Marketing a Product

UNIT - I

1. MARKETING A PRODUCT

Marketing is a constant process. If you're selling a product or service, you will have to speak or communicate. Speaking can be a practical strategy in your marketing plan. It is an important strategy. It is possible to make a sale on the spot or surely in the near future. The product can be sold once or to multiple members of your audience. Whatever may be the case, you will have to make an interesting presentation. But you can use the same strategies for marketing your products for a certain period of time and then you will have to change your modus operandi. You don't have to be overtly 'salesy' to sell a product or offer a service.

Examine your audience:

Look at the audience who is most likely to buy your products or services. They are your potential customers and you will be able to effectively sell your products.

Decide whether you are going to address your ideal audience or you will be talking to conference organizers. Make sure you are talking to the right audience. Of course, if you you, really want to speak to a group of folks who aren't likely to purchase anything from that's your wish or prerogative - but categorize audience who will become your customers.

Ask for extra information about the type of people attending your presentation.

Some event organizers do not like to give lot of details and they may feel irritated to answer your questions but many will be happy to help you.

Speak:

Plan to talk about topics that make the benefits of your product or service clear - even if you never mention your company's name.

Plan an Offer Just for the Event

Create an offer specifically for the event. Your offer doesn't actually have to be all that unique. It can even be something that you normally offer to customers.

Develop a physical manifestation of your product, if it's not something that you can just carry with you to the event, take the most amazing e-book or suggest an amazing website where they can view the physical manifestation of the product.

The audience should be given a physical reminder like post card. Having a piece that audience members can take away is doubly important.

Plan how to measure your sales resulting from your speech. Especially if what you're offering is the sort of thing that a potential customer won't immediately act on, make sure that they act on in the near future.

Line up a way to get your marketing materials, or even a sample of your product, into the hands of attendees. Preferably, you can find an option beyond handing it out yourself, although that's also a necessary part of marketing your products or services. If you can arrange to have your materials included in a swag bag or available on a table for attendees, you can make sure that more people have access to what you're offering.

 

Arrange to Sell Your Products at the Event

Step 1

Check what sales are permitted at the event. Not all conferences or other events allow speakers to set up a table for their products or to offer a service to attendees.

Step 2

Even if the event doesn't allow direct sales, check what other options you have: if you are creating a special deal just for attendees, many event organizers are willing to be a little more flexible. You may need to pay for an exhibit hall table or for a sponsorship to be able to sell your product or services.

Step 3

Prepare your presentation based on the guidelines of the event organizer. If you are not allowed to pitch your product or service during your talk, don't. Make sure that people come up to speak to you afterwards.

Step 4

Prepare statements that you can use in conversation. While you can't script out a conversation in advance, you can make sure that you have facts and numbers at hand and you're prepared to talk about them.

 

Make Your Offer

Step 1

sob Share your background during your talk. You need to win over your audience from the very beginning of any talk you give. The first few minutes are very important. Doing so is actually part of your sales pitch, albeit a very subtle part. But by talking about the experiences your clients and customers have had, particularly in addressing a problem that members of your audience face, you're establishing yourself as the person with the solution.

Step 2

Show - don't tell - what you can do. You can't get up on stage and tell everyone you know what you're doing. Rather, you need to be two steps ahead of your audience: you might tell them about a problem that they don't even know they have, a trend that's coming soon or another factor that they can't easily deal with, unless they have your help.

Step 3

Mention any special offer that you've brought for your audience - but just mention it. Repeating what a great deal it is or trying to make a hard sell is rarely appealing to an audience, so keep your pitch brief.

Step 4

Make yourself available after your talk to address questions and concerns from the audience. Even if you've added your information to a swag bag or you've got a table where preferably you're handing out information, make sure that you can hand something out - more than just a business card - while you're talking.

 

Make Yourself

Step 1

Include all of your relevant contact information in your presentation. It's often best to have an introductory slide, giving your name and company, and then using the last slide to offer up all of your contact details - that's the slide that will stay up the longest if you take questions.

Step 2

Create opportunities for follow up. By asking your audience to contact you about a specific question, á survey or some other detail, you're making it more likely that they'll contact you after the event. Integrate such a request into your presentation.

Step 3

Mention your talk on social media, both before and after. Make sure that you use any event hash tag or the specific forums where your audience may be, so that you can remind your audience of what they found valuable about your talk.

Step 4

Post your slides online. It's so easy to share slides after a presentation, as well as make it clear that those slides are part of a particular event.

 

6 Steps to Talk About Your Product With Passion

Here are some suggestions for reviving up when you're writing or talking about your products:

1. Sit up straight. Better yet, stand. Best: Walk or run around your office!

2. Smile! It boosts the listeners.

3. Look up, not down at your notes or your computer screen. Talk spontaneously.

4. Wave your arms and do whatever you do naturally when you're enthusiastic and confident.

5. Keep a few toys around like ball, Low-tech but fun.

6. Enjoy the dialogue. When you have fun and love what you do, your enthusiasm is infectious or contagious and the audience will become enthusiastic.

 

Exercise

Imagine you are a Marketing Executive for your software on learning all four skills of English with various online tests. The software can be installed in systems in English labs for the betterment of the students. Give a talk to the professors of the college with an aim to sell your software.