Since you asked (and even if you didn't) our vSALaunch team wanted to share its top four observations about marketing for product launches.
1. Early marketing planning is good. Please don't wait until the 11th hour to start planning for your marketing launch. If the product is important, its marketing is, too, whether your budget is $10,000 or $1,000,000. While social media and interactive marketing offer great opportunities for on-the-spot announcements, many aspects of your launch, from product naming to trade shows and distributor relationship management, take longer.
2. Early (premature) announcement is not so good. Hey, what could go wrong in letting your key audiences know you have - or will have - an innovative new offering? Product engineering, testing or manufacturing problems often cause delays in product availability. The early product sometimes performs less perfectly than envisioned. You may have trouble meeting initial demand. Cats are notoriously hard to put back in the bag. Make sure you are ready before you make the big announcement.
3. The choice between a big splash and a soft launch deserves careful consideration. The big splash has the advantage of taking the market by storm, creating an impression of leadership and making it harder for competitors to say they got there first (unless, of course, they did). The soft launch lets you tread carefully, adjust your messaging as you get early feedback and gradually secure a market foothold as you gain confidence that the product is indeed performing as planned and getting positive reception as hoped and anticipated.
4. Do not invest, invent and then sit on your product. Timely, targeted marketing is critical to making the most of any important new product. No matter what your budget, get the word out and keep on doing so as long as there are new prospects to court.
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