Product launch is a make-or-break step of your SaaS journey. It's just as vital to launch your product as it is to produce perfect software. As a result, it's essential to start planning early and get a few things in order. So let’s look at 10 steps to make sure your product is all the buzz when it’s going to hit the market.

What difference does a good SaaS launch make?

A strong product launch serves a variety of functions for a company, one of which is to inform the general public of the existence of such a product. It also aids in the development of product anticipation, the gathering of useful feedback from beta users, and the creation of momentum and a market share for the company.

The launch of a new product is an important milestone for the firm because it provides and expands commercial potential. Whether or not your company launches its first product, the process of achieving the targeted market aim during a fresh market entry always necessitates specific approaches and in-depth strategies.

Product Launch Checklist

• Product roadmap

A product roadmap is a single source document that describes a product's vision, direction, priorities, and progress through time. It's a strategy for aligning the organization around the product or project's short and long-term objectives, as well as how they'll be met. As a cherry on top, you could add deadlines to have a greater level of commitment from your team members. Be sure to have some breathing space for each deadline or your team might get burnt out. It goes without saying that you need to set a launch date and stick to it.

• Define your target audience

You can’t sell your product well enough if you don’t know who you’re selling to. Locking down on your target audience not only helps increase your chances of meeting higher sales numbers but also increases the chance of word-of-mouth marketing. Get into the minds of your target audience to build more effective marketing strategies and have a better product outreach.

• Test the product

You can only know what your product can and can’t do if you push it to the limits. Run alpha and beta tests. Alpha test is when the employees of the company test the product themselves and is mainly used to weed out the bugs. Beta testing is done by someone outside the company and is mainly done to test the reliability, security, and robustness of the product.

• Train the sales team

In a lot of cases, the sales team is the middleman between your product and the company. The sales team can help the customers only if they’re well versed in the product. Be sure to have multiple sessions with your sales team and ensure that they know the product inside out. A weak salesperson can throw off a customer’s inclination towards a product.

• Build traction

With the rising speed of social media, it’s hard to get lost in the crowd. But get at it and build some traction for the product on popular platforms such as Instagram, Reddit, or Facebook. Having a crowd of people anticipating your product can be the hype your product needs. Other ways of getting the public involved would be to have popular Youtubers review your product. This can reach the highest number of audiences in the shortest time but be warned, the job of a reviewer is to say it as it is. So if your product has any drawbacks, that won’t be looked over.

• Crunch the numbers

Establishing your profit margins as one of your product launch phases is a good idea. Examine the performance of your existing products, if any, to determine the number of units sold, total revenue generated, break-even sales volume, and the net profit achieved. Then work backward to determine which numerical targets are most appropriate. This is also beneficial as a surplus is more incentive to better improve the product and its features. 

• Build anticipation

Anticipation can be a key to capturing a wider market. It not only builds a sense of intrigue but also builds a sense of exclusivity. One of such examples of exclusivity was accomplished by OnePlus for their phone OnePlus X in 2015. Create a landing page for the product, an e-mail campaign, reach out to bloggers and journalists to help create content to tease the product before its release.

• Countdown the date

In the last few weeks counting down to the launch date, engage with your audience and be more socially active. Hold raffles to give out your product a few days before it’s actually launched. This way, crowd participation, and the hype are increased for your product. Give our exclusive coupons to a lucky few customers who redeemed them for a discount.

• Have a strong supply plan

Unless you decide to do the distribution on your own, you need a vendor to do the distribution for you. It's critical for business owners to keep track of their sales and ensure that customers can access their SaaS smoothly. Establishing a manageable supply chain is the best way to do this. Work closely with your vendors to determine their maximum capacity for the number of units they can offer at any given moment. Then, if your product launch results in greater demand than supply, work together to figure out how to grow production.

• Post-sale services

The developer-customer relationship does not end after your product is sold. In fact, it has just begun. Providing a robust after-sale service is just as essential as selling your product. Train your customer service thoroughly and make sure they know to assist your customers with any issue they might have. Shabby customer service can discourage customers from continuing with the company as it can paint a bad picture of the company in their heads.

To wrap it up…

Thinking about your product launch can give your butterflies and it could be very overwhelming. Be sure to teat your product hundreds of times before actually putting it out for beta testing. If you’re looking for an article for your landing page, here’s an article that talks about How to Write a Product Copy that Sells. If you’re still not at that stage yet, here’s another article that talks about some Common Fundraising Challenges and how to overcome them.