Ah, the launch….equal parts thrilling and nerve-wracking, exciting and stressful, optimistic and “oh my gosh, is even going to work?” But, for so many companies, a “launch” is an opportunity to find a new area for growth. For start-ups this means a go to market of a product that pulls together their big idea with a bunch of hard work. For a large CPG company, this means a go to market of a whole new product line targeting a new market. For a financial services company, this may be a new offering (ie a new credit card or investment vehicles). For a successful German software company, this may mean launching into the United States. These launches are each dramatically different but each has a few commonalities:
1. You are trying to prove that there is a market.
The first commonality of all launches is that you are trying to prove that there is a market for whatever you are launching. This seems obvious and it may be, but proving that can be very difficult. Often times we see people launching something, that launch fail and then those people assuming that there is not a market for what they are selling. This may be the truth. But, it may also be the case that they have an unclear plan or inexperienced people executing the launch. In other words, when a launch is unsuccessful, this could be because of one of three factors:
- Poor execution. There is a good market and there is a decent plan in place but that place is executed poorly. We see this all the time. A company spends a bunch of money on a product and they decide they want to test it by buying some Facebook ads and some Google ads. They spend some money in those channels and they lose money on every purchase and then they decide that their product isn’t “wanted”. This could be the case. However, it could also be the case that they had inexperienced people buying traffic and optimizing that traffic. In this case, they haven’t proven whether there is a market or not. They have only proven that they don’t know how to use paid media to determine whether there is a market or not.
- No market. In some cases, there really isn’t a market for what a company is trying to sell or that market may be very small or the company has to go back to the drawing board. They may have to adjust the pricing or the features of their product or service. Or, they may be too late to the market or too early to the market.
- Both poor execution and no market. In some cases, there is both poor execution of a launch and no market. This is the most challenge scenario to fix. Ultimately, fixing this will require a lot of time and money. Frankly, the world is littered with these launches. Some will fail and be forgotten about. Some will figure out how to survive until they fix both. Others will be in the middle and find themselves along a difficult road.
2. All launches need a clear plan.
What are you trying to prove with the launch and what does winning look like? No launch should be unclear on this or that launch is doomed to fail. These plans must include all marketing and sales channels. So, while we focus on online marketing at Growth Assembly, these online marketing efforts have to be thought of within a larger marketing and sales plan.
3. All launches need a clear and focused team.
A focused team needs to be assigned to all launches. Plenty of launches fail because the same team is trying to launch while they are trying to do one million other things. And, while we all fool ourselves into thinking that our teams can do a bunch of different things so adding one more thing to their plate will be just fine…this simply isn’t the case when it comes to launches. A launch needs a clear and focused team that is focused on making that launch successful and really determining whether there is a market. Again, if the launch doesn’t get the time and attention it deserves from a clear and focused team, you will only prove that you can’t execute a launch rather than proving whether there is a market or not.
4. All launches need a clear and focused budget.
This is where so many of get into trouble. We either don’t have a budget or we have an unclear budget. This is true whether we are re-doing a kitchen or launching something new within our companies/businesses. Launching something isn’t cheap. There are plenty of gurus out there that tell you to “not worry about getting a bunch of customers, just start with your first couple”. But, there are a lot of businesses out there that get wooed into false hope because they find it pretty easy getting their first handful of customers but really hard to get any more than that. By the time they have burned through plenty of time and money, they realize there is a market but it’s too small to turn into a real business. So, a budget needs to be clear and needs to be tied closely to what you are trying to prove. You are trying to prove that: A) There is a market of people or organizations that will pay you for what you are selling; B) That market is big enough for you to build a business within it; C) You can get a customer for less than it costs you to produce and deliver whatever you are launching.
5. All launches need a clear and focused timeline.
When are you going to launch? How long are you going to give yourselves to prove there is a market? How often are you going to check in on whether your launch is “going well”? Many people launch without this clarity and don’t hold on for long enough to do adequate testing or, equally bad, keep investing well after it’s been proven that there is no market or you can’t reach that market in a profitable manner.
We Created Growth Assembly Because Bespoke Teams Increase The Chances A Launch Will Be Successful
Prior to starting Growth Assembly, our team had a huge number of “launches” under our belts. We have launched our own start-ups, launched new products for large companies and executed launches for other companies as agency leaders and freelancers. We started Growth Collective and Growth Assembly because we figured there had to be a better way for companies to “hire for growth”. And, one of the areas where we have seen the most success is in helping companies to “launch”. So, are launches so fitting for Bespoke Marketing Teams and vice-versa? Well, let’s go back to what it takes to have a successful launch.
You are trying to prove there is a market and Bespoke teams are ideal for this.
The most successful teams have a very clear and common objective. For a sports team, this is to win a game. But, for a company or organization there may be a series of different objectives. For example, if you are a successful software company from Germany, trying to enter the U.S. market, you are doing that along with 100 other things. So, identifying a team within the company that can be brought together for the one clear purpose of proving that you can scale into the U.S. is difficult. Larger companies try this with “committees” and these rarely work well. And, while you can hire an agency to have a team with a fresh perspective and a clear focus to their work, this approach has distinct disadvantages. Agencies don’t typically have the folks internally that have the experience across a lot of channels while also having experience in your industry, in your business model or in your geography. Agencies are amazing and we love working with them closely as partners, but we also recognize that they aren’t well suited for launches. It’s hard for them with their fixed employees to find the right combo of the experience, channel expertise and focus needed for a successful launch. Also, agencies typically are expensive. And, while we believe they are often worth it, launches need to prove that they can be ROI positive. If you are paying an agency $250 per hour, that can make many launches hard to drive ROI. But, if you are going more direct to the experts doing the work, you may only need to pay $100 per hour and can get more experienced experts.
You need to have a clear plan and Bespoke Teams are also ideal for this.
You can go onto Upwork or Fiverr to find people who will buy Facebook ads for you. That can work well once you already know what channels are going to work for you. But, who is going to put together a plan of how to figure out how which channels to test, how to test and how to know when those tests are successful? That requires a CMO level expert. And, while you may have a CMO within your company, a launch needs a CMO of that launch. When done right, Bespoke Teams should include a fractional strategy person to drive the plan that gives the launch the best chance of proving whether there is a market. That fractional person can then work with your team to determine channels to test and experts that can immediately test those channels efficiently and effectively. If you just hire a freelancer, you won’t have somebody to tie the whole launch together and, without that, you will have very little chance of succeeding.
You need to have a clear and focused team.
I have already spoken to this, but it’s worth repeating…a launch needs a team that is focused on proving whether there is a market and then scaling. Hiring a few different freelancers is just a mess – it’s hard to manage, doesn’t create cohesion and rarely works. It ends up being a series of individuals working in silos rather than a team working cohesively. And, while hiring an agency can be an approach…again, for launches, you may not get a team with the expertise and experience needed. So, then, you could use your internal team. But, they may already be too busy to give the launch the required focus. And, hiring them just to do the launch doesn’t make sense. If the launch isn’t successful, you will then need to do layoffs and that’s difficult for everybody.
You need a clear and focused budget.
We are assuming that you can put together a clear and focused budget internally. And, while we think having a CMO-level expert helping you put that together could be ideal, there is another reason that a Bespoke Team works for this..they are more affordable to hire. Beyond providing greater flexibility, Bespoke Teams usually will end up being more affordable than hiring internally or hiring an agency. Compared to full-time individuals, Bespoke Teams are fractional (either full-time for a short period or part-time for a longer period) and don’t come with the same full-time costs. And, when compared to agencies, you aren’t paying for the agency mark-ups. Therefore, not only can Bespoke Teams help you craft a clearer and more focused budget, but they can also help you to stretch your budget further. By doing so, you’ll have a better chance of driving ROI and having a successful launch.
You need a clear and focused timeline.
This is very key for Bespoke Teams. If you have an internal team conducting your launches, it is very typical for these launches to lack a clear beginning and ending date. You have people who are working for you full-time so the beginning date may be relatively easy to set. However, bucketing the time line and creating an end date usually gets thrown out the window with full-time in-house teams. Again, a launch isn’t necessarily about investing time and money to make sure this new product or offering works. Instead, it’s about testing whether it will work so that you can decide whether it’s better to spend time and money on that or on other potential opportunities. Therefore, having an end date is critical. With a Bespoke Team, there is almost always an end date. For example, “We are going to test the U.S. market for 6 months to see if it’s worth hiring a team in the U.S. and continue to invest in online marketing there.” This is clear and says, “we are going to test this for 6 months. If, at the end of that six months, the launch is successful then we will continue and scale up. If not, we will allocate our time and money to other opportunities.” Bespoke Teams are perfectly suited for this. Hire experts for six months, make it clear it is for six months and then have the flexibility to scale up or down based on results.
Bespoke Teams are well suited for launches and that’s why we started Growth Assembly. If you want to know if your launch is well suited for a Growth Assembly (that’s what we call our Bespoke teams around here), then reach out for us.
Onward an upward.
