A Step by Step Guide to Building a Successful Product Launch Plan
Bringing new products to the public requires you to go about it with some strategy. You’ll need to reach your customers and meet the demand of the market while making sure you turn a profit.
Planning out your product launch in detail will help you hit all of the major points. Read below to learn how to put together a successful product launch plan.
1. Know Your Audience and Who You’re Serving
A new product launch is fun and exciting, but don’t forget about the needs of your core audience. Start assessing who you’re serving and what value you bring to the market.
Creating consumer personas will help you meet your product launch standards. Knowing the tone of your audience will help you with social media advertising strategies.
When creating a customer persona, you’ll reverse engineer the shopping experience, research the demographics of your customer, factor in customer pain points, identify and meet customer goals, and piece together every life detail.
2. Plan Out the Broad Details of Your Product Launch
Don’t be afraid to start with broad details when you’re learning how to launch a product.
It can get tempted to want so badly to knock your product out of the park that you stifle the flow of good ideas. Paint broad strokes before you get tunnel vision. Hold several brainstorming sessions and leave every idea on the table at first, no matter how big or small.
3. Get Your Hands on the Software That Will Help Build Your Product Launch Roadmap
After you’ve brainstormed and gotten all your broad details out on the table, narrow it down with the right planning tools. An enterprise resource planning (ERP) software can help you strategize every detail of your product launch.
These cloud-based programs will let you and your entire team collaborate on the product launch without missing a beat. They come with all sorts of tools that will let you leave notes, brainstorm, post prototypes, mull through contracts and so much more.
An ERP is often a custom software platform, so tailor yours to fit the way your business brainstorms.
4. Establish a Hierarchy and Define Roles in the Process
Establish everyone’s role as it pertains to bringing your products to market. Establish a hierarchy for communication and decision making.
When there’s no confusion about everyone’s role, you are more likely to make progress in a meaningful way.
5. Determine the Timeline for Your Product Launch
Once you’ve hashed out the major details of your product, begin creating a timeline to launch it. It’s easier to meet goals when you have specific deadlines.
Make your deadline challenging, while not biting off more than you can chew. Break down the launch into tasks like creating a dedicated website for the product, creating product snapshots, satisfying the 10-person rule, and more.
You’ll want to also put your product through a battery of tests so that you know what to expect from the customer experience.
6. Market the Release of Your Product
Take the time to market your new product so that it already has a built-in audience by the time you launch it. Create a countdown for it and give plenty of previews that build anticipation.
Get your hands on an online press release guide that will help you to write the perfect release.
Something as simple as working your e-mail list can help you bring customers in. Use your e-mail list effectively so people have a heads up about what stage you’re in every step of the way.
When you use your e-mail list, make sure that you use the best tags and headers, and write your copy in a way that informs people and grabs their attention.
Social media will also be your best friend, both by creating content and working ad strategies that reach the right people. The bigger the built-in audience you have, the more you can expect to increase your revenue once your product finally hits the market.
7. Give Customers the Chance to Preorder
Nothing builds anticipation like offering preorders. Incentivize people to spend money with you early so that you can start to gauge the popularity of your product and what is working.
This gives you an uptick in revenue before your product even hits the market. Putting out preorders is also an effective marketing tool, which can create a sense of scarcity that makes people want to buy the hottest item soon to hit shelves.
8. Lay Out Your Launch Goals
Several variables go into making a product launch successful, but not setting goals is the quickest way to fail. Set launch goals that are measurable and that helps take your business to the next level.
Setting these goals upfront will also let you reverse engineer and put processes in place that will help you meet those goals. You can then measure your success or failure and use this information as you move into the next big product launch.
Use this information to also follow through with your strategies post-launch so that your customers stay satisfied and provided for.
Create the Product Launch Plan That Works
Having a product launch plan gets you the best results from anything that you bring to the market. Follow these tips to get the results you’re looking for.
From there, you can recreate your successes and grow your business one product launch at a time. Rely on us to learn more product strategies and other ways to take your business to the next level.
Samantha Gaines wrote this article on behalf of FreeUp. FreeUp is the fastest-growing freelance marketplace in the US. FreeUp only accepts the top 1% of freelance applicants. Click here to get access to the top freelancers in the world.
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