Product Launch Ahead: Here's What You Need to Know 100%

December 11, 2018

Launching the next product of your business is an exciting time for everyone involved. You’ve all worked so hard on getting it just right, perfecting the product, and reaching out to everyone’s contacts in order to spread the word – but what if it doesn’t take off at all?
If we can learn anything from the previous product launches around the world it is that, sometimes, the result isn’t always exactly what we expected. You can still make your chances a bit bigger, though, so that the effort you put into creating this product doesn’t go to waste.
Here is a handful of tips to make your product launch as successful as possible, ensuring that everyone knows about it, and make sure that they all want to try it out. It doesn’t guarantee that they will fall in love with it, unfortunately, but it’s a great start.
First: Talk to your customers
Sure, you’ve probably spent some long hours on mapping out the ideal customer for your product and making sure that you’re reaching them with your marketing efforts through all channels.
Yet, there is more to marketing than just pushing your product – and your network will definitely appreciate a sign of life from your business where you’re not just talking about the next big product or service.
Make yourself seen by creating snappy content that will help your customers out, gain their trust, and ensure that they want your help during their everyday lives as well. This means that you need to work on your blogging skills, of course, as well as those social media platforms; have a look at this article if you need to brush up on those skills quickly first.
Another point to this is that you should consider making video blogs as well. People love to have a face to associate with your business or product and there is, after all, no better time for this than right now.
Make sure that the person in front of the camera is comfortable being there, though, and has a certain connection with the audience – otherwise, you run the risk of creating a rather awkward video instead.
Next: Host a product launch event
Now that you’ve been working on those online platforms a bit, it’s time to get back to the physical world. A product launch event is, hands down, one of the best ways to not only create a bit of buzz around your new product but also a great opportunity for you to show your audience how to use it, build lasting relationships, and answer all of their questions at once.
You may want to livestream the product launch event as well, by the way, if you have the capacity to do so. That way, you’ll gain a lot of virtual visitors to your event who you would have missed out on if you didn’t livestream it.
Get a hold of an inflatable room, for example, so that you can host it outside in any weather conditions, hand out some leaflets, and promote the event through social media as well. There is, after all, no point in hosting a product launch event if nobody knows that takes place.
Use your mistakes as learning opportunities
Finally, it’s important to keep in mind that the product launch may not go down the way you anticipated. There could be a variety of reasons for this, though, and you need to put some effort into understanding exactly what went wrong in order to avoid the same happening in the future.
An unsuccessful launch is, at the end of the day, just another bump in the road – at least according to these highly successful companies. Use it as a learning opportunity, talk to your customers about what went wrong, and do your very best to fix it. You might have to market it to a completely different segment or perhaps you simply have to get back to the drawing table.
Whatever you do, just keep in mind that any business mistake is a great opportunity for learning and that your customers will come back for more as long as you make an honest attempt at fixing it. Figure out what went wrong, create a prototype of a new and improved product, and give your most loyal fans a taste of the improved version before you launch it again.
Now you should be ready to spread the word about your new product, prepare for that product launch event, and hope that all of your hard will pay off. With these simple tips, your chances may even be a bit bigger.

Mark Asquith

That British podcast guy, Mark is co-founder of Captivate.fm, the world's only growth-oriented podcast host. A Harvard, TEDx, Podcast Movement and Podfest speaker (amongst many more!), he's a wildly approachable Brit and Star Wars/DC Comics geek.

Learn podcasting
in your own time

Listen to the
free podcast

The free, thrice-weekly show that brings you podcast education, industry insights & straight-talking reactions to podcasting news. This short-form show typically runs for between 7 and 15 minutes and releases every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Usually a solo show, every now and then, the show features expert podcast industry guests and release bonus episodes as the podcast industry continues to grow and develop.