New Product Marketing Checklist: 6 Steps To Launch Success

An exciting, yet stressful, time in your business is when you are ready to bring a new product or service to the market.

You can have a huge payoff when everything goes to plan after you have raised awareness, created hype and pushed for sales.

However, the proper planning that is required to take that new product from idea to sales success is something that entrepreneurs fail to take into account.

It can be very nerve-racking to launch a new service or product. All of the efforts that were put in by your team can go down the drain, even if you have the best product, and fail if you haven’t created an efficient marketing strategy. It is crucial to do have the best marketing possible for your new product or service before the launch, this goes for both big and small businesses. Doing so will give your business a sneak peek of the traction that this new endeavour is going to gain and it will help build excitement among your audience.

What Is a Product Launch Checklist?

A checklist for your product launch is a list of actionable steps that are needed to be completed to successfully release a new product or service to consumers and clients. This helps you and your team think through the steps, processes, and assets that need to be completed prior to any launch.

Why Is It Important To Have This Checklist?

There are multiple reasons why having a launch checklist is important including:

Ensures That You Don’t Miss Anything

When you are in the process of releasing your new product or service, one of the primary benefits of your checklist is that it will allow you and your team to remember each of the important and necessary steps and every asset that you need. You will still be able to keep track of the crucial details and easily focus on the overall objective.

Prepares You For Any Unforeseen Situations

You will be better positioned and fully prepared to handle all of the unforeseen situations that may occur, including mistakes, when using a product launch checklist.

Promotes Teamwork

It will help your team to work together in unison because all of the members of the team will have access to the same checklist. Each team member will know what the responsibilities of the other members are as well as their own responsibilities on the list. Therefore, the likelihood of efforts being duplicated is reduced with the product launch checklist.

Tasks Will Be More Manageable

Responsibilities will be distributed easier within a group by breaking them down into more manageable tasks.

Components Of Your Launch Checklist

A good mix of goal-driven strategy and data-driven, continuous execution.

Well-executed marketing materials with no clear strategy will yield far fewer results than having a solid plan in place before you implement your marketing strategy for your product or service launch. Efficient planning is essential, especially for larger marketing teams that have a complex approval process and rely on contractors. Here are the crucial components that you need to have for your launch.

1. Buyers Personas

A buyer persona will help your writers and marketing teams position your pitches, content, and campaigns around your ideal target buyer, and their needs, interests, and other influencing factors.

The research that goes into creating a buyer persona includes conducting interviews with stakeholders, reading research reports, interviewing customers, listening to sales calls, using social media, and reviewing analytics, client surveys, and more.

2. Campaign Timeline

It essential for any campaign to map out a timeline. It will not only relieve any possible anxiety of possibly sabotaging the whole campaign by missing any important deadlines it will also help your marketing team have a visualization of how the launch will look in the coming weeks or months.

Every stage of the campaign, from the buildup, the prelaunch, and the launch itself, needs to be mapped out when setting the timeline. Important details such as how long a task should approximately take, the assets that will be needed to complete the task and the people involved need to be added.

3. Positioning Statement

Your positioning statement needs to be able to explain what your product does, who it is for, and why yours is different from other similar products that are already on the market. Further detail can be given with your positioning statement, such as naming the product category, describing the audience, or even showing proof that your product is different from the rest.

4. Set KPIs

In order to measure the success of your launch marketing metrics are needed. This will help your team learn which areas need improvement and which ones are working. KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators, that you should consider are:

• Lead magnet downloads
• Page traffic
• Click-through rates
• Cost per lead
• Total revenue from marketing efforts and online ads
• Landing page conversions
• Volume-based KPIs
• Social media traffic

Which ones are suited to your business needs to be decided by you and your team. Service-based businesses can measure their success through cost per lead, whereas online retailers can opt for conversion rates to determine what’s working.

5. Communicate Internally

You will need to ensure that everyone on your team that is contributing to the process is aware of your positioning when planning a new product launch, so communicate internally to be sure that everyone on the team has the same expectations, there is no room for keeping secrets.

Internal teams need to be moving in the same direction and get excited by the idea of a new launch, this is just as important as building relationships with your customers.

6. Identify Marketing Platforms

It is best to market your new product on every offline and online platform possible for greater reach. Since most customers looking for products like yours are online these days, you will need to take advantage of this opportunity as much as possible. Use your company website, email marketing campaign, and social media to connect with your potential customers. You can even go as far as guest posting on relevant blogs, list your business on online directories, and comment on online forums. This practice is great for boosting your SEO.

Get Ready!

A new product launch can be all kinds of scary and exciting for small businesses. However, you will more than likely see your desired results when you are equipped with the right arsenal at your disposal. As you have learned, your product will not get the attention it deserves without a well-documented plan, no matter how great your product is.

If you are looking for advice to create a product launch list or for any other business advice, sign up for a membership and speak with our business experts.