Product Launch Marketing

The condensed launch list

Ten tasks covering the marketing essentials of getting a new product or service in front of people. This is the short version — for a launch with real commercial weight behind it, the Product Marketing Launch Plan covers the same ground in far more detail.

Use this one when the launch is small enough that a 24-item plan would be overhead: a new service line, a side project going public, a product for an audience you already have.

Start with what it replaces

The positioning tasks are worth more than the promotional ones. People don't adopt products, they switch to them — from a competitor, from a spreadsheet, from doing nothing. Naming what your product displaces gives you the message, the objections, and the audience in one go.

If you can't say what someone stops doing when they start using this, the launch will be loud and vague.

Line up the assets before the date

Landing page, screenshots, a description that fits in a tweet, pricing that's visible without asking. These sound obvious and are routinely half-finished on launch day, which wastes the one moment when attention is highest and free.

Have them done a few days early. Launch day should be for talking to people, not for writing copy.

Don't launch once

The tasks after go-live matter. A single announcement reaches a fraction of the people who'd care; the follow-ups, the second angle, the here's what people asked post reach the rest.

Timing

Two to three weeks. Add due dates if you've committed to a public date.