5 Tips You Need To Know Before Launching a New Product
Launching a new product is not easy, but here are some things to make it a tad easier.
Launching a new product can be a hassle and launching your first product is even more so and the reasons are annoyingly simple.
The first reason is that your business needs to produce a product or provide a service that has a large enough customer base to keep it afloat.
The second reason is that getting that customer base is not as easy a making a pancake. Human beings are complex and the fact that you spent months studying your target market and creating a great product for them, doesn’t automatically mean that you have cornered that market.
So how do you make sure that the product you have spent your energy, time and resources trying to birth, doesn’t end up as a stillborn?
In this article, I would be providing 5 tips that would greatly improve your chances of successfully launching your product.
Know Your Customer
Before you launch, make sure that you have targeted the right market. This is not limited to creating a buyer persona and going through a simulated customer experience on paper. It includes going into the field and testing your product with a sample population of your target market.
Hosting pre-launch events were your target audience can interact with your still in progress product or service can give you valuable data on what the market really thinks about your product, and how to improve on it.
Another similar strategy is to pre-launch the product in test markets. An extra benefit to pre-launching is that it could potentially build a following which could be very helpful when you launch.
The State of Your Product
How ready is your product for the market? This is not me saying that you must launch a perfect product. In fact, trying to launch a perfect new product is folly for a couple of reasons.
1. Trying to launch the perfect product would most likely prevent you from launching at the most optimum time.
2. The second reason is that it is impossible to launch a perfect product. The most polished products are born through years of iteration shaped by the data they received while studying the way their target market relate with older versions of their product.
The secret is to launch the minimum viable product. This is a product that works as it has been stated and nothing more. Extra functionality can be added later.
Timing
The best time to launch is as soon as possible. However, that is subject to a couple of caveats.
Depending on the type of product you want to launch, there are peak times in the year where it would be most in-demand, i.e sports/ workout equipment are mostly bought at the beginning of the year. Usually, the type of product you are launching would determine this season it should be launched.
Another thing to note about timing is that even the day of the week you launch matters. Launching at the beginning of the week, or the end of the week is usually not advised by sales experts, this is because people are too focused on work and getting things done at the beginning of the week that your launch would be of little concern to them. On the flip side, the weekends are a no-no because people are more likely to be in a state of relaxation as opposed to the consumption of a new product.
Also, try to set a product launch at a time where you and your business has little to do. Do not set it on important dates such as anniversaries, or at the point where you have to broker important deals. Launching a product is a very attention heavy task and you don’t need any distractions.
Market Conditions
Creating a great product doesn’t instantly translate to success. One question to ask yourself is how well the market needs your product at the time youa re about to launch. If the demand is not great then you will have to hold off on the launch.
Other, factors such as changing market trends, volatile markets or recessions can also reduce the efficacy of your launch. You certainly don’t want to launch a new product in the middle of a recession, would you?
However, the problem with market conditions is that there are no dates to different favourable or unfavourable market condition, they can even change unexpectedly, but, by monitoring the market, you have a higher chance of knowing when the market is most ready to receive your product.
Marketing
There is this philosophical question that if a tree falls in the middle of nowhere, does it make a sound? For some, the answer is no. they reason that because they do not hear the sound the tree makes as it falls to the ground, it either didn’t make a sound or since the sound didn't get to their ears, then there is no perception of sound and as such, there is no sound.
I know this example may be quite a stretch, however, the key to understanding why marketing is important to your launch plans is “Perception”. If people can’t perceive that you exist, then you don’t exist. You can’t expect people to buy a product they don't know exists. Hence, if you don’t carry out marketing activities, you become like that tree.
Build an audience, through advertisements, market activations, webinars, social media marketing. Engage with your audience, build trust with them even before you launch.
When you carry out pre-launch marketing, you communicate your value to your audience. Great marketing would convince your target audience that you know their needs and that you are capable of solving them.
When you know your customer, and you create a working product for them, launching the product becomes a case of opportunity meets preparedness. And with a watchful eye and the ability to communicate your value strongly you exponentially increase your chances of success.
