- How to successfully launch a new business offering
- How new business offerings help you break into new markets
- What can you do to support new business growth?
Q: Will a new product launch help my business expand?
A: Launching a new product or service is a great way to grow your business. Not only does a new product launch allow you to reach new local markets, but it also gives your business the chance to grow geographically and corner markets that you aren’t intimately familiar with.
A new product launch is a time-consuming and large-scale affair.
Countless entrepreneurs try their hands at product debuts every year, and every year, a majority of them fail. What are they doing wrong?
While it’s difficult to make generalizations about what exactly you should do when launching a new product or service, there are a number of steps that you can take to ensure your new product launch has the highest possible chance of success.
The very first thing you’ll need to do is to create a solid plan that identifies to whom you want to sell and how you’re going to get that demographic interested. After ironing out those details, you can launch your new product effectively.
Because a product debut is so time-consuming, expensive, and work-intensive, a detailed plan and a concise checklist is paramount to your product debut’s success.
A successful new product launch gives your business the opportunity to grow and break into new markets. Additionally, conducting a new product launch analysis as you go through the steps listed below allows you to identify your team’s talents, locate weak spots within your business, and gives you plenty of marketing material for any future launches.
Keep reading to see what it takes to have a successful new product launch and how to leverage that success to expand your business!
- How to successfully launch a new business offering
- How new business offerings help you break into new markets
- What can you do to support new business growth?
How to successfully launch a new business offering
Although there are many ways to handle a new product launch, there are a few steps that are universally integral to your success.
Below, we’ll cover a rough outline of actionable steps you can take to make your new product launch a win.
Step 1: Market research, planning, and creating a new product launch checklist
Step 2: Launching teaser campaigns and building buzz for your product release
Step 3: Preparing for launch and gauging public interest
Step 4: Launching the product and analyzing consumer reactions
Step 5: Tweaking the product and collecting data for future endeavors
The idea is to solve an existing problem. With the advent of remote work and digital business, innumerable problems are popping up that didn’t exist a decade ago. Identify one of these issues and do your best to solve it.
New product launch examples are everywhere, just last year Marianne de Groot-Pons, the Dutch owner of Marie Bee Bloom created a biodegradable face mask with flower seeds inside.
There are many examples of a successful new product launch. 2022 was filled with many new products, including:
- Aquavault
- PurePort
- Frownies
- Drinkmate
- Withings Body Scan
Of course, don’t feel obligated to solve a new problem. There are still plenty of old problems without a solution as well. More than anything, you just need to solve something.
Step 1: Market research, planning, and creating a new product launch checklist
Market Research and Planning
After creating your product, you need to figure out who you’re going to sell it to and how you’re going to convince them to buy. Additionally, you need to determine the metrics by which you’d consider your new product launch a success.
- Study the market
- Learn everything there is to know about the market you’re hoping to corner.
- Study your competition
- You must know who and what you’re up against. You can never do too much research, especially if you’re intending to take market share from another organization.
- Survey current customers
- Survey customers you’ve already landed. Ask them about any products they want to see you sell, ask them about any potential issues they’ve had with your business, and use this data to help streamline your product launch.
- Identify your customer
- Figure out which social media platforms your ideal customer interacts with, determine the average amount they spend on similar goods or services, and try to understand what gets that demographic excited.
- Utilize social media and if necessary, start to build an online presence
- This step is often underutilized or ignored altogether. Almost 80% of Americans are currently using at least one social media platform, which is why identifying your ideal customer and determining the platforms they’re using is so important.
New Product Launch Checklist
Once you’ve completed your initial planning and market research, it’s time to draft a new product launch checklist. This checklist will be your guide throughout your launch, so include as much detail as possible.
Although this checklist will look different for each business, all you’re doing is taking the research you’ve previously completed and putting it into an easy-to-follow guide.
- Draft a timeline for your product launch
- You need to know when your product will be ready for launch. Create a timeline and stick to it.
- Create a workup of your ideal customer
- Create a character sketch of your ideal customer. This allows you to leverage their values and ideals to better connect with them.
- Draft a positioning statement
- This is an overview of your product, where it fits in with the market, your competition, whom you’re going to sell it to, and how you’re going to get that group interested.
- Identify the metrics by which you would consider your launch a success
- Use measurable KPIs to directly determine whether or not you’ve been successful. These will vary depending on your goals, but here are some common metrics many businesses use:
- Gained revenue
- New traffic on your website
- Potential leads
- Customer acquisition costs
- Customer retention
- Social media impressions
- Use measurable KPIs to directly determine whether or not you’ve been successful. These will vary depending on your goals, but here are some common metrics many businesses use:
- Craft marketing materials and decide on distributors
- There’s no worse feeling than paying for ineffective marketing. If you create an effective marketing plan nice and early, you have more room to make changes as you get closer to the deadline.
- Give everyone on your team a clearly defined role
- By assigning clear roles nice and early, you avoid confusion as you head closer to the deadline. Ensure that each team member understands what is being asked of them.
The idea isn’t just to show potential consumers that your product solves their problem — you want them to believe that your product is the answer to their problem.
Read more: Launching A New Product? Seven Ways To Ensure It Goes Off Without A Hitch
Step 2: Launching teaser campaigns and building buzz for your product release
If you want to enjoy a successful new product launch, creating buzz and using clever marketing prior to the actual launch is a great way to garner interest and connect with customers.
Start with a teaser campaign and build hype in your target market by alluding to the new product.
Successful teaser campaign examples:
- PlayStation’s 1999 “StayPatient” adverts for the PS2
- Building off the success of the PS1, PlayStation used these eye-catching advertisements to tell the public that something was coming, but offered no further information.
- Harry’s “Your shave is about to get better.” advertisement
- Harry’s marketing efforts have been nothing short of outstanding. What started as a shaving subscription service has transformed into a half-billion-dollar company that is now competing with companies like Gilette. Harry’s leveraged their underdog status and used clever teaser campaigns to build massive amounts of buzz for a tool people have been using for decades.
- Apple’s “There’s something in the air.” campaign
- Apple directed customers to come back to the website for their pre-recorded keynote expo. Using sleek colors and giving as little information has worked wonders for Apple, whose new product debuts are among the most anticipated launches of any company.
In addition to using clever teaser campaigns, utilizing social media for these efforts will give you a noticeable edge against your competition — especially if you’re able to generate a bit of buzz by using content created in-house.
GoPro, an American company founded in the early 2000s, redefined social media marketing with their unique approach. Instead of relying on mass-media marketing initiatives, GoPro used consumer content on their social media channels and was greeted with huge success.
In 2014, at the height of GoPro’s popularity, they reached a market cap of over $10 billion. Although their product certainly helped, their unique approach to marketing saved them countless advertising dollars and helped propel them to a truly massive valuation.
Do not underestimate the usefulness of successful social media marketing. You’ve done the research to identify the platforms your ideal customer is using, and now you need to connect with them.
Step 3: Preparing for launch and gauging public interest
As your new product launch approaches, it’s important to keep close tabs on how the public feels about your offering. Because you identified the KPIs you’re going to use when you created a checklist, you should have an idea of what constitutes success prior to launch.
Use these metrics to identify weak areas and give them the attention they deserve. Below, we’ve listed a few different ideas to help generate that ever-elusive online buzz.
Other methods of building or retaining buzz prior to launch
- Use humor
- Employ a countdown
- Using a countdown clock on your website gives consumers an exact date and time to look forward to, and adds a bit of mystery to your new product launch.
- Arrange a giveaway
- Everyone loves free stuff. Creating a challenge that requires consumers to interact with your company online for the possibility of a reward is a great way to up your social media impressions while still keeping the focus on your coming product. McDonald’s has paved the way for these kinds of giveaways. From Monopoly games to Beenie-Baby giveaways, McDonald’s has shown just how excited consumers get about the prospect of getting anything literally for free.
- Create your own content
- Hiring marketing companies is expensive and often ineffective. By creating your own content in-house, you’re saving money on hiring creators and showing customers that you know how to connect with them.
Step 4: Launching the product and analyzing consumer reactions
The launch date is here, and if you’ve been following the checklist, things should be going well. As long as you’ve been marketing to your ideal customer, keeping up with social media impressions, and ensuring that your product solves a problem, then you’ve done everything you can.
During the time of launch, you should think about being in the frontlines and making contact with as many customers as you can. This will allow you to get an excellent read on any issues that customers are experiencing, and it also gives you the chance to let your early customers know that you value their experiences.
Step 5: Tweaking the product and collecting data for future endeavors
Monitor key performance indicators post-launch. You’ve already determined the KPIs you’re tracking, so take the time to determine whether your new product launch was a success.
Regardless of the outcome, make sure you’re listening to criticism. Be willing to fix any potential issues that consumers have with your product.
How new business offerings help you break into new markets
Breaking into new markets is often difficult and confusing. A new product launch won’t eliminate those anxieties completely, but the research and planning associated with the launch will give you an education on the market that you can’t find anywhere else.
Below, we’ll look at some examples of businesses that have successfully broken into new markets with a new product launch.
Nike’s foray into skateboarding with Nike SB
Although Nike shoes have been worn by skateboarders since the sport’s inception, the corporation’s first attempt to break into the world of skateboarding in the 1990s was met with disdain from skateboarders everywhere.
In 2002, Nike tried again with a different approach. Nike SB revolutionized the limited-release approach to product launches, and in doing so, influenced clothing brands for years to come.
PepsiCo’s release of plant-based drink EVOLVE
In 2019, soft-drink giant Pepsi purchased the rights to the plant-based protein drink Evolve in an attempt to gather market share outside of their usual junk food-focused brands. Despite making the purchase, PepsiCo didn’t attempt to relaunch the drink until 2021.
As you can see, Pepsi knows when to leverage these new offerings. By waiting until 2021, when the public’s interest in healthy foods was higher than ever, Pepsi was able to roll out a new product launch with a clear and identifiable goal in mind: to regain the market share lost by the shift in the public consciousness.
Target releases Kindfull, a company owned pet-food brand
In August of 2021, Kindfull, a Target-brand pet food, hit the shelves. What might seem like a strange decision was actually the result of data collection and knowing what their customers were looking for.
By carefully tracking data from previous launches and gauging customer reactions to these launches, Target was able to realize that its customers were mostly pet owners that were forced to make secondary stops for high-quality pet food after leaving their store. In that regard, the decision to launch Kindfull was brilliant.
If you couldn’t tell, most of these companies use their new product launches to break into markets that they’ve already been able to gather research on.
Using the new product launch checklist above can help you determine what consumers are willing to pay for and how much they’re willing to spend. Once you’ve determined those factors, using a new product launch to conquer new markets is as easy as following the checklist above.
Read more: Is Your Freight and Logistics Business Ready for the Future?
Outside of these broader attempts to explore new markets, you might consider breaking into new geographic locations with a product debut. That said, expansion does come at a cost, and new geographic locations require more employees and more resources.
Regardless of how difficult it is to manage a new geographic location, there are a number of websites and applications that make finding employees way easier than it has ever been, even if you’re operating in areas you’re unfamiliar with.
What can you do to support new business growth?
Keeping employees on the same page in a single store is hard enough, but keeping employees working towards the same goals across a broad geographic area is even tougher.
Fortunately, the digital age has provided us with a solution to this as well.
Virtual meetings are far and away the most pragmatic approach to keeping your business cohesive and your team on the same page.
Applications like Zoom will make these meetings easy and painless, but relying solely on these communication applications can’t keep your business operating at its highest capacity.
Read more: As telework continues for many U.S. workers, no sign of widespread ‘Zoom fatigue’
Using satellite offices, flexible meeting rooms, and offering hybrid offices to your remote workers are all excellent ways to keep things cohesive without having to spend obscene amounts of money on traditional office rentals.
In the past, if you wanted to expand to a new region, you would be forced to rent an office, hire management in those particular areas, and likely make frequent trips to ensure that everything was going smoothly.
Thankfully, Alliance Virtual Offices provides several of these solutions, allowing you to use one website for all of your virtual business needs.
Expand Your Business Without Breaking the Bank
Listed below are a few of these virtual office solutions that will allow you to save money, keep the company cohesive, and access easy communication with team members. Keep reading to see how you can expand without breaking the bank!
Virtual Office
Employing the use of a virtual office is a no-brainer. Not only are you adding credibility to your business by utilizing a commercially recognized address, but you can also forgo expensive rent and put that money towards expansion.
Additionally, Alliance Virtual Offices offers a Virtual Office Platinum Plus Plan that gives you access to 16 hours of meeting room or private office time. This means that when you need a meeting room, you’ve got it.
Meeting Rooms
Rather than using crowded coffee shops and hotel conference rooms, meeting rooms provide you with the opportunity to meet with your remote workers in a private and professional space. Despite the efficacy of video conferencing, sometimes you need to actually visit the areas with markets you’re trying to corner.
Since you can choose to pay by the hour, half day, or day, you don’t have to sign a lease for a space that you might rarely visit. You can book these cost-effective rooms online, and you won’t have to deal with any of the distractions associated with more traditional meeting spaces.
Virtual Phone
A Virtual Phone can add legitimacy to your business, and offers features that allow you to easily integrate new team members and assign numbers seamlessly. Rather than relying on whatever cell phone providers your employees use, virtual phones are connected by powerful cloud-based technology that makes communicating from anywhere simple.
Additionally, using this service allows you to keep your personal phone private and secure.
Live Receptionist
A receptionist is often the first line of contact between customers and your business. If you’re relying on team members — or even yourself — to answer these calls, potential customers might not be getting the proper amount of attention they deserve.
Using a live receptionist changes that. This service screens your calls weekly and helps connect you to the calls that matter without forcing you to multitask and potentially upset new customers every time the phone rings.
In fact, you’re able to focus on providing more new product launches as well as marketing in new areas with a live receptionist. Every part of your business is important, but there’s no point in letting yourself be driven insane by constant phone calls when you’re trying to expand.
A new product launch will help you get started on your journey to expansion, but utilizing the services above helps prepare you for some of the challenges associated with this growth.
Retaining stability through a new product launch
Launching a new product or service is an excellent way to grow your business. Not only does this allow you to reach new markets locally, but it also gives you the opportunity to grow geographically.
When this happens, utilizing virtual offices, meeting spaces, and hybrid workspaces allows you to keep your operating costs down while supporting your expansion.
A new product launch gives you these opportunities for expansion, but it’s what you do after the launch that makes or breaks your business.
By using these services and carefully planning your next move, your business can remain stable while it expands. There’s nothing worse than experiencing rapid growth and having to focus on logistic aspects of your business while you could be using that time to help push your business towards increased profitability and market share.
Further Reading
- As telework continues for many U.S. workers, no sign of widespread ‘Zoom fatigue’
- Launching A New Product? Seven Ways To Ensure It Goes Off Without A Hitch
- Is Your Freight and Logistics Business Ready for the Future?
- Demographics of Social Media Use Over Time
As an established entrepreneur, a new product launch can give your business new life, new market share, and new customers. Keeping up with expansion isn’t always easy, but that’s where Alliance Virtual Offices comes in.
Whether it’s using a Virtual Office for savings on rent, utilizing Meeting Rooms when connecting with remote workers, connecting with your team via Virtual Phones, or taking advantage of hybrid workspaces, Alliance Virtual Offices is here to help make your journey as smooth as possible.
If you want to make your next product launch as smooth as possible, contact us today!
