Launching a Smartwatch Startup

Product Launch | Digital Marketing Strategy

Situation: Cardiff Design, Inc., now known as Roxford, was finalizing prototype designs and production on a new hybrid smartwatch in late 2017. With little funding for production costs, the company set it's sights on launching their flagship prototype on the crowdfunding site, Indiegogo (IGG). I was brought on three months in advance of the Indiegogo launch to build a digital presence and marketing infrastructure for the brand.

Goal: Roxford wants to emerge as a key brand in the hybrid smartwatch market.

Objective 1: Raise brand awareness across social media properties leading up to IGG launch
Objective 2: Generate 1,500+ prospective customer leads before IGG launch
Objective 3: Build CRM audience segmentation and email nurture infrastructure prior to IGG launch
Objective 4: Secure earned media coverage in major online watch, technology and fitness publications during IGG campaign

Phase I: Awareness + Lead Gen

Our pre-launch objectives were to raise awareness for Cardiff and generate a pool of prospective customers that we could leverage at the time of launch. Awareness building focused on two touchpoints - social media and building media relationships in hopes of securing earned media coverage at the time of launch. This involved building an organic social media content strategy and posting schedule, leveraging paid ads to grow an interested following and audience base, and developing a target media publication list. Two months before IGG launch, I initiated lead-gen efforts via paid social advertising and organic giveaway/discount sweepstakes that prompted users to opt-in with their contact info. We then funneled leads into specific audience segments in the CRM and deployed email nurture and retention campaigns to keep leads warm. Over time we determined at risk lead groups and delivered personalized messaging or incentives based on their audience category.

Result: Understanding that we should conservatively expect ~10% lead conversion rate, our target was to fill the CRM pipeline with at least 1,500 prospects. At time of launch, we generated ~2,000 leads and increased social followers by 1,700+ on Facebook and Instagram.

Follower Acquisition

Organic: Build an audience of loyal followers through organic posting consistency, community management and outreach. Paid: Support these efforts by running Follower Acquisition advertising campaigns on Facebook and Instagram,

Lead Generation

Organic: Opt-in form placed on website, outreach on social channels, activate weekly watch giveaways that require users to enter email. Paid: Activate lead generation Facebook advertising campaigns targeting existing page followers, followers gained through follower ads and interest/demographic targeting.

Nurturing Leads

Nurture followers/leads by integrating CRM email system and automated campaign update emails. We also ran watch giveaways and promoted other ongoing incentives prior to launch.

Phase II: Convert Leads Drive Sales

Phase I focused on building an audience awareness and lead infrastructure. Phase II focused on leveraging that infrastructure to convert leads into revenue. Using our CRM email segmentation we ramped up email cadence and special incentives the closer we got to IGG launch. We also leveraged social media gamification strategies that encouraged our followers to share with friends and further support last-minute lead-gen and awareness efforts.

On launch day, we activated paid social advertising targeting and retargeting our customer lists by specific audience segment. We also created lookalike audiences with layered demographic parameters. Lastly, we leveraged our Facebook Pixel to retarget all site visitors, while excluding purchasers/contributors.

Influencer Collaboration

I spearheaded an initiative to partner with microinfluencers in specific locations where we had seen the highest volume of contributions. This was determined using data collected via Indiegogo analytics, Google Analytics and Facebook advertising insights. I handled all research, outreach and helped negotiate fees.

Converting Leads Into Sales

Phase II of the paid social strategy focused on converting leads generated through previous efforts into purchases via Indiegogo. I initiated click-to-website and conversion Facebook and Instagram ads that retargeted our email lead lists, lookalike audiences and optimized behavioral targeting.

Driving Revenue

Paid social media advertising directly contributed 36+ purchases and more than $7,500 in funding to the campaign. In addition, it provided invaluable insight into our audience demographics, messaging and creative.

Designing Indiegogo Campaign

In addition to leading digital and social for Cardiff Design, I helped develop the Indiegogo campaign page design. This involved writing copy, photo selection, structure and overall flow of the content.