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

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

In all probability not. Whether or not you‘re launching one thing large, one thing small, otherwise you’re updating a present providing, you will need to begin your preparation nicely prematurely of the launch date with a product launch guidelines.

As a result of there are such a lot of transferring elements on this course of, bringing your product to market might be intimidating and difficult. That can assist you, we have give you a step-by-step guidelines for a profitable product launch and gathered the very 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 includes varied advertising and marketing and promotional actions geared toward creating buzz and demand round your new providing. The last word aim is to get prospects excited and keen to purchase the brand new product.

Product launches require numerous planning. You possibly can’t simply drop a brand new product out of the blue and anticipate everybody to purchase in — nicely, until you’re Beyoncé. Fortunately, our product launch guidelines will 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 targets, motivations, and ache factors could lead on you to creating and advertising and marketing a beneficial resolution.

You need not carry out years of intense analysis to study your buyer. In actual fact, we advise simply speaking to 12 to fifteen present or potential prospects.

When chatting with them, pay additional consideration once they begin sentences with “I want a product did this perform…” 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 convey up any ache factors, ask them a few specific questions that can encourage them to offer deeper solutions.

These conversations gives you a stable thought of what their largest ache factors are and how one can market an answer to them. When you be taught these key particulars about your prospects, you possibly can develop a buyer persona that your crew can deal with serving.

2. Write a positioning assertion.

When launching a brand new product, it’s essential to be capable to clearly clarify the way it fills a necessity available in the market. 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 completely 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 most 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 completely different from opponents in the identical class?
• What proof or proof do it’s a must to show that your product is completely different?

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

3. Pitch your positioning to stakeholders.

As soon as you have 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 need to emphasize how your new product aligns along with your general enterprise technique, buyer wants, market developments, and income potential. Use concrete examples, tales, or knowledge to make your pitch extra persuasive.

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

In case your staff have a tough time shopping for into the product, your prospects may as nicely. In case your crew loves it, that is perhaps an incredible 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 brand identity.

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

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

Product branding is a bit of completely different than firm branding as a result of it focuses on creating a definite id for a selected product, relatively than a whole group. Nevertheless, they’re each nonetheless interconnected and must 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 method.

No matter which technique you select, this course of comprises many transferring elements. 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 get thinking about which sort of content material you‘ll use to draw a potential buyer’s consideration through the awareness, consideration, and purchase decision stage. You will want to provide this content material within the subsequent step.

6. Set a aim for the launch.

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

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

For instance, the targets of your product launch could possibly be to successfully set up a brand new product title, construct consciousness, or create gross sales alternatives.

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

After getting your targets in thoughts, you can begin serious about what KPIs you need to observe, comparable to:

• Gross sales income
• Items offered
• Buyer acquisition
• Conversion fee
• Web site 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 targets after the product is launched.

7. Create promotional content material.

After planning out your go-to-market technique and writing your SMART targets, start producing content that can help and align with these promotional efforts.

This may embody:

Our go-to-market template may even show you how to decide which content material it is best to create for every part of your potential buyer‘s purchaser’s journey.

8. Check and collect suggestions.

Earlier than you formally launch your new product, it’s vital to check it out to make sure your closing product is the very best it may be.

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

Gathering suggestions from customers additionally permits for product enchancment. By listening to the opinions, options, and criticisms of customers, you possibly can achieve perception into what options are working nicely and which of them want enchancment. This feedback-driven method will 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 have to arrange your distribution channels. This step is vital as a result of it determines how and the place prospects can buy your product, be it on-line platforms, brick-and-mortar shops, or different distribution companions.

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

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

It additionally supplies a basis for future development and scalability. As what you are promoting 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 crew.

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

Earlier than the large launch day, think about doing the next:

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

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

11. Launch the product.

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

• Double-check all the mandatory particulars, supplies, and preparations to make sure that the whole lot is prepared and dealing accurately.
• Conduct a quick crew assembly to align everybody and deal with any last-minute questions or issues.
• Regulate social media channels to gauge buyer reactions, reply to inquiries, and interact with potential prospects.
• Be sure that your web site and any techniques associated to the product launch, comparable to touchdown pages or checkout processes, are functioning easily.

Most significantly, it is best to take the time to rejoice the launch and the efforts of your crew. This may be within the type of a crew lunch, digital celebration, or some other artistic technique to acknowledge everybody’s onerous work.

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

After you launch your product, observe how the go-to-market technique is performing. Be prepared to pivot or alter points of your plan if they don’t seem to be going easily.

Moreover, do not forget in regards to the targets you set earlier than the launch. Take the time to overview the KPI targets you set forward of the launch and assess how nicely you probably did in reaching these targets.

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

The price of launching a brand new product varies considerably. For example, an entrepreneur will see vastly completely 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 think about 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 and marketing methods work greatest to your targets, which messaging resonates greatest along with your viewers, and which design parts enchantment to your required prospects. When you use a couple of focus teams to find out these solutions, you may anticipate to spend roughly $5,000.

If you‘re bringing a brand new app to the market, you’ll want to decide on the very best go-to marketing strategy to your wants. Whatever the technique you select, all of them value cash. For example, product branding may value roughly $1,000 when you‘re paying a designer that can assist you out, and web site design may value wherever from $500-$3,000 when you’re paying an online designer a one-off payment.

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

With this simplified instance, you are taking a look at roughly $8,000. In fact, you possibly can lower some prices when 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 think about 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 will spend $15,000 on brand positioning and the advertising and marketing supplies essential to differentiate your self in opposition to opponents, and also you may pay upwards of $30,000 for all of the product design and model packaging. Lastly, your advertising and marketing crew may wish a finances of roughly $20,000 for Web optimization, paid promoting, social, content material creation, and so on.

All stated and accomplished, launching a product in opposition to different enterprise opponents‘ may value roughly $125,000. Once more, that doesn’t embody the prices you will pay your advertising and marketing, product improvement, and engineering groups.

The best way to Launch a Product On-line

To launch your product on-line, you‘ll need to make sure you’ve adopted the steps above. Nevertheless, there are a couple of extra steps you will need to comply with to achieve traction primarily on-line.

1. Determine the story you need to inform relating to your product’s greater goal.

What story do you need to inform throughout social platforms, touchdown pages, and electronic mail? That is just like your positioning assertion however must be geared solely 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 utilize throughout varied on-line channels align — which is vital with regards to establishing a brand new product within the market.

Contemplate, for example, how Dwelling 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 shoppers nonetheless need that just-washed feeling, even when utilizing a dry shampoo.

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By specializing in how the product will profit shoppers via storytelling, and utilizing a brand new hashtag #NoWastedWashes, Dwelling 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.

Shoppers need to see that different shoppers have already taken the chance 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, critiques, 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 very good match to your model.

Shoppers are sensible sufficient to know they should not belief each commercial they see — however they will belief fellow shoppers. So leverage that belief via social proof strategies.

3. Create a social and electronic mail marketing campaign.

Create a full, complete social media 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 prospects and supply an unique, first have a look at your new product’s options.

Moreover, you may think about internet hosting a stay stream to attach immediately with prospects and current prospects and invite specialists out of your product improvement crew to clarify the brand new options of your product.

It‘s vital to notice — on this stage, you’ll need to take note of how shoppers are interacting with the communication supplies relating to your new product. Share issues and suggestions with the product improvement crew — it is vital to belief your shoppers 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 shoppers to buy the product every time they’re feeling most inclined to take action.

Product Launch Finest Practices by Business

The best way to Launch a Digital Product

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

You‘ll additionally need to make sure you’re leveraging lead generation strategies to achieve current prospects and prospects.

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

The best way to Launch a Product on Amazon

Anybody who‘s ever shopped on Amazon is aware of the significance of a very good product itemizing. Within the weeks main as much as launch, take the time to create a robust, high-converting product itemizing — together with taking high-resolution photographs 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 critiques are extremely vital on Amazon, so that you‘ll need to guarantee you might have critiques 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 supplies you time to earn critiques earlier than launching on Amazon), or ship your product to a choose group of patrons forward of the total launch, and accumulate critiques from them.

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

Check out HubSpot’s The Ultimate Guide to Selling on Amazon for extra data associated to Amazon.

The best way to Launch a SaaS Product

To launch a SaaS product, you‘ll need to begin by researching opponents and understanding {the marketplace} at massive. There’s loads of demand for SaaS merchandise, because the trade is predicted to grow by more than 16% by 2026. Nevertheless, the SaaS trade can be well-saturated, so earlier than launching a SaaS product, you will need to decide how your product differs from all of the others within the trade.

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

Subsequent, you‘ll need to make use of a robust content material advertising and marketing technique to extend your web site’s visibility on search engines like google and yahoo and to make sure what you are promoting is showing in search outcomes for subjects associated to your product.

Since you are not launching a bodily product, your advertising and marketing efforts have to persuade companies that your product can remedy their wants. Moreover, you may need 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 Ultimate Guide to Software as a Service (SaaS).

The best way 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 package deal 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 and marketing).

Subsequent, you will need to comply with federal and state food regulations. 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 verify the labeling you utilize in your product’s packaging is correct, which requires you to ship your meals product to a lab for evaluation and examine along with your state commerce to see what it requires with regards to vitamin labels.

When launching a meals product, you will probably need 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 enhance gross sales as quickly as your meals hits the cabinets.

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

1. Calm

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Originating in 2011 as an internet site referred to as donothingfor2minutes.com, Calm is a cell app that gives varied assets 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 marketing and Web optimization technique. In accordance with Foundation’s research, Calm has attracted over 8 million backlinks and makes use of weblog content material and YouTube content material to organically appeal to and interact prospects.

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

Calm’s movie star partnerships have given them a leg up in comparison with their opponents. Not solely their celebrity-read Sleep Tales garner tens of millions 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 comparable to Traditional Cola, Root Beer, Orange, and Cherry Limeade.

Initially referred to as “Mom Beverage,” Poppi was originally 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 prospects.

In accordance with Allison, “We had this actually enjoyable and vibrant model and a product that individuals may relate to. Individuals adore it and it was created with elements that individuals knew to be efficient and useful to their physique.”

Poppi was initially slated for a retail launch in March of 2020. Nevertheless, these plans modified as a result of Covid-19 pandemic.

Thankfully, they have been in a position to pivot to launch as a DTC product, promoting on Amazon and different e-commerce platforms. Moreover, they used this chance to put money into social media advertising and marketing on Instagram and TikTok, the place they gained recognition amongst Gen Z shoppers.

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 knowledge high quality and accuracy, and allow cross-team collaboration. This permits companies to run extra easily and scale extra successfully.

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

In accordance with HubSpot’s research, “over 60% of operations professionals must do duplicative work due to an absence 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 may 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 following 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 vitamin. There’s additionally an ‘alt-pasta’ part with inexperienced, brown, orange, mushy, foamy noodles that provide extra vitamin however little ‘yum’,” co-founder and CEO Jen Zeszut stated in a press release. “Why ought to it’s a must to select between style and vitamin?”

Apart from 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 shoppers within the grocery aisle.

Product Launch Suggestions

To be taught the very best practices for a profitable product launch, I talked to Alex Girard once more.

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

• Your product positioning ought to replicate a shift you are seeing on this planet, and the way your product helps your prospects benefit from that shift.
• Create a recurring schedule for you and the core stakeholders for the launch to examine in and make sure you’re all on the identical web page.
• Be sure to hold the product crew within the loop in your advertising and marketing plans. The product crew may have insights that inform your general advertising and marketing marketing campaign.

Nevertheless, typically, exterior elements may affect your skill to launch a product. When that occurs, you may have to delay your launch.

The best way to Know When to Delay a Product Launch

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

• When your product itself is not prepared and you should change your timeline to create the very best buyer expertise doable.
• If a scenario happens the place your present prospects are having a less-than-optimal expertise with one in all your present merchandise. Earlier than launching and selling a brand new product, it is best to ensure that your present prospects 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. Ensure that when the time involves launch, your audience is able to study your new product.

When you‘re in search of templates to coordinate your crew efforts and align your organization round your new product’s messaging, obtain our free product advertising and marketing package beneath.

Editor’s word: This publish was initially printed in November 2015 and has been up to date for comprehensiveness.