Running a product launch takes time, commitment, and energy. Before you start, take care of yourself. Ensure that you are ready for the challenge physically and mentally. Drink plenty of water, eat right, exercise, get in your zone, and then get ready for a roller-coaster ride. You’ll experience joys, concerns, and fear as you run your launch. However, if you get your planning in order and know exactly what you need to do each day, the process will be much easier.
The point of a launch is to get buzz so that you can encourage sales for your new product. A well-defined and planned launch can build momentum in your sales for not just your new product but for all the products in your funnel if you organize and plan everything accordingly. A product launch is just a process more than a huge party. Often we treat product launches like grand opening events with all the bells and whistles and while this is awesome because doing something big gets more eyes on you, it’s not just one event. It’s a series of planned tasks and events that create a successful product launch.
During your launch, you’ll get more traffic, add more people to your lists, make more sales, and create amazing momentum in your business that cannot be matched. Therefore, professionals often say to make more money online, launch more. Let’s go through the launch process.
Pick Dates for Your Launch
One of the first things you should do when you want to plan a product launch is to pick dates. The dates will drive everything else you do in terms of your timeline. Therefore, the first step of your launch is to pick the dates. But, how do you ensure that you pick the best dates for your launch?
- Your Audience – When is your audience more apt to buy a product? What about your current customers? What about your current lists? You can survey them to find out.
- Your Competition – Do you know if anyone else is planning a big launch? Try not to pick the same dates. Instead, if your product is similar, try to launch sooner rather than later. You want to beat your competition, not join them.
- Timeline –There is a combination of factors to consider, as you choose the date. Do you have enough time to accomplish the work prior to launch date? Don’t press it and create an impossible situation. Look at the things you need to do. Choose a date that allows enough time to complete the project, plus a little extra time.
- Avoid Holidays — Don’t launch during major holidays. Most people are busy with family or friends and won’t take time to participate. In addition, they have other things to spend their money on. The one exception is if your product has something to do with a holiday but then again you’d need to do that before the holiday.
- Studies – Go by what others have done successfully. Mondays or Tuesdays are often the best days to go live with your launch. Statistically, these seem to get the most attention. You can verify these stats in the literature for your autoresponder service.
It’s also important to look at the rest of your duties and responsibilities during the potential launch dates. Confirm that you don’t have anything coming up to make it hard to reach your goals.
Furthermore, make sure your dates don’t overlap with any of your 3rd party technology maintenance schedules. Third party apps like PayPal.com, LeadPages.net and so forth may occasionally undergo maintenance. Usually, you get a warning so pay attention to any third-party apps that you use so that you’ll know if there is a conflict.
How Long Should Your Launch Be?
The best rule of thumb for a launch is to make it no more than 5 to 7 days long. An entire 7 days gives everyone a good chance to participate in the launch. After that, it’s no longer a launch it’s a product that should be practically on autopilot now – which is another benefit of launches – it helps get out all the kinks.
- Set Goals – Everything starts with setting a goal. Use SMART goals to ensure that you’re making a worthy goal. Specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely goals are those that are more likely to be met because you gave some thought to it.
- Consider Technology Issues – Technology can give you a lot of problems during a launch if you’re not careful. Be sure to test everything out ahead of time. That means you need to be ready with everything prior to your launch for testing.
- Analyze How Well It’s Going – Sometimes if the launch is going exceptionally well, you may want to extend the launch. After all, launching is mostly about advertising and marketing but, it’s best to stick to your plans so that people don’t think you’re lying about the limited time offer.
The short answer is that you should make your launch long as you need it to be, but try not to go over 7 days. After that, the number of messages, social media posts, and ads you need during a launch may not be sustainable.