By the time you reach the product launch stage, you’ve already spent considerable time and money developing the product, so you want it to succeed in the market. But without a product launch strategy, your marketing efforts might not lead to enough interest. A clear strategy outlines how marketers will promote new products to ensure content reaches the intended audience and generates leads.

Discover how to launch a new product with the help of research, forward thinking, and creativity.

What’s a product launch strategy?

A product launch strategy is a general blueprint for marketing a new product and measuring its success. This outline establishes big-picture goals like launch guidelines, key performance indicators, and competition evaluations.

But this strategy doesn’t get into the specific actions marketers will take when launching a new product — that’s usually captured in a product launch plan. Instead, the product launch marketing strategy focuses on setting the overall direction and framework for the launch campaign.

6 things every product launch strategy needs

Make the most of this blueprint by including these six must-have sections in your product launch strategy.

1. Market research

As with most marketing strategies, research is essential because it provides valuable context for the rest of the strategy.

Your market research should include the following details:

• Relevant markets. Find data about the people who might use this new product and what they need from it. For example, if you’re launching a customer relationship management (CRM) platform, your research might focus on how healthcare workers and salespeople would use it to do their jobs.
• Competitors. Collect data on products competing with yours. Include a list of their features and discover how your marketing can differentiate your product by demonstrating how it fills gaps, offers better prices, or satisfies more customers.
• Trends. Include industry-specific examples from blog articles, customer feedback, and news stories that demonstrate which branding choices are popular. And if you’re into viral marketing, mention industry influencers and the trends they’re following.

2. Target audience

Before, you broadly defined your product’s relevant markets. This information is helpful in case you need to pivot to a different market or you want general context regarding your audience. 

Now, hone in on the audience you want to target with this specific product launch strategy. Use psychographics and demographics to develop that target audience into distinct buyer personas that clearly describe who you’re marketing to.

For example, a time-tracking app might be helpful for freelance writers, design studios, and staffing agencies. A target audience from all three is busy professionals who track their billable hours. Refine that audience into two or three buyer personas that identify psychographic details like tech-savviness, purchasing motivations, and lifestyles so you know which pain points to target in your advertising.

3. Marketing channel strategies

Offer a general overview of the lead generation strategies you’ll use, and state the marketing asset guidelines your team will follow. Use this information to sketch the general shape of your lead funnel and support it by describing how you’ll encourage potential customers to engage with your marketing efforts.

For instance, if you’re launching a new project management tool, your strategies might include creating a product launch page and publishing LinkedIn ads that point to it.

4. A value proposition

Define what your product offers the target audience. Choose a value proposition that’ll resonate with potential customers by fulfilling their needs, supporting their goals, or solving a pain point. Then, find ways to frame that proposition in different taglines for each buyer persona. For the time-tracking app, a tagline aimed at freelance writers might read, “Spend more time writing and less time tracking.”

5. A sample advertisement

Present a marketing material mock-up that showcases the product and its value propositions. Include your taglines to create a draft that highlights your product’s features and brand messaging. It doesn’t need to be a finished ad, just something that provides a helpful visualization of your strategy. Your team will refine it later.

6. Goals and metrics

Set attainable, realistic goals for the product’s launch. Leveraging the insights you’ve gathered in previous steps, explain why these goals are attainable when considering your brand’s current market position.

Suppose you’re breaking into a well-established industry like mobile game development. In that case, your first goal might focus solely on increasing download volume or offering free trials of your app. These initial steps could help your brand get a much-needed foothold in the market.

After describing attainable milestones, explain how you’ll measure progress toward them. One common way to track key metrics is using CRMs like Salesforce to monitor sales performance and customer interactions. 

Measuring the success of the product launch strategy

When the product launches, your initial product strategy becomes integral to the ongoing marketing process. You’ll need it to measure success and tackle obstacles as they occur.

Evaluate the success of your product launch

After the launch, reference the metrics and goals outlined in your strategy to determine whether you’re meeting those objectives. If you’re falling short of your goals, the research and guidelines you already established can help you formulate new marketing tactics.

Say you launch a project management tool and don’t reach your sign-up goals. You can create a free tier with limited capabilities to encourage people to try your software.

Assess and overcome obstacles

If you encounter roadblocks during or after launch, use the product launch strategy to devise plans to overcome issues. Say you’re going to advertise a financial website’s new app, but development stalls. In that case, adjust buyer personas and value propositions to center around a desktop-driven audience. With these new variables, you can formulate different marketing tactics that are just as promising.

Excellent product launch landing pages: 3 examples

Product launch landing pages are often a vital component of a launch strategy. They provide the product details that potential customers need to make a purchasing decision, and you can use various marketing tactics — like social media posts and email campaigns — to send viewers to these landing pages. 

Here are three great examples of product launch pages.

1. LOOK Cycle

Bicycle manufacturer LOOK Cycle’s 795 Blade RS is a racing bike, and the brand’s website targets competitive athletes. Their product launch page for the 795 Blade RS clearly shows their commitment to this audience by highlighting the bike’s lightweight frame, aerodynamic design, and uncompromising durability. And the page’s many images and interactable elements give the site a high-tech feel while offering visitors a hands-on impression of the bike’s impeccable value.

2. Seen

Seen is a virtual or physical credit card aimed at customers who want an easy-to-use account. The landing page uses a few value propositions that resonate with that message, such as instant approval decisions, zero hidden fees, and immediate digital delivery. Paired with a straightforward app that allows users to quickly manage their money, Seen’s landing page effectively sells their product as fast and reliable.

3. Dropbox Dash

Dropbox Dash is an enterprise-focused product that promises to improve how people find, organize, and share the digital content they use in their work. The product launch page shows off a clean, user-friendly user interface (UI) and some basic features like meeting schedules, file suggestions, and project organization. All these tools resonate with customers who already use Dropbox and might be interested in leveraging this new product to replace other software.

Build engaging launch pages with Webflow

Launching a new product can be intimidating — if the marketing flops, so do sales. But by creating a clear product launch strategy, teams can outline actionable goals and plan for obstacles. This method doesn’t guarantee success, but it does give brands a stronger chance.

All the effort you put into marketing a new product needs the support of a memorable launch page, which is where Webflow comes in. With Webflow, you can collaborate quickly and securely to launch new landing pages — without relying on developers. 

To learn more, check out how Webflow enables teams to build and launch landing pages and microsites that can support your next product launch.