How to Create a Product Launch Marketing Plan
If you are launching your new product or service to the market, it’s important to have a solid marketing plan. Before you can create your product launch marketing, you need to define your goals. What will success look like at the end of your product launch? Use the answers to this question to establish several key metrics and objectives of your launch marketing campaign.
Checklist for Product Launch Marketing
Based on your goals and objectives, your product launch marketing strategy must incorporate these key components:
- Identify Target Audiences: When creating your launch strategy, it’s important to clearly define your target audiences, their pain points and why they should care about your products and services. You must go beyond simple demographic information and incorporate insights around interests, motivators and research sources. It can also be helpful to conduct interviews with your sales team and even clients and prospects.
- Create Messaging and Document Unique Differentiators: Companies will need to take a hard look at how their product solves a customer problem and what makes it different from other products currently available in the marketplace. Use this to document your key messages and unique differentiators that you want to highlight throughout the launch. Your messaging and unique differentiators will drive your conversations with the media, prospects, analysts and other industry influencers.
- Build Media and Influencer Databases: With well-defined target audiences and messaging, companies can determine which reporters, media outlets and industry influencers to target. While it’s good to have a broad media list that includes the outlets and resources your prospects rely on, it’s critical to only target relevant reporters, analysts and bloggers who will be interested in your new product.
- Train Your Media Spokespeople: Select a few executives with a range of expertise from your organization to handle media interviews and contributed article requests. This should include experts from the product development side as well as C-level executives such as your CEO or CMO. Be sure to provide adequate preparation prior to a media interview, such as anticipated interview questions and key points to hit during the interview.
- Plan Your Content Marketing Activities: You will need a variety of content marketing materials to support your product launch marketing activities. This includes product spec sheets, video demos, blog posts, website content and media pitches.
Continuing the Product Launch Marketing Momentum
For B2B and technology companies, maintaining the marketing momentum after the product launch is important to success and sustained sales growth. With newsworthy thought leadership topics and data studies, companies can build on the initial buzz created during the launch stage and garner a continuous stream of media coverage in top-tier business outlets and trade publications.
Are you ready to prepare your product launch marketing campaign? Call us today to learn more about our integrated PR, social and digital marketing capabilities that make a splash during product launches by generating high-quality media coverage and product demos. We have helped a variety of Fortune 500 companies, B2B organizations and technology startups launch new products on the market and gain a competitive edge.