A full guide to the product launch process

Creating and presenting a product to the world is every start-up’s dream. Launching a new product takes meticulous progress - from a detailed marketing strategy and product design to getting your name out there, a whole team is working behind the scenes.

This article will give you an insightful guide to a new product launch process, covering the steps you need to consider before introducing your product to the market. You will learn what a product launch is, the steps to follow, how to create your product launch development strategy, and what to do and avoid. Let’s begin!

What is a product launch?

Product launch is the process of introducing a service or a product to the market and involves a series of strategically planned activities to create awareness, generate interest from potential customers, and make it available for purchase.

A well-developed product launching process typically involves 10 steps to follow. These series of steps include Market and Customer Research, Product Development, A Go-To-Market Strategy, Launch Goals and KPIs, Marketing Plan, Pre-Launch Activities, Product Launch, monitoring and Optimise, and Post-Launch Evaluation.  

9 Steps to follow in a product launching process

As we described above, product launching is a process where you unite your ideas and skills with your team members and create a process to put all your theoretical knowledge into practice. Kotler's 5 product levels can be helpful when following the operation, whether it is the product or software launch process. Now, it is time to look into these steps in depth:

Product launching steps

Step 1: Market and Customer research

The first step of the product launch process is market research. You want to identify your audience and understand the target market at this stage. You can start by collecting insights through customer surveys, buyer personas, and behavior to understand the needs and wants of potential buyers. This method helps you know your target audience and answer their needs.

On top of the customer research, you will also need to conduct product surveys to learn about the competitive market. This will help you understand your product’s position in the market and develop the necessary features.

Step 2: Product development

Marketing teams always thrive on product development and design. When you know the position of your product in the market, market needs, and expectations, you try to use all the strategies and tools to reach a higher level with your product development.

Product positioning defines your product and its features to meet customers’ needs. This will help solve any problems your product has or might potentially have, unlike the other products on the market. To achieve this, you need to create a strong positioning statement to build a product launch strategy that highlights its benefits for customers.

When developing your product to the expected standards, you must consider what kind of product it is, who your target audience is, what makes your product stand out, and what the key features and benefits are.

Step 3: A go-to-market strategy

Your go-to-market strategy outlines the marketing efforts your company needs to develop a clear value proposition that highlights the product’s benefits. This strategy also helps you set a pricing strategy by determining the product’s pricing based on market research and competitor analysis.

Your strategy should include identifying the segments of the market you want to reach, developing messaging that you will use across your marketing campaign, setting a clear timeline of all launch activities, and having a product launch process map to track and analyze launch success.

Step 4: Launch goals and KPI

It is crucial to define what a successful launch entails clearly. This may involve hitting a certain sales goal, securing significant media attention, reaching a specific level of customer engagement, or capturing a particular market share. 

Regardless of your goal, your key performance indicators (KPIs), the metrics you use to assess progress, should be specific and measurable. Some known KPIs include website traffic, customer feedback scores, press releases, conversion rates, social media engagement rates, and lead generation metrics.

Step 5: Marketing plan

Developing a strong marketing plan is one of the most significant cornerstones of your product launch checklist. Marketing is the heart of any product launch. Marketing and sales teams and project managers work coherently to plan promotional activities using social media, email, events, blog posts, podcast sponsorships, videos, and press releases, and create marketing assets by developing marketing materials such as brochures, ads, or videos.

Any promotional material should showcase the value of your product and align with your product positioning and statement to best represent your product before the launch date.

Step 6: Pre-launch activities

Imagine a globally popular, long-awaited sequence of a film finally coming to the cinemas. The audience is already hyped by the snack-sized teasers and trailers right before it comes out. Before introducing your new product, it is important to build hype and expectations to create buzz and excitement. This is a critical stage where your creativity kicks in.

You and your internal team must craft a narrative that makes your target audience eager to see what will come out. This high excitement will automatically increase their chances to purchase your fresh product once it is out. Some ways of building hype are:

Step 7: Product launch

Now, the time has come, and the long wait is over. You are ready to launch your product. Everything you have worked for can finally be materialized on the product launch day. To ensure a smooth product launch day, be ready to address any technical issues. You can host an online or in-person launch event to showcase your product and its features and interact with your potential customers.

Step 8: Monitor & Optimise

Remember, there is much more to do after launching your product. It is vital to monitor and track launch performance through KPIs and metrics. Collect feedback from user experience and reviews, and monitor social media for comments and reactions. Depending on the performance data and feedback you gather, make necessary adjustments to the product, marketing, or sales.

Step 9: Post-launch evaluation

Post-launch evaluation is about understanding the impact and effectiveness of your product launch. You can follow this by looking at customer feedback, sales data, web traffic, and other metrics. Then, gather your team to reflect on what went well and what you could improve on. Continue making efforts to keep the product in the public eye. 

💡You could use Gibbs' reflective cycle to reflect on your product launch process and outcomes.

How can you create your own product launch development strategy?

You can create your product launch development strategy by looking at key steps to ensure that your product meets customer needs and achieves business objectives. Let’s take a look at these essential steps together:

a) Understand your target market through buyer personas

Buyer personas represent different types of potential customers, including demographics, socioeconomics, and behavior. They help you understand your target audience. You can collect this data by conducting research and surveys. Information in buyer personas can help you tailor your messaging, leverage audience targeting features, and analyze audience data. 

b) Define your goals and objectives

Set clear goals to identify what you want to achieve with your product. Determine KPIs to establish measurable metrics to track progress, such as sales revenue, website traffic, or social media engagement.

c) Analyse your competitors

You can research to find out which marketing strategies work for your competitors and which don’t. This will help you gain insights to develop your own marketing strategy. You can use market explorer tools to find a few rival domains and examine their metrics to compare them to yours.

d) Develop a unique selling proposition

Unique selling propositions are strong differentiators that can make your product better than the others on the market. Some examples may include sustainability, convenience, durability, customization, value for money, efficiency, and many more.

e) Define your focal message

You should define the focal message for your product to resonate with your customer’s needs and expectations and make your product unique compared to competitors. Your focal message will act as a guiding principle for your marketing mix, which includes the 4 Ps - product, price, place, and promotion.

f) Plan and create marketing content

If you are launching a new product, you will need your go-to-market content to introduce your product to the market. If you are updating and promoting an existing product, focus on improving its content before creating a new one. You might also want to create supporting website content for your product with how-to guides and FAQs. This will help you reach and engage with prospects in different ways.

g) Execute pre-launch activities

At this stage, you are ready to put your product marketing strategy into practice. Follow marketing metrics like traffic, conversion rates, and social media activities. This can help you with navigating through adapting your product marketing strategy. Depending on the variables like market changes, competitive dynamics, technological advancements, regulations, and global events, you might want to pivot your product to best suit the market needs.

DOs and DONT’s

So far, we have explained the details of each product launch step and how you can develop your own product launch strategy. Below, we have gathered some things you should consider and some to avoid, which will summarise and clarify the aforementioned key points to keep in mind during the launching process. Let’s have a look:

DOs and DON’Ts of product launching process

DOs:

✅ Focus on your customers’ needs

✅ Gather feedback

✅ Find your own formulas for success

✅ Be creative with your content

✅ Incorporate video into product launch strategy

✅ Build strong social media relationships

DON’Ts:

❌ Copy the others on the market

❌ Think your product will continue to sell itself

❌ Let anyone create your product content

❌ Take email marketing for granted

Conclusion

Product launching is a detailed process that requires attention to detail and careful planning. Whatever type of product you have, you need an effective marketing strategy and product design and a team you can rely on during and after this process. This article serves as a full guide to the product launch process to support and encourage you to succeed in the competitive market with your fresh product. 

In this article, we focused on what a product launch is, the steps to follow, how you can create your product launch development strategy, and things you should and shouldn’t do during your product launch process. With your product’s unique design and features, you will flourish and advance in the business world.