To fully leverage the buzz created by a new product release, you need to follow your customer all the way from ”hi” to “buy”. Here are 5 ways to make the most of your product launch with live chat.
In sales, timing is everything
If your company is like most companies, you probably already make a big deal out of new product announcements.
Marketing campaigns are carefully planned, beautiful designs are created and social media blasts are orchestrated – all with the goal of driving traffic to your new product landing page. Which is great! Keep it up!
But once your prospects land on that very landing page, then what? While the marketing team is usually heavily involved in new product launches, the sales team is often remarkably absent – at least online. Isn’t that weird?
When you’ve just launched a new product, people are a bit extra curious. But not for long! With our ever-shrinking span of attention, soon other news will replace it and your new product will no longer be top of mind with your prospects.
That’s why you should make an extra sales effort in your live chat on the days around your product launch.
5 ways to make the most of product releases with live chat
#1 Make sure to assign extra staff the first days
If you’ve done your marketing homework, your traffic should be peaking noticeably on the day of your product launch. This means you'll need more people answering in your live chat. You might also want to consider adding people with more of a sales profile to the chat team on these specific days.
Do you know what time of day your website usually receives the most traffic? You can get a detailed view of your traffic patterns if you add Google Analytics to your website!
#2 Minimise response times
During those first days of your product launch, it’s more important than ever to keep response times as short as possible. People are there because they’re interested now. And you know what they say – you never get a second chance to make a first impression. If you move quickly, you can hopefully prevent prospects from hesitating and bouncing back to Google to check out other competitors.
Intercom uses this tactic, focusing extra hard on reducing response time on the days of new product releases. They have found that visitors are up to 80% more likely to convert into paying customers when they’ve chatted with someone from the sales team first.
#3 Use live chat to upsell – and to downsell (yes, really! )
In today’s crowded market, the brands that thrive are the ones that not only win the deal but also the hearts of their customers. Live chat is a great forum for building personal relationships, for upselling, and… drumroll.. for downselling. What?!?
Yes! Some would even go as far as claiming that downselling is the new upselling. And while your first instinct might be to always be closing, and always be upselling, it might be time to question this old adage.
Let’s take a step back. One of the major challenges for companies trying to scale is usually customer churn. So maybe customer loyalty is actually worth more in the long run, then making those few extra bucks that upselling can bring in the beginning?
Nothing builds loyalty like authentic thoughtfulness. And what can be more thoughtful than to care enough about your customers to actually help them save money and get the best deal?
#4 Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment with live chat
The struggle is real! In average, more than 3/4 of shoppers leave sites before completing the purchase they’ve started.
Prospects changing their mind at the very last minute, abandoning their carts and disappearing back into cyberspace, are a big concern for online businesses. So close, but still no cigar...
There are many ways to deal with this problem and improve your numbers. One of them is to use live chat on your checkout page. Through live chat, you can easily answer any last minute questions that may arise. You can even throw in a discount code or free shipping if you feel the need!
Did you know that Tuesday is the day of the week when people are most likely to abandon their cart? Saturday between 8 and 9pm, on the other hand, is when the fewest carts are abandoned.
#5 Notice what words your visitors use
This one is less about optimising sales during the days of your launch, and more about strengthening your future web presence in terms of SEO.
When chatting with customers about your new product, make sure to note what words they use to describe your offer and your services. Are using words that are different from the ones you use on your website? That could mean that many of your potential clients who are searching for your products won’t find you.
Updating your website with terminology that corresponds to the one your customers use, is a cheap and simple way to gain more and better traffic.
Conclusion
So, next time you’re launching a new product, don’t settle for eyeballs on your ads and webpage. As challenging a task as it is in itself, driving traffic is only the beginning. The hardest, but also the most important part, is converting your visitors into paying customers.
In order to fully leverage the buzz and curiosity created by a new product release, you need to follow your customer all the way from saying ”hi” to pressing “buy”. And there really is no better way to do that than via live chat. ☺️
