Presale Strategy: How to Set Up a Successful Presale

What is a presale?

A presale is an event where you sell a product or service before it’s officially released. In some cases, you may be selling products that have yet to be made.

“[A] presale allows you to obtain feedback prior to releasing to the full market,” explained Mike Sheety, founder of ThatShirt. “This can give you a chance to iron out any kinks and accurately scale how [good] your product or service is going to be.”

A presale can be a valuable tool — especially if you’re just starting a business and want to see how your target customers react to your product. Creating product samples to distribute via a presale is an excellent way to give potential customers a feel for your offerings and pave the way for future sales.

Presales can be nerve-wracking situations for some small businesses. However, setting up your presale ethically and organizing it correctly will yield valuable information and help ensure customer satisfaction. Despite inherent challenges, a well-conducted presale can be an effective tool for new and existing businesses — helping you build anticipation while hedging your bets.

How to set up a successful presale

Rolling out a presale isn’t difficult; it’s all about effective marketing. There are several ways to market your product and sell to your initial audience. For example, some businesses opt for crowdfunding via posts on sites like GoFundMe to drum up excitement and interest for their presale. Others opt to connect directly with an existing audience through email marketing.

No matter how you choose to market your presale event, ensuring accessibility is critical. “Many companies often ration who has access to the presale to ensure [only] loyal fans can use it,” explained Steve Pritchard, HR consultant for fashion company Ben Sherman. “[But] if finding the presale is too hard or complex, customers won’t make the effort to sign up.” Pritchard also warns against effectively punishing loyal fans by offering better deals or products after the presale ends.

With this in mind, follow these essential steps to set up a successful presale:

• Create a presale campaign. You can create your presale campaign on a crowdsourcing site. Or, you can choose an email marketing service to get the word out or even work with your own local distribution network. Set up your parameters and ensure your product or service is accessible.
• Post your presale product. Once you’ve established a campaign, start your presale period and begin collecting sales and gauging interest in your audience. At this point, ask for general feedback from your most loyal customers.
• Market your presale. Find ways to get the word out about your presale, whether via email marketing, social media marketing or word of mouth. The best CRM platforms can help you reach your most engaged customers early. As you market your presale and make sales, stay focused on the other side of the process: the actual production of your item or service. Pay attention to product quality and ensure your customers get exactly what’s been advertised.
• Release your product and follow up. Deliver your product to the initial buyers and ask for feedback where appropriate. This feedback will help you continue improving your product for future customers.

Advantages of a presale

These are some of the many reasons presales can benefit your business.

1. A presale can grow your business.

The biggest advantage of a presale is that it creates a solid customer base while giving you room to work through any potential issues with your product or service. If you have a certain amount of lead time for a release date and know people will buy your product, you can focus on ensuring it meets the proper standards.

“It allows you to determine if all the effort and investment is going to be worth it for your target audience, as well as pointing out any weak spots,” Sheety explained. “Any issues and weaker areas that arise can be dealt with promptly before creating a huge dilemma when the product is available to the full market.”

2. A presale can garner insightful feedback.

A presale’s flexibility means you can spend more time focusing on your product and less worrying about making sales. Presales also provide the advantage of receiving early customer feedback.

“Preselling is a fantastic way for a small business to acquire feedback from a small group of trusted customers through a targeted sale before their product actually goes live,” noted Ollie Smith, founder of ExpertSure and owner of Ecopreneurist.com. “The business can adjust their plan and improve quality by employing this method.”

Challenges of a presale

Setting up a presale also comes with challenges, primarily the fact that you’ll have to assemble your product — potentially earlier than you’d like. Ideally, you’ll have time to work out any issues that arise. However, a presale means opening yourself up to delays and quality issues.

“You can experience delays, defects and quality issues,” Sheety warned. The challenge lies in balancing the time you’re given with perfecting your product and planning your presale.

Here are a few ways to minimize the delays and quality issues a presale may bring to the forefront:

• Manage your time effectively. Don’t wait until the last minute to plan your presale. Outline a timeline and strategy as early as possible.
• Use a data-driven approach. Don’t plan a presale marketing campaign on a whim. Use data — including your customer base’s marketing demographics and insights about your competitive market — to inform your presale strategy.
• Develop a sound product or service. Most importantly, offer something that will keep your customers happy and coming back for more.

Importance of a presale strategy

Before you try to presell a new product, crafting a presale strategy is critical. It may be tempting to rush in and try to wing it with your presale, but this is almost always a bad idea.

A presale strategy will minimize mistakes and unnecessary steps for the following reasons:

• A presale strategy allows you to develop a backup plan. By carefully considering your overall presale plan, you can brainstorm any potential problems. Then, you can develop contingency plans around them.
• A presale strategy ensures your product is in good shape. One of the biggest presale mistakes businesses make is not having the product ready in time. With a presale strategy in place, you can ensure your products are delivered well in advance of the event.
• A presale strategy includes a thorough marketing plan. Part of carefully planning your presale means developing a great business marketing plan to draw attention to the event and your products. You’ll have time to get the word out and reach the people most interested in your product.
• A presale strategy helps you stay on budget. A robust presale strategy allows you to effectively utilize your resources to get the most bang for your buck. This is especially important for small businesses that don’t have much money to spend on their presale.

A presale can help you launch a great product

If done correctly, setting up a presale can be an excellent choice for a small business. A presale is an outstanding market analysis tool; it allows you to gather initial feedback and test your business idea to determine if your new product or service will sell.

While a good presale has many benefits, be aware of the challenges. If you do things properly, you’ll launch an excellent product that your audience will welcome and appreciate.

Matt D’Angelo and Jamie Johnson contributed to this article. Source interviews were conducted for a previous version of this article.