marketing plan for new product assignment

How to Create a Marketing Plan for a New Product (2024)

You have developed a new product, hurray! The only problem is that products don’t sell themselves – we need a way to introduce them to our potential audiences. In this article, we will explore different ways of how to create a marketing plan for a new product.

What is a product marketing plan?

A product marketing plan is a map for getting your product out in front of different audiences in the most efficient way possible.

A product marketing plan will help you to conduct market research, find your strengths, explore potential audiences, develop your core marketing messages and choose the right tools for the job. A plan will also keep you on track with different activities you have done and are doing in the future so that you will know what works and what doesn’t.

Now that you know the why’s, let’s start creating the product marketing plan!

1. Know your product

To know where your product stands in the market, we need to start with some research.

Start by answering these questions:

• Example: Our hand sanitizer removes dangerous bacteria from people’s hands and thus reduces the risk of getting sick.
• Example: Our hand sanitizer is easier to apply than most of what is available on the market.
• Example: It’s cheaper, more comfortable to use and smells better .

Depending on your control of the product, we added some advanced ideas that could be useful to you when you start building your product marketing strategy. These include a bit of competition research as well.

When answering these questions, keep your mind open – you could find a unique selling point you didn’t think about before.

• Where will you sell your product?

Will it be sold locally, through an online store or both?

Example: We found out that hand sanitizers are widely available both online and offline. We will try to differentiate from our competitors by only selling hand sanitizers in our online store.

• What is your potential selling price?

Example: We saw hand sanitizers in our size formats be sold between $5 and $15. Because we are trying to be an affordable premium type of product, we will try pricing our hand sanitizer somewhere in the middle.

• What are your costs for producing the product? Are there any other associated costs (shipping etc.)?

If possible, calculate your potential profit margin in different scenarios. This will be crucial when you begin budgeting your marketing efforts.

• How many SKU-s (stock keeping unit) will your product have?

Example: Our product will be sold in 3 different variants.

• Product size

How large is your product? Can you only sell locally or will international selling be a possibility in the future?

• Product durability

How durable is your product? This will affect shipping and handling.

• Consumable or disposable?

Is your product consumable or disposable? Perhaps you could consider a subscription-based marketing strategy?

• Is your product perishable?

Does your product have a long shelf life?

• Are there any specific regulations your product will have to follow?

2. Conduct market research

It’s time to find out how much interest there could be for your new product. There are many ways to conduct market research, but you don’t need to go super-specific on the first go.

You will need to start with some assumptions. For example, if you are selling hair gel for men you could identify how many men there are in the area where you sell, find sales statistics from bigger companies who sell similar products and try to play them out in your numbers.

If you are looking to introduce a new product, you might interview a set number of people to see how they react to your proposition.

To analyze existing needs on the market we could use some tools on the internet. Let’s see what tools we could use to find out more about the potential market size on the  internet .

When researching, keep these 3 things in mind: potential market size, market trend, and seasonality.

• Google Trends

Google Trends  is a great tool to look at different keywords from Google’s perspective. This tool is useful for identifying if your product is in a growing, falling or flat market. It also helps to identify the seasonality of your market.

Check out our guide on how to use Google Trends for market research!

• Google Keyword Planner

Google Keyword Planner is a part of  Google Ads . With this tool, you can see search volumes for different keywords, which could give you some indication and also show signs of seasonality.

https://buzzsumo.com/  is a great tool for seeing what kind of content gets shared around on social platforms. You have to insert a keyword related to your new product to get the information.

3. Define your audience

Now that you know the properties of your product inside-out, it’s time to find out if there’s a good market for it and if so, where.

Let’s start by determining the perfect audiences for your product. Without knowing your audiences, it will be difficult to assess the potential market size.

What is a target audience?

Let’s start by defining what a target audience is.

A target audience is a group of people who share similar behaviors, interests and/or specific demographics. Target audiences are crucial for making marketing strategies, allocating budget, attracting new customers and developing your product.

For example, if you know that your product is mostly used by females, you could try to develop it in a way that is more appealing to women. This is an over-simplification – in reality, you can go much deeper into this topic.

• Find your target audience

Your target audience(s) should be defined by some characteristics like:

This process will be much easier when you already have some data about your buyers. In that case, you could just start from going through the data and identifying who buys your products the most. If you don’t – no worry!

You can make audiences by making logical assumptions about your new product. Some questions that you could ask are:

• Who could be potentially interested in your new product? ( Don’t say “everyone”. Try to go into as much detail as possible. Example: middle-aged women )
• What similar interests do these people have? ( For example, these people could be grouped as “parents”, “students” etc.)
• What topics bind these people together? ( For example, parents might be interested in topics such as “childcare”, “baby food” etc. )

Although these questions only scratch the surface, they could give you some ideas to start developing your target audience(s).

You can find out more about finding target audiences in this wonderful  article  by Hubspot.

• Create a buyer persona (Optional)

The next more advanced step could be to create a buyer persona for your new product.

What is a buyer persona?

A buyer persona is the profile of your ideal target customer built on audience research. Buyer persona mainly describes who your perfect customer is, but it can go as deep as illustrating their interests, buying decisions, groups they belong to, etc.

Read more about creating buyer personas in this  article  by Hootsuite.

4. Analyze your competitors

Knowing your competition is crucial to stay in the game. More often than not, analyzing competitors will give you a good hint about market dynamics, promotion strategies, targeted audiences and common themes about what things work to bring more sales. Let’s dive into it!

1. Identify your competitors

To find your competitors you could start by searching the internet using platforms like  Google ,  Amazon  and even  Facebook . If your new product doesn’t classify under the standard categories, try to find the closest similar competing products.

2. Sort your competitors by relevancy

After you have found some companies, it’s time to sort them by importance – which ones are more important to follow and which ones you can occasionally check on.

Easy way to categorize your competitors is to sort them in three categories:

• Primary Competitors:  These are the companies that you are competing with head-on. They are selling similar products and to similar audiences like you. These are the companies that your customers might compare you to ( for example BMW and Volvo) .
• Secondary Competitors:  These are the companies who are selling similar products as you but to a different audience ( for example a brand store that sells clothes vs general store which is also selling clothes, but at a different quality and price level) .
• Tertiary Competitors:  These are the companies which do not sell similar products to you, but they market to a similar audience  (for example if the target audience is “college students”, a company that sells school supplies can be a tertiary competitor to a company which sells clothes for younger people) .

When categorizing your competitors, make sure you track the basic information like:

• Name of the company
• Core products
• Strengths and weaknesses

You can add more tracking points as you conduct your research.

Learn more about in-depth competitor analysis  here .

5. Set Goals

After you’ve analyzed your new product and did some market and competition research, it’s time to determine the goals you want to achieve through your new product marketing plan.

Your marketing goals will set the tone for marketing messages, strategy and budget. The most common method for setting marketing goals is using the SMART system, which means your goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound.

An error many people make in the beginning is setting too broad goals:

• We want to increase sales
• We want to rank number one in Google
• We want to have more website visitors.

Goals like these don’t have a beginning or an ending – they are not specific enough, are difficult to measure and aren’t time-bound. For example, although increasing sales is realistic and attainable, it’s something that should be happening through your marketing activities anyway.

Instead of setting broad goals, you could specify them a bit, for example:

• We want to increase monthly sales revenue by __%
• We want to rank in top 3 on Google for the keyword “best hand sanitizer”, which should bring us around 1500 new visitors each month
• We want to have increase website traffic by 100 monthly visitors

A good resource on setting marketing goals we recommend reading:  How to come up with 2020 marketing goals based on business goals .

6. Develop core marketing messages

Now that you have your goals set, let’s define your core marketing messages which you will use in your marketing strategies. The core marketing message is how you explain your unique value proposition (UVP) to your potential customers. It sets the frame for your strategies, which could be social media advertising, Google Ads, video marketing and so on. Every piece of content you produce should align with your core marketing message. The core marketing message helps you build a recognizable brand voice and gives people something to connect with.

How to develop your core marketing message

• Explain why your product is different and how it can help people.

Try to describe some specific pain points that your product solves for people. Use your competitor research to see how they position themselves and be creative. Find ways to be different and perhaps you can cover some points that your competitors missed in their core marketing message.

• Incorporate stories in your core marketing message

Can you find a way to make your product more personal? Perhaps there is a story as to why you started making your products. For example, some companies include family heritage, secret recipes that have been passed on or some other interesting stories in their core marketing message.

• Don’t make fake promises

Tell people the truth. If there is no basis for miracle benefits that you promise, people will find out eventually. Be as genuine as you possibly can and accurately describe your product.

7. Develop a marketing strategy (game plan)

We have finally arrived at the actionable part of your new product marketing plan! This is the stage where you take your research, market knowledge and start finding ways to reach your marketing goals.

There are countless ways you could reach your potential customers. To keep things from getting too confusing, start by thinking of some categories you could list your ideas under. Since you are selling products, this means you could have 2 different categories, for example,  local marketing strategy  and  international marketing strategy .

For the sake of this example, some ideas for the local marketing strategy could be:

• Participating in different local events;
• Making pop-up stores in malls or places where many people walk by;
• Making locally-focused social media advertisements;
• Writing press releases, content marketing.

Some ideas for your  international marketing strategy  could be:

• Getting your product to Amazon (or other resellers);
• Ranking your website for keywords that describe problems that your product solves;
• Running digital marketing campaigns to sell your product.

 After having these broader topics of what you want to do, you can build out each idea into a roadmap where you will include all the tools and approaches that you will need to implement the idea.

8. Set a budget

The reason we didn’t list the budget before marketing strategy is, that we don’t want to hamper the flow of ideas too early. You might not have a budget for some activities right now, but that doesn’t mean you couldn’t put those ideas aside for the future.

We believe the most important things to know when setting a budget for new product marketing activities are  operational costs  and  ROI  (return on investment) needed for justifying the marketing activity cost.

We already know our operational costs from the research we made in the first chapter ( 1. Know your product ) and now it’s time to try to estimate potential ROI different marketing strategies can have.

Sadly, there are no guarantees there, but you can set a minimum ROI needed to keep or leave a marketing strategy. If you know that for example, Google Ads is bringing in a steady 3.0 ROI (for every $1 spent on ads you get $3 in sales), you can calculate what your net profit is and decide if you want to keep advertising there or not.

Keep in mind that on many strategies you could start seeing a return on investment over a longer period (for example branding activities or SEO), so don’t get too eager if you don’t see a return right away. Which brings us to the next point:

9. Tracking progress

Decide on how you will track the progress of different marketing activities. Digital marketing has made our life much easier because we can have all the statistics in numbers – website visitors, online buyers, advertising budget spent per purchase, etc.

We must remember though, that bigger part of marketing still goes on outside of the screens, where it’s not so easy to measure progress and numbers. When doing more traditional marketing, the best way to measure success is by comparing your activities to the sales revenue.

We like to think of marketing as making connections between different things: if you can find a profitable link between marketing activity and an increase in sales, you have already won half of the battle.

10. Set a timeline

Finally, it is crucial to have time boundaries for your activities.

Make a roadmap for when do you want to have your:

• Marketing goals met;
• Set strategies implemented;
• Marketing activities assessed.

Remember, marketing is all about testing and finding the right combinations for your new product.

Good luck with making your new product marketing plan!

Looking for a professional team to scale your online revenue through paid advertising? Contact us today!

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6 Steps to Create an Outstanding Marketing Plan [Free Templates]

Updated: July 23, 2024

Published: December 01, 2016

Without planning, marketing can get messy. It’s hard to estimate budget for projects, hiring, and outsourcing over the course of a year — especially if you don't have a marketing plan, email schedule, or social media marketing plan template.

To make creating your plan easier, I've put together a list of what to include. I’ve also compiled a few different strategic marketing plan templates where you can easily fill in the blanks.

In this article, we're going to discuss:

• What should a marketing plan include?

Marketing Plan Timeline

How to create a marketing plan, hubspot’s free marketing plan template, one-page marketing plan template.

• Simple Marketing Plan Generated by AI

Strategy-specific Marketing Plan Templates

• Marketing Campaign Plan
• Digital Marketing Plan
• Product Marketing Plan
• Social Media Marketing Plan

Free Marketing Plan Template

Outline your company's marketing strategy in one simple, coherent plan.

• Pre-Sectioned Template
• Completely Customizable
• Example Prompts
• Professionally Designed

Download Free

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Click this link to access this resource at any time.

What should a marketing plan include? [Marketing Plan Outline]

A marketing plan is a roadmap that businesses like yours use to organize, execute, and track their marketing strategy over a given period.

The marketing plan outline we discuss will help you create an effective plan that easily generates buy-in from stakeholders.

Download This Marketing Plan Outline for Free

Marketing plans can get quite granular depending on your industry and how big your digital presence is. This is true whether you're selling to consumers (B2C) or other businesses (B2B).

Despite these nuances, here are the essentials I’ve found should be present in every marketing plan or marketing planner template:

Business Summary

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How to create a winning marketing plan, with 3 examples from world-class teams

A marketing plan helps leaders clearly visualize marketing strategies across channels, so they can ensure every campaign drives pipeline and revenue. In this article you’ll learn eight steps to create a winning marketing plan that brings business-critical goals to life, with examples from word-class teams.

To be successful as a marketer, you have to deliver the pipeline and the revenue.”

In other words—they need a well-crafted marketing plan.

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7 steps to build a comprehensive marketing plan

How do you build the right marketing plan to hit your revenue goals? Follow these eight steps for success:

1. Define your plan

First you need to define each specific component of your plan to ensure stakeholders are aligned on goals, deliverables, resources, and more. Ironing out these details early on ensures your plan supports the right business objectives, and that you have sufficient resources and time to get the job done. 

Get started by asking yourself the following questions: 

What resources do I need? 

What is the vision?

What is the value?

What is the goal?

Who is my audience?

What are my channels?

What is the timeline?

For example, imagine you’re creating an annual marketing plan to improve customer adoption and retention in the next fiscal year. Here’s how you could go through the questions above to ensure you’re ready to move forward with your plan: 

I will need support from the content team, web team, and email team to create targeted content for existing customers. One person on each team will need to be dedicated full-time to this initiative. To achieve this, the marketing team will need an additional $100K in budget and one new headcount. 

What is the vision?  

To create a positive experience for existing customers, address new customer needs, and encourage them to upgrade. We’ll do this by serving them how-to content, new feature updates, information about deals and pricing, and troubleshooting guides. 

According to the Sales Benchmark Index (SBI) , CEOs and go-to-market leaders report that more than 60% of their net-new revenue will come from existing customers in 2023. By retaining and building on the customers we have, we can maintain revenue growth over time. 

To decrease the customer churn rate from 30% to 10%, and increase upgrades from 20% to 30% in the next fiscal year. 

All existing customers. 

The main channel will be email. Supporting marketing channels include the website, blog, YouTube, and social media. 

The first half of the next fiscal year. 

One of the most important things to do as you create your marketing strategy is to identify your target audience . As with all marketing, you need to know who you’re marketing to. If you’re having a hard time determining who exactly your target audience is, try the bullseye targeting framework . The bullseye makes it easy for you to determine who your target audience is by industry, geography, company size, psychographics, demographics, and more.

2. Identify key metrics for success 

Now it’s time to define what key marketing metrics you’ll use to measure success. Your key metrics will help you measure and track the performance of your marketing activities. They’ll also help you understand how your efforts tie back to larger business goals. 

Once you establish key metrics, use a goal-setting framework—like objectives and key results (OKRs) or SMART goals —to fully flush out your marketing objectives. This ensures your targets are as specific as possible, with no ambiguity about what should be accomplished by when. 

Example: If a goal of your marketing plan is to increase email subscriptions and you follow the SMART goal framework (ensuring your objective is specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound) your goal might look like this: Increase email subscription rate from 10% to 20% in H1 . 

3. Research your competition 

It’s easy to get caught up in your company’s world, but there’s a lot of value in understanding your competitors . Knowing how they market themselves will help you find opportunities to make your company stand out and capture more market share.

Make sure you’re not duplicating your competitors’ efforts. If you discover a competitor has already executed your idea, then it might be time to go back to the drawing board and brainstorm new ways to differentiate yourself.  By looking at your competitors, you might be surprised at the type of inspiration and opportunities you’ll find.

To stay ahead of market trends, conduct a SWOT analysis for your marketing plan. A SWOT analysis helps you improve your plan by identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. 

Example: If your competitor launches a social media campaign identical to what you had planned, go back to the drawing board and see how you can build off their campaign. Ask yourself: How can we differentiate our campaign while still getting our message across? What are the weaknesses of their campaign that we can capitalize on? What angles did they not approach?

4. Integrate your marketing efforts

Here’s where the fun comes in. Let’s dive into the different components that go into building a successful marketing plan. You’ll want to make sure your marketing plan includes multiple supporting activities that all add up into a powerful marketing machine. Some marketing plan components include: 

Lead generation

Social media

Product marketing

Public relations

Analyst relations

Customer marketing

Search engine optimization (SEO)

Conversational marketing

Knowing where your consumer base spends the most time is significant for nailing this step. You need to have a solid understanding of your target audience before integrating your marketing efforts. 

Example: If your target audience is executives that spend a lot of time on LinkedIn, focus your social media strategy around placing branded content on LinkedIn. 

5. Differentiate with creative content

Forty-nine percent of marketers say visual images are hugely important to their content strategy. In other words, a clear brand and creative strategy is an essential component to every marketing plan. As you craft your own creative strategy, here are some tips to keep in mind: 

Speak to your audience: When defining your creative strategy, think about your audience—what you want them to feel, think, and do when they see your marketing. Will your audience find your creative work relevant? If your audience can’t relate to your creative work, they won’t feel connected to the story you’re trying to tell. 

Think outside the box: Find innovative ways to engage your audience, whether through video, animations, or interactive graphics. Know what screens your creative work will live on, whether desktop, mobile, or tablet, and make sure they display beautifully and load quickly across every type of device. 

Tie everything back to CTAs: It’s easy to get caught up in the creative process, so it’s important to never lose sight of your ultimate goal: Get your audience to take action. Always find the best way to display strong Calls to Action (CTAs) in your creative work. We live in a visual world—make sure your creative content counts.

Streamline creative production:   Once you’ve established a strong creative strategy, the next step is to bring your strategy to life in the production stage. It’s vital to set up a strong framework for your creative production process to eliminate any unnecessary back and forth and potential bottlenecks. Consider establishing creative request forms , streamlining feedback and approval processes, and taking advantage of integrations that might make your designers’ lives easier.

Example: If your brand is fun and approachable, make sure that shows in your creative efforts. Create designs and CTAs that spark joy, offer entertainment, and alleviate the pressure in choosing a partner.

6. Operationalize your marketing plan

Turn your plan into action by making goals, deliverables, and timelines clear for every stakeholder—so teams stay accountable for getting work done. The best way to do this is by centralizing all the details of your marketing plan in one platform , so teams can access the information they need and connect campaign work back to company goals.  

With the right work management tool , you can: 

Set goals for every marketing activity, and connect campaign work to overarching marketing and business objectives so teams focus on revenue-driving projects. 

Centralize deliverables for your entire marketing plan in one project or portfolio .

Mark major milestones and visualize your plan as a timeline, Gantt chart, calendar, list, or Kanban board—without doing any extra work. 

Quickly loop in stakeholders with status updates so they’re always up to date on progress. This is extremely important if you have a global team to ensure efforts aren’t being duplicated. 

Use automations to seamlessly hand off work between teams, streamlining processes like content creation and reviews. 

Create dashboards to report on work and make sure projects are properly staffed , so campaigns stay on track. 

With everything housed in one spot, you can easily visualize the status of your entire marketing plan and keep work on track. Building an effective marketing plan is one thing, but how you operationalize it can be your secret to standout marketing.

Example: If your strategy focuses on increasing page views, connect all campaign work to an overarching OKR—like “we will double page views as measured by the amount of organic traffic on our blog.” By making that goal visible to all stakeholders, you help teams prioritize the right work. 

7. Measure performance

Nearly three in four CMOs use revenue growth to measure success, so it’s no surprise that measuring performance is necessary. You established your key metrics in step two, and now it’s time to track and report on them in step eight.

Periodically measure your marketing efforts to find areas of improvement so you can optimize in real-time. There are always lessons to be learned when looking at data. You can discover trends, detect which marketing initiatives performed well, and course-correct what isn’t performing well. And when your plan is complete, you can apply these learnings to your next initiative for improved results. 

Example: Say you discover that long-form content is consistently bringing in 400% more page views than short-form content. As a result, you’ll want to focus on producing more long-form content in your next marketing plan.

Marketing plan examples from world-class teams

The best brands in the world bring their marketing plans to life every day. If you’re looking for inspiration, check out these examples from successful marketing teams.

Autodesk grows site traffic 30% three years in a row

When the Autodesk team launched Redshift, it was initially a small business blog. The editorial team executed a successful marketing plan to expand it into a premier owned-media site, making it a destination for stories and videos about the future of making. 

The team scaled content production to support seven additional languages. By standardizing their content production workflow and centralizing all content conversations in one place, the editorial team now publishes 2X more content monthly. Read the case study to learn more about how Autodesk runs a well-oiled content machine. Trinny London perfects new customer acquisition 

In consumer industries, social media is crucial for building a community of people who feel an affinity with the brand—and Trinny London is no exception. As such, it was imperative that Trinny London’s ad spend was targeted to the correct audience. Using a work management tool, Trinny London was able to nail the process of creating, testing, and implementing ads on multiple social channels.

With the help of a centralized tool, Trinny London improved its ad spend and drove more likes and subscriptions on its YouTube page. Read the case study to learn more about how Trinny London capitalized on paid advertising and social media. 

Turn your marketing plan into marketing success 

A great marketing plan promotes clarity and accountability across teams—so every stakeholder knows what they’re responsible for, by when. Reading this article is the first step to achieving better team alignment, so you can ensure every marketing campaign contributes to your company’s bottom line. 

Level up your marketing plan to drive revenue in 2024

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Use a free marketing plan template to get started

Once you’ve created your marketing strategy and are ready to operationalize your marketing plan, get started with one of our marketing templates . 

Our marketing templates can help you manage and track every aspect of your marketing plan, from creative requests to approval workflows. Centralize your entire marketing plan in one place, customize the roadmap, assign tasks, and build a timeline or calendar. 

Once you’ve operationalized your entire marketing plan with one of our templates, share it with your stakeholders so everyone can work together in the same tool. Your entire team will feel connected to the marketing plan, know what to prioritize, and see how their work contributes to your project objectives . Choose the best marketing template for your team:

Marketing project plan template

Marketing campaign plan template

Product marketing launch template

Editorial calendar template

Agency collaboration template

Creative requests template

Event planning template

GTM strategy template

Still have questions? We have answers. 

What is a marketing plan.

A marketing plan is a detailed roadmap that outlines the different strategies your team will use to achieve organizational objectives. Rather than focusing solely on the end goal, a marketing plan maps every step you need to reach your destination—whether that’s driving pipeline for sales, nurturing your existing customer base, or something in-between. 

As a marketing leader, you know there’s never a shortage of great campaign and project ideas. A marketing plan gives you a framework to effectively prioritize work that aligns to overarching business goals—and then get that work done. Some elements of marketing plans include:

Current business plan

Mission statement  

Business goals

Target customers  

Competitive analysis 

Current marketing mix

Key performance indicators (KPIs)

Marketing budget  

What is the purpose of a marketing plan?

The purpose of a marketing plan is to grow your company’s consumer base and strengthen your brand, while aligning with your organization’s mission and vision . The plan should analyze the competitive landscape and industry trends, offer actionable insights to help you gain a competitive advantage, and document each step of your strategy—so you can see how your campaigns work together to drive overarching business goals. 

What is the difference between a marketing plan and a marketing strategy? 

A marketing plan contains many marketing strategies across different channels. In that way, marketing strategies contribute to your overall marketing plan, working together to reach your company’s overarching business goals.

For example, imagine you’re about to launch a new software product and the goal of your marketing plan is to drive downloads. Your marketing plan could include marketing strategies like creating top-of-funnel blog content and launching a social media campaign. 

What are different types of marketing plans? 

Depending on what you’re trying to accomplish, what your timeline is, or which facet of marketing you’re driving, you’ll need to create a different type of marketing plan. Some different types of marketing plans include, but aren’t limited to:

General marketing plan: A general marketing plan is typically an annual or quarterly marketing plan that details the overarching marketing strategies for the period. This type of marketing plan outlines marketing goals, the company’s mission, buyer personas, unique selling propositions, and more. A general marketing plan lays the foundation for other, more specific marketing plans that an organization may employ. 

Product launch marketing plan: A product launch marketing plan is a step-by-step plan for marketing a new product or expanding into a new market. It helps you build awareness and interest by targeting the right audience, with the right messaging, in the right timeframe—so potential customers are ready to buy your new offering right away. Nailing your product launch marketing plan can reinforce your overall brand and fast-track sales. For a step-by-step framework to organize all the moving pieces of a launch, check out our product marketing launch template .

Paid marketing plan: This plan includes all the paid strategies in your marketing plan, like pay-per-click, paid social media advertising, native advertising, and display advertising. It’s especially important to do audience research prior to launching your paid marketing plan to ensure you’re maximizing ROI. Consult with content strategists to ensure your ads align with your buyer personas so you know you’re showing ads to the right people. 

Content marketing plan: A content marketing plan outlines the different content strategies and campaigns you’ll use to promote your product or service. When putting together a content marketing plan, start by identifying your audience. Then use market research tools to get the best insights into what topics your target audience is most interested in.

SEO marketing plan: Your SEO marketing plan should work directly alongside your content marketing plan as you chart content that’s designed to rank in search results. While your content marketing plan should include all types of content, your SEO marketing plan will cover the top-of-funnel content that drives new users to your site. Planning search engine-friendly content is only one step in your SEO marketing plan. You’ll also need to include link-building and technical aspects in order to ensure your site and content are as optimized as possible.

Social media marketing plan: This plan will highlight the marketing strategies you plan to accomplish on social media. Like in any general or digital marketing plan , your social media strategy should identify your ideal customer base and determine how they engage on different social media platforms. From there, you can cater your social media content to your target audience.  

Related resources

How Asana’s digital team used work management to refresh our brand

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How Asana drives impactful product launches in 3 steps

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How To Create a Product Launch Marketing Plan in 6 Steps

Learn how to create a strong product launch marketing plan for your new product. We cover the 6 key steps to take when developing a go-to-market product strategy.

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rom Cheeto-flavored lip balm to New Coke to Google+, new products flop all the time. 

Recent statistics suggest that of all new products launched by companies today, only 40% survive in the market , and of those, just 60% generate any revenue.

New products can fail for a variety of reasons. Having a strong go-to-market strategy, or a product-specific marketing plan, can help ensure your product launch goes well ‚Äì and sets you up to measure success and learn from missteps. 

Creating a marketing plan for a new product launch involves outlining the strategies, objectives, target market, budget, and tactics to achieve your company's goals. It typically includes a timeline, budget, key performance indicators, and other measurements to determine the success of the plan.

A successful product launch comprises six essential steps. As a small business owner, clearly understanding each of these product marketing elements will empower you to confidently launch a new product.

Step #1 - Target Market Analysis

Target market analysis focuses on understanding a company's most likely customer base. This can be brand-wide, but when it comes to a go-to-market strategy, the focus must be on one product's target market.

Target market analysis involves researching and analyzing the characteristics of the company's existing and potential customers, such as their age, gender, income level, geographical location, and purchasing habits.

With this information, businesses can create a marketing plan that tailors messaging around a new product to the needs of their target market.

Six steps to identifying and defining your target market

• Research : Conduct research to understand the potential customer base for the new product. This may involve analyzing existing customer data and sales trends, researching competitors and their customer bases, and understanding the needs of the market.
• Segmentation : Segment the potential customer base into smaller, more defined groups based on demographics, interests, and needs.
• Profiling : Create customer profiles based on the segmentation data. Include demographic, psychographic, and behavioral information.
• Prioritize : Prioritize the customer segments based on their potential to benefit from the new product.
• Define : Identify the most relevant customer segments and outline the ideal customer's characteristics.
• Test : Test the target market definition by conducting market research or focus groups with potential customers. Make adjustments to the target market definition, if necessary.

Target market analysis in action

Target market analysis is an ongoing process. For example, the Harman brothers originally marketed Mountain Dew to Appalachia's tough mountaineers. However, its target audience has evolved drastically over time. 

Starting in the 90s, it became the official beverage of extreme sports. Then, its demographic shifted again to gamers due to its high caffeine content. Currently, Mountain Dew is dedicating 40% of its budget to targeting gamers in need of an energy boost.

Step #2 - Competitive Analysis

Competitive analysis is a process of gathering and analyzing data about competitors and their strategies. It helps businesses identify their competitors' strengths and weaknesses, identify opportunities and threats in the market, and develop strategies to outperform the competition.

Tips for identifying and researching your competitors

• Use online search tools : Start by researching your competitors online. Use search engines to find out what content they're creating, what keywords they're targeting, what channels they're using, and so on.
• Follow their social media accounts : Follow your competitors' social media accounts to stay up to date on their products, services, and promotions.
• Subscribe to their email lists : Sign up for your competitors' email lists to get an inside look at their offers and strategies.
• Monitor online reviews : Stay on top of online reviews for your competitors' products and services. This can help you identify customer pain points and areas of improvement.

Note inspiration from strengths and opportunities in weaknesses

As you gather data on your competitors, make note of where they're succeeding and where they're failing. A competitor's strengths can inspire you because they can motivate you to strive to reach similar heights of success. Their successes can also give you insight into what strategies and tactics are working for them, which can help guide your own efforts. 

At the same time, their weaknesses provide an opportunity for you to capitalize on and potentially overtake them in the marketplace.

Competitive analysis in action

Brand names aren't exactly open with their competitive analysis data. But here's an example of how a bit of competitive analysis gave way to an entirely new industry.

Airbnb was founded in 2008 by roommates Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia when a large design conference was coming to San Francisco. The two former Rhode Island School of Design students had an idea to rent out airbeds in their living room to attendees in need of a place to stay since local hotels couldn't keep up with demand. 

They created a website to advertise their loft, and within a week, they had three bookings. They realized that people were willing to pay for unique, authentic accommodation experiences not offered by hotels and that there was a potential for a business.

Step #3 - Product Analysis

Product analysis is a process used to evaluate a product's features, performance, and marketability. It may involve a review of the product's design, functionality, pricing, and target market. 

Product analysis can help you determine whether your product meets customer needs and expectations and provides a competitive advantage. Ultimately, product analysis can help guide product development and marketing decisions, including the details of a go-to-market strategy.

How to define the features and benefits of your new product

When developing a marketing plan for new product launches, a solid list of features and benefits starts the sales process. Here are some steps to extracting each talking point.

• Ask questions : Take time to ask questions about your new product. Consider the needs of your target market and the problems you're trying to solve with your product. List any unique benefits or features the product may have.
• Research competitors : Look at what other similar products are already on the market and what they offer. Identify areas where your product is superior.
• Talk to users : Ask potential buyers questions about what they like or dislike about similar products and what features or benefits they would find most attractive from yours.
• Prioritize : Once you have a list of benefits and features, prioritize them. Use the most important as the pillars for your go-to-market strategy.

Choose a pricing strategy

Consider your pricing strategy options when analyzing your product. Some of the most popular include:

• Cost-Plus Pricing : This is the most common pricing strategy for small businesses. It involves adding a markup to the cost of your product to determine the final price. 
• Value-Based Pricing : This pricing strategy is based on the customer's perceived value of your product. It takes into account the customer's needs and wants, as well as the competition in the market.
• Penetration Pricing : Penetration pricing involves setting a low price for an introductory period in order to capture market share quickly. 
• Bundle Pricing : Bundle pricing involves offering a group of products at a discounted rate. This strategy often encourages customers to purchase more than one item.
• Tiered Pricing : Tiered pricing is a strategy that involves offering different levels of pricing depending on the customer's purchase volume. This encourages customers to purchase more in order to get the best deal.

Developing the packaging and branding for the product

Your product's presentation is just as important as its price and features.

Before beginning the design process of packaging, start with an analysis of your brand to identify the mission, values, and desired message to customers. Consider the type of customer who will interact with the product packaging and how the design should reflect their values. For example, if your buyer persona appreciates green initiatives, use eco-friendly packaging. 

After brainstorming ideas, create a mood board with images, colors, and textures to create a clear vision. Finally, test the design with focus groups or customers to receive feedback.

Product analysis in action

Botanical Bakery's shortbread cookies were truly scrumptious - however, they were lost among the competition before the company gave itself a packaging rebrand. 

This rebranding effort proved to be incredibly successful, leading to a 300% increase in sales for the company. The project included a packaging redesign featuring bright colors, larger fonts, more vivid imagery, and an updated brand story to create a more personal connection with customers.

Once you have a good sense of your competitors' product offerings, your target consumer's needs, and your product's value, you can start to build out your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). Your USP will describe why your product or service beats the competition and how it's uniquely positioned to help your target customer. This value proposition should be included in all of your marketing materials.

Step #4 - Marketing Mix (4 Ps)

The marketing mix, also known as the 4 Ps, refers to the four key elements of any successful marketing strategy: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. No go-to-market strategy is complete without a customized marketing mix.

By completing a thorough analysis of your product, you should have this element of the marketing mix handled. Here are some tips for turning all of that data into a landing page with high conversion potential.

• Create a landing page : Start by creating a dedicated landing page specifically designed to promote your product launch. This page should be designed to capture leads, so provide an easy way for visitors to sign up for more information or to purchase your product.
• Incorporate visuals : Images, videos, and GIFs of your product in action can be a great way to capture attention and make your product launch page more engaging.
• Use a call-to-action : Make sure your product launch page includes a clear call-to-action that encourages visitors to take the next step.
• Share customer stories : Use customer stories to show potential customers how your product has helped others. For example, if you release your product early to a select group of users before launching it to the general public, get feedback and reviews from early users to share across your marketing channels.
• Promote your page : Promote your product launch page on social media, in email campaigns, and across other marketing channels.

You should already have chosen a pricing strategy for your product. Now it's time to communicate it.

• Take the time to clearly define your pricing. Include the cost of your product or service, and any discounts, additional fees, and taxes. Make sure to be as transparent as possible.
• Using visuals, like charts, infographics, and illustrations can help to make pricing easier to understand. 
• Offer multiple payment options, like credit cards, PayPal, and other digital payment systems. This will make it easier for customers to pay for your product or service.

This part of the marketing mix process covers where and how customers can buy your product. It involves understanding customers' shopping habits, researching where your competition sells its products, and assessing the best buying experience and after-sales support that can be offered.

It is important to consider if sales reps are needed or if self-service is the best option. Additionally, weighing the cost of giving up revenue through particular distribution channels is important. Your options may include:

• Online Marketplace : Amazon, eBay, Etsy, and other online marketplaces are popular places to sell products as a small business owner. 
• Social Media : Platforms like Instagram and Facebook offer a great way to reach a wide audience and increase sales.
• Retail Stores : You can sell your products in retail stores, either through a third party or by opening your own store.
• Wholesalers : Wholesalers are companies that buy products from manufacturers and then resell them to retailers.
• Trade Shows : Trade shows are great places to showcase and sell your products to a large number of potential buyers.
• OEM Distribution : OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) distribution is when a manufacturer sells products directly to end users, such as through a website or through a network of distributors.

Determining where your product or service is sold will help you choose the right marketing channels to maximize discoverability and conversion.

The promotion portion of a marketing plan for new product launches is where it all starts to come together. When advertising a new product, prioritize quality over quantity when deciding which channels to use. Make sure to customize your approach for each channel and audience segment, generate excitement before the launch, and continue marketing after the initial launch.

Choose your marketing channels

• Research the channels most populated by your target audience. This may include social media channels, websites, television, radio, or print. 
• Consider the type of product you're advertising. Different channels may be more effective for certain types of products. For example, retail products may be best suited for Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube. Campaigns for B2B products may perform better on LinkedIn.
• Consider the budget available for advertising. Different marketing channels may have different costs, so it is important to consider what channels will provide the most value for your budget.
• Prioritize channels that track and measure results. This will help determine which channels are most effective and should receive more of the budget.

Pre-launch buzz vs. post-launch promotion

Pre-launch buzz is a marketing strategy used to create excitement and anticipation for a product before it has been officially launched. It typically involves activities such as releasing teaser videos, creating websites, and conducting interviews to generate hype and attract potential customers.

Post-launch advertising is a type of marketing that focuses on promoting a product or service after it has already been launched. It typically involves activities such as developing campaigns, running ads, and creating content to attract new customers and increase sales. It can also be used to create brand awareness and loyalty and build relationships with customers.

Your go-to-market strategy should include plans for both pre-launch buzz and post-launch promotion.

Step #5 - Implementation

The goal of the implementation stage is to ensure that the marketing strategy is executed effectively and efficiently. The following tips can help you put your go-to-market strategy to work with minimal hurdles.

Get smart with your goals

SMART goals are a method for setting and achieving goals. The acronym stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound:

• Specific goals are clear and unambiguous.
• Measurable goals have easily identifiable metrics for success.
• Attainable goals are realistic and achievable.
• Relevant goals are important and contribute to your overall objectives.
• Time-bound goals have a specific timeline for completion.

SMART goals are great for product launches because they help provide a clear and measurable plan for success. They are also easy to understand, which makes it easier for everyone involved in the project to stay on the same page. 

Establish a budget

Go-to-market strategies don't typically come with endless budgets. Before allocating funds, calculate the cost of each marketing activity, such as advertising, promotional materials, and event costs. Then, a realistic budget for product marketing can be set, with a buffer for unexpected costs. 

Monitor the results of each activity and make adjustments to the budget if necessary. If something is working well, consider increasing the budget for that particular activity.

Allocating resources

There are more than just financial resources to allocate in a go-to-market strategy. You should also outline processes, limits, and guidelines for:

• Human resources
• Material resources
• Time resources
• Technology resources
• Logistics resource
• Legal resources
• Marketing resources

Develop your timeline

Successful implementation of a marketing plan for new product launches relies on timelines that serve as references to track progress. We recommend creating an implementation schedule by working backward from your target launch date.

• Identify the tasks that need to be completed in order to reach the deadline. 
• Estimate the amount of time each task should take. 
• Work backward from the deadline, assigning each task a start and end date. 
• Make sure to account for any potential delays. 
• Reassess the schedule regularly to make sure you are staying on track.

Establish a system for monitoring progress

Monitoring progress after a new product launch is important because it helps identify areas of success and areas that need improvement. 

Companies can use A/B testing to measure the success of different marketing strategies and identify areas for improvement. 

Track key metrics like customer acquisition, customer retention, sales, revenue, website traffic, and user engagement to measure the ongoing success of your product launch.

Plan for the worst, hope for the best

Even with proper planning, a new product launch can fail. In a worst-case scenario, having a contingency plan for a failed product launch in place can help minimize the damage.

A contingency plan should include measures to help minimize potential losses and reposition the product for success. Additionally, offering incentives to customers who have already purchased the product, such as discounts or refunds, should be considered to help maintain customer loyalty and trust.

Reallocating resources to focus on other products or services to help offset any losses incurred from the failed launch may also be beneficial.

With the above tips in mind, you'll be able to ensure a smooth rollout of your marketing campaigns.

Step #6 - Post-Launch: Evaluation and Retention

Post-launch evaluation and retention in a go-to-market strategy is the process of assessing the success of a product launch and developing strategies to retain customers after the launch.

Measure success with a post-mortem review

A project post-mortem is a review process that takes place after a marketing project is completed. It's a time to evaluate what went well, what didn't, and what can be improved for future projects. 

During a post-mortem, you should review the project goals, resources, timeline, budget, and KPIs to identify what worked and what didn't. Make notes of process improvements you plan to make for future projects.

It is important to adjust your product marketing playbook based on data insights and post-mortem evaluations, but not necessary to start from scratch. Make changes to reflect the data and findings while keeping the overall structure and goals in mind.

Develop a retention plan

Developing a retention plan after launch is critical for any business to maintain customer loyalty, encourage additional purchases, and better understand its customer base. 

Suggested strategies include:

• Offer loyalty programs and rewards 
• Create a customer-only community
• Implement automated follow-up emails 
• Offer incentives for referrals

Final Takeaways

Crafting an effective and comprehensive go-to-market strategy requires a lot of thought and effort. Use this cheat sheet as a reference for each essential component.

• Target Market Analysis : Identifying and researching the target audience's characteristics, needs, and wants to create a tailored marketing strategy.
• Competitive Analysis : Analyze the current competition's strengths and weaknesses to identify areas of opportunity and solidify your value proposition.
• Product Analysis : Evaluate the product to ensure it meets customer needs and wants. Determine which features and messaging to emphasize in the marketing strategy.
• Marketing Mix : Develop a unique creative marketing strategy by considering the product, price, place, and promotion of the product.
• Implementation : Execute the go-to-market strategy and ensure all elements are in place for a smooth rollout.
• Post-Launch Evaluation and Retention : Measure the success of the launch, identify areas for improvement, and develop strategies to keep customers engaged and loyal.

A well-thought-out marketing plan clears the runway to launch

Without a calculated marketing plan , a product launch could fail due to a lack of awareness and engagement with the target audience. This could be a costly mistake for small businesses that may not have the resources to recover from a failed launch. 

By implementing the six shared steps above, you can easily develop a marketing plan for new product launches, ensuring each launch is successful.

Novo Platform Inc. strives to provide accurate information but cannot guarantee that this content is correct, complete, or up-to-date. This page is for informational purposes only and is not financial or legal advice nor an endorsement of any third-party products or services. All products and services are presented without warranty. Novo Platform Inc. does not provide any financial or legal advice, and you should consult your own financial, legal, or tax advisors.

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How to create a marketing plan for your new product (Checklist)

Your marketing strategy can mean the difference between stellar sales and a disappointing launch. Create a marketing plan for your product launch with this checklist.

Marketing and sales

Rachel Burns

November 5, 2021

Jump ahead in this article

Product launch marketing plan checklist, step 1: set goals for your product launch, step 2: define your target audience, step 3: establish your unique selling proposition (usp), step 4: determine your marketing budget, step 5: choose your marketing channels, craft a go-to-market plan for launch day success.

A wise person once said, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”

When it comes to launching a new digital product, we couldn’t agree more.

After hours of brainstorming, research, and hard work, you’re finally ready to launch and sell your digital product . The last thing you want is a disappointing launch day.

That’s where planning ahead comes into play. A solid product marketing plan can mean the difference between a $10,000 launch day and a failed product launch. And you don’t have to be a marketing pro to create that plan.

To help you get set up for success, we put together a six-point checklist for building your marketing plan. Follow these steps to create a marketing roadmap you can use for every new product launch.

Download a PDF of the checklist here .

You can have the biggest marketing budget and the fanciest tools, but until you set goals, your marketing plan is like a ship without a rudder: directionless.

Marketers tend to have a bad habit of setting vague goals. We say things like “make more sales” and “drive engagement” without really digging into what meeting those goals looks like in action.

Why do we do that? For one thing, it’s hard to recommend specific universal marketing goals or ways to measure success. Every creator has different key performance indicators (KPIs) depending on their goals.

Setting goals that are specific to your business, brand, and product can help you select which metrics to track leading up to your launch.

For example, if your goal is to collect pre-launch signups for your new online course, you might track the number of website visitors who sign up for your pre-launch email updates.

On the other hand, if your goal is to convert new customers through social media ads, you would track how many people click on your Facebook ads, and how many of those visitors then purchase your product.

To set the right goals for your marketing plan, we recommend the SMART goal framework.

With the SMART goal framework, you design your goals to meet five criteria:

Specific: Set detailed goals that narrow in on a particular part of your business.

Measurable: Make sure that you can quantify your goal and track your progress.

Attainable: It’s fun to dream big, but pie-in-the-sky goals can quickly become discouraging. Keep your goal challenging but achievable.

Relevant: Check that your goal aligns with your values, brand, and overall business goals.

Time-bound: Give yourself a realistic deadline to achieve your goal. Deadlines hold us accountable and give us a timeline to work towards.

For example, say you’re a month out from launch day for your new online course. You want to validate your product idea and grow your email list by gathering pre-launch signups .

Your SMART goal might be: “By adding a pre-launch landing page to my website, I will collect 100 pre-launch email signups before launch day next month.”

With specific metrics in mind, a realistic goal, and an action plan to get there, you can set yourself up for a successful launch. What that action plan looks like depends on a variety of factors — including your audience.

One of the most important questions to ask before starting a new business is, “Who is my target market?”

That question is just as valuable when planning for the launch of a new product.

Here’s why: You can’t market your product if you don’t know who you’re marketing to.

Your target audience is the group of potential customers you plan to sell your products or services to. To make your marketing as effective as possible, you need to get to know your potential customers as people, not just demographics.

That’s where buyer personas come in.

Content marketing consultant Amy Wright explains : “Buyer personas describe who your ideal customers are, what their days are like, the challenges they face, and how they make decisions.”

A buyer persona might look like this example of one of Spotify’s target customers:

To build your buyer persona, it’s time to do some customer research and discover what your audience wants to learn, achieve, and buy.

Look at forums, online communities, and reviews for products in your niche. Ask yourself:

What are my target customers talking about online?

What challenges do they face?

What are their goals?

What do they value?

What language do they use?

When you learn how your audience talks and thinks, you can better communicate why your new product is a great fit for them.

If you have an online community of your own, don’t be afraid to ask them directly what they’re looking for. Reach out to your brand community, email list, and social media followers and ask them to share their feedback.

Your audience wants to share their feedback and ideas with you. 64% of consumers want brands to connect with them, and 90% of consumers have a more favorable view of businesses that ask them for feedback.

When you create discussions in your brand community, you can build connections and bond over shared values. You get to know your target audience more personally, which helps you create marketing messaging that resonates with them.

You can even ask your existing customers to test out and share feedback on a prototype of your new product .

One great example of learning from your customers comes from Tiffany Williams, founder of CEO InsideHER .

Tiffany learned what her audience valued by asking them directly. “I just ask my audience what they want, what they want to learn, and if it matches something that I have done, and I have been successful with, then I teach it to them,” Tiffany shared with us .

Getting to know her customers helped Tiffany build a membership community of nearly 40K entrepreneurs and sell digital products that help her audience grow their own businesses.

(Podia makes it easy for creators like Tiffany to connect with their audience and sell digital products, all from one platform. Give Podia a try today with a free 30-day trial. )

Overall, the better you get to know your target audience, the more you can tailor your marketing to fit their needs and show them how your product can help them succeed. You’ll need that info in this next step.

Once you know all about your target audience’s pain points, needs, and goals, you can define your unique selling proposition (USP).

Start with the result you want to offer your customer, then work backward to determine how your product achieves that result. That’s your USP.

Your USP, also called your value proposition , answers two questions:

What problem does my product solve for my customers?

What makes my product different from my competitors?

When you define your USP, you’re reaffirming that your product helps your audience meet their goals or overcome a real obstacle. And that’s a key piece of a successful product launch. 35% of startups fail because there’s no market need for their products or services.

In other words, there’s no product-market fit. Your product-market fit is how well your product meets customer demand. Your USP pinpoints that product-market fit and explains what sets you apart from the competition and makes potential customers choose you.

If you aren’t sure what makes your product stand out, conduct market research to learn more about your competitors.

Are there any pain points your competitors don’t address? What does your product do differently? You might have a course with more visual lessons than others on the same topic, or maybe your experience gives you a different perspective from other creators in your niche.

Your USP also helps you figure out how to market your product.

Take Death Wish Coffee , for example. Most coffee brands highlight features like smoothness or flavor, but Death Wish takes a unique approach, claiming to be “the world’s strongest coffee”.

Death Wish knows that their ideal customer wants extra-strong, kick-in-the-pants coffee, so their marketing messaging highlights that differentiator. Their USP might not appeal to every coffee drinker, but it showcases what makes them unique and is tailored to their target market.

All in all, when you know what makes your product special, you can highlight that in your messaging. Use the same language that your target audience uses when talking about their pain points. Your messaging will resonate with the right customers.

You’re nearly ready to share that messaging with the world — but first, let’s make sure you can do it without breaking the bank.

As a creator, you probably don’t have the budget to hire an outbound sales team and in-house marketing staff, and that’s okay. But you need to figure out how much you can afford to spend on marketing before you start running ads or commissioning designs.

How much money you set aside for marketing depends on your overall budget, product launch goals, and how many tasks you outsource vs. handle in-house.

The good news is that you don’t need a six-figure marketing budget to execute a successful strategy. In fact, more than one-third of small businesses spend less than $10,000 on advertising each year.

As you figure out your budget, you may want to allocate money to costs like:

Software and tools to create content, communicate with your audience, and manage campaigns.

Freelancers, like graphic designers, copywriters, video editors, and web designers.

Paid advertising, such as sponsored content, paid search ads, and social media ads. (We’ll talk more about paid social ads in the next section.)

If you can’t afford to hire freelancers or buy high-end software, don’t worry. You can still create a high-quality marketing campaign on a budget. Here are some resources that can help:

12 best free tools for creators selling digital products

11 free SEO tools for infopreneurs and creators

With your budget in hand, you’re ready to move on to step five and pick the right marketing platforms for your product launch.

As you’ve hopefully realized by now, there’s no one-size-fits-all way to promote a new product .

Different tactics resonate with different audiences, and not every platform will work for every creator, budget, and product.

Plus, there are more digital marketing channels out there than any one creator could tackle on their own, so it’s essential to find the right ones for you and your customers.

Here are a few of the most popular channels to consider including in your marketing plan.

Email marketing

Email marketing is a must-have in any digital marketing strategy. Over 4 billion people will use email this year, collectively sending about 320 billion emails per day.

Marketers and customers alike love email. 73% of consumers rank email as their top channel for marketing messages, and 59% of marketers cited email as their top source of ROI in 2018.

Email is also an affordable option for small businesses with a tight marketing budget. At around $42 for every $1 spent , email has one of the highest returns on investment (ROI) of any marketing channel.

To use email marketing in your product launch campaign, you need two things: an email list and an email marketing platform .

One way to encourage potential customers to sign up for your email list is via lead magnets . A lead magnet is a high-quality resource, like a free digital download , that users receive in exchange for their email address.

Here are some resources to help you grow your email list, choose an email platform, and make the most of your email marketing:

5 proven ways to build your email list fast

Create your first lead magnet in 90 minutes or less (+5 ideas)

5 steps for writing sales emails that convert (+ Templates)

14 digital marketing email templates for every awareness level

6 email metrics to start tracking ASAP

Social media marketing

59% of Gen Z and 55% of millennials discover products on social media, so it’s no surprise that many creators and entrepreneurs use social media to sell digital products .

You can find the best social media platforms for your small business by figuring out where your customer base already spends their time online. Then, decide if you’ll use organic vs. paid social media advertising .

Social media marketing works best when you combine organic and paid initiatives. Organic social media marketing lets you engage with your community and potential customers, while paid social ads help you get more eyes on your products.

To build some buzz around your new product, Twitter is a solid choice. For example, designer and marketing expert John D Saunders used a video on Twitter to announce a new online course:

John’s video let his audience know what to expect from the course and saw high engagement with 30+ retweets and over 200 likes.

Engaging his audience on Twitter and beyond also helped John earn $10,000 on launch day and $100,000 overall from his first course on Podia.

On the paid social side, ultra-specific targeting tools help you reach more of the right people faster than organic can. Over 62% of marketers say that paid social media advertising has been at least somewhat effective for their business.

Facebook ads are an affordable choice for small businesses and solopreneurs to get their new products in front of a larger audience. For example, business coach Melyssa Griffin used this video ad to promote her Pinterest workshop for bloggers.

With the right audience targeting in place, Facebook ads like Melyssa’s translate to digital product sales for creators.

Here is an additional resource to help you master social media marketing:

Guide to Facebook ads for digital product entrepreneurs

Content marketing

Content marketing costs 62% less and can generate more than three times as many leads as traditional marketing. It’s an affordable way to reach your audience, establish your expertise, and build relationships with prospective customers.

80% of people read, watched, or listened to a piece of content from a brand in the last year. That content can include videos, visual content like infographics, live and pre-recorded webinars , and, of course, blog articles.

Here’s how starting a blog can play a big role in a successful product launch:

Your ideal customers discover your blog content through search or other distribution channels.

They learn from your articles and begin to trust your expertise.

They sign up for your email list or follow you on social media.

You keep them updated about your product launch.

They’re excited to buy your new product, support you, and continue to learn from you.

The key here is to create blog posts that provide real value, not just longform product ad copy.

For example, if you’re selling an online course on dog training, you could write a blog post about high-value vs. low-value treats to reward your dog. Your followers will come to trust your dog training expertise, making them more likely to buy your course as soon as it launches.

Make sure to write your blog content with search engine optimization (SEO) in mind. SEO makes it easier for your target audience to find you when searching for relevant keywords and phrases. That’s why nearly 64% of marketers actively invest time in SEO.

Here are some resources to help you get started with SEO and content marketing:

A step-by-step guide to SEO for selling digital products

Simple SEO tips that require no technical skills

How to give away free content and make more sales in 3 steps

The best video marketing strategies for beginners

How to use webinars to launch online courses

Website and landing pages

Picture this: Your launch marketing is all going according to plan.

Potential customers are flocking to your website, ready to learn more about your product, sign up for pre-launch updates, and eventually make a purchase. Now, you need a landing page that makes all your hard work pay off.

Before your product goes live, you can create a pre-launch landing page. Pre-launching your product has two big benefits:

Validating your product ideas.

Building your email list leading up to your product launch.

On your pre-launch landing page, include a short description of your new product and tell visitors why they should sign up to learn more and get notified when you launch.

Come launch day, that pre-launch page becomes a product page that, with the right copy, turns visitors into buyers. You don’t have to be a professional copywriter to craft a sales page that converts . You just need to help your potential customers answer, “Is this for me?”

To answer that question as you write your sales copy, go back to the USP you established in step three. Focus on your product’s benefits rather than its features. A feature is a part of your product, while a benefit is the impact that feature has on your customer.

Take a look at Nicole Saidy’s product description for her online course, Become a UI/UX Designer.

Nicole understands that transitioning to user experience design can be overwhelming — but she’s here to help. She helps her audience determine if the product is right for them by speaking directly to their pain points.

Here is a resource on crafting landing and product pages that bring in sales:

The digital creator’s guide to landing pages

With your marketing channels chosen, you may think you’ve reached the end of the checklist. But there’s one more vital step to make the most of your product launch marketing and set yourself up for success — now and for many product launches to come.

Step 6: Track your results and keep iterating

Our sixth and final step, tracking your results and iterating on your marketing, is more of an ongoing process than a checklist task.

During and after your product launch, revisit the goals you set in step one. If you’re not meeting your goals, you have an opportunity to learn and make changes for next time or even update your current marketing activities.

For example, let’s say your email marketing campaigns aren’t performing as well as you expected. Your open and click-through rates are lower than you’d like them to be, but you still have time to make changes before launch day. It may be time to run some A/B tests .

A/B testing (or split testing) involves changing different elements of your email one at a time, then seeing how those changes affect your performance.

If you were A/B testing different subject lines, for instance, your subscribers would receive identical emails except for the subject line. By comparing the two open rates, you can see which subject line performs better, then use that knowledge in future email campaigns.

Above all else, remember that trying new things and allowing yourself to make and learn from mistakes helps you grow as a creator.

Maybe you discover that a certain marketing channel isn’t the right fit for your business or audience. That’s valuable information to bring into your next product launch plan.

In fact, Python developer and successful course instructor Reuven Lerner recommends experimenting with different marketing channels to find what works best for you.

“Experiment! It’s hard to know how to market online, and every group of potential customers is a bit different. So you’ll have to experiment to find out what’s effective (and what isn’t). With everything you do, consider, measure, and then modify your techniques to improve them. There’s no one magic bullet here!”

It can feel discouraging to discover that your marketing efforts aren’t getting results but embracing the experiments that don’t work out is a major part of succeeding in business . Ryan Kulp, founder of Micro Acquisitions , explains:

“To run a successful business, you have to first get comfortable running an unsuccessful business, because most of the time, success comes later.”

In the Startup Curve , coined by Y Combinator founder Paul Graham , failure is a standard phase that happens right before your business starts heading upward toward scaling and growth.

Business coach Minessa Konecky agrees . “I think that what we really need to do is look upon past failures and mistakes as wells of information that we can then use to feed whatever it is that we’re doing now.”

Bottom line:

Don’t be afraid to experiment with your marketing to find what works best for you, your brand, and your audience. With your goals in mind and a little patience, you’ll be well on your way to an effective launch strategy that you can use for many product launches to come.

You’ve worked hard to create a product your audience will love. A successful marketing plan can help all that hard work pay off come launch day.

To recap, here are the six steps to create a marketing plan for your product launch:

Set SMART goals for your product launch. Figure out what a successful launch means to you and which metrics you’ll track.

Define your target audience and get to know them as people, not just demographics. Conduct customer research and talk to them to learn more about their challenges and goals.

Establish your unique selling proposition (USP). What makes your product the best choice for your ideal customer? How do you stand out from the competition?

Determine your marketing budget. You don’t need to spend an arm and a leg to create a marketing campaign that drives sales.

Pick your marketing channels. Email marketing is a must-have, but there are a variety of other platforms out there to choose from. Figure out which ones align with your audience and goals.

Track your results and keep iterating on your marketing strategy. The more you learn about your customers, the more successful your next product launch marketing plan will be.

Remember, you probably won’t get it 100% right the first time, and that’s okay. It may take some trial and error, but once you figure out what works for you and your customers, you’ll be a product marketing pro with the launch day sales to prove it.

Keep on reading

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