Without These Six Strategy Essentials, Your Product May Experience Failure to Launch

A successful product launch needs to check a lot of boxes. Is the product ready? Is the creative good? Is there a launch strategy?

A tremendous amount of work has to go in before launch. Without a sound strategy, however, your launch will fail to reach its potential. Here are six essential elements of a successful product launch strategy:

Fortune Favors the Bold

There is never a perfect time to launch a new product. Perhaps recent economic news has you second guessing whether this is the right time to launch a product. But an uncertain economy is often the best time, especially if you anticipate your competitors will pull back their marketing efforts. This leaves the door wide open for your brand to bust through and reach prospects at a time they are hearing less from other brands. Our friends at Mate Precision Technologies boldly launched their workholding system during the pandemic in 2020 which has proved to be a fortunate decision.

Don’t Carve the Launch Date in Stone

We’ve developed numerous successful product launch strategies from industrial equipment to software to beverages. While no two are the same, they tend to share one common element—they almost never hit their initial, internal launch date. You need to be able to roll with the punches. Don’t allow yourself or your team to get derailed when you learn that the product won’t be ready for a few weeks, or even a few months. It’s better to wait and roll out a new product when it’s ready, rather than rushing to meet an internally established target date.

A Creative Platform is Essential

A new product must generate excitement. “Now available” isn’t going to cut it. At SCG, our product launch strategy incorporates our Customer Connection model to position brands and products, which sets the direction for messaging and tactics. For example, we helped Mate Precision Technologies enter an entirely new market with its new workholding system with a bold creative platform: “Made for Metalheads.” The campaign featured the Mate machinists and engineers who helped create the new product. The copy spoke to the spirit of machinists, who have their own culture and pride themselves on overcoming challenges nearly every day. “Made for Metalheads” anchored all marketing elements from the ad campaign to trade show booth graphics to branded items for employees and prospects.

Remember One of Your Most Important Audiences

It’s easy to get so focused on the new prospects you envision will swarm to your new product that you forget one of your most important audiences—your employees. They are your most important brand ambassadors. Make sure they are informed and inspired about the launch, so customers follow. Be sure to keep them in the loop with regular updates and plenty of swag.

Coordinated Sequence of Events is Required

Like the maestro conducting a full symphony orchestra, your product launch strategy should direct multiple elements working in harmony across channels. The last thing you want to do is generate excitement about the new product but make it difficult for your audience to find information about it. To make this process seamless, website information should go live first, followed closely by news release distribution, social media posts, blog articles with more details on the launch, pay-per-click advertising, and digital or traditional advertising and then the initial trade show.

Think Beyond the Product Launch

The day of the launch is the time for you and your team to celebrate, but the hard work isn’t over. In many ways, it’s just beginning. Now that the initial introduction is complete, you must actively implement the next phase of your product launch strategy. The work of awareness building and persuasion has just begun to engage audiences on a deeper level as they seek to learn how your product can help them solve their specific challenges.

We’ve helped companies across industries successfully launch their product over our 30 years in business. For additional insights, read our post on 4 tips for a successful product launch.