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By Henry Brown

If your small business is built around products, especially products of your own making, then there is no effort too far to ensure that you get a successful launch. The launch is when you’re likely to get the most fresh pairs of eyes on your offerings at any point, and it’s an opportunity that isn’t to be underestimated by any means. Here, we’ll look at tips to make sure you’re as primed for launch as possible.

Make sure it has the wow factor

Before you start getting the ball rolling on designing, testing, and manufacturing your product, you need to rigorously test the idea. Identify the pain points your customer faces, whether or not the product really solves them, and whether your customer experiences enough pain from them to solve them. Find your unique selling point and do your market research to ensure that no one else has the same selling point. Your product needs to immediately differentiate itself from anything out there already.

Manage it personally from conception to finish

To make sure that your product has the smoothest road to launch, without as few costly delays or issues possible, you need someone to manage the product’s development cycle across teams. As such, becoming a certified product manager can help you ensure an efficient path from design to testing to manufacturing. Get the training you need and put together an effective project management plan that identifies roadblocks and bottlenecks in advance so you can fix them.

Give it time to build a buzz

You shouldn’t wait until the launch event itself, or the direct lead-up to it, to start building hype around your product. You should build a buzz well in advance. Show customers that you believe in your product by showing it off. Testing during trade shows and conferences is a great opportunity to implement feedback from the public before the launch itself. In later stages, you can get it in the hands of publications and influencers, instead.

Prepare for missteps along the way

When it comes to your marketing efforts, your trade show appearances, social media messaging, and more, you have to expect that things will go wrong. As such, it’s better to prepare as much of the launch marketing in advance so that, when it’s going out, you have free hands to correct any mistakes.

Set and track goals

What does a successful launch look like? How many products do you need to shift in order to call it a success? Your launch goals won’t only be about sales, either. You want to look closer at how you measure product positioning, brand awareness, future sales opportunities, and more. Take the time to establish your goals and how you measure them. This will allow you to modify the launch on the fly if you’re at risk of falling short.

Of course, managing the product’s success goes well beyond the launch alone. However, hopefully the tips allow you to give it the boost it needs to land into a competitive market with a real advantage.

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Henry Brown is an online marketing executive. When he isn’t talking shop, he’s roaming the streets of London, uncovering the extra-ordinary in the ordinary.