How to create a marketing plan for your newly launched item (Checklist) |

Your marketing strategy can mean the difference between a successful sales campaign or a disappointing launch. Develop a strategy for marketing your product launch with this list.

One wise man once stated, "By failing to prepare for failure, you're preparing for failure."

If it's time to launch an innovative digital product we can't be more in agreement.

In order to help you set yourself to be successful We've put together an easy-to-follow checklist of six points to build your marketing strategy. Follow these steps to create an effective marketing plan that you could utilize for each new product release.

Marketing plan for the launch of a new product checklist

Download a PDF copy of the checklist here .

First, set goals for your product launch

It is possible to have the largest marketing budget, and most expensive equipment, but unless you have goals set the marketing strategy you have is just like a vessel with no rudder: unfocused.

Marketers are known to be in the tendency to set undefined objectives. We say things like "make the most sales" and "drive engagement" without getting into what meeting those goals looks like in action.

What is the reason we do this? For one thing, it's hard to recommend specific universal marketing goals or ways to gauge performance. Each creator is different and has their own KPIs (KPIs) according to their goals.

Setting goals that are specific to your business, brand and product will help you select what metrics to keep track of prior to the launch.

If, for instance, you are trying to gather the sign-ups to your pre-launch for your brand new online course, it is possible to monitor the amount of website visitors who sign up for an email newsletter prior to the launch.

However If your aim is to gain new customers by using advertising on social media platforms it is important to monitor how many people click on the Facebook advertisements, and the percentage of visitors then purchase your product.

In order to set the best objectives for your marketing strategy, we recommend the SMART goal framework.

By using the SMART goal framework, design your goals to meet five requirements:

Specific Set detailed goals that narrow in on specific areas of your business.

It is measurable: You must ensure that you are able to quantify your goals and track the progress you make.

Achievable:It's fun to dream of the big picture, however goals with no concrete targets are often a source of discouragement. Make your goals challenging, but achievable.

Related: Check that your objective is in line with your company's values, branding as well as your overall goals for the business.

Time-bound:Give your self a clearly defined deadline to achieve your goal. Deadlines are a way to hold ourselves accountable. They give us a timeline that we can work toward.

The SMART objective you have set for yourself could be: "By adding a pre-launch landing page to my website and collecting 100 pre-launch emails before launch day next month."

By keeping specific metrics to consider with a reasonable goal with a strategy to get there, you can set yourself to launch your venture successfully. What that action plan looks as will depend on a range of factors -- including your audience.

Step 2: Define your target audience

The answer is as important when preparing for the introduction of a brand new product.

Here's why: You can't market your product if you aren't aware of who you're marketing to.

Your ideal customer is the potential buyers you're planning to sell your products or services to. In order to make your marketing efficient it is essential to be aware of your potential customers as people and not only demographics.

This is where buyer personas step into.

Content marketing consultant Amy Wright explains : "Buyer personas describe who your ideal customers are and what their day-to-day lives are like, the challenges they confront, and the way they make decisions."

A buyer persona might look as this illustration of one of the Spotify's targeted customers:

Look at forums, online communities and reviews for products in your niche. Consider:

What are my target customers discussing online?

What obstacles do they face?

What are their goals?

What is their value?

What languages do they speak?

When you learn what your target audience thinks, you will be able to better communicate why your new product is the perfect match for the people they are.

Your target audience would like to share their feedback and thoughts with your. 60% of people want brands to connect with them. 90% of customers are more positive perception of businesses who solicit feedback from their customers.

When you create discussions in your own brand community, you can build connections and bond over shared values. It helps you get to know your target audience more intimately, which can help you create marketing messaging that resonates with them.

An excellent example of how you can learn about your customers is from Tiffany Williams, founder of Rich Girl Collective .

( makes it easy for creators such as Tiffany to establish brand communities, communicate with their audience, and sell digital products through one single platform. You can try it out to see if you like it with a no-cost 14 day trial. )

In the end, the more you understand your audience's needs and the better you are able to tailor your marketing to fit their requirements and explain the ways your product will assist them in achieving their goals. This information will be required in this next step.

Step 3: Establish your unique selling proposition (USP)

Once you know all about the pain points of your audience's requirements, goals, and needs You can then determine your unique selling point (USP).

Start with the result you'd like to give your customers, then move backward to determine what your product does to achieve that outcome. That's your USP.

Your USP or value offer , answers two questions:

What is the problem my product can help my customers solve?

What is it that differentiates my offering than my competitors?

If you establish your USP by stating that your product will help your audience meet their objectives or conquer a real obstacle. That's the most important aspect of a successful product launch. 35percent of startups are unsuccessful because there's no market need for their products or products or.

That's why there's no fit between your product and market. Your product-market fit refers to the extent to which your product is able to meet demands of the customer. Your USP determines the product-market fit, and describes what makes you apart from the competition and why potential customers should decide to choose you.

If you're not sure of how your product stands in the market, do some market research to learn more about your competitors.

Are there any pain points your competitors don't address? What do you offer different? Your course may be unique with more visual lessons than other courses on similar topics Perhaps your expertise provides you with a new perspective from other creators within your field.

Your USP can also help you figure out the best way to promote your product.

Consider Death Wish Coffee  as an example. Many coffee companies highlight characteristics such as smoothness, flavor or even taste but Death Wish has a distinctive method of describing "the most powerful coffee in the world".

Death Wish knows that their customers are looking for extra strong high-quality, strong coffee. So their marketing messaging highlights that differentiator. Their USP isn't likely to appeal to every coffee drinker however, it reveals why they are unique and is relevant to their market.

When you understand the uniqueness of your product You can emphasize that in your advertising. Use the same language that the people you are targeting use in discussing their issues problems. Your message will be a hit with the appropriate customers.

You're nearly ready to share that messaging across the globe But first take a look to ensure you're not breaking the bank.

Step 4: Determine your marketing budget

As a creator it's likely that you do not have enough money to hire an outside sales staff as well as an in-house marketing team which is fine. You must decide how much you are able to manage to invest in marketing before you begin running advertisements or commissioning design.

The best part is that you don't need the resources of a 6-figure marketing budget in order to implement a winning strategy. In reality, more than one-third of small-sized businesses spend less than $10,000 on advertising every year.

As you figure out your budget, you might decide to set aside money for things like

Tools and software to make material, interact with your audience, and manage campaigns.

Freelancers include graphic designers, copywriters video editors, and web designers.

Paid ads, for example sponsored content, paid search ads, and social media advertising. (We'll be discussing social media ads that are paid in the next section.)

If you've got your budget now you're able to move on to step 5 and select the right marketing platforms for the launch of your new product.

Step 5: Select the channels you want to use for your marketing

Different approaches resonate with different audiences Different strategies appeal to different audiences, and not every strategy will work for every creator, budget, and product.

Additionally, there are more online marketing channels out there than any one creator could tackle by themselves, which is why it's crucial to choose the right ones for you as well as your clients.

Here are a few the most well-known channels you should consider including in your marketing plan.

Email marketing

Email marketing is a must-have in any digital marketing strategy. More than four billion people use email each year. Together, they will send approximately 320 billion emails per every day.

Customers and marketers alike enjoy email. 73% of consumers rank email as the most effective channel to send advertising messages. 59 percent of marketers mentioned email as the top source of return on investment in the year 2018.

Email is also an affordable alternative for small-sized businesses that have limited marketing budgets. At around $42 for each $1 spent  it is among of the best returns on investment (ROI) that any other marketing channel.

These are some helpful resources to help you grow your email list, choose an email platform, and make the most of your marketing emails:

Marketing via social media

Social media marketing works best when you mix both paid and organic initiatives. Social media marketing that is organic helps you connect with the community as well as potential customers. Paid social ads help you get the attention of your customers.

In order to generate buzz about the new item, Twitter is a solid option. In one instance, a professional and marketer John D Saunders made use of Twitter to promote a YouTube video Twitter to announce the launch of a new online course.

John's video made sure his followers understand what to anticipate from the training and was a huge hit that included 30+ retweets as well as over 200 likes.

For paid social Ultra-specific targeting tools can help you reach more of the right people faster than traditional methods will. Over 62% of marketers claim that paid social media ads have been in some way effective for their business.

Facebook ads are an affordable option for small-scale businesses as well as solopreneurs who want to put their latest product or service to a wider market. As an example, business trainer Melyssa Griffin made use of this video advertisement to advertise her Pinterest training to bloggers.

When the correct audience segmentation in place, Facebook ads like Melyssa's translate to digital product revenue for creators.

Below are some other sources that can help you master the art of social media marketing:

Content marketing

Content marketing costs 62% less and generates over three times the leads than traditional marketing. It's an affordable method to connect with your target audience, establish your expertise, and develop relationships with potential customers.

Your ideal customers discover your blog content through searches or through other channels of distribution.

Your articles help them learn and start to believe in your knowledge.

You can sign them up for your email list or follow them on social media.

You keep them updated about your new product's launch.

They're eager to purchase your brand new product, be supportive of your business, and will continue to benefit from your expertise.

The key here is creating blog posts that provide real value, and not just longform ad copy.

Make sure to write the content for your blog using search engine optimization (SEO) in your mind. SEO makes it easier for your target audience to find your site when they search for relevant keywords and phrases. That's why over 64% of marketing professionals are actively investing time into SEO.

Here are some resources to aid you to get started in SEO and content marketing:

Web site and landing pages

Imagine: You launch your campaign and the marketing is all going according to plan.

Potential customers are flocking to your website to know more about your product, sign up for the latest updates before launch and finally decide to purchase. You need to create your landing page to help all the hard work result in a profit.

Validating your product ideas.

Create your list of emails in the lead up to your product launch.

For your landing page prior to launch, include a short description of your product and tell visitors why they should sign up for more information and to be informed when your product launches.

Check out Nicole Saidy's descriptions of products for her online course, Learn to become a UI/UX Designer .

Nicole understands that transitioning into user experience design could seem overwhelming, but she's here to help. Her goal is to help her clients determine if the product is the right one for them through addressing their issues.

Here are more tips for designing landing and product pages that generate sales

If you've chosen your channels for marketing, you may think you've finished your checklist. But there's one more vital process to ensure you get the most of your launch and put your self up for successtoday and in the future for numerous product launches in the future.

Step 6: Track your progress and continue to track

Our sixth and final step, tracking your results and continually evaluating your marketing will be much more of a continual 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 objectives, then you'll have the chance to gain knowledge and implement changes future launches or to update your current marketing activities.

For example, let's say the email marketing campaigns you've created haven't been as successful as you expected. The click-through and open rates are lower than you'd prefer, but you still are able to tweak your strategies prior to the day of launch. You may want to run some A/B tests .

The process of A/B-testing (or split testing) involves changing different elements of your emails one at a given time, and then seeing how those changes affect the effectiveness of your emails.

If you were to test A/B different subject lines, for instance, your subscribers will receive the same emails, but with a different subject line. By comparing the two rate of open, you can determine which subject line is best, and use this information in future emails.

Above all else, remember to try new things, and being willing to learning from your mistakes will help to develop as a creative.

Maybe you discover that the marketing method you're using doesn't work to your company or target audience. This is valuable data to incorporate to your next launch plan.

"Experiment! It's hard to know how to market online, and every group of potential customers will be different. So you'll have to experiment to find out what's effective (and the ones that aren't). When you're doing anything think about, evaluate the results, and modify the methods you employ to make them more effective. There's no one panacea there!"

"To succeed in business, it is essential to first get comfortable operating a failing business as most of the times it's the latter that's successful."

Within the Startup Curve , invented by Y Combinator founder Paul Graham  Failure is a standard phase that occurs just before your company is on the verge of expansion and scaling.

The bottom line is:

Don't be afraid to experiment with your marketing to find which strategy is most effective for you as a brand, your product, as well as your target audience. With your goals in mind, and some perseverance, you'll be in the process of creating successful launch strategies that you can use for several product launches that are to come.

Craft a go-to-market plan for your launch's day's and its success

It's been a long process to develop something that your customers will love. A successful marketing plan can make all the hard work pay off come the day of launch.

For a quick recap, here are the six steps to create a marketing plan for your product launch:

Set SMART goals to help you launch your new product. Figure out the significance of a successful launch to you, and what metrics you'll track.

Determine your audience's needs and learn about the people they are, not just demographics. Research your customer base and talk to them about what they are interested in knowing more about their challenges and goals.

Establish your unique selling proposition (USP). What makes your product the best choice for the ideal buyer? What makes you different from your competitors?

Determine your marketing budget. You don't need to spend an amount of money to make a marketing strategy that boosts sales.

Choose your preferred marketing channel. Marketing via email is essential However, there's a variety of other platforms out there to choose from. Figure out which ones align with your target audience and objectives.

Keep track of your progress and continue reviewing your strategy for marketing. More you understand about your customers to better understand them, the more effective the next launch of your product marketing plan will be.

Keep in mind that you might not be 100% successful the first time, and this is fine. There will be some time and trial, but once you figure out the best way to serve your business and customers then you'll become a marketer with launch day sales to show it.