For many businesses, 2020 was initially a prime year to launch new products and services as our technological advancement improved. While many were weary about moving forward with a new launch during a volatile market, others discovered new opportunities, all new products and services that could benefit and offer relief to a society that now completely relies on their connected devices during this time.
While we heavily debated releasing our new SaaS product this year, we ultimately determined that our audience now needs these types of products at an increasing rate.
As we continue to work around the changing market environment, staying agile and open minded has been critical.
The following provides key marketing and product launch takeaways learned during the pandemic.
1. Adjust Price and Messaging to Match Current Market
As consumers trade in their everyday lives and work routines to remote, marketers now face an audience that is geared toward working from home with potentially decreased income. Their audiences are now utilizing new technologies and social media platforms to stay connected. Therefore, product messaging, placement and pricing needs to be reassessed ahead of any launch.
Market messaging needs to take into consideration several factors including: completeness, conciseness, consideration, location and accuracy. Consider your audience’s current state. For example, we emphasized that a SaaS product can be used anywhere and everywhere as long as you have internet access. Since the whole world is working from home, creating easy access to the tool and internet is essential.
As the world faces economic challenges, consider offering a lower price point, free trial period, or subscription service to mitigate the cost to buyers as a reflection of pandemic relief.
2. Align Your Product with Successful Ones
One of the most successful things we did, was to align our product with a larger tool in the legal tech industry. We created an integration to an already existing tool to tap into that market. It has already proved successful and we continue to gain leads from that market, and in turn, that company has become a trusted partner.
3. Invest in a Marketing or CRM Platform
Investing in a marketing or CRM platform to help manage marketing efforts was essential. There are several platforms that offer the services you need. For example, we really enjoyed working with HubSpot as they provide a variety of tools to help you become successful as a marketer and can automate several workflows. We implemented a lot of automation for meeting setups, demo requests, and email drip campaigns.
Additionally, LinkedIn’s advertising tools provided us with the ability to drill down and do advertising campaigns to meet our exact target audience. Notably, LinkedIn’s ability to target our exact niche market was more successful than Facebook’s broad reach to a professional audience.
4. Be Prepared
Be prepared to change direction at a moment’s notice. This year has kept everyone on their toes and continues to do so as we face changes caused by the pandemic and politics that directly affect our economy. Always take your audience into consideration with empathy and proceed mindfully.
Have a backup plan and don’t be afraid to think creatively!
5. Master the Demo
During a demo, be prepared to answer a range intermediary to difficult questions from your potential clients. While some potential clients are knowledgeable about your product or service, others might require additional background information such as back-end functionality. It’s a good idea to create a list of potential questions with responses ahead of time. Also, jot down client questions during the demo for the future.
Educating a potential customer about the software requires using terminology that won’t bore them. For example, targeting legal professionals with eDiscovery terms, or commonly used phrases, might make them hesitant to learn more about the software. This is a key consideration of online marketing when you have seconds to impress someone with an ad or blog.
Focus on the buyer and what their journey will be like from beginning to end.
You want it to be as painless as possible. You also want to really simplify the process and make sure anybody can understand your product or service and why it would make their life better if they used the tool.
Also, educating people who are interested in the software is easier than getting them to use it. If you don’t identify something within the software that can directly impact their business and get them to use it, they’ll probably move on as their current process is still working; even if it’s not the most effective method.
Lastly, people now want to have more of a conversation around the product or service and connect face-to-face by using video conferencing. We found that people watched our online video demo but then wanted to have a conversation about the tool more in-depth. People are craving human connection.
Conclusion
It is truly important to understand your customers today and consider the impact the pandemic has created. By implementing the aforementioned takeaways in your marketing strategy, you are bound to overcome today’s hurdles and reach greater heights of success in the future.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Frankie Mohylsky, SVP of Business Development and Marketing at Cicayda
Frankie Mohylsky has spent the past 11 years in the technology sector. She spent 2 years at the leading cloud and virtualization software, VMware. Frankie since has specialized in cloud Ediscovery software and services at her current company, Cicayda. She works with firms and corporations on both the strategic and tactical level to overcome the unique challenges of modern complex litigation. In 2017 Frankie was tasked to relocate to NYC to open Cicayda’s headquarters in the northeast. Frankie is activity involved in the New York Legal Tech Meetup (where she serves on the advisory board), WIE (Committee Member and Meetings Director), New York Junior League (Social Committee Chair). Frankie was honored as one of Nashville’s Top 30 Under 30 Professionals for her philanthropic involvement, exemplary leadership qualities, and professional success.