Requesting Insights on Product Release Strategies - Seeking Community Advice
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Hello HISE Forum Community,
I am reaching out today with a request for your valuable insights and experiences regarding product release strategies. I believe that this forum is a great platform to connect with fellow developers and learn from each other's successes and challenges.
As someone who is currently outlining a strategy for a product release. I would greatly appreciate your advice and insights on the following aspects:
Marketing and Promotion: What strategies and channels have you found successful in creating awareness and generating interest for your products? Are there any marketing tactics or platforms that have worked particularly well for you?
Pricing and Revenue Generation: How did you determine pricing for your products? What factors did you consider, and how did you strike a balance between competitiveness and profitability? Were there any specific pricing models or strategies that proved successful for you?
Lessons Learned: Looking back, are there any do's and don'ts you can share from your own product release experiences? What were some unexpected challenges you encountered, and how did you overcome them? Are there any key insights or tips you would offer to someone embarking on a similar journey?
I kindly invite you to share your experiences, suggestions, and any other insights you believe would be valuable for someone navigating the release of music and audio plugins, virtual instruments, and sample libraries. Your contributions will not only assist me but also benefit others who are on similar paths.
Thank you in advance for your time and willingness to share your wisdom. I greatly appreciate the support of this incredible community and look forward to learning from your experiences.
Warm regards,
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Hey! @RastaChess
Working with someone who has a up and coming sound design business and a person with some marketing experience, here’s my thoughts!
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It’s pretty intimidating at first, all you need is to get the ball rolling, once that parts over, it’s just keeping the hard work going
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For marketing and promotion, there’s two ways you can take this, with organic (no ads) or inorganic (ads) marketing. If you don’t know what the heck you’re doing, go with organic marketing at first. Some people just put out terrible ads at first thinking they’re going to get sales and they’re marketing, but they rarely succeed. Focus on not spending capital for marketing. As you start, you want to save as much money as you can do making your own content and putting it out on various social media is the best way to go. I’d probably recommend TikTok, as it’s insanely used and the form of content that’s on it is perfect for marketing. Every video posted gets some views and if the video and timing is right, it’ll get noticed. Use Instagram alongside TikTok as well. I’d recommend using Insta as your main online presence as anyone can interact with you in many ways (DM, Link in bio, mail, etc.). Use Other platforms too, like YouTube, but be careful, since unlike TikTok or Insta, it is very unlikely someone will stumble across your content due to the vast number of videos, so it’s only recommended if you’re posting longer forms of content and directly linking your vids to TikTok/Instagram.
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DO NOT SKIMP OUT ON CONTENT QUALITY!!! This is what’ll make or break you, if your content/marketing is not good, no one will look closer at your product and will skip past your work. First of all, understand that people don’t want to be advertised to, even I got a adblocker for a reason! You want to make content that doesn’t advertise really, highlight the strengths of your product, and make content that incorporates your product in a useful way in accomplishing a problem. For example, if your selling a virtual instrument, make videos on TikTok about samples/tracks made using the instrument and showcase its differences from other instruments. Another big mistake that people make when doing this is JUST talking about their product in every single video. Remember, people don’t want to be advertised and if your whole TikTok page is full of “Look My Product Is Awesome” everyone will get tired and go. Make different content, actually reward the community. The person I work with is the perfect example of this. He teaches tips and tricks on sound design and gives away free samples/loops for use, which makes more people want to come back to learn more. Your true “marketing” should be usually hidden. Like if you’re teaching how to side chain, use your product as the test subject. It’s a nobrainer, but it does work! Overall, when you’re a making content on social media, you’re number one priority is making content that’s useful and enjoyable to the viewer, something that’ll keep them coming back to your page and make them click on your profile and watch the rest of your videos AND THEN look at your product! Ultimately, people are on social media for a reason, to waste time, ease stress, entertainment, have fun, your content should do as much of these as possible before focusing on selling a product.
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Website designnnnnnnn. This is the conversion point for sales. If the website looks like it was made in the 90s, people are gonna run away, make it look friendly and modern, incorporate things like freebies, which will hook people into your website. When they collect freebies or other products, get their EMAIL!
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For prices it’s really just looking at competitors or people who are selling similar products and seeing their price and matching or selling at a lower price. Low price = more customers so try to go as low as you can. One of the biggest things is to know that you want to make as little profit as you can in the beginning years. You want gain customers and you’re going to need to sacrifice to do that. A really big no is subscriptions (unless they are for a really, and I mean really good reason). Look at Adobe for example. I don’t wanna pay a monthly subscription to keep editing software. There’s a reason why people use Adobe CS6 (including me) and it’s onetime fee.
As you can see by the size of this post, there’s an overwhelming amount of things and I’d even say and unlimited number of knowledge you can get on these topics. It’s vast and I just spit out what was on my mind at the time. One of the best things you can do, is look on social media and see and analyze how other business are selling their product without doing it directly like advertising. Well, sorry for the eyesore haha! If there’s anything more or you have questions, drop them! There’s probably a bunch of things I missed so sorry in advance!
Edit: Ooh! Another important thing I can’t believe I forgot! You want to know your audience! If your selling vsts, then you’re selling to people who like audio in general. The reason why I’m saying this is because social media “algorithms” are going to pair your content up with people who like music and create it, so one big thing you should do, is watch social media and learn how other people make content in that side of social media. For example watch what type of content exists and is viral in the music production side of TikTok. Another important thing is to post content CONSISTENTLY!!! Along with good quality (said earlier), you need to have a good balance of posting consistently. For example, it’s pretty easy to get viral on a platform like TikTok than on others (YouTube), but the process works like this: you’ll post a couple videos and TikTok will give it a couple views until those viewers show interest in a video (you’re “viral”!). Then tiktok will start heading more viewers toward your way! But it will die down, unless you create more content which is “viral”. If you create more popular videos, your viewers will slowly grow up, so be consistent! But remember (even though it’s pretty controversial, I think I’m right, don’t take my word) QUALITY over QUANTITY any day. Also, i can’t believe I forgot to say this, but interact and listen to your viewers! Go on Live with them or respond to comments! For Advertisemt stuff, only go into it if you’re willing to risk your money or your using profit from your business and reinvesting. Advertising is a must, as it’ll allow you to reach people you’ve never seen, but it’s costly and you should never do it without getting the hang of organic marketing. If your product has some “shareable” aspect to it, COLLAB. You want to make connections and do that by reaching out and dming others who are just a bit popular than you that has viewers and influence that can use your product! For example, if your making a virtual insturment and like making music too, collab with a artist that’s bigger than you and make a track. Won’t happen first try but try at it again and again.
Note I’m not a marketing guru trying to sell you a course on getting rich in one month, this is my personal take and somethings may be off, I’m here for any of your questions and concerns! I’m just trying to help!
Thanks! -
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@Casmat Thank you for sharing your insight. I appreciate your emphasis on maintaining high content quality, engaging organically through platforms like TikTok and Instagram, and creating a compelling website design. Your advice on pricing, avoiding subscriptions is particularly interesting, considering how many VI and Audio plugin companies are trying that model.
I will incorporate these considerations into my own approach and further research.
PS: this is exactly the kind of feedback I am looking for. I think it's far more valuable to get the info directly from the people who have gone through the many challenges of a product release. The marketing guru stuff always disappoints anyways.
Thank you.
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@RastaChess Your welcome! the guru's are always good at marketing, but terrible at teaching it when someone gets their "course" haha. As for the subscription based model, its viable to do it if your selling a thing that has ongoing updates and I'd actually recommend it as an option. Don't have it be the sole choice for consumers to get your product since some people may want a subscription. The main reason why these companies, waves for example are trying them out is since they have nothing to lose. They got many customers and they know some people will buy it even if its a subscription.
