How to Plan a Successful Digital Product Launch

A product launch is like hosting an event for something you’ve created. Unfortunately, creating a digital product isn’t enough to get sales. You also need to invest in preparing for its marketing launch. Launching a digital product is a great way to generate some publicity and wow your audience. It’s usually the first crucial marketing activity you’ll do for your business. A product launch is all about getting discovered. In this post, we’ll teach you how to plan a successful launch for your digital products.

How to Plan a Successful Digital Product Launch

1. Validate Your Product Ideas

Before you officially launch your new digital product, you need to conduct pre-launch validation. One of the most important steps is finding product-market fit. Without product-market fit, you’ll find that your marketing takes more effort and has higher churn. Once you’ve found product-market fit, you’ll be able to create new digital products to better serve that audience, which will help you skyrocket your sales. 

You can also run beta programs. For example, if you’re selling software, you can get beta users to test your product before it launches. If you’re launching an ebook, you can get people to read ARCs as they will review your book before it launches, and they will share feedback on what they think of your book. Finding some relevant testers before you launch can give you the feedback you need to tweak your digital product before it reaches the masses. 

You can also create waitlists or pre-orders to get early traction. If you’re launching your digital product on a set date, you can have the landing page and website up to start marketing it before it comes out. This can help you secure early sales you might’ve missed if you hadn’t started promoting before the launch. 

Creating the right product will also depend on customer feedback. You can survey people in the niche you’re creating products in to get that feedback. For example, you can post Stories on Instagram asking people to share their burning questions to create digital products that address the most common ones. You can browse Reddit to see which threads are most popular in a niche category. There are also lists you can find online based on popular sub-niches, such as for ebooks, to help authors know the trending subcategories that sell well.

2. Set Launch Goals

A product launch is a time to test your goals and measure your success at achieving them. Do you have a target number in mind for sales you want to generate over a specific period of time? Are you more concerned with learning who your buyers are and their purchasing habits? What sort of habits do your buyers have? Where do they live? How will they relate to your product?

Make sure you have the tools and procedures in place to capture everything you chose to measure. If your objective is to get 10,000 downloads in the first 30 days after the launch event, will you have the mechanisms in place to capture the download count? Can you easily pull data on their geographic origins? Are you prepared to capture their feedback?

3. Build a Website

For your digital product launch, it’s so important that you have a website not only to host your products, but also to build your brand. Success doesn’t come from launching one product, one time. It comes from spending years in your niche, constantly shipping new products and building an audience. The easiest way to build an audience is to have a website you can continuously drive traffic to. 

Payhip is a platform that allows you to sell both digital and physical products. It has many important features that make selling online safe. For example, if you sell digital downloads like ebooks, you can add PDF stamps to help prevent leaks on pirate sites. Alternatively, you can set download limits for buyers, such as 3 downloads, to prevent people from actively sharing the download link with others. 

Payhip also has specialized features for various digital products. For example, you can generate license keys for software you create or upload your own. You can also find features such as drip content, various lesson types, and certificate options for selling courses. 

On Payhip, you can also build a blog on your website. You can use your blog to drive organic traffic back to your products. You’ll need to ensure your blog is optimized for search using specific keywords to rank for that topic. 

Payhip also has Payhip Marketplace, where you can list your products to an existing audience. These listings can allow you to reach new potential customers. You can also show up on Google Shopping ads to get some sales from ads. You’ll need to have made at least $10 in sales and be approved by a Payhip team member to be considered for the marketplace.

4. Use Timing Strategically

The timing of a product’s introduction into the marketplace is an important marketing strategy. There are seasonal trends that can positively and negatively influence the success of your product launch. Identify the times of the year and the locations that are going to maximize exposure and leverage:

• • Stay away from dates people all over the world typically go on vacation. These are usually the summer months of July and August, as well as public holidays such as Christmas and Easter.

• • Ride the coattails of a major trade show in your industry or some other major event, such as a conference or the announcement of a new product release or new technology that dovetails with yours. Examples: a large seminar or workshop that trains people to use technology who are likely to be your product’s users, or the release of a new app or operating system that supports your product or enhances some aspect of its use.

• • Avoid launches that you might be aware of that take place after your competitors’ launches. You want to be ahead of your competition, not behind them, or you may find potential customers have lost interest. Be first out of the gate, if possible.

• Avoid delays in your announced launch. Your competitors may take that opportunity to jump in early, or worse, stir up negative talk. You want to be ready, have buyers anticipating your product’s availability, and have the media poised to cover the reaction and write about it.

5. Create a Launch Checklist

A product launch involves extensive planning, tasks, pre-announcements, post-announcements, and follow-ups. Make sure your customers can access the product, understand how to use it, and are happy with their purchase. There’s not always an order to this, but you do want to make sure you perform them when they seem logically appropriate. You want to be on top of the time-sensitive ones and take advantage of the flexible ones. And you don’t want to overlook the important ones. Use a checklist.

6. Grow Your Email List

Mailing lists are like gold. You’re not only communicating about your new product; you’re also talking to your potential customers, the ones who are going to pay for it. You want to cultivate them like precious gems to yield future sales. Those emails will grow as customers share your communications. You’re establishing a relationship with them. Keep them happy, and they will be your boosters. You want them to become repeat visitors to your site, purchasers of your product, and fans who will spread your message and help it grow exponentially via social media.

Are you starting a product launch from scratch? Chances are, you don’t have a mailing list. Or, you may have one from a previous product you’ve marketed. In either case, you want to encourage visitors to your site to opt in to your emails. The earlier you start the process, the larger your email list. Establish rewards and incentives. Your customers will probably need some motivation to try your product.

If you are starting out with very few emails, use social media to build them up. Boost posts on Facebook. Add friends. Follow people and businesses on Twitter. Tweet and retweet items of interest. Build followers on Instagram and Pinterest with your product’s images, blogs, screenshots, pitch decks, and how-tos. Ask people to fill out a short survey. Here’s one that’s been hitting email boxes:

Use your website, sales platform, and social media to attract visitors and followers and then encourage them to sign up for your email list. This gives you the opportunity to contact your prospects at any time with any kind of messaging you want, and you’re not bound by search engine rankings or social media algorithms.

Start generating names for a mailing list as early as possible by using your website. Ask visitors to leave their email so they can be the first to get updates. Give them a free sample download of the first chapter (like Amazon’s “Read sample” feature), or a PDF with helpful advice or information. Create and communicate incentives, such as giveaways, bonuses, and discounts, for early buyers.

Sign up with an email service provider (ESP), especially if you’re starting from ground zero. Here are a fewhighly rated providers: Kit, MailerLite, Beehiiv, ActiveCampaign, and MailChimp. An ESP will provide you with all the tools, templates, and services you need to get subscribers, test your campaigns, manage the day-to-day requirements of your emails, and generate analytics.

7. Promote Your Launch

There are so many fun ways to promote your product launch. Here are a few for you to get started with:

Content Marketing

Content marketing includes everything from blog posts to YouTube videos to podcasts. If you’re building a website, you can build a blog on Payhip. SEO is an important part of content marketing. If a page isn’t optimized for search, it likely won’t rank. A digital product launch can also entail being featured on podcasts. While it’s a dream to be on some big-name podcasts, don’t underestimate the value of a small, but niche podcast that your target audience watches. The more targeted the podcast you appear on, the more likely that you’ll convert the sale or at least gain a bigger following. Videos are also a form of content marketing. On YouTube, you can also go the SEO route to rank in search results and AI. However, you can also create viral videos to get as much attention as possible, since the algorithm will still surface them in its feed. 

Social Media

Social media can entail search-based platforms like Pinterest and YouTube or impulse-driven platforms like TikTok and Instagram. How comfortable you are being seen will often dictate your platform of choice. People who feel uncomfortable being on camera can choose to market their products on Pinterest and LinkedIn. However, those who aren’t as camera-shy can create videos on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. You can also do faceless content on those platforms. Getting over a fear of being seen will enable you to cross thresholds you’ve never been able to before. You might find that once you start posting video content online, the fear of being seen reduces. 

Influencer Partnerships

Partnerships let you reach an existing audience while you’re still building your own. You can run an affiliate marketing program on Payhip to get affiliates to promote your product and earn a commission on sales. You can also get influencers to review your product in a post to their audience. For example, there are countless blogs that review books for a fee. If you’re already a creator, you can collaborate with another creator to launch a product. That way, you have two massive audiences combined into one for the same product. The last alternative is newsletter sponsorships. Email is one of the best ways to get sales. When you pay to be featured in a newsletter or sponsor one, you might get direct sales of your product depending on where you promote yourself. Remember, the more aligned your product and partnership are by niche category, the more likely it is to convert into sales. 

Public Relations

You can also do media outreach for your digital product launch. For example, if you’re launching a new ebook, you can reach out to publications like newspapers or magazines that have a book section where you can email them a copy of your book and be featured in a list they create. If you own a software company, there are countless sites that do software reviews for you to be featured in. Some may request an affiliate link to monetize the review. 

8. Be Ready to Provide Help

Be ready to provide fast, expert support, especially during a new product launch. Troubleshooting guides and user manuals can help when you or your support staff are not available to walk customers through glitches or answer usage questions.

Offer online chat, phone support, and/or email support if you are able to. Sometimes phone support works better with technical questions on software. If it’s about a lost password, credit card issues, online chat, or an email, an email may suffice.

Have Customer Relations Management (CRM) in place. Don’t try to handle the support yourself. It will suck up hours of your time and keep you away from doing the work of an entrepreneur – developing, producing, and generating sales for your products. You can use CRM software to manage all your customer relations in one place.

Search online for virtual assistants or others seeking part-time work that can be done remotely from home. Or go the digital route with a software provider that acts as your online help desk and/or online chat provider.

9. Track Launch Metrics

When you have a successful digital product launch, it’s important to measure your results to gauge the campaign’s effectiveness. Ideally, you’ll have made some sales from your launch to make the most of your numbers. Some metrics you should measure include: revenue, conversion rate, email sign-up rate, cost per acquisition, refund rate, and customer lifetime value.

10. Optimize After Launch

After you launch a digital product, you can optimize its features or its marketing. For example, you’ll likely have much more customer feedback to review and consider. With that feedback, you can add new sections to courses or ebooks and create new products. You can also make tweaks to product pricing. For example, you might find that your price is too high or too low depending on feedback and sales performance. You can also start launching retargeting campaigns, as you’ll now have some targeted traffic to your website.

Final Thoughts

After the launch, learn how your product reaches your global audience. Continue testing, tweaking, and making modifications, if needed. If your sales and responses didn’t hit your launch goals, remember, it’s only chapter one of the story. Don’t be afraid of mistakes or shortcomings. You’ll learn more from them than from your victories. Doing so lets you turn a good product into a highly successful one. Feel free to check out our next resource on how to sell digital products

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