From taking advantage of free marketing channels to cultivating an enthusiastic early adoption group, here are 15 answers to the question, “What are your best tips for soft launching a new product on a tight budget?”
Utilize Free Marketing Channels
In today’s digital age, startups and small businesses can use free marketing channels to successfully launch a new product on a tight budget. Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn have billions of active users, making them a powerful tool for creating a buzz around a new product. Engaging with the audience through these platforms can help attract potential customers and gather feedback for product improvement.
Content marketing is another free marketing channel that can be used for a product launch. By creating high-quality, valuable content such as blog posts, infographics, and videos, businesses can attract traffic to their website and create brand awareness.
In addition, we can also use email marketing and guest blogging for product promotion without spending a lot of money. Utilizing free marketing channels like these can help small businesses and startups to create a successful soft launch for their new product without breaking the bank.
Brandon Brown, CEO, GRIN
Harness the Power of UGC
One of the best ways to create impactful content and soft launch a new product is to work with loyal customers in your community and involve them in the process. Send them the product early on and guide them on the content you want them to create. This is an impactful way to involve your customers and signal a community while staying within your budget.
Harry Morton, Founder, Lower Street
Try Using CPC Paid Ads
The quickest way to get results, which is what you need when launching a new product, is to use CPC paid ads. It doesn’t matter if it’s Google Ads, Facebook/Instagram Ads, LinkedIn, or Twitter. Most platforms offer excellent targeting options, which you can use to show your product to only interested people.
You don’t have the budget to reach a broad audience. You want to advertise to a smaller number of people with demographic and interest targeting on point, then fine-tweak your message quickly. Once you get the ball rolling, you can expand the audience, but until you do, CPC is the way to go.
Ionut-Alexandru Popa, Editor-in-Chief and CEO, BinaryFork
Collaborate With Micro-influencers
If you don’t have the budget to work with well-known influencers, consider working with micro-influencers instead. They are influencers with a smaller audience but who are highly engaged and have a strong relationship with their followers.
Find micro-influencers who are a good fit for your brand and provide them with something of value for endorsing your goods. Keep track of the outcomes of your collaboration to determine its efficacy.
Gerrid Smith, Chief Marketing Officer, Joy Organics
Focus on Minimum Viable Analytics or Lean Analytics
The best tip to soft-launch your product on a shoestring budget and get maximized value is probably to have your minimum viable analytics (MVA) ready in place. In analytics, MVA refers to a lean reporting stack that delivers just enough information for your team to successfully iterate on the product. It means that you can find an early win and then expand your product in the right direction without investing in frills.
If it’s a mobile app, the development team tracks the agreed-upon KPIs and compares them against real-world performance. Thus, when you release a new feature, you send it into A/B testing and compare the KPIs of both versions. If the users are better off without a new update, then you ditch the feature and invest resources into another add-on. The typical metrics for a mobile app in a soft launch include retention rate, ARPU, ARPPU, and conversion rate.
Tatsiana Kirimava, CEO, Orangesoft
Tightly Watch for Problems and Red Flags
Keeping a tight watch on potential problems and knowing one’s red flags is one of the best practices. When features or aspects of a product are problematic, they can add up quickly budget-wise.
Knowing the red flags and problem areas, therefore, becomes critical to fixing issues before they arise and eat into the budget. When problems do arise, be proactive in one’s response instead of just being reactive, and keep budget limitations in mind.
Max Schwartzapfel, CMO, Schwartzapfel Lawyers
Take Advantage of Email Marketing
I believe that email marketing is a really powerful tool for connecting with potential customers and establishing long-term relationships. Develop a straightforward email campaign that emphasizes the benefits of your new product and encourages readers to act.
To ensure that your message is targeted and relevant, use a platform like Mailchimp or ConvertKit to segment your email list based on interest and activity. In your emails, provide a clear call-to-action and a link to your landing website or pre-order page.
Kenny Kline, President and Financial Lead, BarBend
Gather People Who Might Be Interested
Soft launches are about gradual growth and ensuring the product-market fit is right. The concept here is to launch your product in phases and gradually build up the hype before the mega launch. Beta-testing the product or releasing a minimum viable version of your product is the best approach.
This approach gives you time to understand how your users act and react to your offering. This time-buying strategy can be used as an advantage to fix the hurdles and prepare correctly for the next phased launch! Audience tests can be aided by narrowing down your audience.
Email marketing can be used here, wherein you can go with a group of an invited audience. Such a technique can be useful for low-quality conversions and form a group of qualified leads afterward. The focus must remain on creating the best value before you turn toward the trajectory of a hard launch. These proven strategies can be enforced with zero to minimal investments as well!
Dustin Ray, Co-CEO and Chief Growth Officer, IncFile
Offer Affiliate Marketing Partnerships
If you have a tight budget for your new product launch, there are several marketing techniques where you don’t have to pay until sales come in! One of my favorite techniques is offering affiliate marketing partnerships to prominent influencers in exchange for them promoting your product.
To find potential influencers, you can use an influencer outreach platform like Heepsy, or browse relevant hashtags on your favorite social platforms. After you find an influencer who could be a good fit, you can contact them and offer an affiliate partnership to create content around your product. Since your product is new, you can incentivize them to respond by offering a higher commission to the first few affiliates that sign up.
Axel DeAngelis, Founder and Marketing Strategist, Jumpcoast
Automate and Target Your Campaigns
Automation and targeted campaigns can help you reach potential customers without breaking the bank.
For example, focus on building relationships with influencers, bloggers, and media to help get the word out quickly and cost-effectively. At the same time, use social media platforms such as Twitter or Instagram to create short videos and engage in conversations directly with customers to increase the visibility of your product online.
If we consider SEO tactics, create content optimized for search engines that includes keywords related to your new product or sector—this will efficiently drive more organic traffic while keeping costs low. Remember also that reviews and testimonials are powerful psychological tools—so make sure existing users understand how important their opinions are; it’ll boost credibility among potential buyers!
Stewart Dunlop, Founder and Chief Strategist, LinkBuilder.io
Leverage Existing Relationships
To soft-launch a new product on a tight budget, consider leveraging existing relationships. Leverage your existing customer base, social media contacts, and other online channels to spread the word about your product launch.
Utilize free or low-cost marketing methods such as email marketing, online advertising, and influencer marketing to get the word out and create a buzz. Finally, invest in user testing to ensure you have a great product before launch.
Ranee Zhang, VP of Growth, Airgram
Provide Rewards
I strongly recommended that you offer early adopters of your product some sort of discount or bonus to encourage them to test out your offering. This can take the shape of a free or discounted version of your product. This may encourage more people to become familiar with your product and try it by helping more people notice it.
Mathew Bowley, Head of Marketing, Solmar Villas
Showcase Your Differentiators
When operating on a tight budget while launching a new product, it is crucial to concentrate on those aspects that yield the highest return with minimal time investment from your team.
Emphasizing your product’s unique differentiators and showcasing them as powerfully as possible should be your top priority. This approach will significantly contribute to your product’s success in the market. If your budget is tight, spend your time and money on differentiating your product well from the competition first.
Those features or qualities that make your product unique or superior compared to others in the market can include functionality, design, price, user experience, customer support, or any other element that adds value to your target audience.
Michał Pożoga, Vice President of Marketing, ConQuest Consulting
Lean into Social Media and Digital Marketing
My best tip for soft-launching a new product on a tight budget is to leverage social media and digital marketing. Create engaging content that showcases the product, and share it with a targeted audience. Reach out to influencers and industry leaders for reviews and shares.
Collect feedback from early adopters to iterate and improve the product. Use email marketing to build a targeted list of potential customers and send regular updates and exclusive content. By focusing on generating buzz and gathering feedback through cost-effective channels, it’s possible to successfully soft-launch a new product on a tight budget.
Stoyan Mitov, CEO, Dreamix LTD
Grow an Active Community of Early Adopters
Focus on creating a small, active community of enthusiastic early adopters for your product. Utilize social media, online discussion boards, and niche communities to connect with them. Give them exclusive access to the product, solicit their comments, and use their suggestions to enhance it prior to the launch.
Before investing in a full-scale launch, doing this not only generates buzz but also enables you to improve your product and messaging. Additionally, to further increase your reach without going over budget, think about collaborating with influencers or establishing a referral program.
Nicholas Altimore, CEO and Co-founder, SirLinksalot
Brett Farmiloe is the founder of Terkel, a Q&A platform that connects brands with expert insights.
New product stock image by Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock