It’s been 3 years in the making and your product baby is finally complete! It’s time to release it to the public and let the sales start rollin’ in. Right? This was a HUGE mistake I made with my eGuide, so in this post I’m going to tell you how to actually sell your product and the mistakes I made that you can easily avoid.
There are soooo many ways to promote your product along with so many books, blogs, webinars, etc. dedicated to promotion and marketing it’s hard to weed out the really good from the used car salesman approach. I’m going to break it down super simply and fluff-free…
Instead of spending so much time and effort researching the best ways to promote and market your product, just look to the pros. People like Marie Forleo, Lauryn Evarts, Tony Robbins, Gabby Bernstein, and Bethenny Frankel are marketing masters that you should pay attention to. We’ll discuss them more in Week 4 so stay tuned!
If you watch Marie TV every Tuesday she holds “Q&A Tuesday” and she recites the same opening and ending lines:
and…
“As always the best discussions happen after the episode so go to MarieForleo.com and leave a comment now. Did you like this video? Subscribe to our channel and I’d be so grateful if you shared this with a friend. If you want even more incredible resources, plus personal insights from me that I only talk about in email, make sure to head over to MarieForleo.com and sign up for email updates. Stay on your game and keep going for your dreams, because the world needs that special gift that only you have. Thank you so much for watching and I’ll catch you next time on Marie TV.”
Her wording is genius. She’s consistent and catchy so it sticks. You know you’re watching Marie TV and you know where to find her, (MarieForleo.com), self-promotion at its finest.
Somewhere in the middle of her video Marie posts a “tweetable”, an inspirational quote for viewers to post to Twitter. This brings HUGE brand awareness and gets the viewer’s followers curious as to who this boss lady is.
Marie then places a CTA, (call to action), at the end of her video before her closing statement with a question for viewers to respond to in the comments below, (I also use this method, scroll to the bottom to see), and it works! This spawns audience engagement which is exactly what you need to grow your business.
Now before you go promo gung-ho, you need to get clear on what it is you’re promoting and why you’re promoting it…
Catch the full series here:
Week 1: What is Branding & Do You Need It?
Week 2: How to Collab with Other Brands
Week 3 (this week): How to Promote Your Product
Week 4: Best Ways to Brand Yourself
Does my product solve a problem?
This is the BEST way to make sales – if your product solves a problem
Does my product add meaning to people’s lives?
People are always looking for fulfillment and satisfaction in their current lives (i.e. Tony Robbins)
Who is my target audience?
Like I’ve said before, “If you’re talking to everyone, you’re talking to no one.”
Why should people care about my product?
Your product needs a point and purpose.
Big splash
You get people SUPER hyped up, wondering, questioning, so excited to hear the news or see what you’ve been working on they talk about it with their friends, who talk about it with their friends… I did this when I created Not Another Blonde. I held a countdown and told the news early to my email subscribers, which is a great way to build your email list.
In fact, Kayla Itsiness is doing this right now. She has something big coming and we can’t wait! Check out her Instagram and YouTube to see how she made a genius promotional video.
Soft opening
You hear about these sort of promotions all the time. This is where you kind of talk about your product, but not to the point where you exhaust it. This is a great way to promote or release something when you already have a large following.
Gabby Bernstein does this a lot with her Get More Gabby subscription and new books. Mastin Kipp and Marie Forleo also do this when registration opens for their annual seminars.
Facebook/Facebook Ads
I talk in more depth about how to use Facebook marketing to leverage clients and make money HERE. In short, Facebook ads is a great marketing tool to take advantage of because you can reach audiences you never would be able to before and it can cost as little as $1 a day.
Facebook ads can automatically run the ad for you if you don’t want to put too much thought into the best days/times. However, if you really want more bang for your buck post to Facebook at times when you’re on Facebook.
People go on Facebook before work (7-8am), lunch time (12-1pm), and late afternoon when nothing’s going on at work, (3-6pm). Ideally you want to post at these times.
Instagram works similar to Facebook in that it’s not what you say, but when you say it. I wrote about how Iconosqaure is a great tracking tool in a post a few weeks ago.
If you have a product, EP, blog post, clothing line, etc. that you want promoted, you absolutely need to post to Instagram, #hashtag the crap out of it and post at ideal times.
I post every single day I have a new blog post up with a link to where I want my readers to go. This drives traffic to my site and sales from my eGuide.
Bloggers
Bloggers are an excellent yet underrated tool all people starting out should use. Bloggers have a reach that traditional advertising doesn’t and many bloggers just starting out will usually promote your product for free, which is bad news for bloggers but great news for brands.
You can send your product or service for free to a blogger and have them do a blog post, Instagram a picture, or share with friends on Facebook.
The best place to find bloggers is Instagram, I’ve met incredible people this way. Search a #hashtag that interests you or correlates to your product and you’ll definitely stumble upon some bloggers.
Approach bloggers with respect and realize that not everyone will be satisfied with just a free product. Bloggers need something in return too, so when you put yourself out there see how YOU can benefit a blogger.
Guest Posts/Interviews
This is a great way to expand your readership if you have a blog, or gain clients if you have a product. A truly organic way to make sales.
This can be done simply by cold emailing a ton of influential people/websites such as Into the Gloss, OOTD Magazine, Mind Body Green, etc.
Snapchat
Lauryn Evarts is a master at this. Since launching her Bombshell Body Guide she snaps daily pictures/videos of herself doing the workout with caption “Bombshell Body time”. She’s consistent, so ‘Bombshell Body Guide’ stays in Snappers’ minds and since she uses the guide herself, people are more apt to use it with her because they want what she has.
Bumper Stickers/Magnets
I work with a guy who completely made the area a madhouse for car magnets! People are so nuts over these magnets they’re stealing them off other people’s cars, (it’s happened to me!).
He makes cute magnet designs for each season/holiday with his website and people instantly recognize it, thus giving him more traffic and notoriety.
Bethenny Frankel did this during her time on RHONY with Skinnygirl. She actually branded her entire car with the Skinnygirl name and logo. This was genius for 2 reasons: 1. she had air time to millions of viewers via Bravo, 2. the car brought an immense amount of attention to people driving/walking by… like I said, genius.
Clothing
This is probably the easiest thing to do. Buy a white T shirt or sweatshirt and get your brand’s name screen printed on it and wear it ALL the time. To the gym, out to dinner, running errands. Bethenny used this tactic as well. Chiara Ferragni of The Blonde Salad has been known to do this, too.
I plan on doing this in the near future but for now I have pens I give people with my blog name. Pens are great because they’re functional, they will get used and people will see them, and they get moved around a lot. How many pens have you had for more than 1 year? Exactly.
PLEASE let me know what other tips/questions you have, it really helps me create stuff you guys want to read. Tell me in the comments below or email me brittany@notanotherblonde.com.
xx
