Often a product launch can often feel like rolling the dice rather than a triumph such as when Diana Prince marched through No Man’s Land to save a small town.
Warning: During the introduction, I describe a scene in the new Wonder Woman movie. If you have not seen the movie, you might want to skip that section.
In the Wonder Woman movie, there is a point where Diana makes her debut as an action fighting superhero. Diana, Steven Trevor, and their team were working their way through Belgium when they came to what British soldiers called No Man’s Land.
Crouching in the trenches, Diana learns that a small town is held captive by German soldiers on the other side and that they are killing men, women, and children. Concerned for the town, Wonder Woman decides she must do something.
In spite of Trevor’s objections, Diana removes her fur coat to reveal her uniform and climbs the ladder out of the trench. Once she emerges from the trench, all hell breaks loose.
The German soldiers began firing upon Diana and, with the use of her bracelets and shield, she deflects the bullets while marching toward the enemy.
The onslaught from the German soldiers did not phase Diana as she became Wonder Woman right before our eyes. Diana had prepared all her life for this moment.
If only our product launch could be as successful as Wonder Woman’s. Wonder Woman and her team of friends defeated the German army that occupied tiny Veld, Belgium.
Launching your new product can often feel like rolling the dice rather than a triumph such as when Diana Prince marched through No Man’s Land. Before you cross No Man’s Land and emerge as Wonder Woman, there are three important caveats.
Nail down your message.
Make sure you have nailed down your message. This, of course, will include market research. Some pieces of info you will need to nail down your message are your unique selling position, your benefits and features, your target audience and related personas.
Run a beta test
You can test your product idea by running a beta test phase allowing a small group of users tests your early development or a minimum viable product. User feedback can be crucial for making adjustments and approvements for a larger user base.
Hire a Growth Hacker
If you have plenty of funding, you might consider hiring an expert growth hacker. Experienced growth hackers are expensive, but they know how to grow a user base. However, if you don’t have the money, we are going to discuss some easy marketing tactics you can use to create interest in and, ultimately, users for your product.
These tactics assume you have a product that is that an audience needs or wants, that you have your core message in place (see above), that the product is built (or being built), and that you have all your online real estate created (website, social media).
Public Relations
Every time I council a startup on using public relations, I explain that you have to build a relationship with your tech journalist. Having covered startups previously, I can tell you that it a little annoying to get an email out of nowhere about covering a new company when I have no previous contact with the company. I responded more favorably to someone that I already knew, that I had already built a relationship with.
Further, when I wrote articles for a news organization, I was more likely to reach out to my startup connections as a source than one I had never heard from. Build relationships now, before you need a journalist, so that when you launch a product, they already know who you are and willing to carry your new release.
Another way to use public relations is to be a guest on a podcast in your niche. For a WordPress company, that means being a podcast on one of the many WordPress podcasts. Most likely, you are already listening and have become a part of the greater podcast community. Being a guest on a podcast is a fantastic way to get some publicity for your new product.
Finally, consider local groups such as 1 Million Cups or a WordPress Meetup. Signing up to be a presenter at these types of events can help give your product a spark.
Content Marketing
These days, it seems like Content Marketing is a no-brainer, however, sometimes it just doesn’t cross our minds. Content Marketing is effective, very powerful, but can take the time to implement. Four ways to use content marketing for your product launch include pillar content, guest posting, repurposing content, and building an email list.
Pillar Content
Building pillar content for your blog is like building your own content foundation. Pillar content will be blog posts on your website that feature your target keyword phrases and educate your user about your product. In addition to pillar content posts, you will make sure you have all of your pillar content for documentation, lead magnets, ebooks, and how-to content for your product.
Pillar content is the core of your online writing success–the content that pretty much sums up what you have to say from now until kingdom come.
These pillar articles are the backbone of your philosophy; your brand. They will support and thoroughly flesh out your ideas, your creative process, and your business endeavors.
As such, it’s highly likely that they’ll be the longest, most well-researched, and best content on your entire site–if not the best writing you’ll do anywhere else online. WritteHacked
Some content marketers may refer to this as cornerstone content. Indeed, the idea closely matches. Brian Clark first coined the term of “cornerstone content” back in 2007 when he wrote about it for Copyblogger. Yoast uses the term when talking about SEO hierarchy and shows that it has search engine optimization benefits.
Guest Posting
Yes, people still use guest posting. Gone are the days when people could game the system by posting on multiple platforms and linking back to their website gaining a higher ranking, but using the strategy still has tremendous merit. For example, it helps you and your product get more traction in its launch.
Repurposing Content
Content can be repurposed for different formats and audiences. Two of the places people repurpose content the most are LinkedIn and Medium. Those are fantastic places to generate interest from your target audience. Other options for repurposing content include video, audio, infographics, webinars and much more.
How to Repurpose Content and Make the Most of Your Marketing – CoSchedule
Build an email list
This is one of the most crucial things you can do. You should already have a landing page for your new product, even if not ready, to capture emails of those who are interested. Once you have built a list, you can email them directly with updates, information on your products launch. It can help you begin to nurture a relationship and build some buzz.
Influencer Marketing
There is a reason people will pay Instagram Celebrities to promote their products. They have become influencers online and companies are seeking to tap into that power. Imagine if Matt Mullenweg endorsed your new WordPress product. The power of that kind of endorsement is hard to measure.
Do you have connections with an influencer in your niche? Maybe you can reach out and offer a trial or free year of your product. Naturally, it has to be organic. If the influencer likes your product, you will receive a big endorsement.
Influencers can be high profile bloggers, podcasters, and other WordPress entrepreneurs.
Platforms
There are a couple platforms that entrepreneurs can utilize to boost their audience outreach. The first is Product Hunt. Product Hunt is a website that helps users find apps and tools. Users can upvote products to get more attention on the company’s homepage.
Several WordPress companies have products listed on the website and it is a great place to find new users.
Another platform you can use to boost your user base is various events. South by Southwest is famous for startup and launches. WordCamps have also become a place where WordPress entrepreneurs have introduced their new product.
Conclusion
Product launches can be complex and simple all at the same time. Sometimes we spend too much time thinking about all of the various aspects and decide to wait until everything is perfect. On the other hand, some people fail to prepare adequately and launch too soon. Often launching a product is about timing.
What are some of the techniques you have used to launch a new product or service?
