5 Things you need to Consider before you launch your new product or Service
When you’re a business owner, your brain is pretty much always buzzing with new ideas and ways to grow your business. Launching a new product or service can be an exciting milestone for your business, but before diving in, take a moment to stop and think about these five crucial elements to make sure that you’re setting yourself up for success.
Who is your Audience for this Product/Service?
Before you go any further, take some time to identify your target audience for this new product or service and what problems this will solve for them. Is it the same audience your business already serves? If it’s a new audience, don’t forget to consider how you will market this to a new group of customers. If you’re marketing to your existing customers then use the data you already have to spend more time getting to know them and how they shop or engage with your business. By taking some time to get crystal clear on your target audience before you launch, you’ll get ahead of the game and have chance to tailor everything from your messaging to your marketing channels to connect better with the people you’re trying to reach.
Do You Have All the Resources You Need to Deliver It?
Sometimes your amazing idea, while genius, might require a big investment to actually execute. When I say resources, I’m thinking of more than just the physical things you need. If your idea is a new product then, chances are you’ll need to go out and buy the supplies. Once you buy the supplies though, can you create this with the existing equipment you have? If you need to invest in new, costly equipment then again, you’ll need to consider whether the ROI (return on investment) will justify the outlay. If you’re thinking of offering a new service, you may not need any physical resources, but consider the time it will take to develop and launch this new project. Is it something you can do on your own, without pushing yourself too far? Maybe you need to consider bringing in a new member of the team to help you market or manage the service. There may also be additional tools in terms of systems or software that will be needed before you can launch this new service. My recommendation is to make a proper list, I personally love an excel spreadsheet, of exactly what you’ll need and what that will cost. This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t launch a product if it requires investment, we’ve all heard the saying you’ve got to spend money to make money, however you do need to make sure you’re going into this knowing the full cost and ensure that whatever that cost is, you’ve got a plan to recuperate your investment and still make money from this new offering.
Is Anyone Else Already Offering This?
If your idea is really something people need, chances are there’s someone else out there already offering it. Take some time to do your research, see who else is offering this. If no one is, don’t forget to question why. Is it truly an untapped market or is there not a market for it? Is there an obstacle you need to address, or maybe while possible to deliver, the price point would be so high that no one in your target audience is ready to invest? If others are already doing this, think about what will set your offering apart from the rest. Does your product or service offer something more than the others or is there a unique element to yours that makes it better? In a service based business, you might be offering exactly the same as someone else but your approach and delivery is what makes it unique. One business could never work with every person or business on the planet so of course we need to have multiple people with the same offering but it’s still important to take the time to analyse similar offerings and make sure you’ve thought about yours from all angles.
Pricing Strategy
One of the hardest parts of developing a new products or service is thinking about your pricing strategy. With products it’s sometimes a bit easier as you may already have a formula in place that calculates your resource cost, time creating the product and profit margin to provide you with the product value. In services it can often be more difficult. Although you might have an hourly rate in place, make sure you consider the time spent beyond delivering that service to one customer. Consider the time it took you to develop your skills and create the service and marketing time or costs, on top of what time you will spend delivering. Once you’ve figured out your price in terms of what you want to sell at, you also need to take a moment to think about the audience you’re marketing to. Make sure that your price point aligns with the value that your target audience perceives or you won’t be able to sell the service successfully. If you feel that the service you’re offering is too expensive for the audience you’re targeting, consider how you could adapt the service to align with their budget. Are you including things that you could remove and therefore save yourself some time and allow you to market the service at a slightly lower price point?
Timelines
Once you’re happy with your offering, you’ve identified your target audience, you’ve got all the resources needed to deliver it, you’ve spend time conducting competitor research and you’ve decided on a price point, it’s time to think about your timeline. A successful launch requires a well thought out timeline. Make sure to consider the following points:
Have you set a realistic launch date that gives you enough time to prepare effectively?
What key milestones do you need to deliver on along the way? Think about both production/development and marketing.
Do you have clear objectives for the launch such as sales targets or audience engagement goals?
Setting out a timeline and SMART goals within your timeline, keeps you (and your team if you have one) on track and ensures you’re not rushing through or missing any important steps.
My Final Thoughts…
Launching a product or service can go from feeling exciting to overwhelming pretty quickly. With careful planning and consideration of the five elements set out above, you’ll be setting yourself up for success and when the big day comes, you’ll be ready to launch with confidence and impact!
