How To Develop A Successful Product And Why You Need Pre-Launch Marketing

The Journey Begins with In-Depth Market Research

The success of a product idea doesn’t depend only on its technical merits. If that were the case, Betamax would have defeated VHS, nobody would wear mechanical watches, and Apple products wouldn’t be nearly as popular as they are today.

For a product to become successful, it must—first and foremost—be a good fit for the target audience. The problem is that many companies never bother to validate their business ideas, analyze their competitors, or even identify target audiences before they waste millions of dollars trying to figure out how to market a product that nobody wants.

Sometimes, when marketing a new product, business owners dismiss developing an actual product marketing strategy and rely too strongly on their gut feeling and expertise, arguing that Steve Jobs never bothered with market research so why should they. What they don’t realize is that Steve Jobs launched numerous product failures because of his disdain for product idea validation, including the Apple Lisa, Macintosh TV, the Apple III, or the Power Mac G4 Cube.

Of course, it’s entirely possible to achieve great success by saying, “I have an idea for a product!” and throwing a large amount of money toward it, but this has been proven time and time again to be an inefficient waste of valuable resources.

“There are two ways to achieve product/market fit: adjust your product to fit what the market wants or move the market to align with your product. The former is a whole lot less expensive than the latter,” says Bret Waters, CEO of Tivix. “No startup should build a product or develop a service without thoroughly testing its assumptions, given the tools available today and the low cost associated with gaining valuable insights. But entrepreneurs continue to overlook this important starting point—particularly when they have significant venture capital in their bank account,” he adds.

A good product development strategy always begins with in-depth market research and product validation to ensure that the right solution is being created. Is the product intended for an oversaturated market? Competitor analysis can reveal the answer. Are there some missing features that could make the target audience like the product even more? Target audience analysis can provide useful hints.

Competitor analysis: Also known as competitive research, the purpose of competitor analysis in marketing is to assess the strong and weak points of existing and potential future competitors. Such analysis may focus on product, profitability, market share, growth, pricing, marketing, location, employees, and a plethora of other factors. The information provided by competitor analysis can be used to identify product development opportunities and threats.

Target audience analysis: This integral part of any marketing strategy provides useful and actionable information about the target audience. It involves the research of demographics, personal preferences, interests, and other metrics. When companies understand their target audiences, they become able to craft personalized content to effectively promote their products.

By establishing a partnership with a full-cycle digital marketing agency like ComboApp during the pre-launch stage, companies can clearly define the opportunity through market research and effectively position their products to meet the wants and needs of their target market.

Pre-launch Marketing and its Role in Developing a Product Strategy

A product strategy should be driven by the needs of real users—not assumptions as is often the case. “Assumptions are a double-edged sword. In some cases, they are those crucial eureka moments—sheer genius that strikes like a bolt from the blue. In other cases—as the product launch statistics indicate—such assumptions are dangerous indeed,” explains Neil Patel, the world’s leading online marketer and New York Times best-selling author.

A well-thought-out product strategy is like a map that guides each and every step of product development, from the very early stages, through the first product concept, to marketing. This map helps create alignment between marketing and product development teams, which is key because it allows the company to focus on the needs of its target market, instead of spreading itself too thin and achieving far worse results.

“Since markets have become increasingly global and complex, and the levels of competition have reached staggering heights, this outdated concept has, out of necessity, fallen by the wayside. It has become increasingly mandatory for marketing professionals to drive product development and product life cycle functions within the organization,” states Darrin C. Duber-Smith, M.S., MBA, is a senior lecturer at Metropolitan State University of Denver’s College of Business.

“Alignment between marketing and product development teams is the key because it allows the company to focus on the needs of its target market, instead of spreading itself too thin and achieving far worse results.”

Marketing a new product is always far easier if it has been developed with the target market in mind. Every business strategy should revolve around a clearly defined vision for the product. It’s the vision that helps the marketing team create engaging messaging and the development team to create marketable features. The vision should be described in a product roadmap, a high-level visual summary that maps out the vision and direction of the product over time.

In addition to the vision, this roadmap should also include information about the target market (demographic, geographic, behavioral, and psychographic), describe where the product will fit into the current market, explain what the product does and what makes it unique, specify what value it brings to the consumer, set out key dates the company needs to hit for the release of the product, and outline the resources required.

Optimizing Before Launch with Focus Group Testing

According to Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, market research itself can be deceptive because consumers don’t go about their shopping by conforming to particular segments. “The fact that you’re 18 to 35 years old with a college degree does not cause you to buy a product,” he says.

“It may be correlated with the decision, but it doesn’t cause it. … We realized that the causal mechanism behind a purchase is, ‘Oh, I’ve got a job to be done.’ And it turns out that it’s really effective in allowing a company to build products that people want to buy.”

Focus group testing involves a group of users talking about their experiences and expectations as a way how to acquire feedback regarding new products. Focus group testing is best performed during the early stages of product development, when companies are trying to develop their product strategy and optimize their products before launch. When done correctly, focus group testing helps determine how to market a new product and generate as much interest in consumers as possible.

The story of Sir James Dyson is a great example of why optimizing before launch and understanding what it is that customers really think is so important. Before the famous British inventor created his first successful bagless vacuum cleaner, he went through 5,127 prototypes.

After the success of the DC01 upright and DC02 cylinder cleaner, Dyson, who believes that it can take a very long time to develop interesting products and get them right, wanted to maintain its market-leading position with more, innovative products. Market research quickly became the main drive behind product development at Dyson, and the rest is history.

By including customers in the development process with focus groups, surveys, and usability testing, Dyson not only discovered an extremely effective strategy how to market a new product, but the company single-handedly reinvented a mature market.

Creating Success with Pre-Launch Marketing

Success creates more success—not only in life but also in business. Customers are influenced not only by marketing but also by the behavior and decisions of other customers. For example, the goal of pre-launch marketing is to tell your target audience that you have an idea for an app and make them excited about it. When the app is finally released (provided the pre-launch marketing was successful), customers will flock to it, increasing curiosity around the app and convincing even more customers to check it out.

“Those who underestimate the importance of marketing in product development and skip such important activities as pre-launch marketing may discover that customers are simply not interested in what they have to offer.”

Many pages have been dedicated to how to market an app before launch, and it boils down to the following components.

1. Creating a landing page

A landing page is an important part of pre-launch marketing because Studies show that marketers capture leads at a higher rate by sending them to dedicated landing pages, rather than sending traffic to the home page. Landing page testing (A/B testing) helps increase the effectiveness of a landing page and, consequently, the ROI of online advertising.

To achieve the best conversion rate possible, all landing pages should contain one primary call to action. By the time visitors reach the primary call to action, they should already understand the key advantages of the product on offer and how it can benefit them. Since people dislike large blocks of text, it’s important to use bullet points, icons, and images to make the landing page more visually appealing.

In your pre-launch campaign, a landing page is a great space to build hype around your product. Get people interested in what you are offering by building anticipation with content designed for that purpose. A countdown on your landing page gives a sense that this product launch is something your customers will not want to miss. Then, you can add in some more content such as engaging videos to capture the attention of your visitors and sell them on your product.

You can also take advantage of a countdown page to slowly give information about your product. Keep the viewers coming back for more by not telling them everything up front. This can also benefit your other pre launch marketing ideas too. Give teases towards launch parties or influencer partnerships, keeping your audience on the edge of their seats as they wait for reveals.

2. Coming up with a content strategy

87 percent of visionaries and 81 percent of leaders keep content at the core of their marketing efforts because content marketing generates three times the leads per dollar spent over paid search marketing. There are many types of content to explore, from blog posts to podcasts to YouTube videos, each serving a slightly different purpose but all falling within the realm of content marketing.

Your pre-launch strategies for content should focus on being as engaging as possible. Whatever type of content you create for your product launch campaign, you want it to grab the viewer's attention and keep it. The content should be something that your audience will want to share with their friends and on their social media feeds. If your content goes viral that can lead to a successful launch, as long as you keep the momentum going.

When creating a content strategy, make sure to clearly define your goals and establish your key performance indicators (KPIs). You should assess your current position and continuously measure your results to know that you’re on the right track. Make sure to create a content calendar to stay organized and on schedule. Google Calendar does a good job, but there are also many purpose-built tools with a whole host of useful features.

3. Practicing link building

Link building can be seen as a by-product of a successful content marketing strategy. Even though links are no longer the most important Google ranking factor, they can still help spread the word about the product and drive engagement.

There are many link building strategies that you can explore—from guest posts and evergreen content to social media outreach and on-site social sharing buttons—but they all depend on one thing: quality content.

Of these pre-launch marketing strategies for link building, guest posting in particular has the benefit of allowing you to access other sites users and interest them in your product. Find sites that share your expected audience and write a blog post to pitch them. This gives you the opportunity to speak to their readers and drive traffic to your campaign.

4. Recruit influencers

According to a Collective Bias survey of nearly 14,000 adults, 60 percent of consumers are influenced by blogs or social media posts when it comes to making shopping decisions. That’s great news for everyone who is planning to launch a new product because it has never been easier to recruit influencers thanks to influencer marketplaces like TapInfluence.

Of course, it’s also possible to reach out to influencers directly by sending them free samples, inviting them to pre-launch events, and asking for their input during the development of the product. The most important thing is to choose the right influencers. Their audience should align with the target audience of the product, so take some time to investigate who’s popular in your niche and target those influencers with a well-crafted partnership offer.

In 2021, pre-launch marketing strategies should include an influencer campaign whenever possible. With a wide range of platforms and influencers to match with your product, there is sure to be a fit for nearly every niche and audience.

5. Create a promo video

In today’s visual world, engaging potential customers and users with powerful visual stimuli is more important than ever. By putting together a captivating promo video and sharing it on social media, you can clearly and concisely communicate the purpose and value of your product while simultaneously generating hype around it.

Anyone can create a professional promo video thanks to the impressive video-recording capabilities of modern smartphones and readily available stock footage, transitions, and special effects. Those who doubt their creative abilities can partner up with a freelancer or hire an agency that knows how to market a new product with a captivating promo video.

6. Host a launch event

What could be a better way to let the whole world know about your product than a huge party? Hosting a launch event has become a popular marketing strategy for new product launch, and it’s easy to see why. A memorable event leaves a lasting impression on its attendees, as well as those who read about it online.

Of course, 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic changed a lot when it comes to in person events. Even now in 2021 it will be quite a while before things return to normal. This shifts the focus for a successful launch party to virtual events for the time being. This opens a world of new opportunities for creativity and reach with your launch party experiences.

Long gone are the days where launch events required weeks of planning and organizing. These days, It’s possible to host a launch event without a venue thanks to live streaming platforms like Facebook Live, Twitch, and YouTube Live. Virtual events shouldn’t be seen as inferior alternatives to physical events because they offer many important advantages. They are open to attendees from around the world, cost considerably less money to host, make it easy to collect valuable feedback, and more.

7. Establish a social media presence

Social media is arguably the easiest way to get noticed on the internet today. Whereas a website may take weeks or even months to rank in search engines, social media content can go viral and spread around the world in days. As an important part of your new product launch marketing strategy, you should create accounts on all major social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and so on.

If possible, use the same username across all platforms. Your profiles should share the same visual language so that visitors can instantly recognize your brand. Don’t hesitate to connect with other companies in your industry so that you can take advantage of valuable cross-promotional opportunities.

Your social media presence is also a way for your audience to relate to your brand. When it comes to your new product launch marketing, the ability to have an audience connect with your brand on a personal level is important. Reply to their comments positively, rewarding their engagement with engagement of your own. That kind of interaction can develop brand loyalty before consumers even have your product in their hands.

8. Generate buzz with social media

It’s one thing to have a presence on social media, and it’s something else entirely to generate buzz with it. To achieve this goal, you need to post regularly, use relevant hashtags, and create engagement with polls, contests, giveaways, and promotions. The content you post on social media should be shareworthy and include a balanced mix of images, blogs, videos, and GIFs.

When it comes to using social media for new product marketing, less is often more. Just like with our countdown page, you don’t want to instantly reveal every single detail about your product. Revealing too much would prevent your followers from becoming increasingly excited about it with each teaser you release. Movie trailers and video game teasers provide many great examples of how you can generate buzz without revealing too much too early.

9. Put together a PR kit

Often referred to as a press kit or media kit, a PR kit is a pre-packaged collection of promotional materials that provide all important information journalists, bloggers, and influencers may possibly need when writing or talking about the new product. Here’s what a typical PR kit includes:

• Company background: The people who receive your PR kit need to know who you are, what you aim to accomplish, and what you’ve accomplished so far. Keep your backgrounder as brief as possible, and don’t be afraid to use bullet points.

• Staff bios: If you’re open to interviews, you should introduce all members of your team in your PR kit and talk about their current roles, past experience, and notable achievements. Don’t forget to include everyone’s contact information.

• Product factsheet: Outline the most important features of your product, including pricing and availability. Be sure to mention what sets your product apart from competition. You can also add an FAQ section if you’re aware of some possible sources of confusion that you would like to clear up to make your pre launch strategy as effective as possible.

• Screenshots or product pictures: While some bloggers may take their own screenshots and product pictures, most prefer to use those included in your PR kit, so use this as an opportunity to show your product at its best.

• Icons and logos: All pre launch marketing strategies need consistent icons and logos. If you don’t have them, now’s the right time to create them and use them throughout your marketing strategy for new product.

10. Implementing a cost-effective SEO strategy

SEO isn’t just about keywords. It’s about making a website accessible for real users and search engines alike. It reflects the fact that most users come from mobile devices and won’t recommend a business if their mobile website is poorly designed or unresponsive.

For your SEO strategy to be effective, it’s important that you’re aware of current search engine optimization trends and strategies, including voice search, featured snippets, video, schema markup, and others.

Pre-launch marketing, just like all other marketing efforts, should be driven by the overall product marketing strategy. Companies that would like to maintain sharp focus on product development instead of worrying about how to market a product a long time before it’s ready, can turn to a full-cycle digital marketing agency with extensive experience in developing, executing, analyzing and fine-tuning search engine optimization and providing content management solutions for both B2B and B2C clients, such as ComboApp.

The Journey Ends with a Marketing Feedback Loop

Since the dawn of our species, humans have been thriving on feedback. In fact, all biological systems operate on a mechanism of inputs and outputs called a feedback loop.

“Positive feedback loops enhance or amplify changes; this tends to move a system away from its equilibrium state and make it more unstable. Negative feedbacks tend to dampen or buffer changes; this tends to hold a system to some equilibrium state, making it more stable,” explains the Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College.

Feedback loops can also be incorporated in product development and marketing, allowing companies to continuously optimize their products after the launch by gathering and analyzing user feedback. For marketing feedback loops to work, companies must actively ask customers to leave feedback because that’s the only way how to get enough data.

As revealed by research from Apptentive, most brands hear from less than 1 percent of their customers. However, the number jumps to 70 percent when companies actively seek out customer feedback. Every post-launch marketing plan should include strategies on how to keep the target audience engaged and how to capture feedback to adjust and optimize product roadmap.

Once marketing feedback loops are in place, informed decisions can be made to better satisfy customers’ needs and create closer

Summary

It takes a lot of work to develop a successful product, but all the hard work can go to waste if the company behind it doesn’t know how to market a new product. Companies that have a marketing team on board from the very beginning and throughout the entire lifecycle of a product (regardless of whether it is a website, app, or something else entirely) have a much greater chance of achieving their goals and emerging as market leaders.

On the other hand, those who underestimate the importance of marketing in product development and skip such important activities as pre-launch marketing may discover that customers are simply not interested in what they have to offer. The good news is that all companies can effortlessly come up with an effective way how to market a product by partnering with an end-to-end digital solutions agency like ComboApp.

Simply call us at 773.305.0886 or click on the Contact Us button in the header of this site. We look forward to helping you become the next unicorn!