From the day that the idea initially hit you, you’ve poured your heart and soul into creating and perfecting your product. Now that your product is complete, it’s the moment you’ve been living for since the product’s conception. It’s time to plan your product’s big launch! Now, for this to go off without a hitch, there are several steps you need to take to ensure that you and your product are ready to face the public eye.
1. Test Run
A test run, in this case, isn’t just referring to the product itself. Of course, you’ll want to make sure you’ve worked with your product and made sure it’s as bug-free as possible at this point. A test run of your sales tactics should also be performed before taking the leap and launching your product.
Whether you assemble a small group of friends and family, or gather a small, unsuspecting audience in a public setting, taking your sales pitch/process for a spin within a small group may be very helpful in the pre-launch phase.
2. Know Who You’re Selling To, and Against
By knowing what audience will be most attracted to your product you can use your time more wisely by advertising directly at them, rather than the general public in hopes of catching a member of your target audience by chance.
You can do this by connecting with influencers within your community. Those who are best fit to get the word of your product out to your target audience.
Knowing who else has their sights locked on your audience is crucial for a successful product launch. Becoming familiar with your competition before your launch will give you the advantage to bring something to the table that they may not have even thought of yet.
3. Soft-Launch Your Product
Making connections and networking within your industry during the developmental stages is crucial for many reasons. One big reason being for the purpose of soft-launching of your product. Influencers and bloggers who appear to have a rather large community of followers are the perfect candidates to help you begin to create some hype around your product and it’s launch.
Give the influencers the ability to advertise your product as “coming soon”, with information or even free trials or videos that show your audience why they should be excited about your product’s big launch.
4. Set SMART Goals for Your Launch
SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and within a Time frame) should be how your structure your goals during the product launch planning phase. These goals can be for the day of the launch and beyond.
Giving your product a goal will help you evaluate whether your product is meeting expectations, or If its performance is taking a nosedive in the wrong direction.
Keeping up with your products metrics from day one is what will be a significant driving force behind the success of your product. Success doesn’t come so easily (or at all) to those who blindly navigate through a product launch, hoping for the best.
5. Pay Attention to Feedback
Uplifting-positive and the soul crushing-negative feedback are both something you should pay attention to and adapt your product to. You made your product for your audience after all. By taking what they and the influencers have to say during the soft-launch and thereafter, to adjust and adapt your product accordingly will make a significant impact on your product’s success.
6. Get Your Team Ready
You and your team have worked hard to get to this point with your business. As the product launch gets closer and closer, being on the same page as your team with different protocols and strategies is crucial. Being prepared for situations that may arise, as well as just how day to day operations should flow, is an important step to take prior to the launch.
7. Don’t Lose Touch with Your Business’s Core
A product launch is one of the most exciting business events that you will experience. Through all of the excitement, you don’t want to let your expectations cloud the reality of the situation.
Depending on the impact that your product will have on your audience, your launch may not be as big and flashy as you might have been imagining. Of course, this doesn’t mean your product won’t be successful. It just may take some time for the word of your product to being to spread through your audience.
If you do experience a big, flashy launch with reporters writing and influencers reviewing don’t let all of this commotion distract you from what brought you to this point in the first place. Your business’s core holds your motivation and values. Not to say you can’t take the time to enjoy all of the fuss and excitement. Finding a balance between the media attention and not losing focus on your core business is what will drive your business’s success in the best possible way.
Coordinating and executing a successful product launch can be quite a lot to take on. Having an idea of the right steps to take as you move forward with your plans will be what sets you up for a successful product launch and so much more.