Through the current tech boom in the UK, there are a lot of companies launching and seeking funding to launch. The huge investment made in tech and AI this year has attracted others to the industry and encouraged new and unique product ideas. Tech and AI are not the only industries that are seeing growth this year, with health and fitness, finance, fashion, and businesses all growing in the UK. With these sectors, we’re also seeing an increased number of revolutionary tech crossover products, many coming from HealthTech, FitTech, PropTech, and FinTech. With more tech companies, comes more cyber security companies too! 

All in all, a good time to launch a tech product! So how do you launch a brand or product? And how do you stand out from all the other innovative ideas that are fighting for attention?

Launch Marketing

Getting your name, idea, product, or business recognised and out there on scale, you will need a solid launch marketing plan. Putting together a marketing strategy to launch has to start with knowing your business goals on a micro and macro scale. Once goals are developed you can work backwards on how to meet them: defining audiences, identifying key channels, developing a brand tone of voice, style, and creating the all important brand guide on why people should invest in the idea of you and your brand.

Launch marketing should create an initial buzz and be a good kickstart to your brand awareness campaign. Investing in this launch will be important in how quickly you want to grow. If you’re fine with organic growth and utilising your network of contacts, then that’s fine, but if you’re starting from scratch and launching into an open market then you will have to strategically plan your marketing budget to be front heavy. Putting in the keyword research, optimising your website and social channels, and then finally creating some Google ads, social media ads, and paid for placement content will generate an engaged audience that can then help organic growth further down the line. These early adopters of your brand will soon become your advocates and further down the line they will also become your enthusiastic, long-time fans, promoting your content for you and eagerly awaiting your new products. The launch needs to be managed in order to stay on track and with goals in sight, but as long as you have done the research, this campaign kick-off will continue bringing benefits long after it has ended.

Launch PR

All press is good press, so they say. The challenge is getting in the press in the first place. A lot of publications are now pay-to-play options or utilise native advertising. These are great options for launching a brand, as native advertising is very brand marketing focused, but often a costly option. 

Organic PR requires a good knowledge of the industry, knowing how to grab the attention of journalists, writing the hooks, and of course having the contacts in the first place. There is often an appetite for a founder story and an innovative product launch, but especially for a dramatic timeline! There will be journalist requests for these stories and it’s all about timing, speed, and an attractive story. This is often around the clock monitoring of certain websites and of your inbox. 

The advantage of PR is the reach! A good PR agency will put you in the right publications, which is a mix of industry specific PR and national/global press. Putting your story in front of your peers and interested parties, but also expanding your audience wider and having an impact into industries that you may not have considered to be your audience. The value of PR is not as easy to measure as digital marketing, which is why it’s considered more of a brand building exercise, but in that, the value can be much greater. PR can bring in investment opportunities, launch you into a new market, and create a positive perception of your brand and product. All of this is the groundwork to improve sales.

The other benefit to PR is that you can create a persona for leaders in your business, and platform their thoughts into becoming a thought leader. Amplifying your voice outside of your business creates a strong perception of a leader who cares about what they do and will speak about their expertise to help the industry grow, not just their brand. Of course, with this comes more visibility for your brand, but it also builds your leaders up as a brand in themselves. 

Crowdfunding marketing campaigns

Crowdfunding is a very common way to gain investment in a product launch. A crowdfund marketing campaign will get the ball rolling and build up interest in your crowdfund, helping you reach your fundraising target. 

A crowdfund can be set up to raise funds to launch your company, launch a new product, or to help development within your organisation. Whatever the reason for the crowdfund, it’s important to give your audience a good reason to invest. This reason may be to get early access to your products, a discount on products when launched, or to allow them to be part of something big and be an early investor in a revolutionary organisation. Setting out the reason and the reward for your crowdfund then allows you to plan on how to achieve your target.

Running a successful crowdfund is more than just finding a platform, setting a goal, and hitting publish. A strategic approach is needed to nail down the ‘why should anyone care’ hook early, and deliver a high performing and content-led crowdfunding marketing campaign across PR, social, direct marketing, and digital media. Getting the news out there and attracting interest will require a big initial push so that you can become visible. Then you can go into ‘sales mode’ and really push the benefits and reasons why someone should invest.

Launching into a new market and launching abroad

Launching your brand in a new market or launching abroad requires plenty of research, often best done within your target sector and location. Some experienced marketing agencies will understand global markets and will have successfully launched into those, making this the easiest method to launch. If you’re considering this as an in-house activity then it is essential that you research, research, research!

The North American market is a big target for most organisations. It feels that if you’re successful in America, then you’ve made it! But the way that products are advertised and adopted in the USA is very different to the UK, Europe, and Asia. As a blanket statement, the advertising tends to be a lot more bold in the USA, largely down to less regulation, but also because this is what the audiences love. American audiences love novelty, convenience, and efficiency. There’s also the methods that are more widely adopted in the US, such as SMS over WhatsApp, and the desire for creativity. There’s a lot to consider! And the same for American organisations looking to launch into Europe and the Rest of The World.

The biggest piece of advice is to not make any assumptions. WhatsApp may work for your industry in the States, consumers may want lots of information on your specific product, and Europeans may also be attracted by a bold statement about your services. Doing your research means that you save a lot of time, money, and effort in the long run. It’s a big thing to enter a new market, so make sure you are doing it right and making the most of the situation in order to have the best start that you can.

Launch expertise

We have helped many companies launch their brands and products in a variety of ways; from expanding into the US market, to launching a new product offering, to completely launching a brand from scratch. We have tailored each launch plan to the client, helping with crowdfunding campaigns where necessary, and finding the perfect pitches for PR opportunities. Being a small business ourselves, we just get it. We know the angles, the hooks, and the creative ideas that get you noticed and thriving.

Get in touch with us to learn how we can best collaborate on your exciting launch.