There are some products that take a long time to gain traction in the marketplace. Those are the exceptions for two reasons:
1) There are few companies that can afford to sustain a new product that does not gain immediate traction
2) Newer products will often improve upon prior iterations by the same company or competitors and so will crowd out older products with little market share
And so we can determine that most successful products are successful early in the post-launch phase of their life.
Product Lifecycle
A typical product lifecycle has four distinct stages:
1) Launch
2) Growth
3) Maturity
4) Renewal or Decline
These are the same, more or less, as the lifecycle for a business. And each phase involves a number of key decisions that a company must make to succeed.
In order to effectively get to the growth stage, first you have to have a successful product launch. If you are responsible for getting your product out the door and into the marketplace most effectively, here is a checklist you can use to improve the likelihood of a successful launch.
Product Launch Checklist
Has the product been fully tested and come through without any bugs?
Have you tested your product with customers to ensure it solves a real need in the market?
Do you have buy-in from senior leadership throughout the company?
Do you have sales and revenue targets for the first 30, 60, 90 days after launch? Do you know what to do if you fall short of those targets?
Has the advertising budget been approved that you need to meet your sales expectations?
Have you communicated with all departments so that they know everything they need to know to better serve the launch? Marketing, sales, customer support, finance, analysts?
Have you given the marketing team enough lead time to have all of their campaigns built and ready to deploy on day one?
Have you done press outreach to gain publicity around the launch?
Is the messaging on your website ready to go live?
Do you have a plan? Is there a document that people across your organization can refer to if they have questions?
So much of the success of any product is in the launch. The more planning you do in advance, the more you can ensure that both the product and the marketing are ready to go, the better your odds of a successful launch.
Best of luck!
