17 Tips to Ensure a Seamless Launch

In case your product crew is engaged on the subsequent massive factor, there must be an equally superior promotion technique to unfold the phrase.

Whereas some corporations are responsible of drafting a press launch, crossing their fingers, and hoping that the customers will come, there’s truly way more to it than that.

Fairly merely: You probably have massive information, you want an enormous technique. And that is the place your product launch advertising and marketing plan is available in.

From establishing the right messaging and creating the property to enabling your gross sales crew and retaining momentum, there’s loads that goes into placing collectively a strong product launch plan.

At HubSpot, I work on the product advertising and marketing crew, and we’re chargeable for launching all of HubSpot’s new merchandise. Our expertise has proven us that there are three distinct phases of a product launch: the pre-launch, the launch, and the post-launch.

Pre-Launch

Earlier than you launch, take the time to get actually near the product. Work along with your product crew to grasp the issue they’re making an attempt to unravel. Be a part of them as they do customers assessments. Chat with them about their product philosophy. And most of all, ask a ton of questions — particularly in the event you’re not acquainted with the area.

Concentrate on understanding their imaginative and prescient and turning into a product professional. Exterior of the product supervisor, the marketer launching the product ought to be essentially the most educated individual at your organization about that product.

By understanding the product and performing market analysis, you’ll align your messaging technique with the product. The first objective will probably be to bridge the hole between what the prospects’ pains are and what the competitors will not be doing to handle them.

The pre-launch stage additionally consists of the required promotion planning as you resolve:

• The place you may promote (e.g. search engines like google, social media, conventional channels)
• The place you may promote your message organically (e.g. social media, weblog, web site homepage, occasions)
• How you may get picked up by media shops (i.e. your PR technique and media outreach)
• Who you may depend on to unfold the phrase (e.g. companions, communities, boards, third-party marketplaces)

Launch

Through the pre-launch part, you may have determined what channels to advertise on, established relationships with any companions who will make it easier to accomplish that, and created the property that may draw consideration to your messaging on these channels.

The launch part is solely the execution of all of your planning. This part is way shorter than pre-launch: it could take a day, or per week — relying on how lengthy you’re feeling you want.

As you put together to maneuver on to the launch, you need to keep centered on the work and be able to put out any fires.

Submit-Launch

The work is not over just because the product is launched. Within the post-launch part, you may do a retrospective, pulling collectively the info to find out what went effectively and what did not go so effectively.

As well as, a product nonetheless must be maintained and improved upon past its launch, considering buyer suggestions so as to keep adoption and retention.

That is, after all, a high-level overview of a product launch. Nonetheless, there are some particular tactical issues that you are able to do to assist your launch go off with out a hitch.

Pre-Launch

1. Analysis the area in-depth.

At most corporations, the product supervisor will personal the issue that the product solves. They’ll have a deep understanding of who the end-user is and what their distinctive wants are.

The product marketer’s job is to grasp the market. They need to be capable of reply questions like:

• What’s the bigger narrative round this area?
• How do present prospects really feel about it?
• What do folks like and dislike?
• Is it rising and leading edge or outdated and getting disrupted?
• What are the main methods and techniques on this area?
• What’s your organization’s distinctive viewpoint with regards to this area?
• How does your new product slot in?

2. Concentrate on a single purchaser persona.

Chances are you’ll not have to reinvent an present purchaser persona, however you must define who amongst your audience is a good match for this new product. What sort of challenges have they got? How do they work? How massive is their crew? Discuss to individuals who match this profile to essentially perceive their wants and targets.

Should you need assistance organizing this info, try these purchaser persona templates or this useful instrument.

3. Write a mock press launch.

At HubSpot, we write a mock press launch earlier than we launch a product. We do that very early on within the product’s life to make sure that everybody concerned within the launch is aligned on the messaging.

To present you a greater sense of how this train unfolds, here is an instance:

However we’re not the one ones practising this method. In reality, the parents at Amazon use this train, too. The concept is that if you work backward and begin with the press launch, it is simpler to place your self within the buyer’s sneakers.

If the press launch does not sound very attention-grabbing or fails to conjure a response, it is probably that there is extra work to be carried out.

(Want some assist getting began right here? Try these free press launch templates.)

4. Construct your messaging — however don’t marry it.

Messaging or positioning is generally about refining your product narrative to give attention to solely essentially the most worthwhile features of the brand new product by way of a easy message.

That is robust.

Most product folks have the urge to speak how nice particular person options are -something you need to keep away from in launch messaging. At launch, chances are you’ll solely have somebody’s consideration for a couple of minutes or seconds, so your messaging must be persuasive, easy, and distinctive. It wants to speak what your product truly does and talk its high-level worth.

You need to get this proper, however don’t over-commit to messaging. It will possibly (and will) change as you share your messaging with inside of us and prospects.

Parts of excellent place usually embrace:

• A tagline
• The issue it solves
• A listing of core options
• The worth prop
• A ten-word positioning assertion

Within the screenshot above you may see a few of these parts in motion on the HubSpot Advertisements product web page.

5. Share your messaging with everybody.

It’s time to take the messaging you’ve been slaving over and get it in entrance of your co-workers, prospects, and prospects.

That is usually the least enjoyable a part of a product launch. Primarily as a result of irrespective of how good your positioning is, it takes time to get the pitch down, and never everybody will get it.

It’s good to start out with people who could also be a bit of extra forgiving and sincere earlier than presenting to executives. Use each assembly to pitch folks and ask questions. You need to collect as a lot data as potential right here and root out any complicated or unhealthy messages.

6. Get entangled within the beta.

Having a bunch of beta testers consider your product earlier than you launch it to the general public is a very vital step. At HubSpot, we launch merchandise to a bunch of parents — our beta testers — which have opted-in to provide us suggestions in alternate for early entry.

If your organization does this, be sure to are speaking to the shoppers utilizing the instrument within the beta. Seize their tales, assessment their efficiency, and validate your worth prop with them. That is your alternative to check your messaging and construct real-world proof to assist your pitch with an viewers that is able to share suggestions.

7. Change your messaging and discover one of the best hook.

After speaking to prospects and salespeople, and seeing how beta customers use the product, it’s probably that you’ve got uncovered a factor or two about your messaging that you just would possibly need to alter. That is good.

Should you’ve carried out issues proper, this gained’t imply drastic adjustments, however most certainly a tweak to the worth prop or tagline.

8. Set formidable targets.

You might want to be deliberate and bold with the targets you set, and that may be difficult when you may have a brand new product with out benchmarks. To fight that, we ask the query: “If every little thing went precisely proper, what’s the highest potential quantity — whether or not that be leads, customers, and many others. — we may obtain?”

This units a ceiling in your marketing campaign — a quantity that’s realistically virtually by no means achieved.

If I venture that the best potential variety of leads the marketing campaign can generate is 500, and I find yourself with 450, I do know we received nearly every little thing proper. If I generate 550 leads, it means I in all probability didn’t do an important job of setting a sensible ceiling. And if we solely generate 300 leads, we all know some techniques did not work in any respect.

The picture beneath could be a helpful slide as a part of your go-to-market plan:

9. Take the time to get the market prepared.

Should you’re launching a brand new product that enters your organization into a brand new area — doubtlessly an area the place your organization doesn’t have a ton of authority — begin creating content material about that area pre-launch.

You’ll need to seed this content material for search engine marketing functions and to determine your organization as consultants out there. It’ll additionally offer you an opportunity to see what sort of content material resonates previous to the launch, in addition to make it easier to floor any points.

10. Construct compelling artistic property.

At this level, you’re near launch and it’s time to start out constructing launch property. However earlier than you begin writing emails or constructing touchdown pages, take into consideration the client journey:

• How do folks make buy selections in your area?
• What do they want earlier than shopping for?
• Is it a free trial? A demo?
• Is it finest for them to speak to a salesman?
• What do they should know earlier than they get to that time?

As soon as you’ve got answered these questions, define your conversion path. How will you first get folks’s consideration? Maybe it is an electronic mail, that drives folks to a touchdown web page, the place customers are inspired to fill out a type.

After you have this, get to work constructing the precise varieties, web site pages, movies, social posts, emails, and different techniques that may drive customers down your funnel and to your conversion level.

(Should you’re on the lookout for inspiration, try this listing of one of the best promotional product movies we have ever seen.)

11. Assemble your go-to-market technique.

All the weather I’ve talked about ought to come collectively in a deck or a doc — one thing that’s clear, full, and simply shareable.

That is your go-to-market information: A holistic doc of all launch actions, planning, and targets. This may embrace pricing suggestions, market analysis, aggressive evaluation, and another related info you would possibly want.

Launch

12. Select the fitting channels.

Through the planning part, you must have outlined the channels you need to use to share your message. This isn’t a “the extra the merrier” form of factor — a mistake new product entrepreneurs usually make.

You’ll want to keep away from channels the place the viewers might not be the fitting match. Choose one foremost channel — an occasion, a Product Hunt publish, or weblog publish — and use electronic mail, social, paid, and different channels to assist that foremost publish.

For instance, in 2018, we launched HubSpot’s free electronic mail advertising and marketing instruments on Product Hunt. We select Product Hunt as a result of it serves as an effective way for startups and expertise corporations to introduce new merchandise to a neighborhood of product-centric influencers.

16. Revisit your “go-to-market” doc for reporting.

With all of the work that’s going into launch, you don’t need to must retroactively work out what to report on. Should you’ve carried out a great job along with your go-to-market doc, you must be capable of create a brand new slide and fill in your outcomes with actual numbers.

When you’ve had a bit of extra time away out of your launch, spend a while analyzing the outcomes. The place did your marketing campaign succeed and fail? What did you fail to anticipate? What did you be taught? Submit these to your inside wiki or as a public weblog publish.

17. Shift your give attention to retention.

Now that you just’ve efficiently launched a brand new product, shift your consideration to retention. Advertising and marketing can typically play a much bigger function in driving new customers, nevertheless it’s vital to work along with your product crew to determine how one can assist maintain these customers round.

This implies extra ongoing training like post-launch product webinars, in addition to sharing case research and success tales to point out your customers what they’ll obtain along with your product.

Editor’s Notice: This publish was initially printed in September 2013 and has been up to date for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.