FT 28 Lesson 9 Product Launch Student's copy PDF

Product Development & Innovation Lesson 9: Product Launch Plan and Pitching ❑ Product Launch Checklist ❑ Product Launch Presentation Specific Learning Outcome ❑ Discuss how to launch a product ❑ Deliver a product launch presentation Augu...

Product Development & Innovation Lesson 9: Product Launch Plan and Pitching ❑ Product Launch Checklist ❑ Product Launch Presentation Specific Learning Outcome ❑ Discuss how to launch a product ❑ Deliver a product launch presentation August 25-26, 2020 What is a Product Launch? A product launch is the process of introducing a brand-new product or service to the world. It involves various marketing and promotional activities aimed at creating buzz and demand around your new offering. The ultimate goal is to get customers excited and eager to buy the new product. Product launch presentation is the moment where you get to showcase your innovation, highlight your unique selling points (USP), and give your ideal customers a reason to get excited. Purpose of Product Launch Presentation Building anticipation: Your presentation sets the stage for the big reveal, creating hype around your product. Educating stakeholders: It informs key stakeholders about the product's features, benefits, and how it addresses pain points. Creating engagement: A visually appealing presentation captures attention and keeps your audience engaged. Establishing authority: It positions your brand as an expert in the field, instilling trust in your product. Driving sales: Ultimately, a successful presentation should drive demand and result in sales. How to Structure an Effective Product Launch 1. Introduction Hook your audience: Start with a compelling story or statistic that grabs your audience's attention. Introduce your brand: Briefly introduce your company and its mission. 2. The problem Identify the pain points: Address the issues your product aims to solve. Market research: Share insights from your market research to validate the problem's existence. How to Structure an Effective Product Launch 3. The solution Introduce your product: Present your product as the ultimate solution. Key features: Highlight the standout features that set your product apart. 4. The journey Showcase development: Provide a sneak peek into the development process. Behind-the-scenes: Share the challenges your team overcame. How to Structure an Effective Product Launch 5. The benefits Highlight benefits: Explain how your product will make your audience's life better. Use cases: Give examples of how it can be used in real-life scenarios. 6. Target audience Persona creation: Describe your ideal customer in detail. Why it matters to them: Explain why your product resonates with this audience. How to Structure an Effective Product Launch 7. Marketing strategy Coordinated efforts: Discuss your marketing strategy, including email marketing and distribution channels. KPIs: Set clear key performance indicators to measure success. 8. The hype Build anticipation: Share how you plan to create excitement leading up to the launch. Remember to keep it authentic: Avoid overhyping; honesty is key. How to Structure an Effective Product Launch 9. The launch date Reveal the date: Announce the official launch date, creating a sense of urgency. Countdown begins: Start a countdown on your website and social media. 10. Conclusion Recap key points: Summarize the main takeaways from your presentation. Call to action: Encourage your audience to take action, whether it's signing up for updates or pre-ordering. Do’s and Don’ts on a Product Launch Presentation Do’s Do your research: Understand your market, competition, and target audience. Do tell a story: Craft a compelling narrative that resonates with your audience. Do focus on benefits: Highlight how your product solves problems and improves lives. Do use visuals: Incorporate high-quality images, infographics, and videos. Do rehearse: Practice your presentation to ensure a smooth delivery. Do interact: Engage with your audience during and after the presentation. Do collect feedback: Gather feedback to improve future presentations. Do’s and Don’ts on a Product Launch Presentation Don’ts Don't overwhelm: Avoid information overload; keep it concise. Don't neglect design: Aesthetics matter; invest in professional design. Don't overpromise: Be honest about your product's capabilities. Don't rush: Speak clearly and at a moderate pace. Don't forget the call to action: Always guide your audience on what to do next. Don't ignore analytics: Monitor the performance of your presentation. Don't lose patience: Success may not come overnight; stay persistent. Product Launch Checklist 1. Learn about your customer. Learn about what drives your target customer. Identifying their goals, motivations, and pain points could lead to developing and marketing a valuable solution. Talk to prospective customers. ✔ Pay extra attention when they start sentences with “I wish a product did this function…” or “Why can’t products do this?” When they give these statements, respond with questions that go deeper, like “Can you get more specific about that?“ ✔ If they don’t bring up any pain points, ask them a few specific questions that will encourage them to give deeper answers. Product Launch Checklist 1. Learn about your customer. Talk to prospective customers. These conversations will give you a solid idea of what their biggest pain points are and how you can market a solution to them. Once you learn these key details about your customers, you can develop a buyer persona that your team can focus on serving. 2. Write a positioning statement. When launching a new product, you must be able to clearly explain how it fills a need in the market. That’s where a positioning statement comes in. It helps you communicate the unique value proposition and key benefits that differentiate your product from others. Product Launch Checklist 2. Write a positioning statement. Write a statement that can clearly and concisely answer these three questions: ✔ Who is the product for? ✔ What does the product do? ✔ Why is it different from other products out there? To go even deeper, create a statement that answers the following questions: ✔ What is your target audience? ✔ What segment of the target audience is most likely to buy the product? ✔ What brand name will you give your product or service? ✔ What product or service category does your product lie in? ✔ How is it different from competitors in the same category? ✔ What evidence or proof do you have to prove that your product is different? Product Launch Checklist 3. Pitch your positioning to stakeholders. Once you've established your positioning statement, present it to stakeholders in your company so they are all on the same page. Emphasize how your new product aligns with your overall business strategy, customer needs, market trends, and revenue potential. Use concrete examples, stories, or data to make your pitch more persuasive. Think proactively about potential questions or objections they might have. Prepare responses to address concerns around market viability, competition, target audience, or feasibility. Product Launch Checklist 4. Develop product branding Take the information you gathered while conducting your market research and writing your positioning statement, and let it inspire you as you craft your product brand identity. Creating a brand identity is my favorite part of a product launch. During this step, you’ll develop all the elements needed to create a consistent and memorable brand, including: ✔ Product name, logo, and tagline ✔ Color palette, typography, and imagery ✔ Key brand, communications, and marketing guidelines ✔ Packaging  Product Launch Checklist 5. Plan your go-to-market strategy. This is the strategy that you will use to launch and promote your product. A go-to-market (GTM) strategy is a step-by-step plan designed to bring a new product to market and drive demand. It helps identify a target audience, outline marketing and sales strategies, and align key stakeholders. A well-crafted GTM strategy should identify a market problem and position the product as a solution.  Product Launch Checklist 5. Plan your go-to-market strategy. Parts of a go-to-market strategy: ✔ Product-Market Fit: What problem(s) does your product solve? ✔ Target Audience: Who is experiencing the problem that your product solves? How much are they willing to pay for a solution? What are the pain points and frustrations that you can alleviate? ✔ Competition and Demand: Who already offers what you’re launching? Is there a demand for the product, or is the market oversaturated? ✔ Distribution: Through what mediums will you sell the product or service? A website, an app, or a third-party distributor? Product Launch Checklist 6. Set a goal for the launch Create specific goals for the launch’s success. Keep these goals in mind to help you focus your efforts on launch tactics that will help you achieve those goals. Once you have your goals in mind, you can start thinking about what KPIs you want to track, such as: ✔ Sales revenue. ✔ Units sold. ✔ Customer acquisition. ✔ Conversion rate. Product Launch Checklist 6. Set a goal for the launch Once you have your goals in mind, you can start thinking about what KPIs you want to track, such as: ✔ Website traffic and engagement. ✔ Social media engagement. Identifying these metrics ahead of time will make it easier to assess whether or not you met your goals after the product is launched. 7. Create promotional content. After planning out your go-to-market strategy and writing your SMART goals, start producing content that will support and align with those promotional efforts. Product Launch Checklist 7. Create promotional content. This can include: ✔ Blog posts related to your product or industry. ✔ Demos and tutorials. ✔ Email campaigns. ✔ Social media posts. ✔ Landing pages 8. Test and gather feedback. Before officially launching your new product, it’s important to test it out to ensure the final product is the best it can be. By testing the product in different scenarios with real users, potential bugs, usability problems, or functional issues can be discovered and resolved early on. Product Launch Checklist 8. Test and gather feedback Fixing these problems before launching your product ensures a smoother user experience and helps maintain customer satisfaction — an invaluable step. Gathering feedback from users also allows for product improvement. By listening to the opinions, suggestions, and criticisms of users, you can gain insight into what features are working well and which ones need improvement. This feedback-driven approach can help you make informed decisions on enhancing the product's functionality, usability, and performance. 9. Set up distribution channels Before officially launching, set up your distribution channels. This is important because it determines how and where customers can purchase your product. Product Launch Checklist 9. Set up distribution channels Well-planned distribution channels help accelerate the product's time to market. By proactively setting up channels ahead of the launch, you can quickly distribute the product once it becomes available, minimizing delays and maximizing opportunities to capture early adopters and gain market share. Successfully positioning your product in prominent retail locations or online marketplaces, it increases visibility and boosts your chances of capturing customer attention and outperforming competitors. It also provides a foundation for future growth and scalability. As your business expands and introduces new products, you can leverage existing channel relationships and infrastructure to efficiently launch and distribute new offerings. Product Launch Checklist 10. Prepare your team. Be sure that your company and key stakeholders are ready for you to launch and begin marketing the product. Before the big launch day, consider doing the following: ✔ Offer your team early access to the product so they can familiarize themselves with it firsthand. ✔ Provide training sessions to help your team understand the product inside and out. ✔ Develop sales enablement materials such as presentations, product sheets, FAQs, and objection handling guides. ✔ Conduct role-playing exercises to simulate real customer scenarios with the product. Product Launch Checklist 11. Launch the product. Once you've completed all the above steps, you can launch the product. Here are some things to check over on launch day: ✔ Double-check all the necessary details, materials, and arrangements to ensure that everything is ready and working correctly. ✔ Conduct a brief team meeting to align everyone and address any last-minute questions or concerns. ✔ Keep an eye on social media channels to gauge customer reactions, respond to inquiries, and engage with potential customers. ✔ Ensure that your website and any systems related to the product launch, such as landing pages or checkout processes, are functioning smoothly. Product Launch Checklist 12. See how well you did in achieving your goals. After the launch of the product, track how the go-to-market strategy is performing. Be prepared to pivot or adjust aspects of your plan if they aren't going smoothly. Additionally, don't forget about the goals you set before the launch. Take the time to review the KPI targets you set ahead of the launch and assess how well you did in achieving those goals. For instance, did you exceed your sales projections, or did you fall short? If the launch didn't meet expectations, you can rethink your go-to-market strategy and adjust from there. How to Launch a Product with Data 1. Set a date for your launch The first thing you need to do is pick a date for your launch. Whichever day you choose, be sure to give yourself plenty of time to get all the things you need to do done. Realistically, you’ll need to set your launch date out several weeks, or even months. you’ll need time to: ✔ Craft marketing copy for emails and social media. ✔ Create a landing page for your product. ✔ Ensure your product’s bugs and kinks are worked out. ✔ Drum up some customer hype. ✔ Work out logistics. How to Launch a Product Launch with Data 1. Set a date for your launch Picking a date and working backward will be helpful. This means once you have a good date in mind, you can mark off the weeks with deadlines detailing when and how to accomplish your pre-launch tasks. 2. Choose your marketing channels. Where you market your product matters. It matters because if your audience is not hanging out on the platforms you’ve chosen, you’re essentially yelling into the wind. Take some time to figure out which channels are your best marketing channels. How to Launch a Product Launch with Data 2. Choose your marketing channels. Do your customers: ✔ Read and respond to emails or SMS messages? ✔ Are they active on specific social media platforms? ✔ Are they easily influenced by social media influencers? The answers to these questions will help you determine your best plan of marketing action. And remember, 88% of people are likely to trust a recommendation from people they know and trust, so word-of-mouth marketing shouldn’t be off the table. Don’t forget, you can market your product on multiple channels. So, while one marketing platform might not be the most effective, it’s not a bad idea to give it a try to reach all of your customers. How to Launch a Product Launch with Data 3. Develop your messaging and marketing materials. You can’t have a successful product launch without compelling marketing materials. Your marketing materials will help draw in your audience, explain the benefits and usefulness of your product, and showcase your brand’s voice and message. These materials include: ✔ Landing pages. ✔ Blog posts. ✔ Paid advertisements. ✔ Emails. ✔ SMS messages. ✔ Short-form video/Long-form video. How to Launch a Product Launch with Data 3. Develop your messaging and marketing materials. Ask yourself: ✔ How do you want to present your product? ✔ Do you want your brand to be helpful? Direct and to the point? Humorous? Optimistic? The answer to those questions will help determine your tone of voice, which will guide you and your marketing team’s copywriting and content efforts. You can also look to your target audience, too, to help you determine your tone of voice. Which attitude do they best respond to? How to Launch a Product Launch with Data 4. Create some buzz around your product. Once your promotional materials are ready to go, it's time to start promoting your product and its launch! Ideally, you’ll want to start promoting your product about six or eight weeks before the launch date. This will give you plenty of time to generate interest among your target audience, without shocking them with a surprise launch that could fall flat. Take a look at your launch date and then count back six to eight weeks. Whichever day that falls on should be the start of your marketing campaign. Since 80% of social media marketers say they think customers will buy products directly in social apps, don’t discount the power of social selling and promotional social media posts. How to Launch a Product Launch with Data 4. Create some buzz around your product. You can use social media scheduling tools to help you schedule your posts ahead of time. Or, create a content calendar detailing your posting schedule to share with your team. To create even more buzz and better market your product, consider: ✔ Hosting an exclusive pre-sale for select target audience members. ✔ Creating a limited edition of your product. ✔ Hosting a launch party, either in-person or online. ✔ Giving early access to influencers to help promote and market your product to their audiences. How to Launch a Product Launch with Data 5. Launch your product. On launch day, it’s officially time to release your product to the public and make some hard-earned sales! Use your preferred marketing channels to announce your product launch to your audience. 6. Track the results. You’ll have a good indication of how well your launch performed based on sales. However, it’s a good idea to dig into your marketing channels’ analytics to get a better idea of what worked and what didn’t. What is an elevator pitch? An elevator pitch is a short promotional speech presented to a particular target audience to communicate the value of a product or service and get them to take action. All good elevator pitches captivate, communicate, and convince because they are: ✔ Short: 30-60 seconds and to the point. ✔ Interesting: Whether it’s through storytelling, humor, data, fear, or something else, your elevator pitch needs to be able to capture attention, keep attention, and be memorable. What is an elevator pitch? All good elevator pitches captivate, communicate, and convince because they are: ✔ Personalized: catered to the audience. The approach, word choice, and features/benefits offered are all carefully chosen based on what is most important to the people receiving the pitch. ✔ Confident: Requires a combination of confidence (without being condescending or cocky) and assertiveness (but without being aggressive). How to write an elevator pitch? 1. Establish the problem, ideally with a hook The problem/pain point is what will resonate most with your audience, so it’s the best way to start off your elevator pitch. You can simply state the problem, or you can make things more interesting with a hook. Try these on: ✔ When was the last time you… ✔ Picture this: ✔ Have you ever noticed… ✔ You know how… ✔ Is it me or…  How to write an elevator pitch? 1. Establish the problem, ideally with a hook Try these on: ✔ You know that feeling when… ✔ Ever wished you could… ✔ Let’s be real here: ✔ Did you know that…. Avoid the obvious questions like “Are you looking to get more customers?” or framing questions like “Are you looking for an all-in-one platform that will help you manage subscription invoicing? Be creative here. Be real. Your goal is to capture attention here, not sneak in features or benefits. How to write an elevator pitch? 2. Introduce the solution Once the problem has been established, you can then introduce yourself or your business as the solution, the hero. Be specific about how you solve the problem. Mention features here rather than benefits. And if it’s not obvious through your business name, make it clear what type of solution you are—a platform? An agency? An app? This is important so listeners/readers can orient themselves and form a mental picture as you speak. How to write an elevator pitch? 3. State the benefit Your audience now knows that you can solve their problem and take away their pain point, but you need to also talk about how this benefits them. ✔ Why is the elimination of this pain point important? ✔ What do they stand to gain by solving this problem? ✔ This is essentially your value proposition. How to write an elevator pitch? 4. Differentiate yourself So the audience now knows what you do, how you do it, and what’s in it for them, but why should they choose you over competitors? How can they be sure that they’ll get this benefit? This is where you include things like your unique selling proposition, social proof, trust signals, or anecdotes. ✔ [Solution] is the only [category] that [unique feature]. ✔ For over [x years], we’ve helped over [X target personas] [achieve benefit]. ✔ Backed by/recommended by [known/influential/trusted institution or person]. How to write an elevator pitch? 5. Close with a CTA or question Finish off with some sort of action item. This is typically a classic call to action—like buy, register, call, download, sign up—with a reinforcement of the benefit. ✔ Try [solution] today to [achieve benefit]. ✔ Sign up now so you can experience {feature or benefit} for yourself. ✔ Give me a call so we can plan your [ideal outcome]. In other cases, you might end with something a little more thought-provoking, like ✔ So let me ask you, how are you going to [solve] your next[problem]. ✔ So the choice is yours. You can either [old way] or [new way]. Components of an elevator pitch The pitch begins with a hook to draw your audience in, veers into the value you offer, provides some proof to support your statement, and wraps it all up with a display of what makes you different. The hook: ✔ This element doesn't need to be fancy or complicated. Make it simple and get straight to the point. ✔ For example, if you're pitching a time management tool, your hook can be a personal story like: "When I first started my business, it felt like there was too much to do and not enough time to do it." It can also be a statistic. If you're pitching an online collaboration tool, your hook can be something like: "73% of all teams will have remote workers by 2028." Components of an elevator pitch The value proposition: ✔ This is where you provide an overview of the value you're bringing to the table. Discuss what you're pitching and what it does, research your listener's unique needs beforehand, and prepare a compelling argument for how you can meet them. The evidence: ✔ The person you're talking to may be nodding, but that doesn't necessarily mean your point is getting across. Some proof of past success or stats that speak to your success could make that nodding a lot more genuine. Components of an elevator pitch The differentiator: ✔ Let them know that you're different—that your product or service isn't just another iteration of what came before. You get brownie points for originality and not quoting any movies. The call to action: ✔ Make sure you're inviting your audience to take action. They have all the details, and they might be interested. It's time to bring it home with a clear call to action. Ask them to connect with you on LinkedIn, invite them for a coffee chat, share contact information, and make sure there's an opportunity to follow up on the conversation. Elevator pitch example Elevator pitch example Elevator pitch example Elevator pitch example