The product launch phase is where all of the preparation work you did before comes together to make the actual launch as smooth and successful as possible. Everything should be created and scheduled so that now you’re just implementing and monitoring. If all goes well in the pre-launch, you should have a healthy buzz going and your target market should be ready to buy as soon as your product launches.

As we said before, the full product launch can be anywhere from two weeks to three months, depending on the size of the product. Larger products tend to have a longer launch period. The best way to decide on your timing is to look at the norm in your industry. Look at the product launches of similarly sized products in your industry and see how long they usually are.

Keep in mind that products are launching every day. Everyone wants their product launch to be a raging success. But unless you’re selling the new iPhone, your first product launch is more likely to involve steady sales over time with a boost on the first day and the last day.

Putting Your Launch Processes in Motion

During the pre-launch phase, you mapped out all of the things that need to be done, and where and when to do them. Now, you’re going to implement the actions you identified in the pre-launch phase and expand on them where you see the best reactions.

• Marketing activities – Put all of your marketing plans in motion.
• Blog – While you’ve been blogging consistently during the pre-launch phase, you may want to ramp up your post count with special content aimed at driving sales around the actual launch.
• Tweets – Like your blog posts, you may want to increase your amount of tweets to build up excitement on the eve of the launch. Twitter is all about broadcasting information in real-time, so you can tweet during the actual launch as you watch its progress.
• Schedule additional Q&A sessions, webinars, emails… or other marketing content to address questions or objections that come up during the launch. Problems or concerns need to be dealt with quickly and there are bound to be some once the product is launched.
• Increase your social media presence… mentions, and launch success stories. While you’re interacting with people on social media and elsewhere online long before the launch, you should be even more present during the actual launch.
• Ensure that distributors, retailers, and affiliates are using whatever marketing material you’ve provided and follow up on their sales. Be ready to answer any questions, concerns, or problems they may have during the launch.
• Be prepared to make changes whenever needed either to your marketing or the product itself.
• Make it easy for customers to learn about your product. As it goes on sale, you should be easily available to inform your customers of the unique benefits it offers. While you may have done free trials to get feedback in the pre-launch phase, the launch itself is also a great time offer free trials, downloads, and demos.
• Track sales and promote your success. As you update your audience on social media, tell them how well the product is selling. This serves as additional social proof. Celebrate your milestones with your customers and your internal team.

Customer Responsiveness

During the launch, assuming that you’re well-prepared and your systems are running according to plan, you’ll mostly be on-hand to offer support not only to your affiliates and partners, but also for customers. This is a vital time to provide customer service.

You should respond quickly to questions and when there are problems, troubleshoot as soon as possible. Although it’s more fun to watch your sales climb and promote your launch, you need to make responding to customer issues your number one priority at this stage. How you react to customer issues will have a great influence on customer satisfaction, which translates to repeat sales and positive customer referrals.

When customer issues are publicly aired, your response is even more critical. A customer may post a public comment on social media rather than sending you a private message. When this happens, the issue and your response to it are seen by others who may or may not buy your product. You need to respond appropriately and consider your audience of future potential buyers.

The aim here is to fully solve customer problems and show that you’re committed to making sure your customers are satisfied. This will remove barriers of trust that other potential buyers may have. When they see you respond quickly and appropriately to customer issues, they know that they can safely buy from you with no risk.

Make sure there are plenty of ways for customers to reach you. The more communication channels you have open to them, the more effective your customer service will be.

A common mistake that many businesses make with product launches is that they don’t have a plan for dealing with a sales surge. What if your launch is an even bigger success than you anticipated and your sales volume goes so high that you and your distributors can’t meet the demand?

If this happens, communicate with your distributors and customers, letting them know that you’re doing all you can to meet the demand. Although it’s hard for you, this is actually a boon for your marketing. Potential customers will see that your sales are booming, and this helps to show them that you offer true value.

Monitoring and Measuring

Monitoring is also essential during the product launch phase. There are several things you can do to leverage the performance of your launch for even more exposure.

• See who’s talking. Monitor who is talking about your product online and enlist their help. You can sign up for Google Alerts or another notification system so that you’re notified each time your product is mentioned. When someone praises your product or tells others about it, enlist them to help you sell more. Ask them for a testimonial or review, offer them a gift, or see if they can help you in other ways.
• Monitor metrics. Watch your website performance metrics and social media. Analyze which traffic sources are sending the most traffic. Figure out what factors are contributing to your site’s performance and maximize these factors.
• Watch customer support tickets. Keep track of customer support requests and see if there are any consistent issues that you need to address. For example, customers may be having navigation trouble or problems with your shopping cart. Figure out how to fix these issues so that the process will go more smoothly from now on.
• Split-test and monitor. If you’re conducting split-testing on your pages, monitor the results and shift to the high-performing pages when you see a significant difference in conversions.
• Keep track of successes and failures. Each launch is a valuable learning activity. Keep track of your successes and failures and try to understand the factors that caused them. Keep track of any difficulties or challenges you face along the way. All of this information will be very useful for your next product launch.
• Watch your sales and offer feedback to your team.