How to drive awareness & education of a new product with mobile marketing

If you’ve invested considerable time, effort, and a considerable amount of money into the development of a new product, it’s understandable that you can’t wait to show it off. Just as you wouldn’t stop running with the marathon finish line in sight, you can’t simply halt marketing efforts and place your new product on the shelf, presuming consumers will discover it on their own.

In these competitive times, traditional marketing methods like floor displays, magazine ads, and online banners only go so far. You must position your message in front of your busy, distracted audience when it matters most. Mobile marketing will help you do just that! 

In this article, you’ll learn how to build awareness & education of a new product with the latest mobile marketing tactics.   

Why consider mobile marketing for product awareness and education?

If you’re on the fence about investing in mobile marketing efforts, consider these statistics:

• Over 51% of smartphone users have discovered a new brand or product via mobile.
• Thirty percent of mobile shoppers say video is the best method of discovering new products.
• Ninety-six percent of people say they’ve watched a mobile video to learn more about a product.
• Consumers spent 18 billion hours on mobile shopping apps in 2018.
• Mobile shopping app use rose to 54% in 2017, compared to other shopping app categories.

Given the impact of mobile compared to other forms of advertising, there should be little hesitation in drumming up the necessary resources for an effective mobile marketing plan.

How to build awareness and drive education of a new product with mobile

Building awareness of new product’s benefits, features, and uses can be done in numerous ways:

1. Use mobile video.

Mobile video has the capability to reach shoppers when they are most likely to purchase—in the store, with the product (or a competing product!) in hand. Mobile shoppers are more likely to begin watching a video on a mobile device, finish watching the full video, and share the video with friends, compared to desktop shoppers.

Recently one of our customers Carmex lip balm launched a new watermelon flavour and was able to achieve 40% conversion of shoppers they reached in the Shping app that went on to watch the entire watermelon flavour launch video. 

2. Create a lookbook.

A lookbook is a collection of photos of your product designed to inform and inspire, much like a magazine spread or catalog. Visual look-books have long been popular in promoting fashion brands, as they offer styling inspiration. Look-books can help you tell a story about your brand. We are now seeing chemist and grocery brands getting in on the act of positioning their brands with placement imagery instead of standard product photos. These moments of sustained engagement are priceless, resonating with audiences on an emotional level as they spend time actively flipping through your images.

3. Promote a bundled offer.

One easy way to encourage existing customers to go out on a limb and try something new is to include a product in a bundled offer. For example, you might package a top-selling product along with the new product in a trial size. Or you might promote your new launch with known products in a mobile marketing campaign, providing instruction on how they might work in tandem.

4. Attract new shoppers with social proof

You have a great product. You’ve developed a stellar website. Even your packaging looks sexy. But new clients these days are also looking for one more thing before making a commitment to spend money on you -- what other people are saying about you or your product. People need to see that others also enjoy that product. It’s what we call social proof: the idea that buyers are influenced by the decisions and actions of others around them.

5. Run a competition

Contests are a unique way to drive brand awareness and product education without directly promoting yourself—they offer a fun and interactive way for people to engage with your brand. In other words, contest marketing is a less “sales-y” way to promote your organisation. Contests can drive lots of user-generated content and word-of-mouth advertising so your audience promotes your brand for you. 

Where to Begin Your New Product’s Mobile Launch Campaign

If you have a mobile app of your own already, that may seem like the most logical place to advertise new products. However, it’s not the only opportunity. Maximise your efforts and reach untapped markets by making use of existing mobile architecture. Shopping apps are one of the fastest-growing categories of apps downloaded to smartphones. Why not become part of a consumer’s typical day by partnering with the apps they already use daily?

Maximise your efforts and reach untapped markets by making use of existing mobile architecture.

Shping brings all of these mobile marketing tactics together in one app. You can leverage videos, look-books, location-based marketing, competitions, social proof and promotions to build awareness of your new product. Then, reward shoppers for learning more about your products and trying your latest offering with coins they can convert to cash in their bank account. Whether you have your own rewards program in place or not, Shping will help you connect with a ready-made audience that is receptive to trying new products they may have never seen or heard of before.