Dude, It's Marketing

How to Quickly Launch a Product

Product launches are key to your start-up's success both from a development perspective but also from a marketing and sales perspective. We've all seen how Apple does product launches where everything is a secret until the big event and then a master unveiling takes place. This has been very successful for them as they are able to draw a large crowd and create buzz.

However, this is the exception and only a handful of companies can pull it off not to mention the fact that a lot of time and effort goes into these launches that is just not possible in the land of start-ups. For this post, I want to look at how you can quickly launch a product and by quick I mean pulling everything together in a matter of a few weeks, not months.

When launching a product, marketing tends to get brought in later in the process so you will need to take a list of features that have been developed and figure out how to position the product to be successful in the market. Working with developers to create a compelling value proposition is not always an easy task but creating a product brief with them can give you the information you need to build better messaging.

The next key step is to select an event for your launch so that everything can be pulled together at the same time and make an impact. I'm going to use "event" in the broadest sense as it could be something as grand as what Apple does, to a tradeshow or an online launch, to a news release. 

Without an event, you risk not getting everything completed and releasing the product and marketing elements in stages which will lose the impact you are after. In its simplest form, the launch event can just be a date where all the elements come together and are made public. 

Whatever event you choose, here is a list of tactics that are required for any successful product launch:

1. Sales tools including educational white papers about the topic, product overviews both high-level and technical, and case studies.
2. Product demos that capture how the product works. This can be done live, as a video, or animated using screen shots. 
3. Media and analyst outreach will help educate key advocates about the new product and result in coverage which helps to raise awareness.
4. Web content that is SEO friendly will give everyone a place to find more information about the product. Remember to use video and graphics to make your site more interesting. 
5. Social media can be used to spread the word about the new product and also to collect feedback on it once the product is launched.

There is no doubt that you can do a lot more in each of these areas and use other tactics to launch your product and, depending on time and resources, you may not get to everything on this list. But, you need to provide some substance to your launch and the process above has served me well and can be used as a good baseline for your start-up. Tell me about your launches in the comments below.

Getting Started: Is There a Market for My Idea?

A startup begins with an idea for a product or service but this is really only the first step when you're getting started. While you may think your idea is revolutionary, will others? If you want to make a business out of it, you need to make sure there is a market for your product or service. Put another way, will people buy your idea and if so will they buy it instead of other similar ideas?

Before you invest too much time and money in your idea, you'll want to research the market to ensure there is a need for your idea and that you can make money off of it. You will also want to evaluate the competition so you know that you can differentiate your product or service from them.

While some dismiss market research because people don't always know what they want, it's important to talk to some prospective customers to get their insights into what they need to make their life or jobs easier or more efficient. Even if you don't size the market (although you will need to do this if you want to raise outside money) or test the concept with focus groups, these discussions will provide valuable insights that give you a better understanding of your audience which is absolutely critical.

They may not understand your idea in its early stages but listening to your customers-to-be could give you additional thoughts for improvements or refinements that could make the difference between success and failure. Instead of presenting your concept and getting input, have a coversation to see how your prospects solve that problem today.

It's rare that your concept won't have indirect competitors even if you don't see any direct ones at this early stage. If there really is no competition, then it could very well mean you have no market too. That's why these discussions and informal research are absolutely critical. You want to make sure there is a market before you invest substantial amounts of time and money.

But don't take this competitive research too far as you need to forge your own path and make your product or service significantly different that their product. If you follow the competition then you will surely fail. Very few people are going to switch to your solution if you are only 2x better. In many cases, they may not even switch if you're 10x better.

Once you take this valuable input from prospective customers into account and define a product or service that has a clear market and is more compelling than the competition, then you'll need to make sure the messages that you deliver communicate not only the value but how you are different. 

We'll talk a lot more about messaging in this startup stage (you can read some previous posts on this topic) but the next post in this series will be some thoughts on selecting a name so stay tuned. In the meantime, if you there are any problems or issues you face getting started, leave them in the comments and I'll try to address them. 

Working with Developers, Creating a Product Brief

Recently, Pam, a Dude, It's Marketing reader, sent me an email asking if I had a template or suggestions for a product brief format to help developers draft a detailed document that will help her marketing team create better sales collateral. I realized in answering this email that it would also make a good blog post as I'm sure many have faced this same issue.

When launching a product, marketing tends to get brought in later in the process. While that's not ideal, it is a reality and quite often you will need to take a list of features that have been developed and figure out how to position the product to be successful in the market.

Working with developers to create a compelling value proposition and turn features into benefits is not always an easy task. Creating a product brief with them can give you the information you need to build better sales collateral if you gather the right information.

Pam had created a great outline for her product brief with many key areas covered including a section on defining your audience and an emphasis on benefits and value to the audience. Here is an outline I've used in the past to build a product brief:

• Elevator Pitch - Overview of the product in 50 words or less.
• Target Customers - Who are you selling this product to?
• Value Proposition - What problem are you solving for your customer?
• Key Features and Benefits - Develop a chart as explained below.
• Other Functionality - Any other key facts including benchmarks, speeds and feeds, for example.
• What's New - More important for new releases of an existing product. Highlight what's changed.
• Roadmap - Any features coming up that are committed but didn't make this release.
• Key Competitors and Your Advantages - Who else solves this problem and how are you better?
• Successes - Any customers already using this product, how, and can you reference them.

While some of these sections may be filled in by marketing afterwards, when working with the technical team, the key section to get them to complete with you is the key features and benefits. In the past, I've done this by building a chart that has the key features of the product or release in one column that the developers list for you. Then you have a column that explains what that feature does in simple terms and then a column that outlines the benefit of that feature. It is this last column that is the toughest to complete but critical. You need to translate all the features to benefits so your customers and prospects understand how you are helping them solve their problems and not making them figure it out.

One other key section is competition and your advantages over both indirect and direct competitors. Again, you can work on this section with the technical team as it helps you come up with key messages that are different than what your competitors are claiming. If your list of features and benefits is similar to the competition, then your audience can't differentiate you from them. If you look at their messages and figure out how you can position the product differently, that will make your messages much stronger.

All good sales collateral needs to define the problem and then explain how your product solves that problem. Working with your developers to create a product brief helps you get the info you need to communicate the value of your product. It also forces your technical team to figure out the importance of any given feature rather than the fact it's cool or makes things better.

Working with the developer to build a product brief is invaluable in creating your collateral. It can also be used as a tool to training your sales team as it lists important information that they need to know as well. Try creating a product brief with your developers before the next product launch.

It is NOT About the Features, Creating a Solution Overview

In content marketing, we talk a lot about creating valuable content to get found and how that content needs to be educational and not product focused. However, there will come a time and place where you do need to create content that talks about your products as prospects will look for and need that information before they make a purchase.

But, the imporant thing to remember when developing this more product-focused content is that you still can't just talk about your product features but instead you must talk about how your product solves a specific problem for your industry. I call this piece of content a solution overview and I know from past experience that it can be a very powerful sales tools. Others may call it an application note or a product white paper. The name doesn't matter but the questions it answers does.

I was writing a solution overview this week and it reminded me of how the format for this collateral can be similar regardless of the product or service you are trying to sell. If you put yourself in the shoes of your buyer then it's easy to figure out the questions they are asking or thinking about when it comes to your product. Now there will be a more technical audience that may be more concerned with the features (that's a different piece of collateral) but you need to show the value of your solution before you get to that step.

Here's my standard outlined for a solution overview:

• The Problem:
  Define the issues that your audience face in their terms. At a high level, this could be the need to generate revenue, save money, minimize risk, etc. Find out what is keeping your prospects awake at night and show that you understand in this section.
• The Solution:
  This is not where you list a bunch of features. Instead, explain how your product solves the problems you defined in the previous section. More importantly, explain how it solves these problems differently or better, and it must be significantly better, than other products.
• How it Works:
  Depending on your audience or product, you may need a more technical section. This is it. Sometimes it may make more sense as an appendix so this section doesn't break the flow of the document. Talk about how your product works using diagrams and other visuals. Walk the reader through the steps so they can see how your product will help them solve the problem at a more detailed level.  
• The Advantages:
  While you should have covered why your solution is different and better throughout the paper, this is the section where you summarize why a company should work with you and use your product or service. Make sure you talk benefits and not features. You may also want to present some corporate background if that helps to build the case. In many cases, this section works as a great conclusion to the paper.
• The Results:
  Ideally, this section is a case study of how a similar company has implemented your solution and solved a similar problem. In the early stages of a start-up this may not be possible so see if you can do a "blind" case study where the results are from an actual company but it's not named. If that's not possible then illustrate the expected results, but the more real or proven your results are the better. 

As you read this outline, do you think it will work for the solution overview for your product or service? It may not be exactly right but with the appropriate tweaks, I'm sure it forms a good foundation. The biggest difference between solution overviews is the detail that you go into and this is more a function of your audience rather than the content.

As I've said many times on this blog, you need to know your audience and develop content for them. In many cases, you can create 2 different solution overviews of different length and detail to address these different needs. Wouldn't this type of collateral help you market your product?

Trying to be Like Your Competition Means You've Lost

It should be obvious that companies need to develop their own strategy and products and not copy what others are already doing. Otherwise, you are left competing on price which is a no win proposition. But more and more, we are seeing copycats out their that don't even try to differentiate their product through innovation but instead continue to be just like the leader in their field.

Case in point, are the slew of iPad competitors that have, or say they are going to, hit the market this year. Apple revolutionized a product category, which is something they do extremely well, when they introduced the iPad last year. Not only did this send consumers rushing to buy this latest gadget but it also sent Apple's cometitors rushing to create a competing product.

In late 2010 and earlier this year, HP, RIM, Samsung, Motorola and many others introduced iPad competitors that in many cases had better specs but last week Apple introduced the iPad 2 that now make these competing tablets seem old or in need of a refresh. And to drive the knife in harder, Apple will start shipping it's second generation iPad later this week while most of the first generation iPad competitors have not shipped yet. How will they ever win if they try to be like Apple?

Another example, is Groupon, a company that is all the rage in the daily deal space, which now sees copycat sites on a weekly or maybe even daily basis. In the past few months, Google, Microsoft and the New York Times among others have launched competitive products that are virtually the same. In this space, it's scale, relationships and the ability to offer the best deals that will win so while Groupon is firmly entrenched in many markets the competitors face an uphill battle.

You can make an argument that larger companies may need to build "me too" products in order to protect their existing markets or round out their portfolio so they can be a one stop shop. But a start-up building "me too" products is as good as dead. Start-ups need to innovate quickly, solve customer problems significantly better and create new markets or product categories. None of these aspects call for a "me too" product.

I wrote a post a while back about how having no competitors means there is no market but I want to be clear that this post does not contradict that one. You need competition and then you need to create a compelling message that differentiates you from them and communicates how you are better. If you can't do that and decide to copy them instead, then, as a start-up, you have big problems.

Om Malik (@om), the founder of GigaOm, wrote a post called You — Not Your Competitors — Define Your Destiny in which he states "If one sets the rules, then there is a distinct advantage when it comes to winning." He's absolutely right.

To win, start-ups need to focus on how their products and services better help their customers solve problems not on the competition. You look at your competition so you can better differentiate your product or service not to be like them. Trying to be like your competition means you've already lost.