Your product launch should not be frightening, but it must be almost flawless. This article’s contents should assist you in developing a successful product launch plan that propels your success.
Pre-launch phase: Product launch planning
Your product has completed a rigorous development process and is prepared for release. At this point, you must compile all pertinent data, create a marketing strategy, and be ready to launch your product.
Here’s how to get ready for it.
1. Conduct market research persona development
Any new product launch should begin with a market analysis. Your competitive advantage grows with your level of market knowledge. You can learn about your audience and competitors through market research. You can identify chances for distinction and discover your competitors’ weaknesses and strengths by conducting a competition study.
The next step is to research your possible clients:
- Who do they represent?
- What problems and obstacles do they face?
- What drives them?
- How may your product benefit them?
To address these questions, conduct user persona surveys, hold focus groups, and compile information through research. Your response(s) will let you develop a thorough user persona(s) for your intended clientele.
2. Set objectives and key performance indicators for product launches
You need to have a clear launch goal to have a successful product launch plan. You may better outline your expectations for a successful launch by using goals and KPIs.
A well-crafted goal connects your launch to your corporate goals. It is quantifiable and evident as well. For instance, you may decide to raise your monthly recurring revenue or sales targets.
KPIs, on the other hand, assist you in monitoring your level of target achievement. They ought to thus accurately reflect your ultimate objectives. They have to be quantifiable as well.
3. Select the kind of product launch
Deciding how big you want the product launch to be is one of your pre-launch tasks.
Do you want to release the product to a small number of clients or go with a minimal or soft launch that just includes the most important features? Or would you rather see a full-scale launch where the finished product is made available to every buyer at once?
A minimal launch is appropriate if you have already developed your MVP and need early adopter input to confirm your idea. Likewise, if you’re on a tight budget, you can use the minimal and soft launch plans.
However, if money is not an obstacle and your product is already completely created, you may afford a full-scale launch to maximize visibility.
Thus, your objective at this stage is to assess the budget and development level of your product and select the most appropriate course of action.
4. Establish launch date, schedule, and budget
It’s time to refine the specifics of your launch strategy. This is an important phase because it allows you to see obstacles in your path early on and make plans to avoid them.
To make sure you’re distributing resources correctly and controlling expenditures effectively, create a budget. To begin, make a list of every task required for the launch type you have selected and estimate the amount of funding and personnel required.
Next, depending on the responsibilities, choose a reasonable launch date and develop a project timeline around it. Make sure you determine the important benchmarks that must be met for the launch and how long they will take.
Lastly, make sure that your scheduling takes task dependencies into account. Certain assignments must simply be completed before others, and arranging for them to be completed concurrently can cause unneeded issues.
5. Make a product launch checklist and designate responsibilities
A wide range of people and groups will be involved in your product launch, including your marketing, sales, and product teams, among others.
For example, the product development team must ensure that the final product is functional and free of errors. While the marketing team is preparing press releases and other marketing content, the UX team will need to build digital marketing materials.
You need to have a product launch checklist that keeps track of deadlines, tasks, and milestones so that everyone is always in agreement.
Divide the broad schedules and objectives from the previous phase into more manageable activities that may be completed by individuals or groups. Next, designate the person or group in charge of the assignment and provide a deadline for completion.
6. Develop a product launch marketing strategy
At last, you’re prepared to begin creating your marketing plan. You comprehend your value offer, your target market, and much more. It’s time to compile all of that knowledge into a workable plan.
The following queries should be addressed by your marketing strategy:
- Which advertising platforms will I employ?
- What is my budget for each channel?
- To what extent will I prioritize purchased versus organic advertising?
- If any, which influencers will I collaborate with on the launch?
7. Plan marketing campaigns for various channels
Lastly, you should examine the various marketing channels in the previous phase more closely. How will your campaign appear on every channel?
For example, you will need to make social media posts and images to advertise the goods on social media channels. Even so, different platforms could call for various types or styles of content. This is the moment to prepare any press releases you intend to put out and decide where, when, and how to issue them. In a similar vein, your blog and email newsletter may also require promotional content.
After completing this phase, your go-to-market plan ought to be operational and prepared for launch.
Launch phase: The launch plan
It’s time to carry out your well-thought-out launch plan. It might be sufficient to introduce a feature by starting it within the app. However, launching a new product is usually the most challenging.
Using the platforms (ProductHunt, Twitter, Reddit, etc.) that are listed in your plan, you will start by creating anticipation. This is the moment for you to publish newsletters and other marketing materials.
Everything builds up to that momentous day when the product is ultimately released to the public. Keeping up the enthusiasm in the days and weeks following the launch will be crucial. It is preferable if you raise more awareness.
Post-launch phase: Measure the product’s success
Now that you’ve finally got users to see the product, sign-ups are starting to come in. It’s now time to transition into the post-launch phase, which is a period of introspection and planning.
Things to do during this phase.
1. Examine how well your marketing initiatives are performing
It’s now much simpler than ever to analyze your marketing initiatives with the help of contemporary tools and technology. This crucial post-launch action aids in evaluating the success of your campaigns.
Now is the moment to assess how you performed in relation to your goals. Was your goal accomplished? If not, investigate further to identify the weakness(s) in your plan. It can be necessary for you to alter your messaging, format, channel, etc.
2. Use in-app onboarding to increase product adoption
Retaining your achievements is a necessary part of consolidation. You need to make sure that your new sign-ups completely utilize your product and turn into devoted, long-term clients to achieve that.
Early user segmentation is one approach to do this. Gather useful user information by using a welcome survey. Who are they? What is the intended use of your product?
Make sure the user is added to the appropriate user segment and customize their onboarding based on the information they supply.
3. Gather client’s feedback
Taking user insights and putting them into practice to enhance the user experience is another crucial component of consolidation.
Ask users directly about their opinions of the product; what they like and dislike about it, the difficulties they have using it, and the additions or functionalities they would want to see added.
In this way, rather than being based solely on intuition, your entire product plan will be guided by real user demands. A strong feedback loop increases not only customer happiness but also customer loyalty.
4. Track user behavior within the app to get further insights
Lastly, you have to keep an eye on how users interact with the just-released feature or product. In-app customer data offers a special perspective into the difficulties and achievements of your product’s consumers.
For instance, usage frequency can indicate whether or not a feature or product is used. Similarly, locating drop-off locations might assist you in determining the sources of friction.
Positive or negative, numbers provide you hints for future research and teach you more about your customers and your product.
Tools for planning a successful launch
Product managers need the appropriate toolset to organize and carry out product launches effectively. Fortunately, there are plenty, with a range of tools suitable for even the most intricate product launch campaign.
1. Faqprime for post-launch stage
When your team and the volume of client inquiries grow faster than you can handle, Faqprime is the Help OS that integrates every facet of the customer journey, from onboarding to engagement to support for rapidly expanding businesses.
With Faqprime you can boost event registrations, feature adoption, and other metrics. Make changelogs, notifications, prompts, and in-app walkthroughs to introduce users to new features in your product.
You also get insightful information by sending your consumer’s in-app surveys, feedback requests, and NPS while they’re actively using the product. Deliver a better product experience by utilizing the findings.
No self-serve assistance and a shoddy onboarding process are surefire ways to lose customers to your product. You can’t afford to do that anymore.
All the components required to construct and implement your product activation flow are covered with Faqprime. No developer is needed.
2. Askattest for pre-launch stage
Your ability to comprehend your market will determine how effectively your pre-launch phase goes. You may better understand your users’ needs, profiles, and market gaps by conducting in-depth market research.
With Askattest, you can quickly gather and analyze pertinent consumer research data. They link you with the ideal target market for your product and give you access to a bank of survey questions that are tailored to your needs.
Additionally, they offer an interactive results dashboard that makes it simple to spot patterns and trends in the data and enable you to make informed decisions based on facts.
3. Content Cal for the launch plan
During the launch phase, your product must be announced to the public and awareness must be raised. Your promotional campaigns will be timely and successful thanks to Content Cal.
It helps your team distribute all pertinent content at the appropriate moment by combining social media scheduling with content calendar planning. You can manage several platforms at once if you plan things ahead of time. You also don’t have to press the publish button every time.
4. Userpilot for the post-launch stage
Ultimately, you need a strong tool to promote product adoption throughout the post-launch stage. If you’re looking for a no-code application with a lot of features and functionalities to increase product stickiness, go no further than Userpilot.
Follow Faqprime for more.
