We’ve all heard it: having a strong social media presence is essential in today’s hyper-connected world. But what is rarely talked about is the specifics of what makes a social media presence strong. In our experience, an effective social media strategy is one that is aligned with a product’s life cycle. What do we mean by this?
To be specific, this means that practically everything you post online about the product you’re developing and trying to sell should be synced with its current life cycle phase. Doing this ensures that your messaging resonates with your target audience at every stage, from beginning to end.
Of course, aligning your social media and content creation strategy with your product’s life cycle is easier said than done, as there are a lot of moving parts you need to coordinate. But the good news is, this is definitely possible to achieve with some planning and the right tools.
What is Product Life Cycle?
Before we delve into practical tips for aligning your strategy with your product’s life cycle (PLC), let’s define the latter. Put simply, PLC is a succession of stages that a product goes through, from its inception all the way to its inevitable end. Each phase has its own challenges and opportunities for your social media strategy, so it’s important to understand them before creating your marketing campaign.
Stage 1: Introduction
Every product has a humble beginning: an idea. Once it undergoes R&D and is found to be feasible, it is created and then launched. This stage – introducing the product to the world – is called the first phase in the PLC, and it is during this time that you want to focus on creating awareness and generating excitement around your product.So, during stage one, your social media strategy should involve educating your audience about your product’s features, benefits, and unique selling points. Ultimately, this is all about creating hype and generating curiosity, so make sure you use teaser posts, behind-the-scenes glimpses, and perhaps influencer partnerships (if it makes sense for your industry) so you can build anticipation.
Stage 2: Growth
The growth stage is characterized by your product gaining traction and increasing sales. This is the perfect time to capitalize on the momentum and expand your reach, so use your media strategy for this purpose during this phase.
Practically speaking, this is how you can take full advantage of this stage: display customer testimonials and success stories prominently. Why? Because this will help build trust and amplify your brand’s credibility, which will further help boost your sales.
Stage 3: Maturity
Once the novelty has worn off, your product has reached its maturity stage. This time is marked by steady but no longer growing sales; it’s not a sign of a certain impending downfall, although it definitely can be if you don’t do your best to remain relevant. After all, it is during this time that you’ll notice intensified competition, so your focus should be on keeping the excitement alive for as long as possible.
You can do this by offering exclusive promotions and loyalty programs, as well as by sharing user-generated content and interesting sneak peeks (the latter works especially well if you plan on introducing some new features). All this can help keep your customers loyal and engaged and potential customers interested.
Stage 4: Decline
Once your sales start to taper off, usually due to fierce competition or new trends and technologies, your product has entered the decline stage. While it may be tempting to scale back on social media efforts, bear in mind that maintaining a strong presence is absolutely crucial for remaining relevant.
During this time, redirect your focus towards customer support, feedback gathering, and product improvement. The goal is to prolong the value of your product for as long as possible, so take advantage of social media monitoring tools to track your audience so you can uncover new opportunities to stay relevant.
Keeping Up with Every Stage
To effectively manage your product’s life cycle and social media strategy, make sure you tailor your content and messaging to each stage of the cycle and the evolving needs and expectations of your audience. Product Life Cycle Management (PLM) software can help you with this task.
As you can probably surmise by now, PLM simply refers to managing everything involved with a product, from its inception to its decline. A PLM software just makes this entire process easier by managing all the processes at every step of a product life cycle.
As an example, let’s take TriStar, a popular PLM company that specializes in exactly this kind of work. By streamlining product development, optimizing manufacturing processes, and enhancing collaboration across teams, a software solution like this can ensure seamless coordination and consistency in messaging throughout every stage of your product’s journey.
Other tools that can help are social media monitoring or listening solutions like Hootsuite, Nexalogy, Reputology, etc. By regularly analyzing metrics such as engagement, reach, and conversion rates, you can not only gauge but precisely measure the effectiveness of your campaigns.
Use these tools to identify trends and patterns, and gain insights so you can refine your approach whenever needed. At the same time, make sure you don’t get too comfortable: experiment with different content formats, posting schedules, and audience targeting techniques to optimize performance.
Finally, since the world of social media is governed by technological advancements, cultural trends, and consumer behavior, it is constantly changing. To remain relevant, stay adaptable to these changes: diversify your social media presence across various platforms to reach different segments of your target audience, and experiment with emerging platforms, trends, and formats to stay ahead of the curve.