Simplest product launch check list or What you must not skip when you launch a product

Launching a product is always a high stress situation. There are a hundred things that need to be fixed in the product, a hundred things that need to be done outside the product, a hundred expectations to be met and a hundred things to tick off your checklist of must-do items for the launch.

Here is a list of absolutely must do action items before, during and after a launch.

Please understand that this is what worked for us. Do let me know in the comments if I missed something or if something else worked for you.

A product launch happens in three stages

• Stage 1: Pre Launch
• Stage 2: Launch
• Stage 3: Post Launch

Let us look at these stages one by one

Stage 1: Pre Launch

The purpose at this stage is to

• Start informing the world about the product
• Identify the places where our potential users visit frequently
• Identify influencers and experts in that domain
• Prepare a list of users who can be contacted when the product is launched
• Get early feedback from potential users
• Do a reality check on the value offered by the product

Pre Launch Tasks

1. Create a landing page and integrate Google Analytics on it.
2. Create a free offering related to the main product that can be converted into an email queue. This helps convert visitors to leads and enables me to connect with the leads over a period of time
3. Create social media pages
   - Focus on Twitter and Facebook if the app/product can be used by a wide audience
   - Focus on LinkedIn and other niche platforms if the app/product is designed for a niche
4. Spend couple of hours everyday to promote this landing page on
   - Social Media
   - Personal contacts (Get all emails from your gmail and inform them about this page)
   - Find relevant blog posts and forums and submit genuine comments there with a link back to your page
   - Find questions related to the problem you are solving on quora, reddit etc. Share a solution and how your product does it better/cheaper/faster there.

Stage 2: Launch

The purpose is to

• Inform everybody including the leads that the product is ready
• Inform the influencers and experts about it and try to get them to talk about your product on their site/blog
• Drive traffic to the product’s landing page

Launch Tasks

1. Update the landing page with screen shots, videos, user testimonials
2. If possible, try to create a referral reward system
3. Create a new email queue for users of product that
   - Introduces them to the features
   - Informs them how they can get support if they need help
   - Gently motivates them to promote the product (using the referral reward if you have one)
4. Prepare a press kit and email all influencers/experts about the product and request them to review it
5. Publish news updates on social media pages
6. Continue doing all promotion activities that you were doing during pre-launch like answering questions, commenting on blogs/forums

Stage 3: Post Launch

The purpose is to

• Collect feedback from users
• Prevent churn or people leaving your product
• Get more users
• Plan out the list of issues and features for the next version

Post Launch Tasks

1. Create a form (Google Form etc) where we ask users for feedback
2. Create a long term email queue (perhaps one email a month or so) to bring the users back to the app/product
3. Monitor the usage stats and try to identify the reasons of churn
4. Continue doing all promotion activities that you were doing earlier.
5. Provide some sort of customer support platform where you can collect user issues and feedback.

I know this list is not exhaustive, but that is the whole point. While you are building your product, you do not have a whole lot of time to focus on anything else. That is why you need something simple and effective.

Product plug: I work at Online Marketing Wizard where we automate a lot of these stuff. For example, you can create landing pages using our simple to use landing page builder, easy Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel integration, email marketing, customer support system and so on.
If you are a product owner, involved in digital marketing or need to provide customer support, you must check out https://onlinemarketingwizard.com