Online Product Launch Campaigns

Most companies suck at launching products. They’re like Alice in Wonderland — chasing shiny objects and getting lost along the way. Here’s the 11-step process we perfected after 25 years of product launches (in a collaboration with Jason Oakley): 1. Competitive Research The key to great strategy is to look externally. Take notes on competitor's features and how they grow. Build a database so you can counter-position appropriately. 2. Segmentation A launch aimed at “everyone” will miss everyone. Instead, build a laser-focused Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). Follow this chain of thought: What are they craving? → What frustrates them daily? → What job are they trying to accomplish? 3. Pricing & Packaging Even the smallest feature can have a ripple effect on your pricing and packaging. Don’t wait until launch week to figure this out. Before launching, assess things like: Will this be a paid feature or free? Who will get access? What’s the plan for feature gating? 4. Positioning Now it’s time to craft a message that resonates. Speak to their deeper desires, not just their immediate problems. Communicate the outcome your product delivers and why you’re different from the rest. 5. Assemble Your Launch Team You can’t do it alone, and you shouldn’t. A successful launch involves stakeholders across the company. Use the RACI framework to assign clear roles. 6. Clear Objectives Too many teams dive into a launch without defined goals. And that’s why they miss the mark. Set clear objectives and key results. 7. Distribution Channels Many teams fall into the trap of trying to be everywhere; LinkedIn, email, ads, you name it. Reality check: Most startups only have 1-2 effective distribution channels. Find yours and double down on it. 8. Launch Milestones Planning your entire launch around individual tasks will overwhelm you. Instead, focus on major milestones and build a work-back plan. Some key milestones to include: Early access launch → Customer launch → Kickoff meeting. 9. Bill of Materials Your Bill of Materials is the content engine of your launch. Focus on: → Writing the message they want to hear → Designing visuals that captivate and appeal to them → Creating email sequences tailored to every user flow 10. Sales & Customer Success Teams Too many launches fail because these teams are looped in at the last minute. Enable them early with a messaging deck, internal FAQs, and demo materials... And they’ll become powerful advocates for your product. 11. Launch Day Make sure everything is launched smoothly and on time. If you achieve early wins, be the first to celebrate them and rally the team. And don’t forget to keep pushing the momentum forward. There's much more in the deep dive: https://lnkd.in/eB7s6umA If you don't plan your launches, even the best products will fail.

Most marketers ruin their product launches with one fatal mistake: They launch once. They spend weeks hyping up a new product… Email list. Check. Influencers. Check. One big push across all channels. And then? Nothing. The launch becomes a single moment. Here’s a better way to think about launches: Like Netflix releasing a season. Each piece builds on the last. Each drop is a new chapter. Instead of: • “Launch day email blast” • “One post on IG and TikTok” • “Hope for the best” Try this: The Layered Launch Sequence: 1. Tease it. • Show behind the scenes. • Let people feel like they’re part of the process. • Let them vote on options. Involve them emotionally. 2. Educate before you ask. • Highlight the problem this product solves. • Tell the story of the pain it removes. 3. Micro launch. • Give early access to VIPs, affiliates, or email subscribers. • Share their feedback/testimonials before the main push. 4. Main launch. • Go omnichannel. • Use scarcity (real, not fake). • Keep it tight: 72 hours or 7 days, max. 5. Post launch content series. • Customer stories. Unboxings. UGC. • “Things you didn’t know about X.” • “How to get the most from X.” You turn one spike into a rolling wave. Because a product launch isn’t a finish line. It’s day one of demand generation.

Wondercraft just showed the world how to execute a perfect product launch. I've seen hundreds of launches here on LinkedIn. Most die quietly. Few make noise. Wondercraft created a bang overnight. The problem with most product launches is that they're built for the company, not the audience. Press releases nobody reads. Features nobody asked for. Marketing that screams “I’m marketing!” Wondercraft did the opposite. They built a launch machine: • A video that triggers actual human emotions (not corporate speak) • A landing page engineered for conversion (not just information) • Strategic incentives that transform users into marketing channels. My favorite part? The "skip the waitlist" incentives: → Share on Linkedin/X → Follow on Linkedin/X → Share with friends BONUS to get 3 months free: → Show proof cancelling your competitor subscription. Pure genius. They turned users into distribution networks and created social proof at scale. I've watched too many launches fail. It's the worst feeling in the world when your team works for months building something incredible... and then crickets. Steal these lessons from Wondercraft's playbook: 1. Your launch IS your product. The experience of discovering you matters as much as what you built. 2. Create sharing incentives that feel like a win for users, not free marketing for you. 3. Coordinate with your team and network to flood every channel simultaneously - create the feeling of "this is everywhere.” The product you’ve built matters. But how the world discovers it matters just as much. Who else has nailed a product launch recently? Looking for some more inspiration…

A lot of product marketers are told to “own the launch.” But what that really ends up looking like is a glorified checklist. This is a problem. A good product launch is a strategic GTM motion that builds internal alignment, drives external clarity, and supports real business goals. And recently, Natalie Marcotullio from Navattic shared a great launch, when they rolled out Launchpad, so I want to use it to walk you through what this looks like in practice. Here’s the 5-part launch framework I coach clients on, and how it played out for this example: 1️⃣ Strategic readiness This is the part most teams skip. Everyone’s eager to “go live,” but you’d be shocked at how many can’t answer basic questions like: --> Who is this product for? --> Why are we launching it now? --> What’s the pain point we’re solving, and how do we know? This can happen a lot when PMs are under pressure to launch sooner before the product is ready (and are sucked into the build trap). What Navattic did: In Q4 and Q1, a small group of co-founders and sales reps quietly built and validated Launchpad. While marketing was not involved here, the product side ensured that this step was done. 2️⃣ Positioning & messaging Great messaging starts from the synthesis of real insights… and then ties a human story to it. What Navattic did: Natali pulled real call recordings, identified patterns, and built messaging around them. She also interviewed Navattic’s CEO about his time as an SE, grounding the narrative in the emotional reality of the demo treadmill Launchpad is designed to solve. 3️⃣ External promotion strategy Promotion should be treated as a marketing campaign, not a to-do list. Start with a clear theme or big idea. Then choose your channels and sequence intentionally based on how your audience actually buys. What Navattic did: In Q2, they quietly added Launchpad to the pricing page and iterated the copy 3–4 times. They ran lead gen through high-intent channels like SE conferences, LinkedIn, Google, and even AEO (ChatGPT and Perplexity). When launch day came, they focused on channels that mattered, like their trusted advisors and loyal customers who love them. 4️⃣ Internal enablement This is the final (and often most overlooked) step: making sure everyone inside the company understands the story and can retell it, through both documentation and training. What Navattic did: Natalie enabled everyone early: field teams, partners, even advisors. I got a detailed launch brief two weeks in advance, so I had the full context to speak confidently to my network. 5️⃣ Communications  Of course, a good launch also requires great communication and coordination throughout the entire process. Check out the post on this in the comments. ---- Ultimately, the key takeaway is that a great launch is STRATEGY-focused, not just tactical. ❓ What's the most important thing for you when launching major products? #productmarketing #launch #gtm #advising #coaching

One brand we work with was preparing to release a fairly complex product tool. Instead of opening it to everyone on day one, the better move was an invite-only beta. A product launch does not have to be all-or-nothing. Begin with a small group of users. Allow them to test the product, identify confusing areas, report bugs, and provide feedback. Collect screenshots, questions, testimonials, and examples to strengthen the broader launch. This initial phase is not a separate or minor launch; it is an integral part of the overall launch process. The same principle applies to physical products. A launch may start with teaser content, outreach to existing customers, product samples, an event, a campaign targeting a warm audience, or a small group of creators testing various approaches. This allows the team to determine what resonates before allocating additional budget. That matters because a launch is rarely a single date but rather a sequence. You can introduce the product, learn from initial responses, refine the product page and messaging, and then expand into broader paid media, wholesale, email, organic content, and creator campaigns. Not every channel needs to launch simultaneously, and different audiences may require tailored messaging. Consumers may focus on taste, use case, and results, while retailers prioritize margin, category demand, and shelf placement. Warm customers may require minimal education, whereas cold prospects may need more information. The smartest launches earn the right to get bigger. Introduce. Learn. Improve. Expand. There is less pressure to achieve perfection on day one when the launch is designed to improve and adapt over time.

I used to think the best time to launch a new product was when you had a "good idea." I was wrong. The best time to launch a new product is when you see someone else's product scaling hard in a niche you understand. Three of our last five product launches came from watching competitor spend data, not from brainstorming sessions. Every Friday I spend 20 minutes in GetHookd looking at which products in supplement and skincare niches are being scaled aggressively — meaning increasing spend over 4+ consecutive weeks. When I see a product angle scaling consistently, I don't copy the product. I study the positioning, the price point, the offer structure, and the creative angles. Then I ask: "Can we enter this space with a better offer, better positioning, or a better landing page?" Launch 1: Spotted a magnesium sleep product scaling. We launched our own version with a "no melatonin dependency" angle. Now does $380K/month. Launch 2: Saw a gut health brand scaling advertorial funnels. We entered with a VSL-first approach. Hit $90K/month by month 3. Launch 3: Noticed a collagen brand scaling in the German market. We launched the same category into Germany with US-tested creative. $60K/month within 6 weeks. The market tells you what it wants to buy. You just have to listen. How do you decide what to launch next?

Last week we launched Mutiny and got over 1M views and 5x'd our users. And it only cost us $14k. If you're a founder or marketer, here's our product launch playbook: Startup launches have become their own micro industry. We were quoted (twice) $100k for video and $50k+ for influencer amplification to hit 1M views on social. We decided that was insane, so we did it ourselves. Here's our playbook: 1. Nail the narrative before anything else. We were launching a new agent to help GTM teams create anything customer-facing. But people are inundated by launches, so we needed a stronger hook. We had killed our flagship SaaS product to go all-in on AI, a story that was genuinely different. So we led with that hook, while making sure the details and the video were all about the new product, not the past. 2. Create a killer video. Two rules going in: clarity is king, and pain is relatable. If someone watches and still doesn't know what we do, we failed. And if they can't see themselves in the first 30 seconds, we lost them. We knew you had to see the product in action to understand it, so we were really hands on about which 3 examples we can include. Shout out to the Represent team for helping us make an amazing video on a tight deadline. 3. Customer amplification. 6 weeks prior to launch, we made it our #1 goal to make great companies like Rippling and Snowflake genuinely successful. Then we turned those wins into stories we could share on our channels. When people saw brands that they recognized getting real results, it created FOMO that’s hard to manufacture. Next, we identified a wide number of active users and asked them to share their own posts. We created notes and asset screenshots to make it easier. 4. Ecosystem amplification Investors have large networks and a vested interest in our success. We reached out to every investor to ask for their support and sent them all the calendar invite! We also asked the CEOs and teams at our favorite tools and asked them to amplify our launch. Framer, Pylon, Momentic, and others used our launch buzz to write about their role in our story. 5. Plan a rolling thunder We planned activities for the following 4 weeks, one big splash a week. For example, today we launched on Product Hunt (go check us out!) and next week we are launching a big case study with Anthropic. What would we do differently? Influencers were a new area for us. I was skeptical of paying $50k to buy posts, so we dabbled a small amount in paid posts. The results were mixed. A few drove good impressions but overall, we don’t think they were super impactful. Next time, we want to pick influencers with relevant followings and get them to know and love our mission. The results from the launch: 1M impressions across all posts. We 5x’d daily active users and tripled MRR in a week. And we ended up on TBPN because the post went viral. We're live on Product Hunt today. If you want to support us, please go check us out over there.

Launching a product with zero reviews is financial suicide. I don't care how good your PPC strategy is. If a customer sees "0 ratings," they are clicking back to the search results. In the "old days" (aka 2023), you had to launch, pray for sales, and beg for reviews. But the Pre-Launch Vine update, which fully rolled out earlier this year, is the single biggest leverage point we have right now. We used to launch products "naked." Now, we launch them "dressed." Here's the exact playbook we are using for Q1 launches: 👉 The "Ghost" Listing: We create the listing and send inventory to FBA, but we keep the "Offer Start Date" in the future. The listing is technically inactive. 👉 Enroll in Vine: We drop 30 units into the Vine program while the listing is dark. 👉 The Waiting Game: We do not turn the listing live until we see at least 15-20 reviews populate in the backend. 👉 The "Day 1" Pop: When we finally flip the switch to "Active," the product already has 4.5 stars and 20 detailed reviews. The conversion rate on Day 1 is much higher this way. You start with momentum already built. Stop launching empty listings. You are burning ad spend on traffic that will never convert. Are you still launching products "naked," or are you building social proof before the public ever sees it?