Launching a new product is an exciting time for a business. It gives you an opportunity to build a buzz about your brand.
They’re also expensive. A product launch costs six times more than extending your existing line.
Having so much at stake financially makes it crucial that your product launch sees a return on investment.
Wondering how to have a successful product launch? Read on to learn the mistakes you need to avoid.
1. Not Planning Your Launch
The first mistake is not planning your launch. But product launches aren’t the kind of thing you can make up as you go along.
Start your launch plan before you build the product. That gives you a timetable to stick to during production.
Divide it into phases. These four should give you a solid foundation:
- Pre-launch
- Assembling the launch
- The launch period
- Post-launch
Create a plan for each phase and assign tasks to your team. They need to know what to do and when.
2. Having an Unrealistic Product Launch Schedule
So you’ve already created a launch plan…but you’re expecting staff to do six months’ worth of work in three.
This doesn’t give your team any flexibility if things go wrong. It also means they’re likely to rush and make mistakes.
Go back to mistake 1 and revisit your plan. Make sure there’s breathing room within the launch.
3. Choosing the Wrong Launch Date
Announcing the launch date is the first concrete step in building hype for your product. You’ve already teased your audience is the product is coming. Now they want to know when.
But pick a date that’s too soon and you risk not being able to deliver. It also means you risk over-saturating your marketing efforts. You’ll need to be everywhere all the time to market the product.
Pick a date that’s too far in the future and it’s hard to sustain interest. Your audience will lose interest and your team will lose momentum.
4. Not Getting Early Feedback
It’s one thing to want to keep a product a secret. After all, that’s how you build anticipation, by teasing your audience. But it’s another to keep it so secret you have no idea if it even works.
Say you’re launching a custom software development service. If you run a beta test to develop custom software, you’ll get valuable early feedback on how the service works.
That way, you can iron out problems before it ships. Your marketing team can also use comments from the feedback within your marketing.
Using language familiar to customers is a great way to show you understand their problem. They’ll feel more confident that your solution can solve it.
5. Not Having a Product Launch De-Brief
You’ve planned the launch to perfection. It’s gone without a hitch. Customers are buying your product in huge numbers.
Now what?
Many companies fail to have a de-brief after the launch. It went well so they don’t feel the need to examine the minutiae.
Failing to learn from your launch is one of the worst mistakes you can make. If you don’t know what particularly went well, you can’t replicate it next time.
And you can’t improve your process either. Make sure you and your team have a full de-brief and examine every aspect of the launch. Learn from both the successes and the failures to improve your next launch.
Launch for Success
If you ever hear someone say a product is so good “it’ll sell yourself”, ignore them. People need your product and the only way they can know about it is through a product launch.
Avoid these five mistakes to make sure yours goes off without a hitch. Run step 5 as many times as you need so you know what to do even better next time.
Why not check out our promotion articles for more tips about marketing?