you’ve worked hard to build an engaged community. You’re ready to take the next step and monetise your social following and launch your own business; however, having millions of followers and an engaged base doesn’t directly translate to sales without some careful planning and a little hustle.
Below we outline four key areas to consider before launch
Even for the most established influencer, one of the biggest mistakes you can make when you are about to launch a new product or business, is to go all guns blazing and launch your product without having a well-orchestrated launch plan in place; and this needs to cover – the period leading up to launch, launch day and post-launch.
1. Focus group
Before you start to spend time and money on your new venture, you need to establish that this is what your audience wants from you. They may love your IG content, but that doesn’t automatically mean they are going to buy from you.
If your audience isn’t already asking for it, perhaps it’s not the right time. However, to test the waters, include your followers each step of the way and share with them what you have planned. Once you have a clear idea of what the product is going to look like, select some of your most loyal followers to be part of a focus group – they will be really honest and their feedback is invaluable. Another mistake is to assume you know what your audience wants or create something based on what is already on the market. Be unique and listen to feedback and make sure you are building something that is aligned to what your followers want, and not what someone else is doing.
2. Prelaunch teaser campaign
Teaser campaigns serve to give glimpses of your new product and will help to generate excitement and a bit of a buzz prior to launch – it also helps you to gauge the level of interest. Ideally you want to start teasing information six-to-eight weeks before launch date – skimping on this stage will be detrimental to your success.
3. Launch day
You want to create a big bang on launch day and if your teaser campaign has gone well, your audience will be just as excited as you. Whilst there is a place for polished launch videos and graphics created by your marketing agency /team, nothing beats being really candid and talking directly to your audience. You can have something prepared for IGTV and Stories, but make sure you schedule time to jump on a ‘live’ and tell your followers everything they need to know – what it is, why you have created it, what’s different about it, how much it costs, how they can buy it etc.. And make time to take questions and answers – be open and transparent.
4. Post-launch
If you want to maximise the immediate opportunity of driving sales, you need to make sure you keep the buzz going post-launch. You may breathe a sigh of relief and think your work is done, but you want to make sure your campaign runs for an extended period post-launch.
Individuals consume content in different ways, so utilise all your social platforms and create different types of media to appeal to a wider audience.
However, if you are posting content across various channels, make sure you are consistent with the look and feel of the content and make sure everything you post is aligned to your brand.
Consistency is absolutely key, so you need to make sure you continue to post regularly with product features, updates, customer testimonials etc. – it’s easy to think that once you’ve launched, you can scale back on how much you post, but if you want to keep the momentum going after the initial launch period, and to continue to drive sales, you need to be consistent with how much you post and when. We all know that creating content is a time-consuming job, so make sure you have already planned content for four-to-six weeks post launch and then, using a content calendar covering all your social platforms, continue to plan it on a monthly basis.
We’ve partnered with fitness influencers and helped them launch their own brands, build their online business and monetise their social following. Whilst, with every brand launch we work on there’s a different approach, we have established a tried and tested blueprint to optimise the potential opportunity.
Ready to take the next step and launch your own-brand and online business? Or need some help planning your launch campaign? Or maybe you’re just stuck in a rut with your content?