Marketing and Launching Products

So you’ve done a great job creating your product. It looks great and does the job it needs to do, and now it’s time to release it to the world. Depending on the size of your company, you’ll have a little or a lot of participation in how this new product development has happened. The bottom line is that you know your product, and possibly your users, better than anyone else in the organization. So let’s talk about how you can help. If you’re in a bootstrap or seed stage company, you may be in charge of the whole thing. If you have a strategic marketing staff, they still may have questions and want your participation. The main thing to know about successful product launches, and this can be said for crowdfunding campaigns too, is that they do not happen over night.

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They require planning, and very often the groundwork is laid months in advance. It goes without saying that you need to make sure your tech is in order, tested, approved for the app store or Android marketplace, ready for launch. If you’re worried about the tech, or fulfillment, or otherwise getting overwhelmed, you can always opt for a soft launch. This is simply making the product live and recruiting users gradually at first to test. You could do a general soft launch, then a promoted launch for a significant upgrade, or do a soft launch for just a few days before a major launch, just to check kinks.

Marketing Strategy for New Product

There’s also the option of a beta launch. This is recruiting a controlled number of users in private. There are a few sites that can help you do this, most notably betalist.com. This will help you recruit users if you don’t already have a list. The key with soft launches is to give each user the best experience possible, and make sure to have them fill out a survey to get feedback. This gives you the opportunity to hone out any tech or other issues before you go live. Beta launches are also a good way to get customers before you start getting customers.

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But there are other ways to do this. Coming soon pages and landing pages can capture emails. This process will also allow you to work on and refine your message and audience by testing them through social media and search ads. You’re looking to find your sweet spots in terms of demographics, and a specific message. You’ll know, based on more clicks and more signups. Even if you don’t do a beta or a soft launch, you should give access to influencers in your target market and media. This includes social media influencers, bloggers, or generally important people in that sphere.

How to Launch a Product

Encourage them to write articles and posts about your product. You can also refer media to them for interview and information later. Do a press release for the media and briefing requests for analysts in your industry. It takes time to get meetings, so do this early. Use social media influencers to leak product photos and intriguing news about what you’re releasing. After the launch, you’ll want to continually be releasing content about your product.

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Sample uses, surprise features, return on investment data, anything that’ll give reporters fresh angles once the product is live. Use sites like Product Hunt to support your release. All they do is feature products, so find a good hunter who’s posted similar products and coordinate your launch with them. And make sure to monitor the page and respond to criticism, comments, and questions about your product. This is a great thing that the CTO can do directly, teno matter the size of the company.

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Make sure you have plenty of material and support available to your users. This includes tutorials, videos, and an FAQ or knowledge base. You can refine once you’re live, but have as much as you can up when you go live. As CTO, it might be good to write a launch post or posts.Keep it simple. Just focus on features, reinforce the innovation or technical soundness, and maybe share a fun analogy about the process. This can be posted on LinkedIn, Medium, your company blog, or anywhere else you might have access to.

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Make sure your link gets shared on social media. Most likely, your product launch will not change everything in a day. Only the largest companies can build the buzz to have people lining up for their products. It’s an ongoing process, so it’s important to listen and refine your message and launch from now on. You can continue to post articles, write tutorials, case studies, update teases, and anything else to keep the launch and media cycle alive. Successful product launches take a lot of effort and planning, but there’s nothing more exciting than seeing your product out in the marketplace after new product development phase.

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