Preparing to sell

To successfully bring a new product or service to market you must follow some essential steps.

Study the market

You should study your competitors' marketing materials (adverts, websites etc) and identify where your product or service is similar and where it is not. You will then be able to assess if customers are likely to buy from your or your competitors. See understand your competitors. 

This information will also reveal the ideal customer for your product or service that you can then target with your marketing.

A good method to use is a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis. See a SWOT analysis example.

Define your marketing strategy and tactics

You must choose the right sales and marketing channels for your product/service, eg shop, website or both.

Usually, a business that sells across many channels will achieve greater success because customers who can shop when and however they like tend to spend more and shop more often. See factors to consider before you sell.

You should make sure that as many people as possible know about your product or service, including potential customers, the media and reviewers. See sales promotion.

Know the life cycle of your product or service

After introducing your product or service your marketing campaign will need to be updated as your product or service matures.

By carefully monitoring your marketing results, you will be able to see diminishing returns that will indicate when it is time to:

• revise the product or service
• alter your media message
• phase out and launch a new product/service

See product life cycle.