Tips for Businesses to Identify and Engage Early Adopters
Early adopters is a category of customers who are passionate about new products, innovation and technology. Though this group of customers may not have a very huge percentage in your customer base, identifying and engaging them can work wonders for your new product launch. These customers are willing to take the risk when it comes to trying out a new product, adopting a new technology and paying for it. Targeting early adopters is likely to bring your business the first few customers who would ardently do word of mouth advertising for your products/service. Whether it is a new gadget, a mobile app or an upcoming casual clothing line, identifying the early adopters and reaching out to them would take your product launch to a whole new level. So while you are all set to launch your new product, analyze the demographics and psychographics of your target audience to figure out who would be the early adopters, you can then devise a strategy to proactively engage them.
How to Identify these Customers?
For new businesses, identifying the early adopters can be a tricky task, however, if you already have an existing customer base, identifying and engaging this group of customers would be easy. You can use interactive customer surveys to find out about the early adopters of your products/service. Ask questions like “When it comes to checking out or embracing a new product, how willing are you to invest in it?” You can give easy to select options for such questions that will give you an instant idea whether a customer is an early adopter or not. Live Chat is also an interactive medium that can be utilized to identify early adopters, a live chat operator can market your new product to customers and analyzing the buying behavior would give him/her an idea who would be the early adopters.
How to Engage these Customers?
After you have identified the early adopters, the next step is to actively engage them. You should take this as an opportunity to build your brand’s image and prove that your product is worthy enough to be tried out. Offer these customers free trial for your new product/service, you can give an incentive to the first few customers who buy your product or subscribe to your service, for example, a discount card or a gift. Early adopters are enthusiastic about using a new product/service, further add to their excitement by offering them to be your “Brand Advocates”. Post their testimonials, reviews and videos all over your social media pages to make them feel privileged.
Offer “Exclusivity” to Early Adopters
Early adopters feel pride in buying a product/service before anyone else does. Therefore, in order to express your gratitude to them and build lasting customer relationships, make them feel special. You can send a personalized e-mail to every single one of the first few customers who tried out your new product. Make these customers feel part of a community, give them a gesture that their opinion is really valuable for you and take their feedback and suggestions. Invite these customers to your launch events and keep them updated about your upcoming ventures to bond with them. “Exclusivity” is what these customers want and making them feel as your trusted partner would make them loyal to your brand and in turn would attract more customers for you.
Early Adopters Make Trusted Partners and Clients
When it comes to B2B sales, there would be companies that are risk-takers and are likely to invest in new products/services. For instance, if you have developed a new business software that lets companies track shipping complaints within seconds, you can do market research and see what sort of businesses would need such software and are readily willing to invest in it. Identifying such businesses and engaging them would get you trusted clients and partners. For instance, there are businesses you can sell your new software to and in return buy their new product. Fostering relationships with such businesses will not only benefit your product launch but is likely to build a good repute for your business in the niche. Delve into the realm of interactive customer service with our live chat demo and revolutionize your approach to support.