How to Successfully Launch an Online Golf Business
Bringing a New Golf Product to Market can be a daunting task. If you are past the production stage and are getting ready to launch you will want to make certain you take very calculated steps to ensure success. The following tips and advice are the result of my work with over 100 new golf products, each with their own challenges, nuances and opportunities.
I know how exciting bringing a new product to market can be; you want to get it in the hands of golfers RIGHT AWAY. However, a little bit of planning can go a long way in creating a successful marketing launch. Here are some key items you will want to address when launching a new golf product.
Learn the Competitive Landscape– The golf industry is a vast market of golf products and knowledge, chances are you will find either a direct competitor or closely related product to evaluate. You will want to break down these competitors by their online activity to identify what is driving their business. You are entering into their market, so you want to make sure you know everything about them and how they run their business.
Competitive Tracking Tips:
Find, friend and follow their social profiles. This will provide some competitive intelligence and keep you closely tied into the promotional moves they are making.
Track what’s happening real time around keywords, related topics, competitors and your own brand name by setting up Google Alerts.
Grab competitive keyword and referral traffic information to build your content strategy, seo campaign, and referral traffic targets. Use keywordspy.com, similarweb.com and spyfu.com to get detailed reports.
Know Where to Market Your Golf Product – In order to make sales you have to get in front of the right golfers. Finding out where your prospects spend their time online will help to minimize the “test marketing” phase and get you right into the real prospects.
Use your competitive evaluation to find marketing channels that are working well for your product type.
Start building a fan base through social media. Building a fan base is a lot more involved than posting to social sites and adding friends – get more personal with golfers and see what they like (or don’t like) about your product. Including golfers in the creation of a brand can lead to more loyal followers and an increase in customers in the future.
Jump stat your sales with a dedicated email marketing blast. This is a great way to test the market and determine response rates for digital marketing.
Use press releases to announce the launch of your company. Work with a trusted and reliable Golf PR company to help distribute to as many of the top golf media sites as possible.
Create a Video – We live in a society that wants information FAST. Create a short video to highlight the benefits of your product. A quick video intro can grab your target audience faster than any static web page but don’t just keep it on YouTube – share it anywhere and everywhere you can; Social Sites (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter…) and through your own personal network.
Review Sites – There are a TON of golf product review sites that you can submit your product to. Send a sample of your product off to review sites and follow up to make certain you get some press out of your free gift. Reviews not only add to the credibility of your product but also expose your business to new networks of golfers. Here are a few options Ideas - www.GolfGrade.com, www.hackersparadise.com, www.MyGolfSpy.com
Keeping Momentum – Pre Launch marketing activities consist of introducing your product concept and hype for launch but there is a lot more work to be done after your product is out in front of the golf world. Creating content should be the primary objective of sustaining a successful launch, positioning your business in a competitive market and growing sales. Your marketing team (which may only be you to start) should focus on creating as much content as possible to position yourself as an industry expert. Here are some content development areas to focus on:
Blogs – Create articles that support your product category. If you have a golf swing training aid you should really be developing as much info on the topic of the golf swing as possible. This information not only pulls golfers in but also speaks to your expertise and helps to reinforce the buying decision. Share these articles with all of your social profiles and connections.
Create Videos – Find a cost effective way to produce quality videos that highlight your golf product attributes. Real customer experience is also HUGE. Showing real golfers using your products is another vote for product viability.
Create Promotions – You will want to build your own database for on-going marketing. Database growth can be achieved through social promotions. Offering free giveaways and opportunities for your fans can be an excellent way to achieve this.
Stay Current – Don’t let your golf product gather “virtual dust”. Keep re-inventing how you position your product to reach different segments of your target audience.
Ask for Feedback – Once you start selling products follow up with your customers. This will be easiest to do at the start and will provide invaluable product feedback, ideas for future marketing, testimonial content and can help to identify brand advocates for your company.
There’s a lot of work to get done and a lot more to getting your product off the ground so stay connected to us to learn more marketing strategy. I wish you the best in bringing your new golf product to market. Let us know if we can be of assistance.
Ed Sanchez
President
Golf Pulp Media ed@golfpulpmedia.com
