Unlock steps 2 – 6 now!
But wait, there’s more!
POST-LAUNCH
•
Continue to gather
and syndicate fresh
user-generated content
10–14 DAYs
6 MONTHS POST-LAUNCH
• Monitor product sales
to measure success
• For future launches, dial in on the most cost-effective product launch elements and cut back
on less effective ones
IMMEDIATELY POST-LAUNCH
• Monitor reviews and
social engagement
• Tweak marketing messages based on customer feedback
• Share customer feedback with product team
•
•
All channels go live
Product made available
for sale with reviews on day one
Launch
•
•
Launch teaser activity
on social media
Pre-sell products exclusively via social channels
2–3 days
Work up and sign
off on asset
Hand over assets to channels to prepare
for launch
•
•
1 month
• Run countdown activity across website and
social media
• Invite people to
sign up for alerts
10–14 DAYS
• Write pre-embargo
announcement of
product launch
6–8 WEEKS
2 months
•
•
Post product and
copy sign off
Brief in channels with required assets
• Begin media planning
3 months
Identify key features to showcase in marketing message
Start all channel planning
4 months
•
•
• Launch sampling campaign
• Get product samples out to consumers
• Start generating reviews and images and make content available to retailers
• Use feedback to improve product pages and launch materials
• Use reviews in marketing (packaging, ads, emails, and
social media)
2–3 months
3–6 months
• Distribute
product to brand
ambassadors to trial
• Sign off on creative
5 months
6 months
•
6–12 months
• Brainstorm product launch with relevant teams
• Start planning launch activity and sampling program/schedule product availability dates
• Communicate with
retail partners
PRE-LAUNCH
A product launch is a pivotal moment. Start planning early and follow this product launch timeline for a successful launch.
Start planning early
STEP 1
Follow these 6 steps to ensure your next product launch is a hit:
56%
forecasted
e-commerce growth
from 2022-2026
3
63%
of in-store shoppers use their phone in-store for research purposes
2
69%
of shoppers have been inspired by social media to make a purchase through another channel
2
80%
of shoppers say they have spent more time on social media this past year
1
In the past, product launches relied on in-store activations. Now, virtual displays and digital content are crucial for success. Brands must create seamless experiences across online and offline channels.
The key to any product launch success is preparation and execution – and successful brands leave nothing to chance. Kraft Heinz, 3M, and Canon share their content marketing formulas for winning product launches.
6 ways to launch your product with a bang
BEST PRACTICE GUIDE
Brand creative concepting
Optimize your strategy
STEP 6
Share content
others create
STEP 5
Build social
buzz
STEP 4
Listen to consumer feedback
STEP 3
Sample before
your launch date
STEP 2
Start planning early
STEP 1
In the past, product launches relied on in-store activations. Now, virtual displays and digital content are crucial for success. Brands must create seamless experiences across online and offline channels.
The key to any product launch success is preparation and execution – and successful brands leave nothing to chance. Kraft Heinz, 3M, and Canon share their content marketing formulas for winning product launches.
Follow these 6 steps to ensure your next product launch is a hit:
This step gave Burt's Bees advanced consumer insights into its new cosmetics line and plenty of published reviews as products became available at retail stores.
Read full success story
increase in revenue per visitor who engaged with reviews
20%
incremental conversion lift from shoppers who engaged with reviews
16%
of people who received a sample submitted a review within two weeks
94%
reviews collected at launch with a 4.48-star average rating
300+
(Ref 5)
Assistant E-commerce Manager at Burt's Bees
Taylor Steele
The greatest thing was that when lights went on with cosmetics, our reviews were syndicated to 15 key retailers.
Burt's Bees partnered with Bazaarvoice to get
pre-released products into the hands of consumers and collect feedback. And the payoff at launch was huge.
Following the success of its lip balms and moisturizers, the health and beauty brand Burt's Bees was keen to expand its product range to include cosmetics.
“We knew reviews could be insurance for new products, and that early qualitative feedback and star ratings would ensure a smooth transition into a new market,” said Taylor Steele, Assistant E-commerce Manager at Burt’s Bees.
Burt’s Bees
Success story
(Ref 4)
Would shoppers buy a product if it had no reviews?
of shoppers said they wouldn’t buy a product without reviews on the product page
4
1/3
Do product descriptions and brand photos matter to shoppers?
of shoppers think product descriptions and brand photos are important factors on a product page
3
22%
How critical are product reviews to consumers?
3
of shoppers think reviews are the most important factor on a product page
34%
Hover below for stats
What are some of the most important factors on a product page, according to shoppers?
Sampling can ensure your product detail pages have rich and authentic user-generated content in time for product launches.
Sample before your launch date
STEP 2
and 50 reviews
by 30%
Just one review can increase sales by 10%...
CMO at Rael
Sorah Park
UGC guides essential parts of our overall marketing strategy by showing us how to speak about each product and position them based on what consumers like. Bazaarvoice sampling lets us get much more granular information on our products compared to other sampling providers.
Read full success story
impressions generated from thousands of social posts, shares, likes, and comments
9.8M
custom VoxBoxes with Rael’s skincare products sent to a targeted audience of ideal buyers
2,000
Rael sent products to targeted members of Bazaarvoice's Influenster community of 6 million highly-engaged consumers.
(Ref 6)
Turn feedback into action
Refine its marketing messaging
Mine customer sentiment about new products
1
Product sampling gave Rael an effective way to:
Rael
Success story
“Sometimes reviews reinforce our key uses, and sometimes it's a surprise...”
3M uses reviews to innovate and improve products ahead of launch.
“Sometimes reviews reinforce our key uses, and sometimes it's a surprise in terms of how people use [Post-It® products]. We also hear some negative things, but that is an opportunity for our product development team to re-evaluate and incorporate that feedback.”
– Erica Schiebel, Brand Communications Supervisor at 3M
Enhance your messaging and marketing strategy
Identify opportunities for product improvement
Ratings and reviews give your brand crucial insights into products, so you can:
Listen to consumer feedback
STEP 3
River Island Social and Community Lead in the UK
Chloe Bebbington
Instagram has become more of a conversion driver and trend spotter, so we felt it was the right place to preview product launches. That exclusivity gives the community a reason to be there, to follow you, and to keep engaging.
Read full success story
Exclusivity is an excellent way to inspire fear of missing out (FOMO) for your brand before and during a product launch. Social media is one of the best places to generate FOMO.
River Island launched a dress from its 2019 collection exclusively via Instagram ahead of its entire collection.
Offer exclusives to fans to generate FOMO
River Island
Success story
Video content can be particularly effective, especially for a brand like Canon. The company live-streamed its Canon EOS R5 and EOS R6 launch event and Q&A session in July 2020. The videos were later posted to YouTube and the Canon site – and continued to attract viewers and drive demand for 10 days following the event.
“This was new, and we had two targets — people who had watched the launch video and those who had watched the Q&A. We ran out of stock on our own web store within hours. The demand was crazy.”
– Vishal Patel, Digital Interactions Specialist at Canon Europe
Every brand wants to go viral, but the mechanics are complex. The only way to play the game is to share and maximize the impact of content consumers want to see.
Build social buzz
STEP 4
Canon uses its popular Instagram feed to share images taken by customers, who are credited in the captions. It's an authentic way to market new products.
"Customers will be your best advocates. If you want to launch with the maximum impact, it's they, the people, who matter. Not your company. Let them do the talking."
– Vishal Patel, Digital Interactions Specialist at Canon Europe
The River Island campaign #ImWearingRI offers customers the chance to take selfies, which are shared on River Island's official Instagram account.
“You can't just talk to your audience; it needs to be a conversation. Our social media accounts constantly chat with customers and share their images of their clothes. It's why we've got 2.4 million followers on Instagram!”
– Chloe Bebbington, River Island Social and Community Lead in the UK
River Island
Canon
The best product launches put social media users in charge.
Share content others create
STEP 5
Read full success story
(Ref 7)
new product reviews
20K
social media impressions
39M
new posts, shares, likes, comments, and follows
369K
new pieces of
user-generated content
98K
The 13,500 VoxBoxes sent to Bazaarvoice’s Influenster community generated:
Associate Brand Manager at Kraft Heinz
Elizabeth Northrup
The ability to hyper-target consumers based on behaviors and other characteristics beyond typical demographics was a key benefit in choosing Influenster. The campaigns over-delivered on our targets, delivering 2x the product reviews we expected, and the earned media was over 5x our program investment.
The key to collecting quality reviews and social content is to match the right products with the right consumers, with member segments based on thousands of data points.
Associate Brand Manager at Kraft Heinz
Elizabeth Northrup
The quality of user-generated content from Influenster members was one of the biggest advantages. They were especially creative with their photos.
Kraft Heinz understood from the get-go that generating social buzz for its new salad dressings would be the key to successful product launches.
Before launching eight new offerings from its Kraft Dressings Vinaigrettes, Twisted Ranch, and Bitten lines, the company tapped into Bazaarvoice's Influenster community to help generate reviews and visual content. It worked.
Kraft Heinz
Success story
O
S
E
P
Corporate
social accounts
•
• Blog
• Your website
• Product detail pages
Owned Media
O
Questions
& Answers
• Social posts
•
• User-generated content
• Shopper reviews
• Testimonials
Shared Media
S
• Thought leadership
• Employee social sharing
• Public relations
• SEO
Earned Media
E
• Social ads
• TV ads
• Radio Ads
• Paid search
• Paid influencer programs
• Sponsored content
Paid Media
P
Click for examples of paid, earned, shared, and owned media
Content and channels you create, own,
and manage
OWNED
Organic user-generated content created
by customers
SHARED
Non-paid content created from
publicity
EARNED
Advertising content and channels you
pay for
PAID
Your next converting content will be converged
converged
A balance between paid, earned, shared, and owned media should be maintained to ensure a successful launch. Paid and owned channels are essential for promoting content, tactics, and offers, but earned and shared content and channels offer a more organic perspective that customers will appreciate. By conducting a marketing mix modeling (MMM) analysis, you can identify the most cost-effective elements, enabling you to optimize your content and channel mix.
Before launch, leverage insights from sampling campaigns. Gather data from reviews and social posts, which will give you insight into the most appropriate way to engage with your target demographic when the product goes live. Drilling down how customers will interact with your product can aid you in optimizing page text, filters, and visuals for the transaction-focused experience.
After launch, it is essential to consider all potential data sources, such as paid keyword effectiveness in paid media, strong revenue-driving keyword search terms in organic search, and conducting social listening audits. Reviews and Q&As are useful sources of sentiment analysis and help provide valuable insight into what customers consider important.
A PESO* strategy can help
You can use a few practical strategies to maximize your product's success and ensure a secure and profitable long-term trajectory.
Optimize your strategy
STEP 6
Click on letters to
reveal more
Statista Research Department. Global influencer marketing value 2016-2022.
9
Influencer Marketing Hub. “The State of Influencer Marketing 2022: Benchmark Report.”
8
Bazaarvoice. “Kraft Heinz.” 2020.
7
Bazaarvoice. “Rael.” 2020.
6
Bazaarvoice. “Burt’s Bees.” 2019.
5
Bazaarvoice. “2020 Shopper Experience Index.”
4
Statistia retail e-commerec sales worldwide
3
Bazaarvoice. “2022 Shopper Experience Index.”
2
Digital 2022 Global Overview Report
1
References
Follow these 6 steps to help ensure your next product launches with a bang.
Optimizing your strategy
Sharing user-generated content
Building social buzz
Listening to consumer feedback
Timely product sampling
Creating a product launch timeline
Launching a product with a bang requires preparation and execution. A winning product launch begins with early planning and a strategy focusing on:
Download PDF
This e-book is also available as a downloadable PDF.
While uncertain, the future looks exciting for brands focused on delivering a seamless and engaging omnichannel experience for their customers.
$16.4M
9
The market size of influencer marketing jumped 19% to $16.4 billion in 2022
$1.2T
8
Global sales made through social commerce are expected to reach $1.2 trillion by 2025
Post-it® has seen a substantial rise in the importance of e-commerce.
“There has been an increased desire and appetite from consumers. The team has tried to prioritize e-commerce content even more than before.”
– Erica Schiebel, Brand Communications Supervisor at 3M
Getting more content in more places (faster!) is top of mind for marketers as companies respond to a sharp swing in consumer behavior.
Looking forward
Optimize your strategy
STEP 6
Share content
others create
STEP 5
Build social
buzz
STEP 4
Listen to consumer feedback
STEP 3
Sample before
your launch date
STEP 2
Start planning early
STEP 1
Sample before your launch date
STEP 2
Listen to consumer feedback
STEP 3
Build social buzz
STEP 4
Share content others create
STEP 5
Optimize your strategy
STEP 6
This step gave Burt's Bees advanced consumer insights into its new cosmetics line and plenty of published reviews as products became available at retail stores.
Read full success story
increase in revenue per visitor who engaged with reviews
20%
incremental conversion lift from shoppers who engaged with reviews
16%
of people who received a sample submitted a review within two weeks
94%
reviews collected at launch with a 4.48-star average rating
300+
(Ref 5)
Assistant E-commerce Manager at Burt's Bees
Taylor Steele
The greatest thing was that when lights went on with cosmetics, our reviews were syndicated to 15 key retailers.
Burt's Bees partnered with Bazaarvoice to get pre-released products into the hands of consumers and collect feedback. And the payoff at launch was huge.
Following the success of its lip balms and moisturizers, the health and beauty brand Burt's Bees was keen to expand its product range to include cosmetics.
“We knew reviews could be insurance for new products, and that early qualitative feedback and star ratings would ensure a smooth transition into a new market, said Taylor Steele, Assistant E-commerce Manager at Burt’s Bees.
Burt’s Bees
Success story
Would shoppers buy a product if it had no reviews?
Do product descriptions and brand photos matter to shoppers?
How critical are product reviews to consumers?
1/3
of shoppers said they wouldn’t buy a product without reviews on the product page
4
22%
of shoppers think product descriptions and brand photos are important factors on a product page
3
34%
3
of shoppers think reviews are the most important factor on a product page
Tap below for stats
What are some of the most important factors on a product page, according to shoppers?
Sampling can ensure your product detail pages have rich and authentic user-generated content in time for product launches.
Sample before your launch date
STEP 2
(Ref 4)
and 50 reviews
by 30%
Just one review can increase sales by 10%...
CMO at Rael
Sorah Park
UGC guides essential parts of our overall marketing strategy by showing us how to speak about each product and position them based on what consumers like. Bazaarvoice sampling lets us get much more granular information on our products compared to other sampling providers.
Read full success story
impressions generated from thousands of social posts, shares, likes, and comments
9.8M
custom VoxBoxes with Rael’s skincare products sent to a targeted audience of ideal buyers
2,000
Rael sent products to targeted members of Bazaarvoice's Influenster community of 6 million highly-engaged consumers.
(Ref 6)
Turn feedback into action
Refine its marketing messaging
Mine customer sentiment about new products
1
Product sampling gave Rael an effective way to:
Rael
Success story
“Sometimes reviews reinforce our key uses, and sometimes it's a surprise...”
3M uses reviews to innovate and improve products ahead of launch.
“Sometimes reviews reinforce our key uses, and sometimes it's a surprise in terms of how people use [Post-It® products]. We also hear some negative things, but that is an opportunity for our product development team to re-evaluate and incorporate that feedback.”
– Erica Schiebel, Brand Communications Supervisor at 3M
Enhance your messaging and marketing strategy
Identify opportunities for product improvement
Ratings and reviews give your brand crucial insights into products, so you can:
Listen to consumer feedback
STEP 3
Read full success story
Exclusivity is an excellent way to inspire fear of missing out (FOMO) for your brand before and during a product launch. Social media is one of the best places to generate FOMO.
River Island launched a dress from its 2019 collection exclusively via Instagram ahead of its entire collection.
Offer exclusives to fans to generate FOMO
River Island
Success story
Video content can be particularly effective, especially for a brand like Canon. The company live-streamed its Canon EOS R5 and EOS R6 launch event and Q&A session in July 2020. The videos were later posted to YouTube and the Canon site – and continued to attract viewers and drive demand for 10 days following the event.
“This was new, and we had two targets — people who had watched the launch video and those who had watched the Q&A. We ran out of stock on our own web store within hours. The demand was crazy.”
– Vishal Patel, Digital Interactions Specialist at Canon Europe
Every brand wants to go viral, but the mechanics are complex. The only way to play the game is to share and maximize the impact of content consumers want to see.
Build social buzz
STEP 4
River Island Social and Community Lead in the UK
Chloe Bebbington
Instagram has become more of a conversion driver and trend spotter, so we felt it was the right place to preview product launches. That exclusivity gives the community a reason to be there, to follow you, and to keep engaging.
Canon uses its popular Instagram feed to share images taken by customers, who are credited in the captions. It's an authentic way to market new products.
"Customers will be your best advocates. If you want to launch with the maximum impact, it's they, the people, who matter. Not your company. Let them do the talking."
– Vishal Patel, Digital Interactions Specialist at Canon Europe
The River Island campaign #ImWearingRI offers customers the chance to take selfies, which are shared on River Island's official Instagram account.
“You can't just talk to your audience; it needs to be a conversation. Our social media accounts constantly chat with customers and share their images of their clothes. It's why we've got 2.4 million followers on Instagram!”
– Chloe Bebbington, River Island Social and Community Lead in the UK
River Island
Canon
The best product launches put social media users in charge.
Share content others create
STEP 5
Read full success story
(Ref 7)
new product reviews
20K
social media impressions
39M
new posts, shares, likes, comments, and follows
369K
new pieces of
user-generated content
98K
The 13,500 VoxBoxes sent to Bazaarvoice’s Influenster community generated:
Associate Brand Manager at Kraft Heinz
Elizabeth Northrup
The ability to hyper-target consumers based on behaviors and other characteristics beyond typical demographics was a key benefit in choosing Influenster. The campaigns over-delivered on our targets, delivering 2x the product reviews we expected, and the earned media was over 5x our program investment.
The key to collecting quality reviews and social content is to match the right products with the right consumers, with member segments based on thousands of data points.
Associate Brand Manager at Kraft Heinz
Elizabeth Northrup
The quality of user-generated content from Influenster members was one of the biggest advantages. They were especially creative with their photos.
Kraft Heinz understood from the get-go that generating social buzz for its new salad dressings would be the key to successful product launches.
Before launching eight new offerings from its Kraft Dressings Vinaigrettes, Twisted Ranch, and Bitten lines, the company tapped into Bazaarvoice's Influenster community to help generate reviews and visual content. It worked.
Kraft Heinz
Success story
O
S
E
P
Corporate
social accounts
•
• Blog
• Your website
•
Owned Media
O
Questions
& Answers
• Social posts
•
•
Shared Media
S
Thought leadership
• Public relations
• SEO
Earned Media
E
• Social ads
• TV ads
• Radio Ads
•
•
•
Paid Media
P
Click for examples of paid, earned, shared, and owned media
Content and channels you create, own,
and manage
OWNED
Organic user-generated content created
by customers
SHARED
Non-paid content created from
publicity
EARNED
Advertising content and channels you
pay for
PAID
Your next converting content will be converged
converged
Click on letters to
reveal more
A balance between paid, earned, shared, and owned media should be maintained to ensure a successful launch. Paid and owned channels are essential for promoting content, tactics, and offers, but earned and shared content and channels offer a more organic perspective that customers will appreciate. By conducting a marketing mix modeling (MMM) analysis, you can identify the most cost-effective elements, enabling you to optimize your content and channel mix.
Before launch, leverage insights from sampling campaigns. Gather data from reviews and social posts, which will give you insight into the most appropriate way to engage with your target demographic when the product goes live. Drilling down how customers will interact with your product can aid you in optimizing page text, filters, and visuals for the transaction-focused experience.
After launch, it is essential to consider all potential data sources, such as paid keyword effectiveness in paid media, strong revenue-driving keyword search terms in organic search, and conducting social listening audits. Reviews and Q&As are useful sources of sentiment analysis and help provide valuable insight into what customers consider important.
A PESO strategy can help
You can use a few practical strategies to maximize your product's success and ensure a secure and profitable long-term trajectory.
Optimize your strategy
STEP 6
References
Follow these 6 steps to help ensure your next product launches with a bang.
Optimizing your strategy
Sharing user-generated content
Building social buzz
Listening to consumer feedback
Timely product sampling
Creating a product launch timeline
Launching a product with a bang requires preparation and execution. A winning product launch begins with early planning and a strategy focusing on:
Download PDF
This e-book is also available as a downloadable PDF.
While uncertain, the future looks exciting for brands focused on delivering a seamless and engaging omnichannel experience for their customers.
$16.4M
9
The market size of influencer marketing jumped 19% to $16.4 billion in 2022
$1.2T
8
Global sales made through social commerce are expected to reach $1.2 trillion by 2025
Post-it® has seen a substantial rise in the importance of
e-commerce.
"There has been an increased desire and appetite from consumers. The team has tried to prioritize e-commerce content even more than before."
– Erica Schiebel, Brand Communications Supervisor at 3M
Getting more content in more places (faster!) is top of mind for marketers as companies respond to a sharp swing in consumer behavior.
Looking forward
Paid search
Sponsored content
•
•
User-generated content
• Shopper reviews
• Testimonials
Employee social sharing
Paid influencer
programs
Product detail pages
Optimize your strategy
STEP 6
Share content others create
STEP 5
Build social buzz
STEP 4
Listen to consumer feedback
STEP 3
Sample before your launch date
STEP 2
Start planning early
STEP 1
Download PDF
Looking forward
6
5
4
3
2
1
Download PDF
Looking forward
6
5
4
3
2
1
Download PDF
Looking forward
6
5
4
3
2
1
Download PDF
Looking forward
6
5
4
3
2
1
Download PDF
Looking forward
6
5
4
3
2
1
Download PDF
Looking forward
6
5
4
3
2
1
1
3
4
5
6
7
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
2
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
* PESO Model © by Gina Dietrich of Arment Dietrich, Inc., available under a Creative Commons Attribution No Derivatives License 4.0 at spinsucks.com