The moment when you unveil your product to the world can make or break its impact on the market. That’s one of the reasons why picking the right date for launching your product is so imperative to the overall success of your cosmetic line.
People and organizations have different habits, so if you end up alerting them at a wrong time, they might ignore your message and never learn about your product or your launch party. Note that the best time to throw a launch party for your cosmetic line is on the day the product is released or as a teaser several days before the release.
If the latter, don’t hold it too early; you want the anticipation to be at its peak when the product is released. While there is no set rule, try to hold the event no more than two weeks before the release date. Your cosmetic product launches as a whole should also be timed according to the time of year.
If perhaps the cosmetics make for an excellent Christmas gift, then make the product launch event planning conference a holiday event. You can also consider industry-specific holidays or explore times of the year when the industry sees a peak in activity.
Proper timing is crucial to all stakeholders. You might be wondering who cares about the release of your product: Everybody does; the press, your customers, your co-workers, and all the people who are somehow related to your business or product. For instance, you can seriously hurt your promotion by emailing journalists your press release on Sunday. Sunday is the only free day writers have, so don’t count on them checking their inbox on that day.
What about Monday? We all know that the first day of the week is a busy one and you don’t want to risk your press release getting lost between emails from the previous week. Tuesday is just perfect. It gives you three more days to follow up on journalist’s questions. If you decide to launch your product on Wednesday, there is simply enough time to spread the message before the weekend rolls in.
Note that these planning and tips are necessary to ensure your strategy and ideas reach the intended audience. You will have to support this plan with a broader plan for your product launch scheme where you consider other aspects such as customer service, marketing, and technical support.
How to Plan a Successful Launch Party for a Cosmetic Line
Indeed hosting a launch party is a wonderful way to showcase your latest cosmetic products, build hype around them, and even acquire some sales right at the event. Note that the more you can get people talking about the product, both at the event and via social media, the better it’s going to do. Nonetheless, here are a few tips to make your launch party a success;
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Choose an interesting venue that doesn’t outshine your product
You want the focus to be solely on your product — not the venue. However, a good venue for your corporate event certainly helps with marketing and attendee experience. If possible, strive to associate the product with the venue. For example, since you are releasing new cosmetic products, then choose a venue that is usually used for fashion and beauty shows. Also, if you cater to a local demographic, the venue should also be fairly close to your business. Don’t make your guests commute way out to get to the location.
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Make your theme memorable and relevant
The theme, indeed, should be related to the product, or at least to your industry. Always remember that the event is your opportunity to put your product on display and give your attendees real, hands-on play-time with it. It also helps them get excited and become an advocate for it as you launch into your market. Also, ensure that every workshop and seminar leading up to the launch contains informative and useful content.
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Plan engaging entertainment
You have to ensure that your new product launch event is informative first and foremost. But you should also incorporate an entertainment element to it to make it more fun and memorable. You have various options in the way of entertainment:
- You could take advantage of some of the venue’s amenities. If there is a dance floor, for instance, then cap off the event with a dance.
- You can hire a stand up comedian who can incorporate the product or the industry in some way or another into his routine.
- You can engage attendees with contests while promoting your cosmetic product or brand. Maybe it is a raffle based on attendees’ tweets — or maybe it’s a race to see who can use your new product the fastest.
These are just a few ideas. But remember that the aim is to deliver a win-win for you and your attendees: Your attendees have a good time (and maybe even win a prize), and at the same time, they are starting to serve as evangelists for your product.
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Choose the hour for sending your press release
When picking the hour for delivering your press release to the media, you need to consider the nature of your business again:
- Is your business global or local?
- Do you operate in different time zones?
- What are the habits of your audience? Perhaps they have some special activities planned during the day or go to sleep early and read the press only in the morning?
- And most importantly — are you planning to target journalists located in different time zones?
Use these questions to pick the right hour for sending out the news to the media and your target audience. You don’t want your message to reach them when they are not paying attention.
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Leverage social media to drum up support
At the product launch event, remember that your sole aim is to market the product. But you also have to market the event itself. In the weeks leading up to the big day, carefully put together an online marketing strategy to attract attendees. This might involve a combination of social media posts, email newsletters, press releases, and perhaps even offline methods.
In your event marketing, don’t overtly promote the product. Remember, you want to promote the event — so you might want to only mention the product in passing. Also have it in mind that you can even hold a social media contest with the winner winning a free event ticket, or even the cosmetic product itself, which will be presented to the winner at the event.
- Be prepared for what happens after the launch
Indeed after a few days, the hype will die down. The day after the event, though, presents a small window of opportunity to keep the hype going just a bit longer. If you capitalize on it, you might bring in more sales from attendees who didn’t purchase at the event.
You can use the same strategies you did for the pre-event marketing. This includes lots of social media activity, continuing the use of the event hashtag, and sending out newsletters. However, if sales of the product did not meet expectations, then offer some sort of incentive — a trial offer, rebate, or complementary add-ons. Remember that the whole idea is to keep discussion of the product going weeks after its release.
Conclusion
Hosting a launch party for a cosmetic line provides guests a firsthand look at the newly released product. This is your opportunity to show attendees what it is, how it works, and how it benefits them in their personal or professional life.
When you go public, timing is extremely important. The media, the customers, and your stakeholders will follow your actions. For example, if you declare a specific date of the party and fail to deliver your product on time, people will think that you are not a trustworthy person and your reputation will prevent business growth.