13 Best Practices for Introducing New Products to Your Audience

Updated June 24, 2022

Planning the introduction of new products in order to make a strong, positive first impression is important to profitability. Your timing and the details you emphasize during the launch may affect the customers you gather and keep in the future. Understanding this phase can help you sell your product more efficiently to your audience. In this article, we outline what product introduction is and provide 13 best practices for introducing new products to your customers and audience.

What is the introduction of new products?

Product introduction is the marketing tactic used to increase sales by advertising a product before it's released. A company's sales or marketing division is usually in charge of this process that begins when a product has finished testing or been authorized for sales. The marketing team uses techniques to create a consumer response, including excitement about new ideas or solutions. For example, a company schedules a new phone to release in three years. In order to increase sales, the company may create advertisements, host demonstrations or create a temporary production team in anticipation of the product's arrival.

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13 best practices for introducing new products

Below are 13 tactics for introducing your company's new product :

1. Define a selling point

A selling point is a reason your customer may buy your product. Selling points can be competitive advantages, such as longer battery life for phones, more power in computers or better gas mileage in a car. Before introducing your product to your customers, understand your strong selling points. Knowing why customers may buy your product can help your team determine what parts of the product to advertise and how they can present the product more effectively to your audience. Consider asking your team some of the following questions to help brainstorm selling points for your product:

What makes our product better than the leading competitor?
What's our product's best feature?
What's the first thing a new customer may notice about our product?
How can we further improve the best part of our product?

2. Gather support

Gathering sufficient support for a new product can mean anything from constructing a small group of developers to appointing an entire production team. Support can include marketing, promotion, distribution, sales and increased personnel and manufacturing when the product succeeds. The support your product needs depends on the product itself, the amount you're producing and how you plan on distributing it.

3. Show enthusiasm

Enthusiasm can be an encouraging influencer for your team and customers. If you genuinely support your product, showing your team your enthusiasm can motivate them when working and planning. Enthusiasm can influence morale and encourage teamwork. This enthusiasm becomes a part of the marketing campaign and helps build excitement about the coming product.

4. Train your team

Your team may need training about the new product's features before you start production. The product's complexity can determine your approach, whether it requires in-person training with opportunities for guidance and questions, online webinars or simple documents. Exact topics of training may vary according to the needs of the team, however, every team member must have a basic understanding of the product before launch.

5. Let your team demo the product

Another way to encourage your team in the product introduction phase is early access to the product for team members. If you have sufficient quantity, consider giving every team member a demo or prototype of the product so they can evaluate it more closely. Use your team's personal evaluations to guide product improvements.

6. Schedule a launch date

Consider determining your launch date before you show your product to customers. Launch dates are important to a product's success for many reasons, including:

Competitor products: Launching your product before or after the launch of a competing product may affect the sales of your product. For example, if you launch your product before your competitor, customers may purchase yours because of the newness and excitement. If you launch after, you may advertise how your product is better than another release.
Seasonal advantages: Depending on your product, you may have an advantage in sales if you release it during a certain season. For example, releasing a new snowmobile at the beginning of fall, as consumers prepare for winter, can sell more effectively than releasing it at the end of winter.
Budget status: Adjusting your launch date according to your budget may help you meet the demand and supply on launch day. If you need a large budget, consider waiting to release your new product until you have a budget increase.

7. Control your product's life cycle

Instead of taking undue time perfecting your product, consider releasing an initial version. Understand the life cycle of your first attempt may be shorter, so immediately start planning the next model. If too many plans have kept you from releasing your idea, this practice may help you gain momentum. Open channels for consumer feedback and position yourself as an innovator who relies on users' opinions and needs. Then, time the release of your update while your first version is still in maturity. Customers who are happy with your first product may also buy the update, anticipating the improved version.

8. Prepare a mission statement

A mission statement is a summary statement that a company can use to declare its overall goal. While a mission statement can be important to a company, it can also be important to a new product. Aligning your product with your mission statement may help keep those who are familiar with your products satisfied. Creating your product with your mission statement in mind can keep a product's standards consistent and help maintain product quality.

Related: 11 Ideas for Product Promotion

9. Develop curiosity

Developing customer curiosity can launch interest in your upcoming product. For example, instead of simply announcing a new gaming system, a game console company may release a picture of the product's silhouette or logo on its social media platform. This can cause customers to become curious, start social media conversations and track the company's platform for more news.

10. Demonstrate the product

Demonstrating a product can further develop a customer's interest. However, consider that in order to demonstrate a product, your team needs a working prototype for presentation and examination. There are many ways to demonstrate a product, including:

Setting up a technical demonstration in a store or mall
Driving a vehicle and making stops, showing prototypes to visitors
Releasing video demonstrations

11. Add it to existing products

When presenting your product to an audience for the first time, it may be helpful to pair your product purchase with another well-known product. As you discuss the value points of your product, reference how it may increase the value of existing products. For example, a game console company selling a new console may offer it as a package with a current game that's been updated to the new system. Fans of the game may be interested in the console because they want the new features the console adds to their game.

12. Release product information

An official product information release, such as a press release, can be good for product introduction. An unofficial release of information, however, may be more attractive to customers. Purposely disclosing information on the internet, especially when it's unofficial, may help keep customers interested in your product. If customers feel they found information that wasn't supposed to be shared, they may research to discover more.

13. Use offline advertising

Offline advertising such as billboards, public transportation signage and newspaper advertisements can be very helpful for your product release. These types of advertising can influence consumers' understanding of your product and may eventually convince them to become a customer.