The Complete Guide to Launching a New Product for Product Marketers

Contents

How To Use This Guide

Product Marketing Takes the Lead

Set the Launch Scale Based on Market Context

Identify Audiences for Messaging

Set Goals and Choose Metrics

Formulate Strategy and Tactics

Project Management Tips

Launch Scheduling Strategies

Critical Success Factor: Customer References

Messaging and Positioning

Capitalize on Powerful First Impressions

This guide can be read in sequence, or used as a reference. When read in sequence, it provides the context and rationale for all the important decisions and actions you need to take when launching a new product. As a reference, it is an ideal companion when building and executing your own launch plan.

Product Launch Plan Template

This ungated launch plan template roughly corresponds with sections in the guide below. When filling-in the template, you can reference the corresponding section and include elements you want to apply to your launch. 

Note, this guide doesn’t describe how to develop a go-to-market plan, how to name or brand a product, or how to perform customer discovery. These topics are intimately related to the new product launch, but are too big to cover here. 

Product launch is when a company announces a new product or service to the public and begins to actively sell it. Launches are major marketing programs that typically involve a communications blitz designed to capture customer’s attention and prime the sales cycle, plus training for sales teams and partners to ensure they are prepared to sell the product. 

In most organizations, a product marketing manager (PMM) has primary responsibility for launching a new product. This is a broad and substantial responsibility that encompasses setting goals, defining the strategy, orchestrating the resources needed for success and more. 

Viewed through a wider lens, the launch is one of many marketing initiatives a PMM will drive over the product’s life. Arguably, it’s the most important because the launch establishes a complete foundation for much of the marketing and sales activity that will follow.

Grouping Products Into a Launch Package

As the launch leader, it’s up to you to decide how to package and launch new products. For example, you may choose to combine multiple related new products into a single high impact event, or drip them out individually to ensure customers hear a regular drum beat of activity. Packaging requires you to align your audience’s interest and attention span with your organization’s pace of innovation. 

Your responsibilities include making tough go/no-go decisions. As I’ll explain later in this document, there are many moving parts in a launch and changes in one deliverable or activity can force you to make a difficult decision to delay the schedule and/or reset goals. This is your call because you understand best the tradeoffs in revenue, customers, channel and publicity. 

The first step in launch planning is to determine its scale. How much should your company invest in all the actions and programs needed to make a splash in the market? This is often referred to as setting a launch priority. 

The priority should be based on the relative significance of the product to the marketplace. Will customers view the product as a true game-changer that is unlike anything in the market, or as a “me-too” product that is similar to competitors? 

When making this decision, you need to put yourself in the customer’s shoes. Engineers, product teams and even the leadership team can be biased and may advocate for a big splash, when the level of innovation doesn’t justify it. This is why product marketers are best positioned to make the call. 

To determine the priority, I recommend using the classic 2x2 priority grid shown below. The vertical axis measures the amount of innovation in the product. The horizontal axis measures the types of customers that will be attracted to the product. 

Launch Priorities

P1: A new product that uses an innovative approach to solve an important customer problem better than competing alternatives. These products will attract new customers to the company’s product line.

P2: A significant enhancement to an existing product, or a new product that complements the existing product line. In either case, the new product should enable the company to solve bigger, more complex customer problems. These products appeal mostly to existing customers, but may add enough value to also attract new customers to the product line. 

P3: A minor enhancement to an existing product, or product line. These products are of interest only to existing customers. 

Why is Setting a Launch Priority Important?

Without objective market context, it’s tempting to try to make a big impact with every new product, regardless of how innovative it may be. If you were to do this, your audience would quickly become fatigued by frequent announcements. Your company’s bold claims will lose credibility with customers, industry analysts, and trade journalists. Then, when it’s time to launch a truly innovative product, everyone will have tuned out and you’ll be unable to get their attention. 

Priority Drives Budget and Resources

The priority helps you assign resources to the launch program. A P1 launch requires more people and budget than a P3 launch. Many companies establish a tiered list of actions that must be executed based on the priority. The example below illustrates the escalating resources needed to execute high priority launches.

A P3 launch may be executed completely by a product marketer. In contrast, P2 and P1 launches typically require additional departments, such as digital marketing, customer success, and marketing communications. In fact, P1 launches often require resources outside the company, including a public relations agency, video production firms and other specialists. If you’re planning a P1 launch, you’ll need to allocate an appropriate budget.

Communicating with the new product’s target customer gets the lion's share of attention in most launches, but it is only part of the job. There are many more stakeholders that will determine your launch’s success. You need to account for each of them with specific tactics and messaging designed to motivate them to action.

Customers

No matter the launch scale, you’re always going to communicate with your existing customers because they’re a stakeholder, invested in your company. Even if the new product is a P1 targeted at a completely new market, you should tell your existing customers how it fits into your company’s strategy and how it benefits them, whether or not they choose to buy it. This helps reassure them that you’re not abandoning them, and provides the rationale they need to remain loyal advocates for your solutions. 

In P2 and P3 launches where there is an opportunity to cross-sell and upsell the new product to existing customers, you’ll want to be more granular, positioning the new and existing products, use cases, and benefits. You may also introduce a promotion to incentivize adoption.

For P1 and P2 launches targeting new customers, you should develop separate messaging and communications tactics to specifically target them. We’ll discuss this further in the Messaging and Positioning section.

Sales and Success Teams

For sales led growth companies (SLG), your sales team is the next most important audience, immediately following customers. They will be anxiously waiting for training and tools to help them sell the new product. You can’t just give them the same narrative you’re giving customers and expect them to be successful. They need to know how to find and qualify prospects, sell against competitors, and position the new product within your existing product line, to name just a few important topics. 

Many product led growth (PLG) businesses have customer success teams that need similar training. However, instead of learning how to prospect for customers, they need to know how to position and cross-sell the new product, including against competitors. 

I recommend scheduling a sales training event prior to beginning public launch actions. This could be delivered via a webinar, in-person meeting, recorded video or other format. An annual sales kick-off meeting offers the perfect opportunity to train the sales force.

At the risk of taking this article too far into the topic of sales enablement, you’ll want to use this event to tell the sales force everything they need to know about selling the new product and give them the tools they need to be successful (battlecards, email templates, scripts, etc.). You may even unveil a competition or incentive program to help motivate them. 

Partners

Channel partners can be a particularly challenging audience because their attention is often divided among the many suppliers they represent. You need to not only train them to sell your new product, but also motivate them to prioritize it.

In most channel-based B2B selling models, the partner salespeople don’t need the same level of training as your own team because your sales force backs them up. The sales training should be a “lite” version of the techniques and tools described for your own sales team, above. 

There are many ways to motivate your partners to action and you’ll want to combine multiple of these tactics:

• Monetary reward - When it comes to channel partners, money is the primary motivator. Make your product the most rewarding with special incentives, higher commissions than competitors, or other compensation.
• Leadership positioning - Partners like the leadership that comes with being the first in a new market because it gives them a way to engage new and existing customers.
• Ease of selling - Your product is fast and easy to sell, install and renew.
• Happy customers - Customer testimonials convince partners that your product delivers on its promise and they can replicate this success.

Journalists, Analysts and Influencers

The media is an important stakeholder in a P1 or P2 launch, no matter what type of go-to-market model your company is using. They can help you raise awareness for your new product with more prospective customers, and at a lower cost, than any other communications channel. Plus, customers consider trade journalists, industry analysts and influencers to be more credible than company communications. This is why it’s worth investing time to tailor your message to these outlets.

Your customer messaging makes a good starting point for communications to the media. But it’s important to also describe why your product is important to each outlet’s particular audience. If you’re talking to a Wall Street Journal reporter, they’ll want a business and industry angle. If you’re talking to a Gartner analyst, they’ll want to know how customers use your product to solve business problems.

Launches present a significant business opportunity because they grab your audiences’ attention, at least for a moment. You should decide how you want to capitalize on this opportunity and set SMART goals to measure it. 

Should you measure the number of new social followers, contacts, customers, or revenue? What about the measurement interval - days, weeks, or quarters? The answer varies because launches in each industry, organization, and product category are unique. There is no standard template for measuring success.

That said, I’ll list some best practices and other suggestions below. They provide a good starting point that you can adapt to your circumstances. 

Best Practice Metrics for P1-P3 Launches

This may be blindingly obvious, but for a P1 product launch designed to attract new customers, you should measure the number of new customers. Do this by choosing a measurement interval that reflects your typical sales cycle, plus the duration of your launch activities. At the end of the interval, compare the rate of customer acquisition with the period before the launch.

This is an important success gauge for a P1 launch. A well executed new product launch should increase the pace at which the company acquires new customers, assuming all other factors (sales force, etc.) remain constant. 

A best practice for a P2 launch, is to measure the number of existing customers that add the new product to their account, as well as growth in new customers. 

Because P3 launches are about retaining existing customers, the best practice is to compare customer churn before and after the launch. In many businesses, it can be difficult to detect a significant change in churn, or to attribute changes to a single factor. In this case, I recommend setting some modest goals based on the metrics described in the following sections.

Revenue Goals

Measure the sales revenue generated by the new product and the waterfall metrics associated with it (e.g. demos, digital lead conversions). To the extent possible, you should attribute the revenue to a source marketing or sales tactic so that you can discover which launch tactics are most effective in driving revenue. You should also categorize the revenue based on customer type (new vs. existing).

Communications Goals

In addition, you should measure communications goals, because your communications raise customer awareness and trigger the sales cycle. I recommend setting communication goals for each department and channel involved in reaching the customer. For example, in a P1 launch, you can set quantifiable goals for owned, earned and paid media channels. This requires participation from your digital marketing (owned and paid), and public/analyst relations (earned) teams. 

Announcements sent directly to customers by email or newsletter may require participation from the sales and/or partner teams. If you plan to embed a notification into an app, you’ll need to work with the product team to devise a way to implement and measure it. 

Example Metrics

I’ve listed below some example metrics. I wish I could suggest values you can adopt as goals for each metric, but there is no rule of thumb. Appropriate numerical goals will vary by industry, product category and company. 

Customers: New customers, existing customer upgrades/add-ons

Revenue: Segmented by new and existing customers

Web Traffic: New product landing page hits, Conversions, Demos, Revenue

Social: Views, CTR, Conversions, Demos, Revenue

Paid Advertising: Views, CTR, Conversions, Demos, Revenue, and economics (CPL, etc.)

Email: Opens, CTR, Conversions, Demos, Revenue

In-app notifications: Opens, sign-ups

Editorial Coverage: Articles in T1 business publications (WSJ, FT, etc.), local newspapers, and trade publications

Industry Analysts/Influencers: Mentions in podcasts, publications, etc.

Notice editorial coverage and industry analyst/influencer metrics have no associated waterfall metrics or revenue. This doesn’t mean public relations activities aren’t valuable and don’t contribute to revenue. Similar to other brand investments, editorial coverage helps raise awareness and builds credibility with customers.

Additional Goals

If your go-to-market strategy relies on channel partners, you’ll want to set goals for reaching them, too. In addition to reaching them, you should also measure how well they relay the news to their customers. Engage your partner marketing team to help set goals for including your news in each partner’s customer newsletter and measuring the response.

Lastly, you may also set some soft goals for the launch, such as measuring customer and analyst sentiment. This can be done by monitoring forums like Reddit and X (fka, Twitter). You’ll want to score the comments made by customers and by industry analysts/influencers as being positive, neutral or negative.

The next step in building your launch plan is to formulate the strategy you’ll use to achieve your goals. Most strategies use some combination of owned, earned and paid media to reach customers and drive various metrics. Will you run a digital ad campaign to drive landing page views? Blitz customers via email to drive demos? Engage influencers to promote your product and drive website traffic?

The strategy should be based on a thorough understanding of your target personas, including their key initiatives, buying process, and trusted information sources. These insights will help you develop effective messaging and identify the best communication channels. 

Your budget is a key factor in setting goals and building a strategy. For example, new customer acquisition may require a significant paid media campaign, or a special incentive for your sales organization.

But this doesn’t mean you can’t set any goals without a budget. In my experience, most launches have no budget and yet they achieve significant goals, including landing page views, and conversions. This requires only the internal resources already employed by your company to execute various strategies through owned and earned media. 

For example, you can post a series of product videos on your social media channels that drive traffic to your landing page. Also, you can announce the product at a major trade show and capture leads at your booth. 

Another resource that shouldn’t be overlooked is your sales force and partners (if applicable). They represent an important communication channel that can be tasked with engaging customers and prospects to drive funnel metrics.

Let’s Get Tactical

Next, create a list of deliverables and actions. These are the atomic components of every launch. Each goal and strategy should be supported by specific deliverables and actions designed to help accomplish it. 

Some deliverables and actions may be visible to your audiences while others may only be for internal use. For example, the messaging template is a deliverable that may be used as a reference when building a range of customer facing deliverables, such as a web landing page and a video.

A best practice for any launch is to list the deliverables and actions planned for the launch using project management software. Then, assign owners and due dates to each item. Refer to the Project Management section for more on this topic.

Example Deliverables

• Messaging template (internal deliverable)
• Product demo
• Product explainer video
• Web landing page, inner product pages
• Social media posting campaign
• Marketing collateral: brochure/data sheet, customer case study
• Premium assets: ebook, white paper
• Sales tools: customer presentation, email templates, call scripts, battlecards
• Sales training presentation

Actions

Actions are meetings, briefings, web activations or any other type of activity that helps accomplish your goals. Actions may have dependencies on a deliverable. For example, a briefing for a Forreseter analyst is dependent upon creating a briefing presentation and the messaging template. 

I like to list actions separately from deliverables because they may have different owners and timescales. It’s also a good way to call attention to key dependencies. For example, securing a customer reference for a case study, which may be assigned to a sales team member, while the case study is assigned to a marketer. Also note, a single deliverable may be used in multiple actions. 

Example Actions:

• Secure customer reference
• Test messaging with customers
• Deliver sales training webinar
• Briefings: analysts, media and influencers
• Press release internal approvals
• Activate all new web content
• Activate email drip campaigns
  

The bigger the launch and the organization, the more critical are project management skills. Launches are composed of deliverables and actions that are created or executed by various departments within your organization. A P3 launch can have tens of deliverables and actions while a P1 may have five times more. Adding to the complexity, each of these deliverables and actions may have dependencies on others. 

This is why project management and internal communications and coordination are so important. Plus, the stakes for any launch are high, with hard deadlines that must be met and close scrutiny by corporate leaders. To ensure the launch is a success, you want to identify all deliverables, actions and dependencies by department, and make sure that any risks are quickly identified and mitigated.

Best Practices

First, I strongly recommend adopting project management tools to manage the launch project, regardless of its scale. Whether it’s a P1 or a P3, tools like Microsoft Project, Asana, and Trello will go a long way toward keeping everyone on track. 

In addition, I’ve been a part of large multinational organizations that staff a dedicated project manager to help coordinate all the players. This may seem overkill, but it can help ensure all launches meet organizational quality standards.

Next, I recommend a regular cadence of meetings to coordinate deliverables and actions among the responsible departments. These needn’t be long, drawn out affairs. Their main purpose is to agree on the deliverables and actions, then track progress toward completion. In addition, the launch team should share in setting SMART goals for the project, as described earlier.

Synchronize the public reveal to maximize customer awareness. You want your announcement to blitz the customer, appearing on as many communications channels (email, social media, web properties, trade publication articles, etc.) on the same day as possible. This can be tricky because many internal and external actors are involved. You’ll need to coordinate with your digital marketing teams and leverage media embargoes to help synchronize the timing.

Finally, test and verify all newly activated workflows. Launches typically include activation of landing pages, digital calls to action, and various gated content. Make sure all of these are functioning properly and capturing the data you need. 

How Long Does it Take?

The question at the top of mind for most people embarking on their first new product launch is: How much time will it take to plan and execute the entire launch? Of course, the answer varies based on launch priority, industry and organization. I can provide a couple of data points based on my experience with enterprise SaaS products: A P1 launch runs 3-6 months, while a P3 launch may run one month. 

Of course, neither the product marketing manager, nor the other team members are spending 100% of their time working on the launch during this interval. The intensity of the work varies during the project and is most demanding in the days leading up to when information is released to the public. 

When you put your deliverables and actions into project management software and view all the items on a timeline, you’ll likely notice the project unfolds in several phases.

1. Planning - Setting goals and metrics, organizing the team, defining the deliverables and actions, identifying dependencies
2. Development - building the messaging templates, testing with customers, writing content (e.g. web copy, email copy, call scripts, white papers, social posts), creating demos and videos
3. Execution -  Delivering training to sales teams and partners, briefing analysts and media, activating campaigns, verifying new workflows/leadflows
4. Review - Analyze metrics, identify lessons learned, report to executive team

Orchestrating this work and accounting for dependencies is what makes new product launches consume significant time. 

Post Launch Review

When the launch is complete, gather your team to analyze and learn from the experience. This is important, especially in large organizations where information can become siloed. 

• Review the metrics used in your SMART goals and adjust them for the next launch
• Gather qualitative feedback about the new product from stakeholders, including customers, partners, analysts and journalists
• Ask internal team members how the project management aspects could be improved
• Document your findings in a short deck or memo that can be referenced by others and shared with executives
  

At first glance, scheduling your new product launch may not seem very complex: When your organization’s product team releases the product for sale, you announce and begin selling it. Launching all your public communications, campaigns and sales activities on the date that the product becomes available is the most straightforward approach. But, it may not deliver optimal results. 

For example, if your goal is to attract new customers, announcing the new product when your customers are focused on their regular work week may not generate much customer attention and interest. In contrast, making the announcement when you and your customers are attending a major trade show can generate lots more leads and opportunity.

This is why I recommend you manipulate the cadence of your launch actions to help you achieve your goals. I call this a launch scheduling strategy. The example strategies below illustrate how you can orchestrate the execution of each action to achieve different goals. 

The Synchronous Launch Strategy



Goals: Upsell and cross-sell to existing customers, while minimizing launch costs and resources 

Good for: P2/P3 launches to a customer base that regularly interacts with your brand, for example through newsletters, podcasts, or in-app notifications. 

Description: This strategy uses the initial product release date to drive the entire schedule. It relies on the strength of existing customer communication channels to deliver your message and activate the sales cycle. You should schedule launch actions to occur in sequence, based on the product’s anticipated release date. Sales enablement actions are conducted in advance of the release date. Customer communications and a public announcement (if applicable) occur on or immediately after that date.

The Decoupled Release/Announce Strategy

Goals: Begin generating revenue as soon as the product is released; attract as many new customers as possible; maximize publicity and awareness 

Good for: P1/P2 launches in industries where customers gather for a major event (tradeshow). 

Description: This strategy decouples the public announcement from the beginning of sales activity, allowing the organization to begin generating revenue as soon as the product is released for sale. Public announcement occurs later, and is scheduled to coincide with a major industry event where customers, media and analysts are concentrated. 

For this strategy to work, you have to be careful not to tip-off the media ahead of the industry event. For truly revolutionary products, this may be difficult. For example, so much information had already been leaked about the Apple VisionPro VR headset that, by the time the announcement occurred, it was anticlimactic. For most B2B technology products, this strategy is very manageable.

The Preemptive Strike Strategy

Goals: Freeze sales to competitors who have entered the market ahead of you.

Good for: P2 launches by a company with an established market position

Description: This strategy publicly announces your new product before its anticipated release date. Use this strategy to cause customers to postpone imminent purchases of a competitor’s product until they’ve had the opportunity to evaluate your product. For this strategy to work, you need to be careful the announcement doesn’t have a similar effect on your own product lines. In addition, you need to be careful not to run afoul of the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (FASB) revenue recognition rules. 

The most important ingredient in any launch is customer references. Customers validate your messaging and demonstrate your product's value. They make your claims credible. 

Without customer references, your launch will fall flat. Your claims will lack credibility with audiences: Skeptical prospects are less likely to convert; Partners won’t prioritize your product over others in their portfolio; Analysts, journalists, and influencers protecting their reputations are unlikely to recommend your solution.

If you’re having trouble recruiting a reference, it may be a signal that the product isn’t ready to launch. Take a step back and analyze the situation together with your team members. Ask these questions: What evidence do you have that the product solves a significant customer problem? Is the product substantially different from alternatives? Does the customer value your solution?

How to Recruit the Best Reference(s)

Your effort to line up a strong customer reference should begin when the product is being developed - long before launch plans are taking shape. I recommend working closely with your company’s product team to recruit a small number of customers as advisors throughout the development phase and product launch. Their role is to be a sounding board for product ideas and a testbed for the product. This makes them a partner in the entire endeavor and, when it comes time to launch the new product, they’ll be ready to publicly endorse it.

Bringing customers into your program can be challenging. Customers are busy people and solving the problem you’ve identified may not be their top priority. You can overcome their reluctance with inducements, including special help with integration, or the opportunity to buy the product at a steep discount. In exchange, you should make it clear that you expect them to endorse the product if it delivers as promised. 

How to Make the Most of Customer References

First, write or video record an in-depth case study that includes direct quotes from your customer and quantifies the business benefits they’ve realized from your product. For example, “Reduced costs by 32%” or “Increased output 2.5x.” These kinds of business benefits are gold for marketers. If you can’t mine gold nuggets like these, qualitative statements about how their operations are improved can be powerful. 

Put these quantified and qualitative statements into all your deliverables, starting with your messaging template. Add the customer’s logo (with permission) to your website and marketing collateral. 

Finally, if your customer is willing, offer to connect them with analysts, journalists and influencers for an independent interview. Many customers will appreciate the opportunity to raise their personal profile by participating in media interviews.

Messaging and positioning is arguably the most important component in the entire launch. It describes your target customer, the problem they’re facing, and how your product will solve that problem better than whatever the customer is currently using. This may seem easy, but it can be very difficult unless you have a deep understanding of your target customer and the competing alternatives available to them. 

Messaging and positioning is critical to the launch’s success. You can have the best social media campaign and the biggest advertising budget, but if you’re describing the new product in language that doesn’t resonate with your customer, the launch will fail. 

Effective messaging and positioning are critical for enabling your sales channels, too. It forms the foundation for your sales tools and the training you deliver to salespeople and partners. 

Leverage Expert Messaging Resources

Messaging and positioning isn’t a simple exercise and I’m not going to be able to help you through it in this guide. It’s a big topic that merits a completely separate article, if not an entire book. In fact, I refer you to Obviously Awesome, by April Dunford, to help you craft your messaging and positioning. 

A best practice is to complete the Positioning Canvas, Value Point Table and Competitive Messaging that are referenced in Obviously Awesome. The book also suggests creating boilerplate descriptions of various lengths. Instead, I recommend creating a traditional one or two sentence value proposition. 

Once you’ve completed these templates you’ll have all you need to create a wide range of deliverables. The templates should be shared widely with internal teammates participating in the project to ensure consistency across all deliverables. 

Adapt Messaging for P2 and P3 Launches

A P1 launch merits the effort required to complete all of the Obviously Awesome templates. In contrast, a P2 or P3 launch is more straightforward because the new product is in the same category as your existing products. In these cases, you can adapt an existing Positioning Canvas. 

However, you still need to create a Value Point Table, Competitive Messaging and value proposition because these templates are specific to the new product. 

Test the Messaging Before Launch

Another best practice is to test your messaging and positioning with customers before you begin to produce deliverables. This is imperative for a P1 launch; less so for P2 and P3 launches. Customers will tell you whether your messaging resonates. 

Asking customers for help can be intimidating, but it’s straightforward if you make message testing part of the customer’s advisory responsibilities. When you recruit customers to be advisors during product development and references for launch, as described in the Customer Reference section, tell them they will also be asked to review messaging. This sets expectations and makes the exercise part of their larger role in the project. 

An alternative is to use a message testing service, such as Wynter or Disqo. These services recruit a small audience that matches your target customer profile and asks them specific questions about your messaging. This type of blind message testing can be valuable because it reduces biases that you may encounter when testing with existing customers. 

The launch is your product’s opportunity to make a good first impression on the market. Research by psychologists has revealed that a person’s first experience in a sequence is remembered more strongly than others. This is called the primacy effect. When you launch a new product, you want this first impression to be spot-on target. 

Follow the recommendations in this guide and your next launch will make a great first impression on customers, the sales team, partners, and influencers. Your efforts will pay off the investments made by the rest of the organization to develop the product and, by doing so, elevate your career.