Article 8 min read
1. Just be 'good enough' for launch
There is no single correct way to launch a business. Your approach will depend on your sector, objectives, and available budget.
However, aiming for perfection can stall progress. Instead, focus on reaching a solid standard that is good enough to launch, and you can smooth out any bumps as you go.
Launching at the right time, even if your offering is not perfect, is more important and allows you to start gaining customers and insight, and making improvements from day one.
The purpose of a launch can vary considerably - from reaching and selling to as many people as possible as fast as possible, to dipping a toe in the water to test, learn and adapt. We’ve listed some of the most common goals below.
2. Maximise sales: high profile launch
Sometimes nothing beats a grand launch for building excitement and awareness. It’s often ideal if you need to make sales as quickly as possible from day one to remain viable, perhaps because it will be your only source of income, or if you have high fixed running costs.
It's also useful for surprising your competition - perhaps if you’re introducing a new concept on a traditional approach, such as a quirky restaurant, unusual visitor attraction or some kind of physical experience. However, it can be just as suitable for a small local business such as a deli, hairdresser or children’s activity business.
The aim is to maximise visibility among your target market and generate enough interest, so it will probably require some budget.
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Physical events. These can create a real buzz and bring you face to face with potential customers. Local businesses can promote them at low cost in local Facebook groups and newsletters as well as asking well known people in the community to spread the word. Evening parties can work well on your premises, but equally a lot of balloons and some refreshments on the first day you open your doors can work really well for a small cost. Take the opportunity to encourage people to sign up for email updates and follow you on social media.
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Marketing campaign. This will require some marketing budget and maybe expert help to have sufficient impact, with a co-ordinated campaign across multiple channels such as social media, press, influencer marketing, email, and paid advertising as well as promotions and special offers.
A grand launch carries a higher risk than other approaches, as any issues with your product or processes can impact your brand early on and generate negative feedback. It’s important to communicate with your customers and resolve any issues quickly to keep them on board, and potentially offer discounts or incentives while you get on your feet.
However, on the positive side, a well-planned hard launch can propel your business forward. It can attract attention from the media, create a big brand buzz, attract loyal customers, and help you generate revenue. You will gain a lot of insight during the first few months which will help you refine and improve your business.
3. Test your operations: soft launch
You may have a finished product or service, but you need to test your processes before you go into full production or finalise operations. For example, you may wish to test your marketing, your website functionality, the way you provide your service or your logistics.
Delivering good customer service is about much more than just your core product. It’s about the shopping experience, the order or purchase process, and effective delivery or fulfilment. It’s about having the resource to meet demand at the right time to avoid unhappy customers.
One way to do this is to restrict the number of people who know about your business on day one, and slowly expand it once things are ticking over smoothly. This gives you a chance to collate and respond to feedback quickly, change your processes and adapt if needed, and deliver a positive experience for all your customers to build future word-of-mouth referrals.
With a soft-launch, if something does go wrong, fewer people are aware of it, giving you a chance to recover with minimal reputation damage.
This can be ideal for businesses in food and hospitality which can use it to test menus or recipes and train new staff for a few weeks before progressing to a higher profile launch. Or, for hand-made craft businesses where you’re not sure if you have the capacity for a big surge in demand.
Of course, your approach to this will need to take into account the minimum amount of sales you will need to achieve cashflow and to be profitable.
4. Build your capability and cashflow: phased launch
A phased launch is useful if you eventually plan to have a whole suite of products or services, but you need to work up to it and build your capability and cashflow first. In this case it’s best to start with a limited range and see how things go. Start with the simplest option of your product or service that’s likely to have the widest possible appeal, combined with the one that’s most likely to capture attention.
For example, let’s say you’re launching your own T-shirt designs. Rather than launch straight away with 15 different colours in a multitude of sizes (giving yourself a cash-flow issue and the problem of where to store them all) perhaps pick a single very bold colour to stand-out in your ads and images, and one neutral colour which is likely to have a broader appeal.
You’ll probably end up with a series of mini-launches for each new or extended product or service you add in. This gives you the opportunity to test, learn and adapt, as well as keep things fresh with lots of exciting new choices for your existing customers, while you build revenue to boost your growth.
5. Test your offering: minimum viable product or service
If you are launching an innovative or new product or service that isn’t available in your market, you could consider launching with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP.) An MVP is a stripped-down version or offering that tests your idea in the market.
Launching with an MVP can be a great way to fine-tune your product or service and gain valuable feedback, before you go into full-scale production. This is because no matter what research has been done, you can never be completely sure who your customers are or exactly what their needs are, until you try something for real. What people say in research or focus groups often differs from what they actually do when deciding to buy or use something.
Your MVP could be as simple as:
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an advert encouraging people to sign up and find out more about the service you’re thinking of launching, so you can see if there’s demand
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a small run of your key product that you sell slightly discounted in return for feedback, to gauge interest and gather hands-on insight on your product’s design
- a prototype of a digital product to demonstrate your concept to gauge interest and willingness to pay for your idea.
From there, you measure what’s worked and what hasn’t, and decide whether to keep going or ‘pivot’ to something different. For more on this approach, the Lean Startup by Eric Ries is worth a read.
6. Marketing goals for launch
The overarching marketing goals for different businesses are likely to be similar during launch, it’s just the balance and scale that will vary. Before you start your marketing, make sure you’ve created a marketing plan, and understand different marketing techniques to find new customers.
Build anticipation, awareness and interest
This could be done through pre-launch communications, or even early market research:
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asking for opinions e.g. a Facebook story or group poll “Which of these should I launch first?”
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sneak peaks for image-led products and services using Instagram or Facebook stories
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seeding to relevant groups online (e.g. hobby based Facebook groups)
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a landing page with a countdown to launch
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paid advertising in various channels
Build a database and social media following
A key goal is to build your own database of existing and potential customers. This might include growing a social media following to make future marketing as cost-effective as possible - it’s always easier to sell to ‘warm leads’ than start from scratch. Consider a sign-up form on your website and posts on your social platforms to encourage sign-up for giveaways such as:
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a free consultation
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downloads of valuable content
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discounts and special offers.
Create interesting content and recruit your existing network of friends and family to help you share it and spread the word.
Gather feedback
At the beginning, every single sale you achieve isn’t just about the income. It’s the opportunity to test your processes, check your pricing is right, and learn more about who your customers are. You can find more about what customers want to buy and how they want to buy it and then adapt your approach if needed. Consider tactics like:
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linking to an online survey in confirmation emails
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offering incentives to those first customers who deliver feedback.
Read more about gathering feedback.
Encourage reviews
Great reviews and word-of-mouth recommendations are the key to successful organic growth of your business. If you have a stand-out offering you deliver well, sometimes this just happens without you doing very much!
However, many businesses support this by using review sites and encouraging customers to leave reviews. They can be very useful in helping a new business establish credibility quite quickly. To help gain reviews:
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respond to any online reviews you have already received
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gently prompt existing customers to leave reviews.
Have a look at:
Remember to actively monitor reviews and respond to them in a timely and measured way. Find out more about managing reviews and responding to customers online.
Increase sales
As you gain traction, you will want to maximise sales.
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Online - this could be by analysing which traffic sources perform best, or altering the images, copy, and layout of your online shop to increase conversions.
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In-person this could be through up-selling products or services or booking customers for repeat appointments.