Let’s say you’ve started your brand. Did your big launch, had a great set of clothing lines, and built a sizeable audience with your outfits. That’s great–but can you keep the hype up? Launching new lineups is a great way to generate interest for your brand, but learning how to build hype for a product launch is different from just launching a new brand. If you’re struggling to find ways to market your new releases, check out these quick tips for your next launch.
How to Build Hype for a Product Launch
Check your calendar
Timing is essential in marketing and sales. It’s not just about maintaining a product launch schedule and sticking to it–it’s about important event calendars, competitor releases, and even current news.
When you’re planning your newest launch, make sure that you have your audience’s complete attention and availability. This means strategizing around busier months with numerous competitive releases or prioritizing strategic days where your audience will be more open to new purchases.
For example: launching a new product on Christmas or New Year can be a good idea to take advantage of the holiday rush. However, you’ll likely be releasing alongside a flurry of sales and other options for audiences to choose from. How will your new product stand out in that market? What new thing can you offer to your buyers?
You can also launch on quieter months like July or September, but those are months where buyers will be prioritizing upcoming holidays over other purchases. How can you fit into their considerations? These are things you should be thinking about when planning a launch.
Collaborate with other brands
Brand collaborations are a great way to build hype for a product launch. Not only are you working together with different voices to make something new, but you’re also showing off your brand to new audiences. Different brands will come with their own set of enthusiasts, and collaborations consolidate these markets and can even grow new opportunities in the future.
Of course, you’d need to make sure the brand you collaborate with makes sense for your own audience. Consider the niche you fill in the market and what your audience looks forward to seeing in your releases the most. How does your branding benefit your future partners? In return, how can your future partners further build your brand’s identity?
Reveal sneak peeks and teasers
Sneak peeks and teasers are essentially trailers for new releases. They’re sweet, simple, and so deceptively short they leave you wanting more. Giving your audience little hints–quick Instagram stories, small pictures of the behind-the-scene production, a quick look of parts of your product–makes them curious. And curiosity is one of the most powerful forces in hype marketing, and one of the best ways to build hype for a product launch.
You should be careful not to start with anything major here. Pick out parts of your apparel that catch people’s attention–a design, or a faraway glance at the production–and let them engage for themselves. If you’re working together with another brand, you can also leave small hints or references to your collaborator’s logos or signature looks to clue people who are ‘in the know.’
Make limited drops and deals
Pay attention to the things people appreciate in life. Money, vacations, designer clothes and expensive tech–these are things that are rare and require time and effort to invest in. Scarcity has been the go-to tactic in marketing for years, and that’s because it works. Brands that use limited time deals and drops gain twice the amount of audience retention over time than those that don’t.
Your scarcity has to be intentional and calculated, though. Limiting your supply (i.e. only dropping a few items at a time and announcing the limit) can create a sense of urgency but might affect your total sales calculations. Time limits on when a product will be on sale or for pre-order do something similar.
You can also experiment with making limited-time promotional deals for ‘special customers’ who pre-order, subscribe to a newsletter, or like and share your content on social media. This simple tactic increases engagement and spreads word of your new clothing lines like wildfire.
Create discussions online
There are a lot of straightforward tactics to go viral online. Whether you’re using catchy TikTok hooks or humorous content, you can spread the word about your brand and its new release through related discussions and jokes on social media. The idea behind it all is to create discussion and constant forms of engagement.
Simple tactics you can try out include Instagram polls and inbox questions, or relatable videos with easy but fun calls to action. While these are meant to promote your brand’s next drop, try to be as authentic and real as possible when interacting with your audience.
Collaborate with an influencer
Influencers have been around for a while, but social media platforms made them a real mainstay in marketing. Unlike celebrities of the past, influencers can be more down-to-earth and relatable to general audiences, making them great for affecting purchasing decisions. They’re also more approachable to brands, so you can snatch a good influencer collaboration with relative ease.
When you build hype for a product launch, you need to try to find major names your audience turns to when looking for new products. For streetwear, this can be anything from dedicated stylist creators like Wisdom Kaye or bloggers and Youtubers who overlap with your audience’s interests. Other apparel types will have different audiences, of course, so do a little digging on your audience profile before selecting your influencer.
Announce with intention
Finally, on the day of your release, the way you launch will dictate the rest of your clothing line’s success. Let your most dedicated clients and enthusiasts know first–this can be through something like a subscription update from a previous email marketing campaign, or some other form of in-group gathering.
Then, when you announce your new clothing line or product, keep people up to date. What’s the limit on your drops? When will the sale end? Are you close to selling out on your current lineup? All these little updates give your audience continuous reminders that yes, this is new, and yes, you should definitely buy now before it’s gone.
When your audience gets their hands on your new product, they’ll want it to live up to all that hype. No matter how you build hype for a product launch, nothing’s more anticlimactic than waiting months for a mediocre release. Great fabric and high-quality apparel with variety never disappoints–check out our premium collection to see what your next best lineup will look like.
