Product Launch Checklist: 4 Ways to Promote Your Retail Business with Liz Eichholz of Weezie Towels
This article is spurred from a larger in-person interview with Liz Eichholz, Co-founder and Creative Director of Weezie Towels.
How to Successfully Launch Your Product
With so much build up behind the ideation of a product, it’s tempting to simply upload a photo to Instagram and say, “Here it is!” Liz Eichholz, Co-founder and Creative Director of Weezie Towels - which has received press in major publications such as Vogue, Forbes, and Fast Company - sheds light on the meticulous launch strategy they employed to help jumpstart the success of their business.
Product Launch Checklist
#1: DIY Your PR
Liz: After the year and a half of planning and R&D, we put a ton of work and planning into our launch. For us, that meant reaching out to countless editors. Researching publications and which editors had written articles that would be relevant to our launch. You only get one launch and launches can span a lot of different kinds of publications (for us that meant business pubs, interiors, female-focused, lifestyle-focused, etc.) that aren't always necessarily relevant at every point in your business. PR is a lot of just persistence: emailing, following up, sending product, following up, etc.
#2: Don’t Just Tell Them, Show Them
Liz: We also had a press preview in NYC so editors could come see the product in person and get to know us. I think this helped a lot so people could see really how soft and luxurious our towels are in person. We asked an interior designer if we could hold it in her cute office (and saved money!), set up the towels, and set up camp all day inviting editors and writers to pop in when it worked for their schedules.
#3: Target Your Ideal Customers
Liz: Beyond PR, we also targeted a group of about 20 influencers and interior designers for our launch. Again, there was a lot of research behind who would be a good fit for our brand and who we thought our audience was at the time (and really still is our audience). We felt like we were doing nothing but reaching out and bleeding money but it really paid off!
Example outreach script: Hi Wendy! We’re getting ready to launch a brand new line of luxury bath towels we know you’ll just love! Can we send you a few to try for yourself?
#4: Spread the Word to Friends and Fam
Liz: Lastly, we talked about the company all the time with our friends and family and they were really a huge part of our launch.
You can follow Weezie Towels on Instagram, Facebook, or check out their website!
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