Whether you love managing marketing campaigns or not, launching a campaign is easier said than done!
Campaigns are the main way you communicate with your audiences and acquire new leads, but launches take time, effort and PLENTY of organisation!
Furthermore, with every launch comes risk.
One misstep, off-taste response, or poorly-timed launch could have a bad effect on your brand's reputation and ultimately…
You aren’t going to see the results you want based on those KPIs.
So to help things run as smoothly as possible, we have some important tips for you which fall under 5 umbrellas.
(Just interested in your budget? Skip to Tip 4 now)
1 - Mapping out absolutely EVERYTHING.
As mentioned above, when planning a launch you need to be as organised as humanly possible.
Start off by identifying your timelines (as you can’t do much prep without them!). For e-commerce and products, we strongly suggest 4 key dates:
Pre Launch
A great way to raise awareness and build excitement before you’re ready to sell. With a Pre Launch you can be confident that you will hit the ground running when your launch officially opens.
Early Bird Start
Open your launch with a discount. An Early Bird offer will encourage early sales, indicate what your demand is and help you utilise scarcity within your campaign.
Early Bird End
Your Early Bird offer must have an end date or a limited number of sales available and your audience should be consistently reminded of it.
Launch End
Another important date to add scarcity. Do not be afraid to tell your audience when your launch is coming to an end.
*For informational based launches, you might also want to consider a retargeting date.
Once you have set dates, you’re going to need to identify all of your leverages.
Do not limit yourself here! To get the best possible results for your launch you should at LEAST be utilising the following assets:
Email Lists
Emails should be sent frequently during any launch, so make sure you plan out what emails can be sent. Your email lists can also be uploaded as custom audiences for your retargeting ads. This is a no brainer because anyone on your email list is already paid for.
Stage 2 Retargeting
Make sure you advertise to anyone who has visited your site in the last 180 days and social media in the last 365 days. Just because a prospect hasn’t visited your site or socials in the last couple of months, it definitely doesn’t mean they won’t be interested in your offer.
Sales Page & Checkout Retargeting
For launches, these are usually your best performing campaigns. Results should also continue to increase as you get closer to your end date. Remember… These people are on the fence about your product/service, so some heavy scarcity could go a long way to push them over the edge.
Phone Numbers
Generally, if you have a list of buyers you’ll have a list of phone numbers. Anyone who has opted in for information should receive fairly frequent messages and your first message should aim to build anticipation.
Cold Traffic
Your biggest asset - primarily run on Facebook. If you use Google Ads, you can also adjust your ad word campaigns, ensuring your latest offer is highlighted in the headline.
Your leverages don’t have to end there! Keep adding to the above list as you see fit.
2 - Going through the entire user journey to establish holes
Go through all of your ad campaigns, website pages, emails, integrations and tracking. Investigating everything closely is going to help you determine what needs to be actioned. In addition to gaining a clear idea of what creatives you want, you will have the chance to spot and fix any potential problems that could affect your launch's results.
For example, look at your website and think about whether you need to build new web pages or a special banner highlighting a new price. Identify exactly what time these changes will need to be made and try to have the page ready before it is actually needed. Correlating your offer and pricing will make things easier for your audience and in return should help with sales.
Another important example, check and double check you have your auto-responder setup correctly pre and during your launch. Capturing all the necessary data is really crucial for a successful campaign.
3 - Creating a responsibility and timeline chart
In order to have a stress free launch, create a table which lists all of your action points. Each action should indicate who is responsible to complete it and by what date. We suggest setting deadlines 7 days before the task is actually required. This chart can then be shared with all team members to ensure everyone is on the same page. Clear communication like this is imperative to avoid mistakes.
4 - Planning your budget strategically
For launches that last 1 month or more, planning your budget strategically is a must.
Begin by deciding how many sales you want, followed by what cost. Work backwards with these numbers for your total budget figure. For example, if you want 100 sales at £100 per sale you will need a budget of £10,000.
Next, break down how long you will be running the offer for and determine what percentage of your budget should be spent each week. Slowly increase your budget as time goes on and push as much spend as possible towards the end of your Earlybird or launch itself.
Why? Because you are going to get the majority of sales here and you should always spend more whilst more sales are coming in!
Although these numbers will probably change as you start to see results, it is important to start off with them. If you spend your budget equally throughout your launch, you will miss out on more sales at a cheaper cost per result.
5 - Creating the necessary creatives
After planning your budget, you should know how many creatives you want.
For shorter launches we advise you have a few extra creatives than you think you need. For longer launches we advise doubling your creatives. This will prevent you rushing to make new images, copy or videos if you find what you already have live is underperforming.
When choosing what creatives you want, do not put all your eggs in one basket. Make sure you are testing a range of types. For example; natural images vs professional images, images vs videos, short copy vs longer copy and so on.
Launches can be real money makers, so it’s definitely worth putting the time and thought into what angles and messaging are going to work best. Furthermore, you shouldn't only rely on yourself when it comes to brainstorming your creatives. Rely on all of your team members and get as many people involved as you can.
Lastly, don’t feel you have to completely reinvent the wheel! If you have done a similar launch before, have a look at what has worked well in the past. Of course you’ll want some new tests, but reusing some of your top performing creatives should set your campaign off to a good start. In addition, you will have more time to focus on and perfect less creatives.
As you can see, A LOT of thought needs to go into your launch campaign.
If you have a launch coming up and would like some further guidance, be sure to get in touch and we'll see how we can help!