Plato, one of the greatest philosophers, once said that the beginning is the most essential part of the work. Getting started takes courage and planning, which is why you need a solid product launch strategy.
The question is, how do you create a product launch that attracts success for your product? Tag along as this guide exposes the planning process and pre launch marketing activities for a successful product launch execution.
The Essentials of a Successful Product Launch
Product launches usually require maximum effort and coordination, especially in big companies. It takes collaboration from the sales, product, branding, marketing, and event management teams.
This way, you ensure messaging consistency when developing your ecommerce and digital marketing strategy. The goal is to ensure every member is on board and making an effort to build anticipation and buzz around the product.
Luck may be on your side, and you may not have to invest much. Still, sometimes, you may even have to hire PR teams and distribute several press releases before unveiling a product, like Apple. Below, we have a detailed framework and a checklist for you to have when launching a product, so check it out.
Crafting a Strategic Launch Strategy: The Foundation
What is a launch strategy? To understand it better, let’s divide it into two terms. A strategy refers to the overarching plan to achieve long-term goals. On the other hand, a launch refers to starting something or showing it to people for the first time.
Therefore, a strategic launch strategy is a comprehensive plan created to introduce a product to a market to achieve a goal. You could want to expand into new countries or increase revenue with upsells and crosells. Your focus should be on campaign execution for better positioning.
The following are steps to create an excellent market penetration strategy:
- Defining your goals and metrics: You need direction to create a solid strategy; that is where your performance metrics come in. Identify your primary goal behind the launch like increasing reach, sales, revenue and expanding into new markets.
- Understanding your market and customers: Can you create a product launch strategy that stands out without knowing the needs of your target market? We didn’t think so. Before building the product,perform a competitor analysis and learn the needs of your target customers.
- Crafting a compelling value proposition: Create a compelling value proposition and find the most exciting means to tell it. Your value proposition communicates your product’s features and benefits. Still, you must choose how to say it to attract people. It could be through a story or concepts. Ensure messaging alignment when telling your value proposition across platforms.
- Choosing the proper channels and tactics: The channels (i.e., social media, press releases, events) you choose are essential for reaching your target market. How you grow on them depends on your tactic, goal, budget, and resources. Think of strategy as what and why while tactic as how you get things done.
You should also consider the timing, frequency, and tone of your communication and use a mix of prelaunch, launch, and post-launch tactics to build anticipation, excitement, and loyalty.
Planning Process: The Roadmap to a Successful Launch
The planning process involves activities to execute the launch strategy and achieve success metrics. These include tasks from the prelaunch to the post-launch phase, such as market research, target audience identification, budgeting, timeline development, resource allocation, and campaign execution.
Let’s see a sample planning process below for a product launch:
| Phase | Tasks |
| Preparation | Define campaign goals and target audienceConduct market research and competitor analysisSet a budget and allocate resources |
| Planning | Define the product value proposition Create a market penetration strategyDevelop creative assets (logo, images, videos, copy) and packagingDetermine advertising channels (Facebook, Instagram, Google)Set campaign duration and frequency |
| Execution | Launch ad campaigns on chosen channels.Monitor campaign performance and adjust.Engage with audience comments and messages. |
| Monitoring and Optimization | Analyze campaign metrics (click-through rate, conversion rate, ROI).Identify areas for improvement.Implement changes to improve campaign performance. |
| Evaluation and Reporting | Compare campaign performance against objectivesPrepare a report with details on the launch and insightsPresent report to stakeholders and discuss future strategies |
Pre-Launch Marketing Activities
Before releasing your product, you should create a pre launch marketing strategy to incite excitement and anticipation in the target market. Unless your business is a conglomerate or super famous, you need to generate buzz around the about-to-be-released product.
More excitement about your product may translate into demand, which in turn means more sales.
Below, you will find five practical marketing activities to use for your product launch:
- Teaser campaigns: Teasing a product is a good idea, especially when you have over-delivered your past promises. You can pique your audience’s curiosity by showing snippets, countdowns, sneak peeks, or cryptic messages.
- Exclusive previews and beta testing: Giving some of your past customers and influencers beta testing opportunities can create interest in the product. It is also a way to create exclusivity around your product, making others eager to buy it.
- Content marketing: Creating content around your product topic can be a way to build an audience if you don’t have one yet and position yourself as a thought leader.
- Influencer collaborations: Influencer marketing is one of the best social media tools to amplify your launch marketing strategy. If you have the money for it, you can pay a list of influencers within your niche to promote your product pre- and post-launch.
- Interactive content: To generate excitement and buzz, host contests, giveaways, puzzles, or quizzes. Ask questions related to the product and let your audience find answers.
Imagine releasing a product that no one is thinking of or waiting for. Getting people interested would be more challenging because they have seen it, and you don’t make them care enough to buy it. So, pre launch activities are essential.
Bringing Your Product to Market
Introducing a new product in Indonesia requires you to plan and execute well. We already discussed the planning phase. Now, let’s show you how to manage a proper product launch.
See some actionable tips below:
- Coordinating product launch: Prepare the product for distribution and timely delivery so you are not unprepared on the launch day. Get the necessary permits and certifications to start a business in Indonesia.
- Implementing targeted marketing strategies: Use social media to share promotional content and tailor your marketing message. It is a great way to reach people in Indonesia.
- Establishing distribution channels: Think of ways to expand your reach within your locality and in other states—partner with local distributors, retailers, or e-commerce platforms to reach consumers effectively.
- Providing exceptional customer support: Offer customer support to cater to the different languages, including Bahasa Indonesia and English. If you can ensure 24/7 support and resolve queries promptly.
Actively seek feedback so that you know you’re on the right path. Ask customers to leave a review after buying and ensure you follow up. Hence, you are sure the product is genuinely satisfying customers.
Connecting with Your Audience
Connecting with your audience is a way to get them to make repeat purchases and encourage leads to become customers. If you want your project to become a success, you need to keep the relationship with your audience alive.
Learn how below:
- Leveraging social media platforms: Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn are great tools for connecting with your audience. For example, Instagram now allows creators to create polls in comment sections. It also allows creators to pin the most impactful comments from their audience.
- Providing exceptional customer service: Ensure that every customer’s query and complaint is met with a professional and personalized response. To achieve this, you can always consider using ecommerce customer support services available in Indonesia.
- Hosting events and workshops: Workshops and training are great ways to demonstrate expertise and connect with your audience. You can also demonstrate how to use your products to maximize their effects. Host a giveaway and reward the most active participants.
You can encourage customers to actively share their reviews, testimonials, and user-generated content on social media. Repost their content to show that their feedback matters and that you appreciate them.
Elevating Your Branding for a Standout Launch
Do you want to turn heads with your product launch? Of course you do. But you can’t do that in this age without visuals. Customers’ expectations are now over the roof with the content and visuals on social media. They expect and want more. Subconsciously, they decide whether to buy from you after seeing your packaging.
Also, you need to perform the following during your product launch:
- Defining your product brand identity: A brand is formed from the elements that make it up. Therefore, you must first outline your unique core values, mission, and personality. Then, decide on the brand assets like logo, color palette, typography, and visual elements to captivate your audience and ensure consistency across all touchpoints. You also need to decide the new product’s name and look.
- Crafting compelling brand messaging: Creating a brand messaging and voice that shapes your messaging should be one of the main things of your brand development. Let your audience know that you understand their desires and dreams and can help them bring them to reality through storytelling or saying it directly.
- Focusing on brand experience: If you want people to perceive you as a serious brand with a great product, you should prioritize the packaging. What feeling do you want customers to get when they see the teasers or participate in the quizzes? What desire are you trying to fulfill? Incorporate this into your ads to create lasting impressions.
The best way to have a successful branding and product launch is to see and emulate what others did. However, it is not that simple; you can’t always emulate what another brand did because time, resources, and talent may have worked in their favor. Another way to be successful with your product launch is to try novel ideas.
Measuring Success: Performance Metrics That Matter
If you didn’t track your performance metrics, how do you know you are doing poorly or well? You will only guess. However, analyzing and measuring facts is the best way to measure success.
In the next lines you will find some essential performance metrics that matter for a product launch.
Sales Revenue
This is the number one metric for success for any product launch. Some companies sell out within hours of launch because they prepared well for their launch. However, the more important detail is how much product was sold, enough to call it a success.
It is tricky because it depends on the industry; 200 packs sold on launch day is a good sign for the food industry, while ten cars is a big deal for the automotive industry. So, you should decide your success metric for sales.
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
While you need your sales to be above the roof, you need the CAC, part of your ecommerce sales cycle, to be quite low as a sign of success. Your customer acquisition cost is acquiring each new customer during the launch campaign.
Divide the total marketing and sales expenses by the number of new customers to determine your CAC. Compare your value with your industry’s benchmark to know how you performed.
Conversion Rate
How much of your prospect could you convert to leads and then customers? Don’t focus on only your customers here. Your leads may not buy from you during the launch but may eventually buy months or years later.
Divide the number of people who bought your product and took your lead magnet by the number of visitors you had to know your conversion rate.
Customer Satisfaction and Feedback
This should be your most important metric, as it will determine your future purchases. In the beginning, you need people who love your product to promote it to their friends and come back. Several ways to know if your customers are satisfied are through surveys, interviews, or social media listening.
Finally, your overall Return on Investment (ROI) will determine if all your product launch effort was worth it. You need to compare your expenses with the total costs, which include talent fees, marketing expenses, and product development costs.
Post-Launch Evaluation: Learning and Adapting
After executing your launch phase, you must conduct a post-launch evaluation to understand your next steps.
After measuring your performance metrics, here is what you should do next:
- Review performance metrics: Compare your initial goals with your current metrics. Is the comparison favorable or unfavorable? What can you tweak to achieve a better result?
- Collect feedback: Get feedback from stakeholders like internal team members, external partners, customers, and industry experts to know how you can improve results.
- Evaluate competitor activity: You have tried everything possible to improve sales, but are you progressing? Pay attention to your competitor’s product launch activities, marketing campaigns, pricing strategies, and customer feedback. This will help you position your product better than your competitors.
From all that you have gathered, you should document what you have learned and pay more attention to what’s yielding more results. It could be that customers didn’t enjoy your product as much as you thought they would, so focus on improving its features to meet their demands.
Remember to keep an open mind and not be emotionally attached to your product or product launch strategy. Hence, you are unafraid to tweak or remove unnecessary details.
Positioning Your Product for Market Dominance
Product positioning means the perception customers have of your product compared to competitors. You want customers to think of you as the best or one of the best in a highly competitive market.
Below are some actionable strategies to help position your product for dominance:
- Identifying your unique value proposition: Once you have done all the previous steps, you can rearticulate your product’s unique value proposition. Outline all the advantages that your product offers even compared to other products.
- Choosing the right positioning strategy: Select a strategy that suits your unique value proposition and target audience preferences. Some strategic ideas include price or value-based positioning, quality or luxury positioning, convenience positioning, and niche positioning.
- Crafting compelling brand messaging: Find new ways to tell people about your product’s unique selling proposition (USP) or brand promise.
- Monitoring and Adapting: Monitor your market dynamics, consumer preferences, and competitive landscape in Indonesia to respond to changes early. Measuring the right key performance indicators (KPIs), such as market share, brand awareness, customer satisfaction, and sales performance, will help you understand the performance of your positioning strategy.
Positioning your product as customers’ number one choice means paying attention to every detail. Let your content be quality. Your website should show professionalism, and your grading should showcase authenticity and quality. Don’t forget the most essential thing: ensuring the quality of your product because great packaging with a poor product is no good.
Ventsislav Kirilov