Launch Marketing

You get only one chance to make a first impression. That’s why, despite the popularity of “stealth” and “soft” launch approaches, you owe it to yourself to take a long, hard look at your situation and your prospective customers. Dribbling out your news and content in tiny, incremental steps over time might preserve cash or save staff time, but often you’re taking a chance. You might unintentionally forfeit your ability to make a bigger splash later. And you risk not getting noticed at all.

If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over? (This argument goes for cost as well.) Once you become known in your prospect’s mind as one thing, you cannot cheaply and easily “flip a switch” and become something else. It’s foolish to think you can pivot your product or service without any negative impact on your brand, reputation and customer trust. From a marketing standpoint, pivot often means a radical move that requires the market to suddenly change what it believes about you. This goes to what you do, what your value is to them and why they should care about you at all. It’s a function of human memory and opinion formation habits which are seldom altered by marketing tactics (not even with a cool name like pivot).

So is there a basic recipe for a successful launch? We think so. Here are the 10 fundamental launch steps to get you started, developed from our experience in leading the launches of literally hundreds of products, services and companies:

The Countdown to Launch …

10: Market Research
Do your homework. That includes competitive analysis, market analysis, SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats), problem and niche definition and above all, listening to potential buyers and trying to learn about and categorize them.

9: Strategic Positioning & Messaging
Build on your research results. Boil down the essence of your differentiation. Research and refine your positioning and key messages. Document them in a detailed brief that guides all marketing. Tune them for what you know your buyer personas. Whenever possible, test them.

8: Brand Development
Extend the positioning by communicating your value proposition and uniqueness externally. Differentiate. The narrower the brand, the stronger it is. Well developed brands help us remember companies and why we care about them. This is not so much about “brand statements” gathering dust but about actual implementation, such as logo treatments, visual identity, taglines, voice, tone, personality, creative concepts and naming schemes.

7: High Quality, Original Content Creation (a.k.a Intellectual Capital)
Based on the positioning/messaging, go the extra mile to create high quality original content aimed specifically at your target buyers and their buying stages. Give every piece of content you create a set of goals, a job to do, a target audience segment and a set of metrics.

6: Testimonial/Third Party Validation
“Borrow” credibility from influential sources, including customers, prospects, analysts, consultants and partners. Aggressively solicit 3rd-party references and testimonials. Make it easy to say yes by suggesting multiple choices and levels of support. Align with longer term and sector-wide trends. Present references in context.

5: Content Strategy
What kind of story must you tell? What is the context? How does it relate to your prospects and their preferences? What do you know about their problems and views? How can you use that knowledge to tell your story in context to them? What media channels do you need? What is the right process for drawing back the curtains to reveal your story?

4: Mainstream/Trade Media Outreach
Define your pitch to the mainstream news media. How do you make your story newsworthy? What is the “tension” or conflict in the story? What background do they need to “get it”? What approach and tactics will help you cultivate key long-term press relationships?

3: Social Media Outreach
Where do you need to be active on the social web to reach your prospects and their influences directly? What networks, what communities, what groups, what chats, what channels? Identify your sweet spots. How can you encourage people to share your content and story? Start small and focused and grow out from there. Leverage content and connections across multiple channels. Don’t forget other influencers as well, including industry analysts, standards groups, online communities and consultants.

2: Launch Vehicle
Formalize your move into market with event of some kind — even if virtual. Focus the story to build momentum. Create a sense of “urgency” and timeliness for people to pay attention at a point in time to promote sharing. Whatever channels and media formats you choose, back them up with lots of rich content and several points from which to access your story.

1: Follow Up
Launch is only the beginning. “Launch Marketing” is a state of mind. Today, you can never really leave “Launch mode” or rest on your laurels. You may view it as a campaign–as long as you recognize it should never “end.” Be opportunistic, persistent and consistent!

By nature, start-ups are not encumbered by many of the things we’ve learned to hate about giant corporations and their marketing practices. I’m talking about the kind of marketing typically practiced by giant consumer packaged goods companies, retailers, utilities, Hollywood, politicians, etc. With few exceptions, these organizations are the Queen Mary and start-ups are the cigarette boats that run circles around them.

Here are 20 reasons to love start-ups, for starters:

1. Start-ups have no silos–they can’t afford them. This saves you from having to tear them down.

2. Start-ups have more flexibility. There’s fewer people to ask and fewer nods needed for a decision.

3. Start-ups have the David vs. Goliath edge. Everyone roots for the underdog, and wants them to win (except Goliath).

4. Start-up people are aware from day one they’re inventing a company culture and that everyone contributes.

5. In the long run, start-ups that laser focus on one thing and one thing only will beat a major corporation (that “focuses” on 100) every time. This is the basis for virtually ALL acquisitions of start-ups by big companies. (It’s the singular focus that yields valuable people and patents.)

6. Start-up people don’t need passion lessons. They already give a s*** or they wouldn’t be there.

7. Start-ups are not afraid to try something new. In fact, for many start-ups, something new is not only the best path, but it also may be their only reason to exist.

8. Start-ups have a better chance of making news and getting found. Most people expect things that are actually new to come from a new company, not from a monolithic multinational.

9. Start-ups are exciting and fun to work for (unless you’re a slacker).

10. Fast-growth (i.e. successful) start-ups give their people the equivalent of three years’ experience for working one year, and often, the rapid advancement to go with it. This is a great career fast track, especially for those just starting out.

11. Start-ups are more likely to reward people for extra hard work and major contributions. It’s easier for stars to shine and not get lost in the masses, and there’s less concern about protocol or hierarchy when giving rewards.

12. Start-ups are more often focused on continuous improvement, and less likely to become stodgy and shackled by “because we’ve always done it that way” thinking. This also means that the best start-ups foster a learning environment that aspires to be better than their competition’s.

13. Start-ups don’t just assist their customers, they climb down into the foxhole with them and get muddy and feel their pain. They eat the same dirt. This provides a level of customer engagement and intimacy that seldom happens at a giant vendor that forces customers to conform to “their way” of doing business.

14. Start-up people are accustomed to “doing whatever it takes.”

15. Although there are exceptions, start-ups usually appreciate the attention they get via trade media and social media, and don’t allow arrogance to convince them they “deserve” much more.

16. Start-ups are more agile and nimble. They move quicker. This is essential to their survival and also enables them to seize new opportunities faster than the big companies can.

17. Start-ups usually offer environments where people’s creativity is nourished and allowed to develop instead of being squashed.

18. Start-ups understand how to be frugal and make do with less.

19. Start-up people work harder, but they often also have a lot more to show for it as a result.

20. Do I even need to say it? Start-ups are where most actual innovation comes from.

There are lots of reasons to love start-ups. What would you add? What did I miss?

[Based on a post that originally appeared in Steve Parker's Marketing Dissector blog.]