Have you ever played some kind of team game? Maybe football, basketball or volleyball? This will not be about it, but we can draw an excellent parallel between the launch of a product and a sports game. So, before starting some games, you should first learn the rules. Why is this even needed? Well, we should have at least some chance of winning, because, without basic knowledge, we will immediately fly out of this fight.
First of all, we should decide what kind of game we want to play. And since we are talking about how to launch a product, which product or service we have to choose. The modern market is filled with various offers of various products. Therefore, we should study in detail what niche we can occupy. Where else new directions and improvements are required. So, we must do market research. We need to understand that our value proposition must meet the needs of the client. For example, we choose to launch a language school. Great, the first step is over!
What’s next? Let’s move on to launch planning. We will dwell on this point a little longer. Firstly, we have to answer 3 simple questions:
– When?
The company must clearly understand its time to market: to become a first-mover or a follower. Each of these strategies has its own benefits and risks.
– How?
The company must determine its scale of entry into the market: an aggressive mass capture of the market or a gradual expansion of the business. It depends on the resources, investments, and management competencies of the company.
– Where?
The company must decide which markets, which segments are most profitable to enter at a given time. In other words, find a balance between the attractiveness of the industry, the risks and costs of entering markets.
Next, let’s explore the market we’re about to enter. We will carefully study our potential competitors, what they offer, what are their strengths, what are their features etc. This is one of the most important tasks because in the future they will become our rivals, so we must have full awareness. After that, we move on to researching our target audience. Our product must answer the “pain” of future customers. After that, we must segment the audience. To make it easier for us to analyze our target audience, let’s answer 5 questions about our client and product:
- who is the client?
- what do you offer or what does the client want?
- why does the client need it and what pains does your offer cover?
- when and in what situations is your product needed?
- where do customers get to know your product?
Of course, one of the main details of promotion is advertising. We already have points by which we can describe a productive PR approach for our product. Based on all the answers we have received, we can come up with the right strategy to enter the right market.
Now that we have a startup, we need people who would help us in the implementation of the whole idea. To do this, we have to recruit the right team. As in any game, it will be hard for us to work together if our company members are annoying. Therefore, try to find people with whom you feel comfortable. Make sure they are ready to pursue the same goal in their work as you. Of course, our employees must have a certain amount of knowledge in their field. Who exactly will join our team will depend on many factors. For example, the direction of our business, scale, start-up capital, etc.
And now, with our team, we can already start working directly with the goods. Let’s take a look at the product launch checklist and start launching the MVP. More precisely, we will create a test version of our product to hypothesize and test the viability of the planned product, how valuable it will be on the market. MVP testing results and feedback from the target audience help to understand whether it is worth developing the project further, what changes should be made to the strategy, and what should be left in its original form.
In conclusion, when our product still goes to the masses and gains momentum, it’s very important to get feedback from customers. We always need to analyze and check what we can do better. And best of all, only our customers can help us with this, because they are directly related to the consumption of the product.
Well, here we are ready for a full-fledged launch of the product. Only 5 simple rules, but how much it will help us in the promotion. If we carefully observe each of these criteria, then we will definitely succeed!
Also Read: Where To Start Developing Your Own Software Product?