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Why is Product Launch Important?

Launching your product is just as important as developing a great product. If you don’t do the product launch effectively, customers won’t be aware of your solution, potentially have a bad impression of your product, and you may not hit your revenue and profitability goals. As such, planning early is critical. Start your product launch plan 4-6 months before launch so that when the product is ready for sale you will be ready to effectively execute a launch that meets your goals.
Product launch plans help you sequence the events that lead up to and even past a product launch date. Your goal is to make sure that everyone inside the company, your partners and target customers know about your new product.

Why Prepare a Product Launch Marketing Plan?

A product launch plan consists of strategies and procedures a company may use to develop communication channels for its target audience.
A marketing plan helps you target your potential customers, their channels of information and ways to target them. Your whole business is dependent on a solid digital marketing strategy and requires planning and timely execution at its launch stage. Having a product launch plan helps you in:

Knowing your customers and your competitors.
Identifying the marketing approaches you will use.
Describing your business and its products and services.
Listing resources you will need to put in place your plan.
Evaluating the effectiveness of your product launch marketing strategy.

What size product launch are you working on?

Not all products launch and even those that do, don’t all have the same type of product launches. Products that are continually updated such as web-based software or smartphone apps use marketing techniques to remind customers that their product is available.

Product launches come in different sizes and types:

Soft Launch: When your product sneaks into the market without much fanfare. Often products sold from one business to another launch this way. You don’t get a lot of attention, but maybe your product isn’t quite ready for prime time so it makes more sense for a few customers at a time to have a look.
Minimal Launch: For smaller products or small incremental product changes, the minimal launch gets the word out without a huge amount of marketing spend.
Scale Launch: To let the whole world (OK, your target markets) know about your product, aim for a full-scale launch. You’ll spend a lot of time and energy making this happen. It also has the best chance for success.

Decide which type of product launch is best for your product before you start your product launch plan.

Steps to follow while creating a Product Launch Plan

► Step-1

Creating a Product Launch Plan

Your launch will tell your company and stakeholders what you are planning and how it impacts them. The process of creating it will help you think about the different aspects of the launch so that you are well-prepared to execute on the plan.

► Step-2

Product Description

Include a brief description of the product (2-3 paragraphs) that describes what the product is, the main features and benefits it provides and how it solves customer problems.

► Step-3

Filling Out the Product Launch Plan Template

A product launch plan template includes a brief back story to the launch. Most of the launch plan is a long list of launch activities and reasons for each of them. The better you can tell the overall launch story and how all the pieces fit together, the better you can defend your launch plan and the budget you’ll need to execute the launch properly..

► Step-4

Target Audience

Who is your target customer?
Who are the product personas?
What is your target market segment?
What business segments are you targeting?

► Step-5

Key Messages

What are your key messages for the product? For your company? This information comes from the messaging platform based on your product positioning.

► Step-6

Critical Success Factors

Include the specific criteria that indicate that the launch has been a success. Include concrete and measurable goals such as revenue targets, number of partners carrying the product, and channel availability.

► Step-7

Critical dates and milestones

List all critical dates and milestones including product availability, finalizing product name, budget, positioning, and press activities.

► Step-8

Milestones

List an overall timeline of all activities in the launch plan that need to happen.

► Step-9

Internal commitments and owners

Who is allocated to support customers through the beta program?

► Step-10

Marketing communications

What key marketing vehicles will work best for you given your budgetary constraints and your target audience? This should include:

Tradeshows
Publications
Press events
Company web pages
Product evaluations
Online communications
Collateral materials: Datasheets, brochures

► Step-11

Other

Risk Analysis
Assumptions
Open Issues
Document Approval
Core team members.

A product launch is exciting. Make sure to add elements of market excitement in your plan for the best results. Good luck!

► Step-12

Executive Summary

Summarize the goals of your campaign: company messages, product audience, goals for the launch, and how you’ll measure the launch success. Identify key features of the product you’re launching here, including features, functions, and system requirements.
Complete this after everything else is written..

► Step-13

Recognizing the Importance of the Product Launch Plan

As with all things in life, spending some time upfront planning your launch will likely pay off with great success. If you have an idea of what your goals are and have a well-thought through plan, you’re at least headed in the right direction. Your Market Requirements (MRD), Go-To-Market Strategy and Product Requirements (PRD) documents are good sources for the topics needed at the beginning of each product launch plan.

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Frequently Asked Questions

This is always a critical question. The schedule for each particular product launch will depend on several factors, including:

► Your current presence in a market or technology

► How much of a departure your new product is from other product lines?

► Delivery timelines once you begin taking orders

As a guideline, we suggest that your team:

► Talk ideas 2-3 years out. Share concepts and innovations with current customers to test for promise.

► Talk applications 18 months out. Engage in pilot tests with key players in new markets, conduct focus groups, interviews or surveys. Tour user environments and watch their work, understand their pain points. Engage in social media, PR, and marketing, discussing the challenges you find and technologies that have potential to address them. Position yourself as a thought leader in the technology.

► Talk products 6-9 months out. Determine product features, pricing, channel strategy, naming and branding, product families. Issue product announcements with an anticipated availability date in line with your sales cycles.

The best product launch planning begins 10-12 months before the actual launch. Many companies today start much later than this, but if you have even 2-3 months to prepare, Webingo® will make a big difference.

There are several opportunities to build collaboration and cohesion between your engineering and marketing teams.

1.Your company’s patent strategy should consider market trends, competitive landscape, and design functionality. Working together to set the strategy will improve not only alignment but also competitive advantage and company value

2.Product or market positioning is the intersection of your technology’s capabilities and customers’ needs. Agreement on this “sweet spot” will improve decision quality in product development tradeoffs over time.

3.Content or inbound marketing. Content brainstorm and abstract writing are two specific activities that can help create common ground between engineering and marketing. Inbound marketing offers both teams a clear and measurable role in sales.

4.Innovation forums, product previews, R&D showcases. Informal events that engage your customers in the direction of new product development and emerging applications are excellent opportunities to collaborate. Try Google Hangouts or Facebook Live video for the kind of casual, informal experience you’re looking to create.

A common mistake is to give this job to one marketing person. It’s much better to take a multi-functional team approach: Most launch teams should include five functions: marketing, marcomm, technical, operations and sales.

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