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Questions to Answer Before a Product's First Campaign
A launch campaign works when it promises what the product already delivers. These five questions keep the message and the product in step.
A launch campaign works when it promises what the product already delivers. These five questions keep the message and the product in step.
Campaigns are often planned during the final weeks of development, by people who have yet to use the product. The messaging ends up describing the roadmap, and users arrive expecting features that are months away. Before any campaign goes live, we answer five questions with clients, and the answers come from the product itself.
A: Start with the user profiles from discovery, then narrow them to the group whose problem the first release solves best. A tightly defined first audience makes every later decision easier: which channels to use, which examples to show, which words to choose. Broader audiences can follow once the product has proven itself with the first one.
A: A statement the product can prove within someone's first few minutes of use. If the benefit only becomes visible after a tutorial or a week of setup, choose a different claim for launch. A good test: ask someone outside the team to use the product for five minutes, then ask what it does. If their answer matches the claim, you have the right one.
A: Channels identified through research: the publications they read, the communities they join, the events they attend, the creators and specialists they trust. Collaborations with those voices often carry more weight than advertising on its own, because the audience already trusts the person making the introduction. Choose a small number of channels and do them well.
A: The first screen should confirm the campaign's claim straight away. If an advertisement promises quick scheduling, the landing page should show scheduling within seconds, and the sign-up flow should go there directly.
A: Measures agreed in advance, such as accounts created, first tasks completed or return visits in the first fortnight, reviewed on a fixed schedule. Choose measures that reflect real use of the product, since a large number of visits means little if nobody finishes the core task. Anything learned about the product, such as a step where new users stall, goes straight to the product team.
The table is deliberately simple. Each row describes something a team can check in an afternoon, and each item in the right-hand column is cheaper to fix before launch than after it.
The first review usually comes a week or two after launch. Look at who arrived, which channels brought people who went on to use the product, and where new users stopped. Keep the channels that brought engaged users, adjust the message where people arrived with the wrong expectations, and pass any product issues to the team building it. The second campaign benefits from all of this, which is why the first one works best when it is planned as a learning exercise with a clear question attached.
A first campaign sets expectations the product has to meet. Answer these questions with the product in hand, and launch once every statement in the left column holds true.