For just one of our clients, Dentsply Sirona — one of the largest dental-product manufacturers in the world — we’ve created many product-launch campaigns: restorative composites, cements, indirect restoration solutions, impression materials, endodontic files and handpieces, curing lights and more. These campaigns feature extensive cross-channel integration, including website, social media, video, e-mails, events and distributor participation.
Breaking through with an innovative product in an industry known for its conservative attitudes isn’t always easy. Dentists tend to stick with the products they learned to use in dental school — or sometimes just whatever is most affordable.
It can be challenging to get dentists — or practically any marketing audience — to recognize, try and adopt something new. How do you connect with and engage the greatest number of prospects and customers? How do you enable the sales force to tell the right story? And how do you do all of this with an often limited budget?
The key is planning. And oftentimes that is put off too long, usually as a result of the product taking longer in development and/or trying to set a budget. This can impact the ability to define the right message to the right target, to educate all who are involved with selling the product, and to properly engage with those who would be interested in buying your product.
Symmetri follows these six steps to ensure a successful product launch:
- Understand the value
Launching a new product starts with first understanding the unique value your product will provide in the marketplace, and to whom. Why was it developed in the first place? What problems does it solve? What can it do that other products can’t? And if it is a global launch, how do the answers to these questions differ across regions?
Answering these questions will help you get more focused and targeted with your communications while ensuring budget is allocated efficiently. Final specs often aren’t available until just before launch, but this process should occur about six months before launch. If you can’t answer these questions six months out, getting the results you desire will be much more difficult.
- Educate your team
It takes more than just the sales team to sell a product. Everybody in your extended organization needs to be an advocate. From sales to customer service to product marketing to the channel, everyone needs to understand why the product exists, who will want to buy it, the value it provides to them, and what makes this unique in the market.
A couple months before launch, begin communicating details to the sales team, national or global accounts teams, marketing and sales representatives so they understand the product and can begin preparing the distribution channel.
- Create buzz
If this product is new to the industry, or is expected to drive significant revenue, create pre-launch buzz and interest internally and externally with incentives and promotions. When possible, seed the product in the market to get influencer and customer testimonials. All these tactics will spark excitement before the product is even widely available.
- Arm your extended team
A month to a few weeks out, you should be providing your team with education on how to install, use and maintain the product and how to communicate this information to the channel. Training should be provided to anyone who will be responsible for selling — the sales team, national and or global accounts team, sales reps and distributors.
- Leverage useful content through multiple channels
Once the product is ready to launch, ensure that you leverage as many channels as possible to find, connect and engage your audience. As part of the planning process, determine who the target is and the best means of reaching them. It may be your sales database, it may be through publications, associations and/or through social channels.
It will almost certainly be through search engines. Always ensure that your website communicates your unique value, provides proof for any claims you make, and is optimized for search. Once you get them there, make it interesting. Use video. Include calculators or comparisons. Content is critical. With long sales cycles, define both a lead-generation and lead-nurturing campaign. Content will enable this. And it will enable social engagement.
- Gauge and calibrate
Measure and report monthly on activity and leads. This can include search rankings, PPC results, lead capture and/or social engagement. Based on the data, make refinements in order to improve results. The marketplace today is too dynamic to permit static and unresponsive programs.
Bonus: Go with a proven partner
For more than two decades, Symmetri has been helping clients launch products in a variety of industries, and we have found this approach to be successful even as the touchpoints broaden in the digital/social/mobile space and buyer access to product information is deeper than ever before. Give us a shout, and let’s get your product off to a running start.
