2. 2 Today’s Presenters Andy Roebuck VP Sales Brian Cavoli Director of Marketing Submit Your Questions for Discussion After the Presentation Share your thoughts #bzzagent
3. The Social Media Product Launch 3 For a product launch to be embraced by consumers and spread throughout their social circles, they need to be part of the process. Social media practices now give companies the best chance for a successful and highly profitable product launch. This webinar describes 12 ways consumer advocates can drive sales for your new product.
13. Phase I - Pre-Launch Pre-Launch is the time when consumers can help you test everything Once a product is launched, changes are more complicated, expensive and potentially much more embarrassing 11
20. 3. Gather Feedback Early Consumers can identify problems and manufacturing flaws early 16
21. Phase II – The Launch The prep work is done, the plans are in place and your message is about to hit the market… now it’s time to move product. Here’s how to enable consumers to be your most persuasive advocates 17
22. 4. Develop Shareable Experiences Advocates are knowledgeable and want to be perceived as thought leaders 18 Coupons Sampling Product Info Video Parties Events
23. 5. Increase Media Coverage Journalists turn to social media to research stories 19 Blogs Facebook Twitter 65% 52% 89% It’s far more effective than an ad, a press release or a PR pitch Create a groundswell of enthusiasm around your brand Source: Cision, George Washington University
24. 6. Create Consumer Videos Encourage customers to create their personal review videos "We have some haul videos that compare to major cable channels in views" - ShishirMehrotra, YouTube’s Dirof Product Management 20
25. 7. Add Product Discussion on Facebook Use your customer community to help sell your new product 21 Facebook URLs are common in ads, often more than company sites
26. 7. Add Product Discussion on Facebook Make the conversation current, valuable and authentic Educating and influencing consumers every day 22 Last meaningful post was 6 months ago
27. 7. Add Product Discussion on Facebook Encourage followers with exclusive content and offers 23
28. 8. Listen for Threats Monitoring conversations in social media is your best early warning system 24
37. 10. Sustain the Conversation Consumers don’t think of engagement with your brand as an isolated campaign, they expect it to be an ongoing process 28 Keep the conversation going Introduce new topics & activities that integrate with your marketing calendar
38. 11. Optimize For Influencers Who Deliver 29 Evaluating influence to cultivate your strongest voices and replace the ones not actively communicating about your brand Monthly Advocates OPTIMIZED FOR IMPACT BzzAgent Recruiting Pool Quality and personalization of posts, frequency, “likes”, comments
39. 12. Talk Social 30 More than just sounding hip Important to interpret the data and communicate what is important to executives Discuss the business impact
49. 35 Andy Roebuck aroebuck@bzzagent.com Brian Cavoli bcavoli@bzzagent.com Additional Resources: about.bzzagent.com @bzzagent Thank You
Editor's Notes
- Think back at some of the most memorable product launches in recent history- what made them great? - probably effective at getting people excited about the product- there was a groundswell of bzz you could feel – drive you to check it out - (probably online, probably saw content created by other consumers- Everyone on this call knows that it takes more than a good product - it takes the support of consumers – advocacy- social media is the key for building that advocacy- but it can be so much more - that’s what we are going to discuss – 12 ways to accelerate sales with social media
- That pivot point can be the difference between success or failure of a product- 80% fail on introduction- usually follow the same mass media formula and hope for acceptance- the key is building advocates and sustaining them over the long terms- as we’ll discuss here – consumers will go to great lengths for the brands they believe in- … if you give them what they need
We say…To do this, you need to rethinking the process a little bit
- Here’s the traditional stages of a launch- Similar to the diagram we saw earlier- logical and linear process- sad ending
- But social media is inherently non-linear- It is a conversation and conversations evolve, change themes and grow- That is what we are creating here- We simplify the process in these three phases
Each stage has a series of activities so you can get the most of it
Lets start with the pre launch- test and learn- … and adjust where possible- can save you from expense, complication and embarrassment down the road- In a social media world – lets not underestimate “embarrassment”
Step 1 – crowdsourcing- All products start with a great idea - sometimes the best don’t even come from within your org- not all have to be small- crowdsourcing is the act of seeking feedback, opinions, and ideas from a group of people outside your company- My Starbucks Idea couple years ago- Tap customer ideas- One report: 315 ideas implemented
- Another popular example- Pepsi design our can contest- Use their site to create and share your can ideas- Pepsi and Doritos – create super bowl ads- several years now - Doritos ad tied for 1st USA Ad Meter
Cisco I-Prize contest for the next billion dollar business-2900 participants, 156 countries, 824 ideas- 'Life Account' that gathers information about users through connected devices in the physical world and online data available in the virtual world- cash prize of $250,000.
- wrigleys orbit gum- instead of closed door focus groups, they put the product into the hands of consumers- testing packaging to different audience segments- compare feedback by m/f, geo area- other redesigns havent gone so well- Tropicana pushed a new design on people and sales dropped 20% - tens of millions in lost sales- went back to the old designGap tried a new logo that people hatedThey also pulled it backQuick response probably saved them from the same fate as Tropicana- Gap
- Sometimes its not just packaging that’s broken- sampling a product early can uncover some flaws that werent caught in the testing process- Single serve coffee maker had a power cord that caused sparks- hair straighter that burned people’s hair- caught early so problems can be fixed before they caused massive cost, embarassment, if not worse- if you loose trust, you might not have the chance to get it back in a future version
- Here is where you want to focus on selling- Advocates will go to great lengths to support the brands they admire- Its important to know why they do it- in the know- well connected – perceived as thought leaders- new products help them build their brandSamples and insider information
- Its just smart, the authentic voice of your customers isnt just persuasive for other consumers- Is persuasive for the media- If you want media, it helps to have a lot of positive WOM online- Cision, GWU study Multiple ways- identifying new ideas- looking for sources You may be using traditional PR, but surround them with a groundswell they can feelNothing more effective – than telling the story through your customers
Everyone wants to be a star - On the internet they can. And they can be a star for you.Advocates have large followings and they want to be seen as thought leaderProviding valuable info on new products helps them build their personal brandMany are doing it with video – now that every phone is a camera it is easyYT is the 2nd most popular search engine now“Haul videos”- shoppers creating videos reviewing their recent purchasesSome have audiences that compare to cable tvEncourage customers to tell their story in a video
FB pages are an important part of most marketing plans Many use FB URL in adsinstead of company URLGreat idea - consumers spending time there- they can interact with your brand – and other customers- what they contribute is shared with followers
Make sure your page is someplace customers want to visitExample of a prominent company with no meaningful updates in 6 months- not a community- these people don’t remember they followed the siteHere is another one with a active community - Posts are meaningful and about the product- example- this is what you want potential customers to see – - This is what’s going to get them to spend time with your site- This is what will influence their purchase decisions(You can even use tools like Klout to identify people with influence in your product category_
Here are some other ways to make your FB community specialEncourage people to follow to gain access to exclusive content and offersLexus has a hidden surprisePanasonic offers 15% discount
We ran a program for the launch of a new food product at a convenience store chain- consumers talked about frustrations with customer service- making a bigger impact on product salesMonitoring conversations is one of the smartest things you can do- Free tools – Google alerts, twitter searches- Low cost – Radian6 (example here)- Sophisticated – NBM, Cymfony – apply NLP and automated sentiment analysis to understand discussion themes
Some of the things you can learn includeYou don’t want a call from a reporter to be the first time you learn of an issue/complaintYou may not be able to stop the story, but you can make it about your response and your actionsIf you are honest and transparent, the community will come to your defense and help othersWhich makes for a very interesting new story
Just because the launch is over… doesn’t mean you social media should endOpportunity to build your advocate network and keep them engaged New enhancements, product line extensions, and relaunches
First, you want to measure salesSM is certainly about relationship building, but if you follow these practices – you can measure sales4 methodsMMMTest ControlCouponingSurveysMost sophisticated for most companies is MMMWe have a entire paper on this that we are happy to provide for you
Many companies think of a SM campaign like an ad campaign – start and end dateConsumers don’t think that wayOnce they are connected to you - don’t leave them hangingw/o cultivation the posts and reviews will get old quicklyMMM proven correlation between conversation and sales- remember the chart at the beginning- this is where you can keep sales growingTreat your advocate network like you’d manage an ad campaign- new message, - promotions, offers- contestsSynch with your marketing calendarAdvocates want to represent what’s new with your brand – enthusiastic if they are on the inside track for deals and announcements
Also important to make sure you are communicating with the best performing advocatesNeed an easy way to measure the effectiveness- - cultivate strongest voices- replace ones that aren’t actively communicatingAutomated tools – Klout / Peer Index- don’t always predict if they are good advocates for youWe think you need to track behaviors as well- we have a scoring process that evaluates their behaviors for you- followers / fans are important- quality of posts – likes, comments- frequency