Launching a new software product is an exciting process. Yet, it needs careful planning, action, and monitoring. You must prepare a series of activities such as coordinating different departments, setting timelines, and managing expectations.
The primary goal is to ensure that the product reaches its target audience, meets their needs, and achieves the intended business goals.
A well-organized product launch plan will help you reduce risks and make the biggest impact. It can help your business grow, bring in new customers, and strengthen your product’s reputation.
The pre-launch phase
Before launching, it’s all about getting the word out and making sure everything’s ready to go. This means planning your marketing, creating buzz, testing the product thoroughly, training your team, and setting up all your distribution channels and content.
1. Market Research
I frequently emphasize this point in my articles because it’s imperative in product development.
Market research is a tool that shows you what your potential customers need, allowing you to build a product that people want to buy.
But it’s not just that; understanding the challenges of your future users and staying updated on industry trends will also help you effectively market the product to the appropriate audience and stay current with the latest trends.
You’ll find the research to be helpful in the sales aspect as well. It will give you ideas on pricing your product, effective communication strategies for selling it, and where you can sell it.
Let’s say you’re creating a tool to help people manage their projects. You might find out that many of the other tools out there are really complicated for small businesses. This means you could make your tool more straightforward to use, add practical features for small businesses, and promote it with this benefit.
2. Define Goals and Metrics
The goals you set before creating a product and your goals to launch that product have different purposes.
The pre-launch goals focus on ensuring the product is introduced to the market in a way that increases its chance of success.
These are some pre-launch goals that you can consider:
- Marketing goals – include generating awareness, lead generation, and tracking engagement metrics;
- Operational goals – involve testing with a small group of users, preparing teams, and setting up customer support;
- Readiness goals – include ensuring distribution channels are ready, marketing materials are prepared, and any launch events are well planned;
Following the example from the previous step, if you’re creating a project management tool and your goal is to get 1000 users in the first month, you can track how many people sign up each day and figure out which marketing activities are bringing in the most users. You can adjust your plans based on what you see is working best.
2. Create a Timeline
You’ll also need a detailed timeline for all the tasks and key dates leading up to the launch.
This should cover deadlines for product development, marketing activities, testing, and any events before the launch.
3. Build a Launch Team
Before launching the product, you’ll need a team with members from different parts of the company in areas like marketing, sales, and customer support. Each person should have a specific role and know exactly what they’re supposed to do.
What’s the usual process for each group?
- The marketing team focuses on creating promotional content;
- The customer support team gets ready to help users with any questions after the launch;
- The sales team collaborates with the marketing and product teams to finalize pricing strategies and packaging options;
4. Run Beta Testing
Beta testing can be a valuable step for getting real feedback from a small group of users. During Beta testing, you may identify bugs, assess usability, and ensure the product meets user expectations.
Selecting a diverse group of beta testers who represent the target audience can provide comprehensive insights, and their feedback can then be used to make necessary changes and improvements.
5. Implement a Marketing Strategy
You can achieve excitement and interest before a product launch by implementing some strategic pre-launch marketing activities:
- Leveraging various channels such as social media and email marketing;
- Inform the audience about the product’s features through a content marketing strategy that includes blog posts, videos, and infographics;
- Engaging with followers on social media platforms and fostering a community around the product;
Launch Day Activities
1. Coordinate the Launch
- Your checklist should include monitoring the website’s performance, responding to customer questions, and monitoring social media to respond quickly to any issues;
- Check in with the developers to resolve any technical issues that might arise and keep communication open;
- The support team can monitor any issues with users and report or answer user questions during the launch;
2. Publish Press Releases
Users must discover what makes your product special and how it can make a difference in the market.
To achieve that, you can put together an engaging press release that includes quotes from important team members, details about the product, and some high-quality images.
You might include a quote from your CEO about the product’s vision, some information about how it was developed, and testimonials from beta testers. To promote the release, you can send it to industry publications or create your own blog posts.
Post-Launch Follow-Up
1. Collect Feedback
Post-launch, one thing to do is collect user feedback through surveys, reviews, or by simply having conversations with your users. This can give you a clear picture of what needs improvement and how satisfied your customers are.
Ask them about their overall experience, any problems they ran into, and what they think could be better.
When you analyze this feedback, you might find common themes and areas where you can make enhancements and what to prioritize.
2. Analyze Performance
Analyzing the performance metrics you’ve set before the launch can show you if you met your goals and where there might be gaps.
During the performance analysis, you could notice that user sign-ups are lower than you expected, that the sign-up process is too complicated, or that the value proposition isn’t clear.
This gives you the opportunity to improve those areas and achieve your initial goals, but also adjust them where needed based on what you’ve learned.
3. Continuously Improve
Regular updates and new features will keep your product relevant and competitive.
A post-launch plan that includes regular updates, new feature releases, and ongoing support will keep users happy with your product.
Launching new products VS launching new features
You may think that a launch is a launch, whether it’s for a new product or a new feature. While there is some truth to that, there are differences between these types of launches in terms of effort, impact, and planning. Keep reading to see why.
1. Scope
New Product
Creating a product from scratch means covering everything from design and development to testing and marketing.
It’s pretty complex and requires a lot of planning, various development stages, and thorough market research. You’ll be working on a new user interface, back-end systems, integrations, and possibly new technologies or platforms.
New Feature
Adding or improving a specific feature within an existing product focuses on a narrower scope. It is generally simpler than launching a whole new product, though the complexity can vary depending on the feature. You’ll be modifying or extending the current user interface, back-end systems, and existing technologies.
2. Planning
New Product
For a new product release, you need a detailed plan that covers everything from the initial idea to post-launch support. This involves significant market research to identify gaps, understand customer needs, and analyze competitors. It requires a lot of resources, including a dedicated team, budget, and time.
New Feature
Releasing a new feature requires fewer resources than launching a new product, and you’ll be using the existing product team and infrastructure. Market research may be less comprehensive and often relies on customer feedback and usage data from the current product.
3. Audience
New Product
The product is designed to appeal to both new customers and existing users, while marketing efforts aim to reach a broader audience and establish a strong market presence.
New Feature
The focus is on enhancing the experience and satisfaction of existing users while also aiming to increase user engagement, satisfaction, and retention through product improvements.
4. Marketing Strategies
New Product
The product launch needs a comprehensive campaign that consists of a full-scale marketing effort, covering branding, advertising, social media, and content marketing.
It may also incorporate launch events such as webinars and press releases to build excitement and raise awareness. The sales strategy usually involves dedicated sales tactics, partnerships, and distribution channels to drive product or service sales.
New Feature
With a new feature, you’ll focus on informing existing users through various channels such as email newsletters, in-app notifications, blog posts, and social media updates.
User education efforts may include tutorials, webinars, and FAQs to help users better understand and use the new feature.
Also, these product updates are promoted as part of regular updates, emphasizing continuous improvement and responsiveness to user feedback.
5. Overall Impact
New Product
The overall impact of a new product can significantly influence the company’s market position, revenue streams, and brand reputation. It involves both greater risks and rewards, with the potential for substantial growth or failure.
New Feature
Launching new features has an incremental impact, improving user satisfaction and product functionality.
The stakes are lower than when launching a new product, and based on user feedback, outcomes can be predicted more easily.
Check out the examples below to get a better idea of how it works.
New Software Product Launch
Imagine a company developing and launching a new project management tool to compete with established products. This would involve extensive market research, a full development cycle, and a comprehensive marketing campaign to attract users.
New Feature Launch
Now, imagine the same company adding a new feature to their project management tool, like a time-tracking module. This feature is based on user feedback, tested within the existing framework, and marketed to current users through targeted communications.
Conclusion
Launching a software product is a big deal and requires a lot of careful planning and execution. But you can make it successful with a good level of preparation, coordination, and ongoing optimization.
Leave a comment and let me know what else you would add to the product launch process.