How to Launch a Product, According to HubSpot’s Experts

Like a tree falling within the woods, should you plan a product launch with out spreading the phrase — will anybody use it? Will anybody even need it?

Most likely not. Whether or not you‘re launching one thing big, one thing small, otherwise you’re updating a present providing, you may wish to begin your preparation nicely upfront of the launch date with a product launch guidelines.

As a result of there are such a lot of shifting components on this course of, bringing your product to market will be intimidating and difficult. That will help you, we have give you a step-by-step guidelines for a profitable product launch and gathered one of the best product launch suggestions from a HubSpot Product Marketer.

What’s a product launch?

A product launch is the method of introducing a model new services or products to the world. It entails numerous advertising and promotional actions aimed toward creating buzz and demand round your new providing. The final word objective is to get clients excited and keen to purchase the brand new product.

Product launches require a variety of planning. You may’t simply drop a brand new product out of the blue and count on everybody to purchase in — nicely, except you’re Beyoncé. Fortunately, our product launch guidelines may also help be certain that all of your t’s are crossed and that i’s are dotted earlier than your official launch date.

1. Find out about your buyer.

Whether or not you name it “market analysis,” or “buyer improvement” it is key to study what drives your buyer. Figuring out their objectives, motivations, and ache factors could lead on you to creating and advertising a helpful resolution.

You need not carry out years of intense analysis to study your buyer. In truth, we propose simply speaking to 12 to fifteen present or potential clients.

When chatting with them, pay further consideration once they begin sentences with “I want a product did this operate…” or “Why can‘t merchandise do that?” Once they give these statements, reply with questions that go deeper, like “Are you able to get extra particular about that?” In the event that they don’t deliver up any ache factors, ask them just a few particular questions that can encourage them to offer deeper solutions.

These conversations offers you a stable thought of what their largest ache factors are and how one can market an answer to them. When you study these key particulars about your clients, you possibly can develop a purchaser persona that your staff can concentrate on serving.

2. Write a positioning assertion.

When launching a brand new product, it’s essential to have the ability to clearly clarify the way it fills a necessity out there. That’s the place a positioning assertion is available in. It helps you talk the distinctive worth proposition and key advantages that differentiate your product from others.

Write out a press release that may clearly and concisely reply these three questions:

• Who’s the product for?
• What does the product do?
• Why is it totally different from different merchandise on the market?

If you would like to go even deeper, create a press release that solutions the next questions:

• What’s your audience?
• What section of the audience is almost definitely to purchase the product?
• What model title will you give your services or products?
• What services or products class does your product lie in?
• How is it totally different from opponents in the identical class?
• What proof or proof do it’s a must to show that your product is totally different?

Nonetheless want extra steering on the best way to write a positioning assertion? Try this template.

3. Pitch your positioning to stakeholders.

As soon as you’ve got established your positioning assertion, current it to stakeholders in your organization so they’re all on the identical web page.

When doing this, you’ll wish to emphasize how your new product aligns along with your total enterprise technique, buyer wants, market tendencies, and income potential. Use concrete examples, tales, or information to make your pitch extra persuasive.

You’ll additionally wish to suppose proactively about potential questions or objections they could have. Put together considerate responses to deal with issues round market viability, competitors, audience, or feasibility.

In case your staff have a tough time shopping for into the product, your clients may as nicely. In case your staff loves it, that may be an awesome signal that the product launch will go nicely.

4. Develop product branding.

Take the knowledge you gathered whereas conducting your market analysis and writing your positioning assertion and let it encourage you as you craft your product model id.

Throughout this step, you’ll develop all the weather wanted to create a constant and memorable model, together with:

• Product title, emblem, and tagline
• Shade palette, typography, and imagery
• Key model, communications, and advertising tips
• Packaging

Product branding is just a little totally different than firm branding as a result of it focuses on creating a definite id for a selected product, relatively than a complete group. Nonetheless, they’re each nonetheless interconnected and ought to be aligned.

5. Plan your go-to-market technique.

That is the technique that you’ll use to launch and promote your product. Whereas some companies favor to construct a funnel technique, others favor the flywheel strategy.

No matter which technique you select, this course of incorporates many shifting components. To create an organized technique for launching your product, it may be useful to make use of a template, like this one.

As you create the technique, additionally start thinking about which sort of content material you‘ll use to draw a potential buyer’s consideration throughout the consciousness, consideration, and buy resolution stage. You may want to provide this content material within the subsequent step.

6. Set a objective for the launch.

Earlier than you get began on implementing your technique, be sure to write down your objectives for the launch.

Alex Girard, a Product Advertising and marketing Supervisor at HubSpot, says, “Create particular objectives for the launch’s success. Conserving these objectives in thoughts will allow you to focus your efforts on launch ways that can allow you to obtain these objectives.”

For instance, the objectives of your product launch may very well be to successfully set up a brand new product title, construct consciousness, or create gross sales alternatives.

Top-of-the-line methods to set objectives in your launch staff is to put in writing them out like SMART objectives. A SMART objective is Particular, Measurable, Attainable, Related, and Time-bound.

Upon getting your objectives in thoughts, you can begin excited about what KPIs you wish to monitor, resembling:

• Gross sales income
• Items offered
• Buyer acquisition
• Conversion charge
• Web site visitors and engagement
• Social media engagement

Figuring out these metrics forward of time will make it simpler to evaluate whether or not or not you met your objectives after the product is launched.

7. Create promotional content material.

After planning out your go-to-market technique and writing your SMART objectives, begin producing content material that can assist and align with these promotional efforts.

This will embrace:

Our go-to-market template may even allow you to decide which content material you need to create for every part of your potential buyer‘s purchaser’s journey.

8. Take a look at and collect suggestions.

Earlier than you formally launch your new product, it’s vital to try it out to make sure your remaining product is one of the best it may be.

By testing the product in several situations with actual customers, potential bugs, usability issues, or useful points will be found and resolved early on. Fixing these issues earlier than launching your product ensures a smoother consumer expertise and helps preserve buyer satisfaction.

Gathering suggestions from customers additionally permits for product enchancment. By listening to the opinions, options, and criticisms of customers, you possibly can acquire perception into what options are working nicely and which of them want enchancment. This feedback-driven strategy may also help you make knowledgeable choices on enhancing the product’s performance, usability, and efficiency.

9. Arrange distribution channels.

Earlier than you formally launch, you’ll must arrange your distribution channels. This step is vital as a result of it determines how and the place clients should buy your product, be it on-line platforms, brick-and-mortar shops, or different distribution companions.

Properly-planned distribution channels assist speed up the product’s time to market. By proactively establishing channels forward of the launch, you possibly can shortly distribute the product as soon as it turns into obtainable, minimizing delays and maximizing alternatives to seize early adopters and acquire market share.

If you happen to can efficiently place your product in distinguished retail areas or on-line marketplaces, it will increase visibility and boosts your possibilities of capturing buyer consideration and outperforming opponents.

It additionally gives a basis for future progress and scalability. As your online business expands and introduces new merchandise, you possibly can leverage current channel relationships and infrastructure to effectively launch and distribute new choices.

10. Put together your staff.

Make certain that your organization and key stakeholders are prepared so that you can launch and start advertising the product.

Earlier than the large launch day, take into account doing the next:

• Supply your staff early entry to the product to allow them to familiarize themselves with it firsthand.
• Present coaching classes to assist your staff perceive the product inside out.
• Develop gross sales enablement supplies resembling displays, product sheets, FAQs, and objection dealing with guides.
• Conduct role-playing workouts to simulate actual buyer situations with the product.

Throughout this course of, it’s important that every one stakeholders are on the identical web page. Talk with the corporate by inside displays, Slack, or electronic mail to maintain your organization up to date in your launch plan.

11. Launch the product.

As soon as you’ve got accomplished all of the above steps, you possibly can launch the product. Listed here are some last-minute issues to verify over on launch day:

• Double-check all the required particulars, supplies, and preparations to make sure that every part is prepared and dealing accurately.
• Conduct a quick staff assembly to align everybody and deal with any last-minute questions or issues.
• Keep watch over social media channels to gauge buyer reactions, reply to inquiries, and interact with potential clients.
• Make sure that your web site and any programs associated to the product launch, resembling touchdown pages or checkout processes, are functioning easily.

Most significantly, you need to take the time to have fun the launch and the efforts of your staff. This may be within the type of a staff lunch, digital celebration, or some other artistic solution to acknowledge everybody’s onerous work.

12. See how nicely you probably did in reaching your objectives.

After you launch your product, monitor how the go-to-market technique is performing. Be ready to pivot or modify elements of your plan if they don’t seem to be going easily.

Moreover, remember concerning the objectives you set earlier than the launch. Take the time to evaluate the KPI targets you set forward of the launch and assess how nicely you probably did in reaching these objectives.

For example, did you exceed your gross sales projections, or did you fall brief? If the launch did not meet expectations, you possibly can rethink your go-to-market technique and modify from there.

The price of launching a brand new product varies considerably. For example, an entrepreneur will see vastly totally different prices for launching a product on Amazon than an enterprise firm may see for launching a product in a million-dollar market.

Let’s take into account two examples to discover this extra intently.

Entrepreneur Product Launch Instance

Within the first instance, let‘s say you’re an entrepreneur who has invented a design app you are hoping to promote on-line. You may conduct market analysis to find out which advertising methods work finest in your objectives, which messaging resonates finest along with your viewers, and which design parts attraction to your required prospects. If you happen to use just a few focus teams to find out these solutions, you may count on to spend roughly $5,000.

While you‘re bringing a brand new app to the market, you’ll want to decide on one of the best go-to advertising technique in your wants. Whatever the technique you select, all of them price cash. For example, product branding might price roughly $1,000 should you‘re paying a designer that will help you out, and web site design might price wherever from $500-$3,000 should you’re paying an internet designer a one-off charge.

These charges don‘t embrace the associated fee you should pay your self and any staff if this can be a full-time job. It additionally doesn’t embrace the prices of hiring an engineer to replace the app’s options and make sure the app is working easily.

With this simplified instance, you are roughly $8,000. In fact, you possibly can lower some prices should you select to do any of those duties your self, however you may danger making a subpar buyer expertise.

Enterprise Product Launch Instance

On the opposite finish of the spectrum, let‘s take into account a big enterprise firm that’s launching a brand new product. Right here, you’ll probably pay upwards of $30,000 – $50,000 for market analysis.

Maybe you may spend $15,000 on model positioning and the advertising supplies essential to differentiate your self towards opponents, and also you may pay upwards of $30,000 for all of the product design and model packaging. Lastly, your advertising staff may need a funds of roughly $20,000 for Website positioning, paid promoting, social, content material creation, and so on.

All mentioned and carried out, launching a product towards different enterprise opponents‘ might price roughly $125,000. Once more, that doesn’t embrace the prices you may pay your advertising, product improvement, and engineering groups.

Learn how to Launch a Product On-line

To launch your product on-line, you‘ll wish to make sure you’ve adopted the steps above. Nonetheless, there are just a few extra steps you may wish to observe to achieve traction primarily on-line.

1. Work out the story you wish to inform concerning your product’s greater function.

What story do you wish to inform throughout social platforms, touchdown pages, and electronic mail? That is just like your positioning assertion however must be geared completely towards your audience. Ask questions like, Why ought to they buy your product? And How will your services or products make their lives higher?

Speaking cross-functionally ensures the communication supplies you employ throughout numerous on-line channels align — which is vital relating to establishing a brand new product within the market.

Take into account, as an illustration, how Residing Proof introduced its new product, Superior Clear Dry Shampoo, on its Instagram web page. The story revolves round a easy nuisance widespread with most different dry shampoos — How customers nonetheless need that just-washed feeling, even when utilizing a dry shampoo.

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By specializing in how the product will profit customers by storytelling, and utilizing a brand new hashtag #NoWastedWashes, Residing Proof builds pleasure and demand for its new product.

2. Show buyer testimonials, case research, and different social proof to positively body your new product.

Customers wish to see that different customers have already taken the danger and bought your new product earlier than doing it themselves. That is the place social proof comes into play.

Within the weeks main as much as a product launch, or shortly after it‘s launch, start posting buyer testimonials, opinions, and case research to showcase how your new product has already helped different folks. Take this a step additional and make use of influencers to share the phrase about your product as nicely, if it’s a superb match in your model.

Customers are sensible sufficient to know they should not belief each commercial they see — however they will belief fellow customers. So leverage that belief by social proof strategies.

3. Create a social and electronic mail marketing campaign.

Create a full, complete social media marketing campaign to extend curiosity and consciousness of your new product.

Use paid promoting to achieve new audiences, create full product explainer movies to make use of throughout your social channels, and use electronic mail to achieve current clients and supply an unique, first take a look at your new product’s options.

Moreover, you may take into account internet hosting a stay stream to attach immediately with prospects and current clients and invite consultants out of your product improvement staff to clarify the brand new options of your product.

It‘s vital to notice — on this stage, you’ll wish to take note of how customers are interacting with the communication supplies concerning your new product. Share issues and suggestions with the product improvement staff — it is vital to belief your customers and use their suggestions to strengthen your product.

4. Have a pre-order possibility.

If a client is worked up to buy your new product, don‘t make them wait — present an choice to pre-order the services or products earlier than it’s even obtainable. This helps unfold out demand whereas enabling customers to buy the product every time they’re feeling most inclined to take action.

Product Launch Greatest Practices by Business

Learn how to Launch a Digital Product

When launching a digital product, you may wish to start constructing anticipation with a powerful content material advertising technique. Use weblog posts, electronic mail advertising, social media, and different channels of distribution to extend curiosity and demand in your digital product.

You‘ll additionally wish to make sure you’re leveraging lead technology methods to achieve current clients and prospects.

For example, let‘s say you’re launching a web-based course on Website positioning. Within the weeks main as much as the launch, you may create Website positioning-related weblog content material to ship to your electronic mail subscribers with an possibility to hitch the Website positioning course’s waitlist. This helps you gauge the effectiveness of your advertising supplies whereas reaching an viewers that has already demonstrated curiosity in your model.

Learn how to Launch a Product on Amazon

Anybody who‘s ever shopped on Amazon is aware of the significance of a superb product itemizing. Within the weeks main as much as launch, take the time to create a powerful, high-converting product itemizing — together with taking high-resolution images of your product, writing an outline that outlines your product’s differentiating options, and utilizing key phrases to assist your product rank on Amazon.

Moreover, product opinions are extremely vital on Amazon, so that you‘ll wish to guarantee you could have opinions able to go earlier than you even launch your product on Amazon. To do that, make sure you’ve both launched your product by yourself web site first (which provides you time to earn opinions earlier than launching on Amazon), or ship your product to a choose group of consumers forward of the total launch, and gather opinions from them.

Lastly, make sure you’re prepared for an Amazon product launch by checking stock. You by no means understand how shortly your product may acquire traction on the eCommerce superstore, so be sure to have sufficient merchandise to meet Amazon orders shortly.

Check out HubSpot’s The Final Information to Promoting on Amazon for extra info associated to Amazon.

Learn how to Launch a SaaS Product

To launch a SaaS product, you‘ll wish to begin by researching opponents and understanding {the marketplace} at massive. There’s loads of demand for SaaS merchandise, because the business is anticipated to develop by greater than 16% by 2026. Nonetheless, the SaaS business can be well-saturated, so earlier than launching a SaaS product, you may wish to decide how your product differs from all of the others within the business.

To create a profitable product launch, you may wish to conduct market analysis and focus teams to find out the true advantages and differentiators of your product.

Subsequent, you‘ll wish to make use of a powerful content material advertising technique to extend your web site’s visibility on search engines like google and to make sure your online business is showing in search outcomes for matters associated to your product.

Since you are not launching a bodily product, your advertising efforts must persuade companies that your product can resolve their wants. Moreover, you may wish to supply free trials or a freemium possibility for smaller companies on decrease budgets to check out your choices earlier than committing.

For a full SaaS rundown, check out HubSpot’s Final Information to Software program as a Service (SaaS).

Learn how to Launch a Meals Product

To launch a meals product, you‘ll first want to make sure you’re ready for the prices required to take action — together with how a lot it prices to bundle and retailer the product (together with packaging, warehousing, and distribution), and the way a lot it prices to promote the product (together with branding and digital advertising).

Subsequent, you may wish to observe federal and state meals rules. For example, you should make sure you’re following well being division guidelines for meals preparation surfaces, refrigeration, and sanitation.

You‘ll additionally want to ensure the labeling you employ in your product’s packaging is correct, which requires you to ship your meals product to a lab for evaluation and verify along with your state commerce to see what it requires relating to diet labels.

When launching a meals product, you may probably wish to rent a meals dealer. A meals dealer can foster relationships with nationwide or native grocery shops and can create a promotional plan to assist improve gross sales as quickly as your meals hits the cabinets.

Usually, a grocery store will take a look at out your product for just a few months earlier than figuring out if there’s sufficient client curiosity to maintain it stocked — which is why a meals dealer will be extremely helpful for utilizing enterprise intelligence and business information to make sure a profitable meals product launch.

1. Calm

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Originating in 2011 as a web site referred to as donothingfor2minutes.com, Calm is a cellular app that gives numerous sources and instruments for meditation, sleep, rest, and mindfulness. Though Headspace was the main meditation app on the time of its launch, it didn’t take lengthy for Calm to dominate the market.

Calm discovered success largely due to its content material advertising and Website positioning technique. In line with Basis’s analysis, Calm has attracted over 8 million backlinks and makes use of weblog content material and YouTube content material to organically entice and interact prospects.

The corporate additionally companions with celebrities to create distinctive content material and interesting advert campaigns. A few of Calm’s most well-known collaborators embrace Lebron James, Harry Types, Matthew McConaughey, and Camila Cabello.

Calm’s celeb partnerships have given them a leg up in comparison with their opponents. Not solely their celebrity-read Sleep Tales garner thousands and thousands of views, however in addition they increase the model’s visibility and authority.

2. Poppi

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Poppi is a “prebiotic soda,” which is a beverage that mixes the fizziness and style of a conventional soda with fruit juice, prebiotics, and apple cider vinegar. It is available in flavors resembling Traditional Cola, Root Beer, Orange, and Cherry Limeade.

Initially referred to as “Mom Beverage,” Poppi was initially created when co-founder Allison Ellsworth needed to create a drink that was each wholesome and tasted good. Not solely does Poppi stand out from different drinks due to its well being advantages, it additionally has a singular and colourful model persona that pulls clients.

In line with Allison, “We had this actually enjoyable and vibrant model and a product that individuals might relate to. Folks adore it and it was created with substances that individuals knew to be efficient and helpful to their physique.”

Poppi was initially slated for a retail launch in March of 2020. Nonetheless, these plans modified because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Fortuitously, they have been capable of pivot to launch as a DTC product, promoting on Amazon and different e-commerce platforms. Moreover, they used this chance to spend money on social media advertising on Instagram and TikTok, the place they gained recognition amongst Gen Z customers.

3. HubSpot Operations Hub

In 2021, HubSpot launched Operations Hub as a part of its CRM platform. The product is designed to assist companies streamline their operational processes, enhance information high quality and accuracy, and allow cross-team collaboration. This enables companies to run extra easily and scale extra successfully.

One of many explanation why this launch was profitable was as a result of it solved an issue that many purchasers confronted.

In line with HubSpot’s analysis, “over 60% of operations professionals must do duplicative work due to a scarcity of alignment between groups.” This occurs as a result of operations professionals get employed into separate departments and get siloed and overwhelmed with duties as their firms scale.

In response, HubSpot launched Operations Hub so operations staff might work collectively out of a shared system and take away friction from their day-to-day workflows.

4. Goodles

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Goodles is a noodle model that takes boxed mac-and-cheese to the subsequent degree. This product differentiates itself by offering extra dietary worth than the usual dry noodles, with 10g of protein and 7g of fiber with prebiotics in each serving.

“The pasta aisle is overflowing with golden, al dente pasta choices that present little or no diet. There’s additionally an ‘alt-pasta’ part with inexperienced, brown, orange, mushy, foamy noodles that supply extra diet however little ‘yum’,” co-founder and CEO Jen Zeszut mentioned in a press launch. “Why ought to it’s a must to select between style and diet?”

Except for its positioning as a scrumptious and nutritious different to boxed mac-and-cheese, Goodles additionally stands out with its vibrant and enjoyable branding. Whereas different noodle manufacturers have neutral-colored packaging, Goodles makes use of a daring colour palette, a nostalgic typeface, and cheeky product names, like Shella Good and Right here Comes Truffle, to draw customers within the grocery aisle.

Product Launch Ideas

To study one of the best practices for a profitable product launch, I talked to Alex Girard once more.

The HubSpot Product Advertising and marketing Supervisor mentioned he had three major suggestions for a profitable product launch:

• Your product positioning ought to replicate a shift you are seeing on the planet, and the way your product helps your clients make the most of that shift.
• Create a recurring schedule for you and the core stakeholders for the launch to verify in and make sure you’re all on the identical web page.
• Ensure you maintain the product staff within the loop in your advertising plans. The product staff might have insights that inform your total advertising marketing campaign.

Nonetheless, typically, exterior elements may affect your means to launch a product. When that occurs, you may must delay your launch.

Learn how to Know When to Delay a Product Launch

To know when, and why, you may maintain off on a product launch, Girard instructed me there are three key explanation why you may wish to delay a product launch, together with:

• When your product itself is not prepared and you should change your timeline to create one of the best buyer expertise potential.
• If a state of affairs happens the place your present clients are having a less-than-optimal expertise with certainly one of your present merchandise. Earlier than launching and selling a brand new product, you need to be certain that your present clients are glad along with your current product providing.
• If one thing happens on a global, nationwide, state, or native degree that requires your viewers to readjust their priorities and shift focus away out of your firm and its product launch. Guarantee that when the time involves launch, your audience is able to study your new product.

If you happen to‘re in search of templates to coordinate your staff efforts and align your organization round your new product’s messaging, obtain our free product advertising package under.

Editor’s notice: This submit was initially revealed in November 2015 and has been up to date for comprehensiveness.