The greatest technology does not always win. Rather, how you go-to-market is a significant determinant of success.
Likewise, the new products you launch do not determine your success. Instead, how you launch them into the market is a huge factor in success.
Today, we’re diving straight into the details with product marketing leaders.
On the menu: less ‘obvious’ tactical tips on how these experts have aced the art of nailing a product launch – from pre-launch, to launch-day, to post-launch.
Let’s get into it.
This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Flex.
Tactical Tips from Product Leaders
Nail your next product launch by layering in these tactical tips from product leaders👇
Pre-launch
The backstage buzz before the curtain rises.
Start early!
- Use timing as a forcing function. Joseph Goldberg (Director of Product Marketing at Vanta) explains that one of the benefits of starting early is that it serves as a forcing function. It forces messaging, ideal customer persona, and go-to-market planning to advance earlier, providing more timing and feedback to nail it. Accordingly, the recruiting of beta customers and roadmap selling happen earlier, providing for customer quotes as part of the launch.
Make sure your message lands.
- Keep it simple. “Do not overthink the message” is clear advice from Joseph. He elaborates that it should include who it’s aimed at, what it is, what it does / what the benefit is, and how it’s different or superior.
- Frame solutions, rather than features alone. As Ted Smith (VP Product Marketing at Zendesk) expresses, “features sound cool, but customers want solutions to problems.” Features are only cool if they actually solve a problem.
- Show, don’t tell. Ted expresses that the thought exercise needs to be “how do you get people to use it; to feel the benefit, not just hear it.” Double-clicking on this with a Zendesk example:
- Find opportunities to give people the ability to directly engage with the technology as part of the launch. With this in mind, as part of a past launch, Ted and the team included a QR code. This made it super easy for people to try the technology. No sign-up needed; it was simply an easy scan.
Launch
The stage is set, the spotlight is on. It’s showtime.
Message amplification.
- Leverage employees to amplify. Julien Sauvage (VP Brand, Content and Product Marketing at Clari) explains that this is part of Clari’s playbook. They have a rigorous process to activate the employees with a social kit, which helps tremendously with getting more content impressions and engagements on LinkedIn.
- Choose distribution channels that align with your audience. As Joseph expresses, “meet your audience where they are. They’re in different places than they were 20 years ago.”
Time it well.
- Hot take. While many gravitate towards major industry events for announcements, Joseph has a hot take (and we love a spicy take): do not announce a major new feature at a major industry conference (such as RSA Conference or AWS re:Invent). You will get lost in the noise. Rather, time your announcement at a quieter period where you have a greater likelihood of breaking through.
Post-Launch
More than a one-hit wonder, the encore keeps going.
- Be transparent. Ted expresses that customers don’t fault people for being transparent that a product is ‘V1’ and will continuously improve. What’s important is to give them something to show that it’s real.
- Don’t be afraid to re-promote it down the road. Momentum follow-ups over time can be powerful, Joseph advises. For example, updates on more customers using the product.
👀 More for your eyeballs:
TechCrunch released an article detailing the most important metrics for SaaS funding in 2024. Spoiler alert: The predictability of a startup’s viability and success goes deeper than total addressable market (TAM) — way deeper.
👂 More for your eardrums:
May Habib is CEO and Co-Founder of Writer, the full-stack generative AI platform for enterprises. Writer empowers your entire organization to accelerate growth, increase productivity, and ensure compliance.
May has worked in NLP and ML for 10 years, and before Writer, she founded and built Qordoba, a localization software company. She is an expert in AI-driven language generation, AI-related organizational change, and the evolving ways we use language online.
🚀 Start-ups to watch:
This week, Demostack released its AI Data Generator to the public. Now organizations can customize demos at scale even easier. Top demo GenAI use cases include replacing dummy data with smart data, scrubbing PII, and expanding to international markets.
🔥 Hottest GTM jobs of the week:
- Partner Relations Manager at Vanta (Remote – US)
- Account Manager at Gorgias (San Francisco, CA)
- Inside BDR at AutoSled (Rockville, MD)
- Business Development Representative at Mutiny (Remote – US)
- Revenue Operations Manager at Vividly (Remote – US)
See more top GTM jobs on the GTMfund Job Board.
That’s it, that’s all.
If you have any specific questions about product launches that you would love answered by these experts, drop them in the comments or send me an email.
For now, wishing everyone happy holidays! We’re now in the thick of the holiday season.
We’re not going anywhere though. We’ll be rocking all month, surfacing go-to-market insights for you!
Catch you next week.
Barker ✌️
