Have you ever wondered how Apple gets lines of customers queuing for days every time they launch a new iPhone, iPad or gadget?
It’s not just luck, it’s part of a well-orchestrated product launch plan that they’ve been implementing for months. Now this product launch process isn’t an “Apple” only process it’s something you can also use in your business.
You see, the goal of a Product Launch is to build momentum in your market place where customers, competitors and alliance partners are all taking about your new launch. By sparking these kinds of conversations you build a buzz about your product and people realize that there’s a potential for your product to sell out or run out of stock.
This is exactly what Apple do, and over the years they’ve got very good at it, but as I said earlier this isn’t an Apple only process. You can achieve the same outcome as Apple by following the 5 step product launch process outlined below.
The 5 Step Product Launch Process
Step #1: Product Creation
The product creation step is where you take your company’s expertise and package that into a single sale-able product. If you’ve watched Apple’s launches you would have noticed they don’t launch multiple products at once, they launch a single product and create as much market place momentum for that product as possible. This same principle needs to be applied to your business, create a single product for the target of the product launch.
Step #2: List Building
The list-building phase is where you start to gain momentum in the market by generating a list of potential customers who are interested in learning about your product launch. By creating this list you’ve now built a targeted, qualified audience to notify when your product launches which should result in quick sales and further market momentum.
Step #3: Relationship Management
The third step is probably the most important as it’s the process of taking a lead generated in step two and turning them into a customer who’s literally begging to buy your product. Through a serious of well-crafted emails you’ll engage your potential customers and have them sitting on the edge of their seat waiting to purchase the moment your products released.
Step #4: Launch Management
The next stage of the launch is to manage the technology processes that occur during the actual launch of the product. Ensuring that all order forms are working, servers are scaling to deal with site load and product delivery mechanisms are activated.
Step #5: Buzz Management
The final stage of the launch is to manage the social media buzz and industry buzz around your product. Not only do you want to manage it but you also want to encourage it by syndicating Press Releases, engaging Joint Venture partners and posting social updates.
The more active you are in generating buzz and managing that buzz the more scarcity the market will feel resulting in higher sales.
As you can see a product launch is a science and when executed properly there is a predictable results. Just like Apple knows that each time they bring out a new iPhone version they’ll sell a minimum number of units, you too can predict the success of your product.