Ramping up sales for a new product takes time. It’s a process that relies on advertising, PR, and word of mouth, and it doesn’t always happen as quickly as you’d like it to. Preselling your product will get the wheels greased and turning before your product is fully built. In this post we’ll explore how to presell your new product idea and the steps you can take to presell successfully.
Preselling has several benefits to you as a product developer. It allows you to validate that there’s a market with a need, that your product idea fills the market’s needs, and that the market is willing to pay enough for your product to build a business around it. A presale also allows you to gain valuable feedback from early adopters that you can implement in V2. Testing the product in the market before releasing it more widely will help you be sure the fit is just right.
What Preselling Isn’t
First, let’s define what preselling isn’t. Preselling isn’t tricking people into thinking they’re going to get a product immediately upon placing an order. You aren’t being deceptive when you run a presale. In fact, your sales page should make it very clear that your product is in development, and you’re offering a special deal to those who want to support its development and get a better price and first access in return.
How to Presell Your New Product Idea
Let’s take a look at a six-step process you can use to presell your product idea.
1. Find Out How the Market Describes Their Pain Points
Before you start building your marketing assets for your presale, you need to find out how the market describes their pain points. What exactly frustrates them? What impact is the pain having on their lives? Also ask questions that will help you learn what the market is looking for in a solution. This data will help you as you’re writing the copy for your sales page and other marketing materials. You can use surveys and interviews to gather this information.
2. Create a Vision for Your Product
You need to tell users what to expect from your product. Beyond features, show them exactly how your product will impact the problems they face and how it will make their lives better. Share wireframes, mockups, and/or a prototype so people can envision what the product will look and feel like.
3. Determine the Level of Support You Need
Map out your plan for how many customers you want to onboard or what funding levels you’ll need in order to build out your product. Be specific, and do the research to ensure your numbers are based on data, not assumptions.
4. Create a Sales Page
With a clear vision to share with prospective customers, you’re ready to build your sales page. Here are the essentials to include:
- Clearly describe who you’re targeting, the pain points they face, and how your product will solve their problems. Keep your headline and subhead concise and concrete.
- Explain what you’re offering and what the benefits are to being an early adopter. At the same time, be very clear that this is a presale, and your buyer’s support will help to build the product.
- Share an overview of the product, the features it will include, and visuals.
- Make your call to action clear. Tell your prospective customers what you’d like them to do and what they’ll get out of it.
- Make it easy for people to purchase online or to contact you if they want to learn more.
- Limit the period of time you run the presale or limit the number of spots available to participate in order to create a sense of urgency and scarcity. Perhaps use a countdown clock.
- Include social proof. Give prospective customers confidence in you by including testimonials from clients you’ve worked with or customers of your other products, or endorsements. Add quotes from those who have already provided their support.
5. Launch the Presale
Promote your presale on your social media pages. Send an email out to your email list. Contact the media outlets and publications that reach your target audience. Begin your ad campaigns. Create a video and share it online. Ask people in your network to share your sales page with their networks.
It’s also a good idea to run live Q&A sessions in order to generate buzz and build trust and transparency.
6. Close It Out and Collect Feedback
Be sure to close your presale when you said you would, sending out reminders as the deadline draws closer. Thank everyone who participated in any way — whether they made a purchase or supported you through marketing. Let everyone know when to expect to hear from with you with questions to gather feedback. And share your timetable for delivering your product.
A presale benefits you in many ways: providing funds for development, feedback from real-world users, and help in spreading the word. This process for how to presell your new product idea will help you organize and run your presale effectively.
Want to talk through your app idea and find out how we can help bring it to life? Get in touch.
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