I've invented a new product, best way to get it to market?

by tmcmark

Posted: 6 years ago 23 replies

ECOMMERCE

Hi,

I've developed a means to use an air mattress without ever getting a hole, blowing out a seam, and the plastic cannot stretch causing your body to sink through the night. It is fantastic for camping applications as well as building your own home air bed.

I call it the "tensioned mattress cover".

Not much luck calling the major manufacturers of air mattresses so thinking the way is to just bring awareness to the public about the benefits and why someone would want it.

My site is on wordpress so an affiliate system could be setup. What's the going percentage rate for product sales? Any good recommendations for affiliate plugins? Where are the best places for affiliates? I'd be looking for affiliates with sites in the camping market as well as home sleep solutions.

Do you think radio could work? Tensioned mattress cover leads to my site in all the search engines so that phrase could be targeted.

I feel like I have something really good and just having difficulty marketing it.

Thanks for any suggestions.

#invented #market #product

dave_hermansen 6 years ago

Depends on the price point but if it's $50 or less, I'd definitely be looking at Facebook ads.
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SiteNameSales 6 years ago

Seems like an ideal product to sell as a Clickbank vendor.
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helisell 6 years ago

Are people searching online for a solution to the problems your product solves?
If there are searches then google ads would be a good option.

If your potential customers are not 'problem aware' then you might want to try facebook ads, as you should be able to create an interested audience.
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- tmcmark 6 years ago
  
  I've purchased Facebook ads and never any luck. If I get a lot of engagement my ad does not reach a large audience. I'll be quoted my ad will reach up to 4K per day and it will be shown to 200 per day. The ads that don't get much engagement are shown to thousands but obviously the ad isn't working. Haven't figured out the trick to Facebook.
  
  I will give clickbank a try.
  
  People that would want my covers would be campers trying to sleep comfortably without getting holes and all of sleep number potential customers. They just don't know they need it yet. So it's an awareness campaign.
  
  Last customer I asked how they found my product purchased a purple mattress and hated it. They then bought an air mattress and found it much more comfortable so they googled make your own air bed and found my site.
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  ruforavishnu 5 years ago
  
  I think that you should create a good compelling video advertisement which showcases all the features of your mattress and how it approaches the pain point of customers who go camping frequently and find it difficult to get sleep because of the lack of a good mattress. The video should be self explanatory. Once you have created the video you should definitely use facebook to market it and I'm damn sure you will get results.
  Just dont give up on facebook ads.
  Like the previous person suggested. If your search keyword is a frequently searched item you can obviously do google ads but in your case I think fb should be turn out into a possible gem .
  
  Thanks
  
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Matthew Stanley 6 years ago

so they googled make your own air bed and found my site

Safe to assume you've tried some search advertising as well based on this?
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Primitivesense 6 years ago

You need to work on your website, SEO and online presence. ads are obviously going to work but it can be pricey. Building a strong website and online presence can also be time-consuming. Combing both time and efforts will give you something though! Have you ever thought about WooCommerce? Any other plugins? If you check out our social we share some website tips... you need to be ranking. Think about building up some social media to display your product in creative ways/stand out from competition. Radio sounds like a good idea or even some online ads....good luck!
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RespectMyAuthourate 6 years ago

When you say selling to a major manufacturers, are you saying having other companies distribute it for you? or actually manufacturer it?
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- tmcmark 6 years ago
  
  I'd like to license my patent.
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  RespectMyAuthourate 6 years ago
  
  As an FYI, patents are very time consuming and expensive to get.
  
  It's my understanding though that you can submit a patent and then use patent pending as strong legal protection still.
  
  Thanks
  
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Alex van Zyl 6 years ago

Even if you think you have a good product you probably want to validate it. Set up a landing page and drive traffic towards it. One way is Facebook Ads, other ways might be to talk about the product on related blogs. Taking backorders might be a good option before manufacturing anything. Since you on Wordpress maybe get a nice theme for a single product and hook up woocomerce pluging or take a look at zipity.store.
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Joong Rhee 6 years ago

Read the book on Amazon "One Simple Idea" by Stephan Key.
[links removed by moderator]

It explains how patenting it can be dangerous since most of them do not produce money for the holder.

Rather you should get a patent pending status for less than $150 and that gives you an year to pitch it to companies that might want to manufacture it - you get typically about 3% of the profit from the company, and the company will pay for the patent.

This is safer financially...plus there are many other practical good tips in the book.

Best luck with it - from an inventor myself...

Also there is "One Simple Idea for Startups and Entrepreneurs" if you want to manufacture it yourself and keep all the profit, but much more work of-course...
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DURABLEOILCOM 5 years ago

Start selling them on Craigslist, OfferUp, Mercari, Ebay, Amazon, Etsy. But first and foremost build your brand the name, the logo, and the product.
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- Oscar K 5 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by DURABLEOILCOM
  
  Start selling them on Craigslist, OfferUp, Mercari, Ebay, Amazon, Etsy. But first and foremost build your brand the name, the logo, and the product.
  
  The good thing about selling on eCommerce sites is that your reach is worldwide and most of the hard work has been done for you. Customer payments on eBay go straight into your pocket and if the product is good enough it will snowball. You'll know soon enough just how good the product is due to eBay and sellers chasing feedback and buyers giving it.
  
  I do retail but can't even make a decent webpage on Weebly without hired help. So why bother if the results are as good as you wanted anyway? I'd rather be selling DVDs on Amazon.jp than doing SEO.
  
  Thanks
  
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Ilmigo Marketing 5 years ago

You only need a WooCommerce for WordPress and start selling your products
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drew kart 5 years ago

interesting product for ebay
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getmyphoenix 5 years ago

I agree with other posters. I think validating the offer with actually getting someone to pull out their credit card and buy it first, before dumping a lot of money into paid ads will serve you best in the short term.

I've also seen the "descending" pricing strategy work well too..

It basically says try your highest pricing out on some cold leads and see how they react. If you get push back on the price, then give them a discount until they feel comfortable. After a few dozen cold customers, you'll get a good sense of your optimal pricing of your product.
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danielkoelsch 5 years ago

Validate the product with different target groups and see who is willing to pay for it. The camping community seems reasonable. I would start with Instagram ads and include free shipping & returns in your (descending) pricing strategy. Also try different markets/regions... chances are, your product is unique enough and not accessible around the world -> would be a reason to go international, even in validation phase.
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4traveltheworld 5 years ago

Amazon has a program for new inventions.
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craigsposterpro 5 years ago

You would do well on Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, LetGo, OfferUp, Mercari, ClassifiedAds.com
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harveyramer 5 years ago

The challenge with a product like this is to tell the story in a way people understand. You face a challenge in that air mattresses are inexpensive. Buying an air mattress cover for most of the air mattresses I own would not be merited.

You want to buy a book like Building a Story Brand by Donald Miller and think through his process of creating a brand script. Identify the customer who would need this. Are there high-end air mattresses that fail? How can you tell a story specific to the owners of those?

Can you show a video of your product in action?

Can you have a designer create graphics that explain how and why it works?

Can you capture testimonials from some early customers?

Is your website loading fast, even on slow connections? Do you have high-quality design and copywriting?

Once those things are in place, you can begin to advertise with the expectation that you may recoup your costs in sales.
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ParisR 5 years ago

I would consider going with video first and then focus about a third of your efforts in getting affiliates to sell for you. You can get organic views from YouTube and also low cost video views through Google Ads. Hope this helps.
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brettb 5 years ago

I bought this type of product on Amazon but it's rubbish. I'd definitely like to test out one that claims to be bullet proof!

You need to find some influencers who can rave about your product and do your marketing for you. One of my sites went viral on YouTube last year and traffic went up 5x. Permanently.
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I've invented a new product, best way to get it to market?

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