How to create a marketing strategy for your latest item (Checklist) |
The strategy you choose for your marketing can be the difference between stellar sales and a disappointing launch. Develop a strategy for marketing the launch of your brand using this list.
An intelligent person once said, "By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail."
When it comes to launching a new digital product, we couldn't agree more.
In order to help you set yourself to be successful, we put together an easy-to-follow checklist of six points to build your plan for marketing. Follow these steps to create a marketing roadmap you can utilize for each new product release.
Product launch marketing plan checklist
Download a PDF version of the checklist here .
First, set expectations for your launch
There is no limit to the size of your marketing budget, and most expensive devices, but until you set goals your plan for marketing will be like a boat without a rudder: directionless.
Marketers are known to be in the bad habit of setting vague goals. We can say things such as "make more sales" and "drive the engagement" without getting into what meeting those goals looks like in action.
Why are we doing this? One reason is that it's hard to recommend specific general marketing objectives or methods to gauge performance. Every creator has different Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) according to the goals they have set for themselves.
Setting goals that are specific to your company, brand and product will help you select the metrics you want to monitor before launching your product.
As an example, if you are trying to gather pre-launch signups for your new online course, it is possible to monitor the amount of website users who sign-up for your pre-launch email updates.
However, if your goal is to attract new customers via advertisements on social media, you would track how many people click on your Facebook ads, and how many of those customers purchase the product.
To set the right objectives for your business plan We recommend using the Framework for SMART goals.
By using the SMART goals framework, you create your goals in order to satisfy the following criteria:
Specific: Create specific goals that narrow in on specific areas of your company.
It is measurable: You must ensure that you can quantify your goal and monitor the progress you make.
Reachable:It's fun to dream about the future, but goals that seem impossible are often a source of discouragement. Keep your goal challenging and doable.
Relevant: Check that your goal aligns with your values, brand as well as your overall goals for the business.
Time-bound:Give you a reasonable deadline to achieve your goal. Deadlines are a way to hold ourselves accountable. They provide us with a timeframe to strive towards.
The SMART objective you have set for yourself could include: "By adding a pre-launch landing page to my website I'll collect 100 pre-launch emails before launch day the month following."
If you have specific goals that you have in mind and a realistic target and a plan of action to achieve it You can set yourself up for a successful launch. The way you design your action plan as will depend on a range of variables, which includes the audience you are targeting.
Step 2: Define your target audience
That question is just as important when preparing for the launch of a new product.
Here's why: You can't promote your product effectively if you don't know who you're marketing to.
The target market is the prospective clients you intend to market your services or products to. To ensure that your marketing is as effective as possible it is essential to be aware of your potential clients as individuals, not just demographics.
That's where buyer personas come into.
Content marketing consultant Amy Wright explains : "Buyer personas describe who your ideal customers are, what their days are similar to, what challenges they confront, and the way they make decisions."
The buyer's persona could look as this image from one Spotify's customers who are targeted by the company:
Look at forums, communities on the internet, and read reviews on products that are in your field. Consider:
What are my target customers discussing online?
What challenges do they face?
What are their goals?
What is their value?
What language do they use?
Once you know how your audience talks and thinks, you will be able to better communicate why your new product is a great fit for them.
Your customers would like to discuss their thoughts and thoughts with you. 60% of people want brands to connect with them. 90% of consumers are more positive view of businesses that ask them for feedback.
In the event that you start discussions in your community of brands You can create connections and bonds over values that are shared. You get to know your target audience more intimately, which can help to create marketing messages that is appealing to them.
An excellent example of how you can learn about your customers is from Tiffany Williams, founder of Rich Girl Collective .
( facilitates creators such as Tiffany to establish community-based brands, interact to their fans, and sell digital products through one single platform. Test it to see if you like it with a no-cost 14-day test. )
The more effectively you get to know the people you want to reach and the better you are able to adapt your advertising to the needs of your audience and demonstrate how your product can aid them to succeed. It's important to know this information in this next step.
Step 3: Establish your unique selling proposition (USP)
Once you've figured out all the details of your target audience's pain points requirements, goals, and needs and needs, you'll be able to identify your own unique selling proposition (USP).
Beginning with the outcome you want to offer your customer, then work in reverse to figure out how your product achieves the desired result. That's your USP.
Your USP is also known as your value proposition will answer two of the following questions:
What issue does my product will solve for my clients?
What makes my product different from my competitors?
If you establish your USP and reaffirm that your product will help people achieve their objectives or conquer the real obstacles. That's the most important aspect of launching a product successfully. 30% of new businesses fail due to a lack of need for their products or products or.
That's why there is no market-place fit for your product. The measure of your product's market fit is what you can do to ensure that your product will meet the needs of customers. Your USP pinpoints that product-market fit and explains what sets you apart from your competitors and entices potential buyers to decide to choose the company.
If you aren't sure what makes your product stand from the rest, conduct market research to find out more about your competitors.
Are there areas of pain that your competitors don't address? What can your service do different? You might have a course that is more visually-focused than other courses on similar subjects and perhaps your knowledge provides you with a new view of other artists who are in your area.
Your USP also helps you figure out how to market your product.
For instance, take Death Wish Coffee as an example. Many coffee companies highlight characteristics such as flavor or smoothness but Death Wish is unique in its method of describing "the most powerful coffee in the world".
Death Wish knows that their target market is looking for extra-strong, kick-in-the-pants coffee, so the marketing messages emphasize this distinct feature. Their USP might not appeal to every coffee drinker, but it showcases why they are unique and focuses on their target market.
All in all, when you understand what is unique about your product, you can highlight that in your advertising. Use the same language that your target audience uses in discussing their issues areas. Your messages will resonate with those who are your ideal customers.
It's time to start sharing this message to the world But first, let's make sure you're not breaking the bank.
Step 4: Determine your marketing budget
Being a creative You probably do not have enough money to hire an outside sales staff and in-house marketing staff but that's fine. You must figure out what you could afford to spend on marketing before you begin running ads or commissioning your designs.
It's good to know that you don't have to spend a six-figure marketing budget for a strategy that works. In fact, more than one-third of small businesses spend less than $10,000 for advertising every year.
As you figure out your budget, it is possible that you want to allocate money to expenses like
Toolkits and software that allow you to develop content, communicate with your audience, and manage campaigns.
Freelancers include writers, graphic artists video editors, as well as web designers.
Paid ads, for example sponsored content such as paid search ads as well as social media advertisements. (We'll discuss more on social media ads that are paid in the following section.)
Once you have your budget set now you're able to move on to the next step, which is to select the right marketing platforms for your launch.
Step 5: Choose the marketing channels that you will use
Different approaches appeal to different types of audiences Different strategies appeal to different audiences, and not every strategy can be used by every artist, budget, or product.
Additionally, there are numerous online marketing channels that one creator could tackle alone, so it's essential to find the right ones for you as well as your clients.
Here are some of the most well-known channels you should think about including in your marketing strategy.
Email marketing
Marketing via email is an essential element for any strategy of digital marketing. Over 4 billion people are expected to use email this year. They will send around 350 billion emails a daily.
Marketers and customers alike are both awestruck by emails. Customers and marketers alike love it. 73% of users rank email as the most effective channel to send marketing communications, while 59% of marketers cited email as the top source of ROI in 2018.
Email is also a reasonable alternative for small-sized businesses that have an unfinancial marketing budget. At around $42 for every $1 spent Email is one of the most lucrative return on investment (ROI) that any other marketing channel.
Below are a few resources that can aid you in building your list of email subscribers, select an email marketing platform to make the most of your marketing emails:
Social media marketing
Marketing on social media is most effective when you mix the organic and paid strategies. Organic social media marketing allows you to interact with your community and potential customers. Paid advertisements on social networks help you gain more eyes on your products.
To build some buzz around your product launch, Twitter is a solid alternative. As an example, the designer and marketing expert John D Saunders used a tweet on Twitter to launch the launch of a new online course.
John's video let his audience be aware of what they can expect from the course and received high-engagement that included 30+ retweets as well as over 200 likes.
On the paid social side Ultra-specific targeting tools can allow you to reach those who are relevant faster than organic could. Over 62 percent of marketers say that paid social media advertising has been in some way successful for their business.
Facebook ads are an affordable choice for small businesses and solopreneurs who want to put their latest product or service to a wider public. Like, for example, business coach Melyssa Griffin utilized this video ad to advertise her Pinterest workshop to bloggers.
If you have the proper audience-targeting set up, Facebook ads like Melyssa's convert into digital product sales for the creators.
Here are some additional tools to assist you in mastering social media marketing:
Content marketing
Content marketing is 62% cheaper and can generate greater than three times the leads as traditional marketing. It's an economical method to connect with your target audience build your reputation, increase your experience, and establish relationships with potential clients.
Your ideal customers discover your blog's contents through search or other distribution channels.
They gain knowledge from your writings and begin to trust the expertise of your team.
Sign up to your mailing list, or they follow you on social media.
Keep them informed about your product launch.
They're eager to purchase your brand new product, be supportive of your business, and will continue to take lessons from you.
The key here is to write blog articles that provide real value, not just longform product ad copy.
Make sure to write your blog posts using search engine optimization (SEO) in mind. SEO allows your target audience to find you when searching for keywords or phrases that are relevant to them. This is why nearly 64% of marketers spend time on SEO.
Below are a few resources that can aid you to get started in SEO and content marketing:
Web site and landing pages
Imagine: You launch your campaign and the marketing goes according to plan.
Visitors are flooding to your website, ready to know more about the product you offer, sign up for the latest updates before launch and finally make a purchase. Now, you need a landing page that makes all the hard work be worth it.
Testing your ideas for products.
Create your list of emails leading up to the day of your launch.
For your landing page prior to launch provide a quick description of the new product. Also, tell your visitors that they need to sign up to learn more and get notified when you launch.
Take a look at Nicole Saidy's descriptions of products of her online class, Learn to become a UI/UX Designer .
Nicole knows that the transition to user-experience design may seem overwhelming, but she's here for help. She assists her customers to find out if the service is the right one for them through direct communication with their issues.
Here are some additional resources on crafting pages for landing and products that generate sales
If you've chosen your channels for marketing, you may think you've reached the end of the checklist. There's an additional process to ensure you get the most out of your launch and put your self up for success- now and for several product launches that are to follow.
Step 6: Track your progress and continue to track
The sixth and last step is to track your performance and continually evaluating your marketing process, is something that is more of a continuous process than a checklist task.
Following the launch of your product, review your goals that you established in the first step. If you're not achieving your goals, you have an opportunity to learn and adjust for the future launches or to review your existing marketing efforts.
For example, let's say your marketing emails aren't performing as well than you'd like. The click-through and open rates are lower than you'd like them to be however, you have time to make changes before launch day. You may want to do some A/B tests .
Testing A/B (or split testing) involves altering different components of your email one at a given time, and then observing how the changes impact the effectiveness of your emails.
If you were A/B testing different subject lines, for instance, your subscribers would receive identical emails with the exception of the subject line. When you compare the open rates, you will determine which subject line is best, and use the information to improve future email campaigns.
Remember to try new things, as well as allowing yourself to make mistakes can help in your development as a designer.
You may discover that a certain marketing channel doesn't work for your business or audience. That's valuable information to bring to your next launch plan.
"Experiment! It's hard to know what to do online marketing, and each group of possible customers will be different. You'll need to play around to find out what's effective (and which ones aren't). When you're doing anything, consider, measure and tweak your methods to enhance them. There's no one magical solution here!"
"To be successful in running a business, you have to first get comfortable managing a business that isn't successful, as most of the times, success comes later."
In the Startup Curve , invented by Y Combinator founder Paul Graham , failure is an ordinary phase that is experienced just prior to when your business begins to grow towards expansion and scaling.
Bottom line:
Don't be afraid to experiment in your marketing strategy to discover the best strategy for your, your brand, and your audience. If you have your objectives in mind, and some time, you'll be on your way to the most effective launch plan which you can apply to numerous product launches in the future.
Develop a strategy for going-to-market to ensure your launch's day's to be a success
You've put in the effort to make a product your audience will enjoy. An effective marketing strategy can assist in making all your efforts pay off when it comes to launch day.
In case you're wondering, here's the steps you need to take in creating an effective marketing strategy for your product launch:
Make SMART objectives to help you launch your new product. Figure out the significance of a successful launch to you, and what measures you'll keep track of.
Define your target audience and get to know them as people and not only as demographics. Conduct customer research and talk to them to learn about their issues and objectives.
Establish your unique selling proposition (USP). What are the factors that make your product or service the best choice for your ideal customer? What makes you different from the competition?
Determine your marketing budget. There is no need to invest an arm and a leg in order to create a marketing campaign that boosts sales.
Choose your preferred marketing channel. Marketing via email is essential, but there are several other channels that you can choose from. Figure out which ones align with your audience and goals.
Monitor your performance and keep practicing your marketing plan. The more you know about your customers and their needs, the better the next launch of your product marketing plan will be.
Remember, you probably won't succeed 100% initially, and it's fine. It may take some trial and error but once you figure out which method works best for you and your customers and your product, you'll soon be a marketer with launches day sales to prove that it.