5 tips to make a successful launch
Entrepreneurs’ common mistakes
Before launching, ask yourself those questions:
Have you tested your product before launching? What is a successful launch for you? How to create a buzz?
Here are advise to answer these questions and avoid making mistakes on your launch.
Define the right Goals
Your goals should be your KPIs, it’s basically the action(s) made by your users that brings you value in the end.
For example if you got 10000 visitors when you launch but 0 conversion (sign up, download or purchase…) , you haven’t created any value, meaning that a visitor cannot be a goal here.
Because at the end of the day, you must look for a victory when you launch rather than a success. Success is subjective, it can be related to a lot of things, on the contrary, you know that you are victorious if you have achieved your goals.
By defining what are your goals you will be able to know what action to track from your users so that you will be able to set up your analytics.
Beta Test your product
Before unvealing your product to the world, you must be sure that it works otherwise your launch will be a disaster.
- First test it internally with your Team.
- Then audit your landing page by asking feedbacks to your potential users.
- And finally set up a Beta Test.
To do it, recruit a significant group of beta testers, the number of people depends on the type of product (it’s different if your business is B2B then B2C for instance), but it must be people with different appeal for the solution you propose. You should include all relevant profiles in your group and especially influencers that already publish content about the problems your product is solving.
Take at least 2 months to test your product with your Beta Testers in order to find bugs to fix and improvements to make before your launch.
Find your users
Way before launching, look for each niche of users related to your product and join every platform where there are existing groups/forums/communities around your topics. Ask your Beta Testers which platforms they use to find solutions when they face the problem your product is supposed to solve.
Be where your users already are and use the platforms they are using everyday so that when you’ll launch you will only have to post on these groups to reach out your users.
It’s always better to have 10 people that LOVES your product on your side than bilions of followers who are not interested in it, because when you will launch, these 10 people will share the news to the world.
Pro Tip: Those “10 people” could be among the most active users (Power Users) that Beta Tested your product.
Here are some platforms where you should find relevant groups of users: Twitter, Slack, Facebook, Discord, Reddit, Hacker News, Product Hunt, Meetup, Telegram …
Pro Tip: Find platforms where your competitors aren’t yet with no existing group and create your own group on it.
Create a Buzz
When you launch, you are one in a million, lost in the crowd.
On the very same day, tons of products and new features will be launched by others. You have to gather influencers to strengthen your voice.
- Publish content on social medias and engage with influencers’s content around your topics so that you’ll be known as someone who has experience in your field and when you’ll launch, influencers and journalists would have already know who you are.
- Connect with journalists before your launch, even if you are only at the ideation step, you could ask them feedback about your idea or even ask them tips about why do they publish content about product launch.
Thus, when you’ll be ready to launch, you’ll know how you could contact them naturally to ask them to spread the word. - Create a Meetup group months before your launch to start gathering members so that when you’ll announce a “launching event”, you’ll already have potential attendees among the members of your group.
Prove your expertise to influencers so that they will learn from you and thus, won’t forget you.
Learn from your users
One thing that is crucial during your launch is to know if your product actually solves the problem it should solve. But conversions and analytics won’t necessary tell you that. This is why you should take your first step into customer success.
First, set up an environment where your users can easily contact you.
For instance you can use Crisp or Hubspot Chat on your website to be able to answer immediately to potential questions from your visitors.
Furthermore, at the end of a user experience (purchase, subscription…), you can gather your user’s feedbacks by sending an email with a form using Typeform or Hubspot form.
Then, you want to understand what actions your users actually make on your website/application.
To do so, use screen casting tools to record each of your users’ visit. You can use : Logrocket, Uxcam or Testfairy for example.
In other words
You can only launch once so don’t blow your chances by trying to launch as soon as possible if you are not ready. Plan months ahead and invest time in it so that your launch will be a victory.
Good luck on your next launch!
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