What are some best practices for a successful product launch targeting a B2B audience? What about B2C?

B2B

- The foundation of any successful launch is a compelling insight. This is especially true in B2B. To get to that golden nugget, even if you have a research group and/or an awesome, collaborative sales team - meet the customers. There is nothing like first-hand experience when it comes to truly understanding customer. That's where your aha moment is most likely to happen.

- On the creative delivery front, remember that in B2B your LTV is typically extremely high, especially if you're at the enterprise/10,000 employee level. Instead of a "campaign" or broad approach to marketing the message you've developed, imagine what you would do to reach one, specific large client if you had $1000 to spend. Come up with creative ideas and ask yourself if they're scalable. 

- Make sure the sales team is on board with the messaging hierarchy. They are your biggest clients and they are the one in the trenches every day hearing the same things from customers. Be sure to listen. Include them. The insights you develop and the way you reach your shared audience should get them excited.

B2C

- For either B2B or B2C, once you get alignment on the key value props and messaging hierarchy. share it out like crazy. I'm a fan of actually printing out the top three value props, in order, and posting them on the wall. That hierarchy should serve as the Source of Truth for everything and anything related to communicating the product. It can't do that if it's sitting on a proverbial shelf i.e. in a Google Doc no one has opened in five weeks.

- In B2C the messaging hierarchy is critical, but I notice a lot of people fall down on the creative delivery. Finding where in-product you want to tell the story (and it better not just be a company blog post) and the external channels is not the end. If you're just throwing together creative that has the words you want to say and the brand colors, you're missing a huge opportunity. The bar for creative excellence should be just as high as the bar you set for strategic positioning. If you don't feel like you're the creative type, partner up with someone who is to ensure your message gets to customers in a compelling way. 

- Because they're public-facing, B2C cross-functional teams are often wider and everything gets a bit more scrutiny. Start bringing people into the process early and over-communicate the state of the launch, creative and results. 

I personally feel like too much is made of the distinction between B2B and B2C. Heads of IT are people too! In either case, the messaging is paramount. As I said above, commit to “Know the user. Know the magic. Connect the two.” And be able to express that in short / shorter / shortest lines of messaging

As for placement, I have found B2B a bit easier than B2C. There are many more digital channels to reach people when they are staring at a screen from 9-5. That said, one of our most successful mediums for Vanta has, surprisingly, been out of home! We developed a tagline that captured the product value and user need (“Compliance that doesn’t SOC 2 much”) and saw our billboards go viral online. If you start with strong messaging, there are a lot of channels and tactics that will work, no matter who your audience is.

1. Have a clearly defined launch goal. A metric, a quantity, and a timeframe. "Sell as much as we can" is not a goal.

2. Have a launch leader. Succesful launches to launch by themselves. 

3. Good product/market fit

4. Identify a good target market segment

5. Prepare your team

6. Prepare your market

7. Build alliances

8. Measure and adjust

More on my blog - https://www.brainkraft.com/7-tips-to-prevent-product-launch-catastrophes