Startup Launch Checklist: Tools, Tips and Resources

Launching a startup in the age when almost 140,000 new companies are born each day is everything but easy. Experienced entrepreneurs know that the launch is a process that needs to be planned months in advance in order to make a successful market entry and avoid early failure.

Therefore, the strategic approach to planning and executing a startup launch is one of the crucial factors that determine its further pace of development. In fact, business analysts Joan Schneider and Julie Hall point out that the most frequent reason why product launches fail is the lack of preparation:

“Companies are so focused on designing and manufacturing new products that they postpone the hard work of getting ready to market them until too late in the game.”

Clearly, failure of new products typically happens as a result of insufficient market research that can later seriously impede a company’s growth. This is why it is important to invest a great deal of time in preparing the launch step by step months before the actual product or service is ready to be offered to the audience.

1.     Research: know exactly how your product fits in the market.

As pointed out by Schneider and Hall, a successful market entry is possible only if entrepreneurs ensure the following:

–       The company can support a rapid growth (this may include a plan for scaling everything from human resources to web hosting services)

–       The launch happens when the product is really ready

–       The product is tested among a limited group of target users

–       Consumers can quickly understand what the product is about

–       There is an actual market for the product

Once these aspects are properly covered, the next steps include building a website, preparing a PR campaign and eventually releasing the product. At this stage, marketing teams need to identify the right opportunities for an early breakthrough and find relevant channels for reaching the target audience.

2.     Customer development: define who your customers are and what they want.

Even the most revolutionary products can fail if they don’t reach their target consumers, which is a mistake most frequently associated with an inadequate customer development plan. In the final phases of product or app development, sales and marketing teams need to develop buyer personas, identify target audiences and do a research on their interests and habits.

In the realm of lean startups, an efficient approach to this is a “get out of the building” methodology, which aims to interact with real-world people and get their feedback on product prices, business models, features, distribution channels, etc. A serial entrepreneur Steve Blank, who came up with the method explains the main ideas behind it in this Inc. video.

3.     SEO research: set the stage for a successful digital strategy.

Given that a large number of contemporary startups rely on engaging the audience via digital channels, it is essential that they do a proper SEO research as early as possible. Identifying users’ search intents and specific online search trends can help them design a website that consumers will find easy to understand and interact with. Moreover, early SEO research yields some long-term benefits such as enhanced conversion rates on a website, which is certainly crucial for startups that sell products or offer services online.

An excellent tool to start an SEO research is Google Keyword Planner, which shows relevant search trends and allows you to plan website contents based on your audience’s behavior. Once the website is up, the tools such as Google Webmaster Tools, Crazy Egg and Moz Pro will let you understand how visitors interact with it, which is essential for its later development.

4.     Create early buzz: use social media.

The increased use of social media is definitely a trend startups should take advantage of in order to create an early buzz before the launch. The greatest benefit of using social media is the fact it is a free resource that could be used to gain relevant exposure, analyze the target market and connect to industry influencers.

When it comes to tools you can use to better understand the social media ecosystem, Kevan Lee of Fast Company created an extensive guide that helps you choose the ones that will make sense for your business most.

5.     Generate traffic: design a coming soon page.

Similar to social media networks, a “coming soon” page could be one of the most potent tools you can use to gather a community of early users and collect email addresses of those potentially interested in your product or service. Moreover, the page will help Google to index your website faster, meaning that you may start appearing in search results early upon the website launch.

For app developers, a coming soon page also means that they can start promoting their company across beta communities such as Beta List, Product Hunt and many others. Therefore, this could be seen as yet another efficient way to gain relevant exposure and start creating awareness of your brand-to-be.

6.    Launching next: bait for media influencers.

Probably the most important step in the whole pre-launch process is preparing a PR outreach to media influencers. This is typically done by finding bloggers who are catering to your target audience and offering them an exclusive story. If you get your pitch right, chances are people from Mashable, Techcrunch or any other influential media portal in your industry will be ready to cover your story and ensure that hundreds of people will know about your company immediately.

Of course, none of this can happen if you don’t do your homework and prepare a pitch that will be interesting to your targets. In relation to this, Jay Baer lists three key ingredients of a successful influencer pitch and suggests including specific pieces of information to make it easy for the blogger to understand why your idea is revolutionary.

Ready for the launch

Taking these steps makes the product or app launch not only more successful, but also much easier given that you’ve already collected email addresses, engaged with influencers and determined the most important channels for creating buzz. Of course, this is only the beginning of a startup’s journey to success, but this is precisely why it is so important to do it right. Ensuring maximum coverage and user engagements from the start will give you enough feedback for further work on developing your company.