The Best Way to Test New Products & Marketing Strategies

Ecommerce owners are always looking to find a winning product or marketing strategy to increase sales & profits. But blindly rolling out a new item isn’t always the best use of time & resources. Instead, you can test out your new ideas without a significant investment & still win big. Here’s how to get started.

Recruit Your Customers

Your customers offer valuable information about what’s working with your ecommerce business & what’s not. Recruit them to participate in product & marketing research, benefits, & strategies. Send them a poll, call them to talk about your products’ experiences, & ask them to test out your new items. The more your customers are involved in the process, the more likely you will find a winning strategy. 

Run a Giveaway

Your latest products & services giveaways are a powerful way to raise brand awareness, get the word out about your business, & generate some buzz. Apps like Social Boost Giveaway also help reward people with entries for your giveaway when they complete the entry method you specify. A list of entry methods could include:

– Refer-a-friend

– Newsletter sign-up

– Liking your social media pages

– Sharing on Facebook

– Visiting Instagram

Use Test Ads

Ecommerce store owners win big when they run test ads. Whether you want to advertise & market on Facebook or Google ads, you can run ads to see how your target market responds. Start with a small ad spend to see which ads are the most effective. Once you find one that works, scale your way to success with the methods that show the most promise. 

You can also create individual landing pages with registration sign-up to run with your ads. Each landing page should have a specific sales strategy, copy, images, & value proposition. Test your results to see which ads work the best with each landing page before launching your new products or services.

Amplify Your Content Marketing & SEO

Content marketing is a long game & takes some time to nurture and get results. But it’s also an effective way to market your products, earn organic search, & create a sustainable traffic stream. 

Blogs, product guides, case studies, & customer interviews are all ways to amplify your content marketing reach. Brush on best practices with SEO to optimize your content & make it as search engine friendly as possible. You can learn more about ecommerce writing for SEO here. 

Feature User-Generated Content

Consider adding more User Generated Content to your marketing strategy. It’s a powerful way to show social proof & give insights into how your products work from those who actually use them. But it’s more than just brand awareness. Research shows that out of 200,000 ecommerce stores, users who interact with User Generated Content are 161% more likely to convert. 

Engage in Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is an innovative way to both test new products & marketing strategies at the same time. You may not be able to score an influencer with millions of followers, but micro-influencers with a few thousand engaged audience members could be even more effective. 

Choose influencers with a similar target market who are vested in the types of products you already sell. Offer to send the influencer your products to test & giveaway items to their audience members. The more you can get in front of customers who already want the types of products you sell, the easier your testing strategy becomes.

Turn to Facebook Groups

Facebook Groups are already filled with your target audience looking for new products to try. Some groups frown on giveaways or self-promotion, but that doesn’t mean you can’t gather valuable info by joining the conversation.

Ask what they look for in the type of items you’re selling & scour the comments closely for any complaints about competitor products. You can also jot down notes about the language your audience is already using. For example, are your target audience entrepreneurs and engage in tech talk? Are they moms? College students, who use slang? Work to mimic the language & nuances they already use to niche down your marketing efforts. Your target audience will feel like you’re marketing directly to them.  

There’s more to Facebook than groups & leaving posts and comments. Get a breakdown of how to market on Facebook in 2021 here.

Create a Beta Test Group

There’s no reason you can’t start charging for products & services during the testing phase. Launch a beta test group with your best customers or willing participants. The idea is to offer them VIP access or a deep discount to test & offer feedback. Sending them regular surveys or scheduling a call to discuss the product in a focus group provides deep insights into what your customers really want.

Take Pre-Orders

You can sell the products you have before you ever have the inventory in stock with pre-orders. With a prototype in hand, you can write up sales copy & promote the item on a pre-sale basis. Pump up your sales copy with excitement over the product or do a limited run to drive up the sense of urgency. 

Of course, you’ll need to be able to deliver on your orders. With CustomCat’s print-on-demand, you can easily offer high-quality products with customized designs in no time. You can learn more about CustomCat’s services here:

– POD for Promo Products with CustomCat

– How to Get Started with CustomCat

Test Your Results

One of the most critical phases of product & marketing testing is checking your results. Dig into your Google Analytics & sell platform analytical tools whether you’re using Shopify or Etsy. Analyze to see which products sold best, which marketing efforts pulled in the most traffic, & how your results stack up against last year. When you have a clear idea of what’s working, you can scale your efforts to succeed. 

Final Thoughts

Ready to reignite your ecommerce store & test out new products and marketing strategies? Share what’s worked for your store by leaving a comment below!