10 Steps to Promote Your Product Effectively

Welcome to the fourth part of our Day Job to Dream Job series!

My last article talked about products — how it can increase your influence, income and impact. In case you miss it, you can check it here.

In this article, I will show you how to promote your products effectively in 10 simple steps. And of course, we will have Kary Oberbrunner’s words as our guide.

Excited? Let’s start!

The Promotion Path – 10 Steps to Marketing your Product Effectively

In Day Job to Dream Job, Kary outlined his 10-step promotion path. Let’s examine each of them.

Step 1. Connect to the Client

Are you familiar with the phrase, “people believe in people, not in products”? It’s true. When promoting your product, don’t start with telling people about it!

Instead, connect with your potential customers — understand them and know their relevant needs. Become a friend and establish trust. (This may take time but it’s worth it!)

If your product connects with their needs, only then can you connect your clients to your products.

Step 2. Market the Message

Don’t belittle your product. Albert Einstein’s words puts it this way:

“If you put a small value on yourself, rest assured that the world will not raise your price”

A great product tells a great story and solves a great problem. If your product has one (I’m sure it does), don’t be afraid to tell the world about it. Don’t dilute it!

Step 3.  Identify the Benefits

Does your product have benefits? It better should. And you should know each one of them. Products require an investment — most of the time, money.

If you want your clients to pay for it, then you better make it worth it.

Step 4. Manufacture the Product

Wait. What? You mean I need to market my product before manufacturing it? The answer is a resounding YES! “Market before you manufacture” is not new to us.

Can you think of an example? Let me give you one — movie trailers! There’s a lot of them! And they’re released way before the final movie went out from post production.

As Kary puts it, “real people really motivate you.” Knowing that someone is willing to buy your product can change you from an extreme doubter to a firm believer.

After the first sale, if you still have not manufactured your product, “buy” the time by offering more value — extra features, upgrades or other benefits depending on the type of industry you are in.

Step 5. Guarantee the Experience

Most great products back up their claim by providing a guarantee (ex. If you are not satisfied with our product in 30 days, we will give your money back. No questions asked).

According to a study, including a guarantee increases the number of sales. Why? Because customers love the confidence and security it brings!

Step 6. Trust the Process

Ofcourse, obstacles and challenges will hedge up the way —- glitches, setbacks and hang-ups will appear. If you find yourself in the midst of these, never, never, never give up.

I assure you it will get easier as you move along. This crucial moment is an opportunity to grow.

And you can’t take for granted. Just remember your goals and motivations and you’ll be fine.

Step 7. Over Deliver the Value

Exceeding your customers’ expectations creates delight. On the contrary, underperforming also creates disappointment — you don’t want that.

Keeping your customers happy and constantly exceeding their expectations by providing products of great value, is the key to a successful business. Invest on it!

Step 8. Tweak the Content

You can’t find a 100% perfect product anywhere in the world. Why? Because we ourselves, are not perfect.

Let’s say you are launching a new computer program, are you going to wait until it’s polished perfect (which will never come) before publishing it?

No! Publish it and tweak it along the way.

Seth Godin succinctly summarizes my point this way:

Perfect doesn’t mean flawless. Perfect means it does exactly what I need it to do. A vacation can be perfect even if the nuts on the plane weren’t warmed before serving.

Any project that’s held up in revisions and meetings and general fear-based polishing is the victim of a crime.

It’s a crime because you’re stealing that perfect work from a customer who will benefit from it. You’re holding back the good stuff from the people who need it, afraid of what the people who don’t will say.

Stop polishing and ship instead. Polished perfect isn’t better than perfect, it’s merely shinier. And late.”

Step 9. Gather Testimonials

Testimonials come naturally when you over deliver your product. If it didn’t come, then do your best to get one. Ask for it!

Do follow ups and ask your clients how your product has helped them. Remember, it is your job to track transformation.

As Kary puts it, “Do your job first and they’ll do theirs next”.

Step 10. Envision the Future

Over delivered products create long-term relationships while products that has average to nothing value only enjoy first day sales — the rest is history.

Businesses that value their customers earn trust in the long run. They experience repeat customers and repeated sales. Take Apple for example.

Why in the world would people line up for 6 hours just to get the latest iPhone when they can just simply walk into the store and pick one a week after the initial release?

Lenmark.