Generating Demand for a New Product Launch

Before I bring new products to market (for an existing customer base) I like to test & generate demand before launch. It accomplishes several things:

• Feedback; It continues to provide product signals that can be used to pivot or inform investment

• Momentum; If learnings are positive it can be used to create early excitement & momentum in product development and the sales force

• Sales; It can lead to more sales in the first quarter of launch

I've personally ran demand gen campaigns up to 10 months before a product is launched, after internal alignment & commitment but before product development has been started. I've used this to sell customers into a vision, closing deals before a product has been launched to the market, even before early-access or development was complete.

I've used this to sell customers into a vision, closing deals before a product been launched to the market..

This article assumes you have done the appropriate product & market research and believe but have not proven the investment will pay off. Proof lies in hard numbers like sales and retention, and we don't get those signals until at least 6 months after post-launch, but more often 1-2 years in the case of B2B sales. With that said, generally, I use several "campaigns" to do this, which I will briefly outline below.

Talk to Customers

The first is a word of mouth type of approach. Talking to as many customers as possible that fit the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), or adjacent profiles of customers to sell them into vision, while also balancing obtaining their feedback on the vision. Do they believe in the vision? Are they already paying for a solution? Would they consider us as a vendor in the future? Would they like to learn more?

I seek to typically talk to 20-40 customers and I always create a homegrown sales deck, before the marketing alignment & polish, and prepare a brief live demo if there's a prototype available. If no prototype is available having the design team prepare a few high-fidelity mocks to show is the next best option. Illustration is key for customers to synthesize the information. I will even A/B test some slides with customers as part of the feedback and ask questions to help inform the best way to tell a story that resonates in as little time as possible. I will say something like, "I have two non-marketing approved slides, which ones do you believe conveys the information best or makes the most sense".

Moving along, to execute on the conversations, I work with my sales counterparts to bring me into calls with customers that have an unmet need, or to introduce me over e-mail where I can drive the scheduling and conversation. The latter is often the better approach because sales has often not been enabled at this stage, so they won't be comfortable nor capable of driving the conversation. It pays dividends to have built great relationships with your sales leaders so you can in confidence, bring them into the fold on new efforts, very early. To help sales identify customers for conversation, I will brief select leaders on the effort and the ICP we're targeting, our goals, and why it's valuable for them. Essentially a very scoped enablement session. I usually do a couple of these with early customers quotes and value from product discovery & research as the backdrop.

Pilot Program

The second method is to offer a free pilot program. The intention is validate the demand by seeing if customers are willing to put their time into a no-obligation program to receive value on an alpha version of the product. Their time is valuable, and participation is a great signal.

You can also use incentives for participation include discounting, roadmap priority, and ability to shape product as design partner, depending on how your pilot adoption goals.

Customer Waiting List

A third method is generating demand through a waiting list. This can be as simple as Google Form, or a "Coming Soon" product landing page where customers can complete a form to sign up to learn more. You can decide the Call to Action. Capturing sign-up along with the types of customers: their market segment, their sector and industry, etc. will help provide my signals to test your ICP as well as the overall need for the solution you're going to launch. Lastly, it serves as lead gen. Customers that expressed explicit interest to learn more are the ones you can target for a pilot program pre-launch, feedback, conversation, or a sale post-launch.

Product-Led Growth

If you have an existing customer base, platform, or website that receives a reasonable amount of traffic, you can launch a Product-Led Growth (PLG) campaign. A simple "Coming Soon" banner, or a pop-up notification in the right locations can be enough to drive awareness and then finally a call to action.

Marketing Content

The last method I want to cover is marketing content such as blogs, webinars, demo videos and more. These are simple ways to generate demand, but typically less effective on lead-gen compared to the items above.

With all launches, I typically will write a series of blog posts, demonstration videos, and run a few webinars. Because we're talking about pre-launch demand generation, these need to be tightly scoped and targeted. For example, in a publicly traded company, the messaging is often created in away that alludes to the vendor considering solving the problem, and providing early thought leadership around it.