Zooming in on hype products: are they worth your time and effort?
In recent years we have heard more and more news reports about small businesses, which were able to realize enormous profits through smart purchasing strategies and the use of social media. We asked ourselves, are these cowboy stories or honest entrepreneurial stories? After researching this, we concluded that they are a bit of both. The trick behind these products and services is as old as the road to Rome: the hype. 🔥
By taking a good look at which products are popular on the internet and social media, buying these products cheap via wholesale websites such as Alibaba and recommending them heavily on social media, smart sellers are able to generate immense profits. 💵 But what can you and I do with that? In this article, we dive deeper into the phenomenon of the 'hype' and show you how you can search for a good 'hype' product yourself. 🏊
Back to the '90s
In the fashion industry, the hype has been around for some time under a different name: namely, the 'drop'. Made big in the 90s by skate shop Supreme, the drop involves announcing a product shortly in advance and then only selling a limited number of products from stock. 👗The method is used nowadays by several companies, including Seek Discomfort, who drops their merchandise simultaneous with their new YouTube videos.
This creates a sense of scarcity and urgency and it has become apparent that customers are willing to pay the higher prices. Experts believe that the concept of the drop fits perfectly with the short tension span of modern consumers. 💁 At the same time, fashion retailers have been trying to familiarize customers with the concept of fast fashion for years. Two trends that fit seamlessly together.
The definition of a hype
Because the success of a hype can be difficult to explain, it pays to take a look at the elements that each hype contains. 👀 The word hype is derived from the Greek "hyper", which means "above". De Dikke van Dale Dictionary describes the concept as follows:
“Something new that temporarily attracts a lot of attention, but means little.”
The Oxford Learning Dictionary gives a better idea of the hype within the context of marketing and media:
“Advertisements and discussion on television, radio, etc. telling the public about a product and about how good or important it is”
Implementing a hype strategy thus makes it possible for companies to temporarily place the perceived value of the brand above the actual quality of the product. 🛍You can see this in the fashion industry, for example, when 'streetwear' brands start a collaboration with luxury brands and immediately attach an expensive price tag to the goods. A price tag that no one would be willing to pay without the addition of these special elements. 💳
The suggested scarcity can also attract consumers, who hope to benefit from the hype and buy several products and then resell them themselves: the so-called 'resellers'. For many people, the quality of the underlying product doesn't seem to matter that much anymore: the hype has become more important than product. The fact that consumers can subsequently be part of a brand's community, distinguish themselves from others and develop their own identity, is of course an important part of this. ⭐
How do you create a hype?
Now that we know that scarcity and urgency are the two most important elements for creating a good hype, let's look at how you can apply these elements in your own marketing strategy. You may not be selling a real hype product yourself, but with these tips every online entrepreneur can convey the feeling of scarcity and urgency to his followers. 🏆
Write targeted blog posts
Do smart research and look carefully at the different options for writing articles that keep your visitors informed. Try to answer as many relevant questions as possible and when the time comes to buy, present your product or service as the one and only solution. ✅
Tease your email subscribers
Email marketing is still one of the most effective forms of online marketing, especially when you're trying to build expectations around a product's launch. For example, with a 'drip' campaign you can always give away small bits of relevant information. 📧 If you can then segment your readers, you can best present your product or service to the most engaged readers.
Give away a product via social media
Social media is the way for most companies to connect with their customers. It is therefore a perfect, accessible way to show a product before it is on the market. You can use the same 'drip' strategy as with email marketing, but to really quickly introduce your product to a large audience, you can set up a giveaway. 📲 In exchange for the chance to win your product, you ask your visitors to share a post and register on a product page.
Make a landing page with option for 'pre-order'
People sometimes underestimate the importance of a landing page. A landing page is a specially designed page around your new product or service, in which you take the time to explain why your product or service is worthwhile. 💻 Think about it: if you don't take the time and effort to explain the benefits of your product yourself, why would your customers want to buy your product? So, take the time for this, emphasize the benefits, tell your visitors how their lives will change as soon as they use the product and finally present a special temporary discount price to pre-order your product. You will be surprised how many people are willing to pre-order when they believe in your product! 🛒
The indispensable tool of 'hype' marketers
Perhaps you are now convinced by the power of hype products and you would like to get started with them. Understandable, but remember that the sale of hype products also requires preparation. This preparation starts with validation. If you're considering selling a hype product, you may first want to have some validation that it's actually in demand. Two perfect tools to investigate this quickly and efficiently are Google Trends and e-pickr.com.⚒
With Google Trends you can easily enter keywords, find their relative search volume from recent years and then compare them with other relevant keywords. You can then view sales insights from competitors via e-pickr.com to make sure that the hype is not over yet, for example with the Salespickr. 📈 This way you can see whether a product is indeed a hype. In an ideal scenario, you would want to see that there is indeed a significant temporary growth curve, but one that does not rise so steeply that the end of the hype-peak seems to have been reached. 🏔
Additionally, you want to get in at the beginning of that growth curve. An extra tip is to broaden your Google Trend research. Are there perhaps more related products that show an increasing trend? Do you know if there are other similar products coming up that you can also sell? Do the products or services fit into a general trend that is also showing an increase and do you expect that general trend to level off soon? If you research, record and evaluate these keywords one by one, you will quickly see whether you are selling your hype product at the right time. ⌚
Faster with e-pickr
The e-pickr tools can do this research for you reliably and in seconds. With up to twenty related search terms for your keyword, product research works with up to hundreds of products per keyword. This makes you a faster seller, who can recognize the hype sooner than others, take advantage of it and make profits. 🤑
Conclusion
Selling hype products is a profession in itself; whether you sell via the major platforms bol.com or Amazon, or via your own website. ✅ Successfully selling these products requires a smart and complete set of marketing techniques and associated skills. Finally, you want your product to have a good profit margin, in addition to good expected sales numbers. We are your support throughout this process. The e-pickr team has developed software to take the calculations off your hands and shows you all relevant data in an easy overview. 💪