Product Launch and Business Growth Blog

Rick Braddy — Tue, 01 May 2012 17:12:58 +0000

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Do your landing pages pass this test?

Rick Braddy — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 14:41:16 +0000

We all need conversions to generate lead flow and sales – and the online sales funnel process’ front-end always begins with some form of headline for an email, blog post, social media post or landing page.

One of my favorite bloggers Copy Blogger and conversion sites recently conducted an email subject line copyrighting contest. The results are very interesting and insightful.

Email subject lines are under more pressure today to gain a reader’s attention and attract a click than ever. I hope the insights from these contest results are helpful. Of course, one of the most important takeaways is that taking a scientific approach to testing, tracking and optimization is the key to knowing for certain what works best for your particular audience.

A scientific way to increase your conversions

The runners-up

In the “Curiosity” category, we ended up going with Vince Robisch‘s entry:

Quarterbacks aren’t the only changes being tested in Denver.

Denver’s new quarterback has been hot news all over the country, and this header created a good “itch that needs scratching” — just what are those other changes being tested? In copywriting terms, this is known as entering the conversation already taking place in the prospect’s mind. MECLABS also liked the tie-in to the city where the conference was being held.

In the “Benefits” category, we decided on Shaun Connell‘s:

A scientific way to increase your conversions

This header includes both a benefit (improved conversion, which we know is highly desirable to MarketingExperiments’ audience), and also hints at a feature — at how we intend to get to that benefit, with the word “scientific.” This header also harnesses some of the power of curiosity as a secondary element — the reader has a reason to keep reading: to find out what, specifically, that scientific way might be.

Finally, in the “Fear” category, we liked Christine Parizo‘s:

Do your landing pages pass this test?

This is a solidly specific headline — the readers knows that the message will be about landing pages. Passing (or failing) tests is a common anxiety, and in a competitive economy, no one wants to have the landing pages that fail the test.

The word this is important (in fact, there was another entry for “Do your landing pages pass the test?”). That slight added element of specificity enhances reader curiosity to generate those click-throughs.

Learn about a real, scientific way to close more sales

You can’t conjugate the dead ones

Rick Braddy — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 19:44:11 +0000

Have you ever had a potential BIG sale or deal that would make all the difference for you and your business, but just couldn’t close it for some reason? Boy, I know I have seen my share of it. And I still see it with clients all the time, where there’s such enormous opportunity and we eventually just give up (or worse yet, keep waiting for someone else to close it for us, like a reseller or agent, for example)…

Years ago, I had a situation come up that I will never forget. At the time, there was a $10,000 sale that I really needed to close, but the customer was playing extreme hardball on price, and I just couldn’t agree to $2,500 for what was arguably worth $25,000, that I was ready to let go of for just $10,000 (it was a source code licensing deal). Anyway, the customer knew I needed the money, and was just trying to take advantage of the situation and get a steal of a deal.

When I had just about given up on this deal, I shared my frustration with a sales mentor and friend at the time. He said, “Rick – you can’t conjugate the dead ones – there is no ‘deader’ or ‘deadest’ – if it’s dead, it’s dead – - – so you have nothing to lose by trying again and doing whatever it takes to close that sale!”

I thought about those words – if it’s dead, you can’t make it any deader by going back in for one last-ditch, whatever-it-takes attempt to close the deal. It turns out, this was exactly the inspiration and guidance I needed…

I decided to try something that seemed at the time, well, a bit crazy actually, but hey, it couldn’t get any deader than dead, so what did I have to lose by trying?

So I called the guy up and said, “you know what, I’ve been thinking about our conversations, and I realized something. You’re absolutely right – that source code is not worth $10,000 at all – it’s actually worth $25,000 and I’m not going to let you have it for $2,500. So the new price is $25,000. You know how to reach me if you decide you still want it. Good day.” – and I hung up.

Afterwards I thought to myself, “man, that felt good, to tell them how I really feel and show them they can’t take advantage of me, and stand up for myself and my beliefs”. Of course, several days went by, and the phone didn’t ring. So I called the guy back to put part 2 of my “Raise the price close” into motion.

He answered and I said, “It’s me again. You know, I’ve been thinking… It wasn’t really reasonable of me to ask for $25,000, but we both know that source code will save your company months of effort and get your project on the right track fast, just like we discussed. And since I am a reasonable person, I’m willing to make it available at the $10,000 price that I originally offered.” Then I shut up. After several moments of uncomfortable silence, he said “Okay – after you said the price was $25,000, I talked with my CEO and team, and we agree that $10,000 is a fair price that we can pay. We can get a check out to you today. When can you deliver the code?”

My jaw about hit the floor. I couldn’t believe my ears – it actually worked! What appeared to be a lost opportunity (without a horrible discount), was now a done deal!

Needless to say, I was quite proud of myself for pulling this off – and listening to my mentor’s advice. Naturally, I went back and shared my story of what had happened with him and let him know his advice worked. He laughed out loud and said, “That’s great! See what a little persistence can accomplish?” Later he told me he thought that was one of the craziest closes he’d heard about in a long time.

I have never had the opportunity to use that particular close again (and frankly hope I never have to), but in hindsight it did teach me some things about Sales that as a young entrepreneur and budding salesman, I still didn’t realize fully:

1) You can’t close any big sale by dealing with a non-decision maker or intemediary – you must somehow reach the person with the power to say Yes (and that was the real lesson to be learned here – finding a way to be heard by the actual decision-maker)

2) Being willing to walk away from a prospective customer who’s being unreasonable about price and trying to take undue advantage of you or your company can improve your negotiating position

3) Using a higher price point to establish value, then offering a perceived discount, is a great way to let the customer feel better about the price they’re paying (this is obviously common practice)

4) Never give up – especially if the customer is still on speaking terms with you (and even if they aren’t for a while)!

Rick

Targeted Buyer Language vs. Generic Product Language

Rick Braddy — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 04:43:12 +0000

You may (or may not) have noticed that I’ve been on a six month hiatus – from blogging and doing much of anything, except working in a start-up company (it takes a lot of energy, focus and time to make start-ups work)… Anyway, I was looking over some material I wrote a while back and it really resonated (of course it resonates with me, since I wrote it!) The point is, I think it’s worth breaking out and repeating here – as I find it is very tempting to use “product language” in lieu of “buyer language” in our sales and marketing…

Product language is what we have traditionally used to describe our products to the market. It includes broad claims, comprehensive features and benefits and detailed product and technical specifications. In the marketing departments of larger corporations, this information is often organized into what’s termed a “marketing source document”. The language used is, more often than not, vendor-centric – not buyer-centric.

Unfortunately, too much corporate product language today is also full of marketing “gobbledygook”, techno-babble and other virtually undecipherable terminology that only the company creating it can make any sense of without a glossary. Most sales people and potential buyers are immediately confused and turned off when they encounter this, quickly figuring out that this product must not be what they are looking for (incidentally, this is one of the causes of friction and the walls of separation between sales and marketing teams in larger corporations – sales perceives marketing as being out of touch with marketplace realities).

Finally, product language is sometimes selfish and egotistical – it extols the greatness of its creators. It brags. It exaggerates. And when customers encounter this kind of language, it instantly creates disbelief, mistrust and sales resistance – making it harder than ever to make a sale. If you’re selling online or to anyone who you don’t already know well, this can quickly be the kiss of death, as prospects who don’t believe you definitely will not buy from you.

Buyer language describes what a buyer wants and desires to get done in their business or personal life. It has to do with the outcome and results the buyer wants to achieve. It acknowledges the pain points, sticking points, negative outcomes, barriers and/or constraints the buyer faces in getting that job done to their satisfaction with existing alternatives. It shows how these issues can be better resolved – by use of the product in the buyer’s immediate context.

When using buyer language, we focus on just those product claims, features and benefits which are relevant to addressing this buyer’s problems and preferences. Buyer language mirrors the problem the buyer already has and recognizes.

Buyer language “resonates”. And unlike generic product language, it doesn’t require the buyer to go through complex mental gymnastics to figure out whether the product might be a good fit, capable of performing the job at hand. Buyer language makes it obvious.

Marketing and selling to buyer segments can be accomplished in a serialized manner, one campaign or launch per segment (leaving the horizontal market for later or just continuing to penetrate the most important buyer segments in a sequence over time). The key is to get those “seeds” of initial adoption planted successfully, so they can grow and expand with time and customer experience with the product. And it’s ten times easier to sell using buyer language that’s tuned for a specific market or set of common market problems.

Whether you’re a new company, entrepreneur or small business, I highly recommend this strategy vs. the broad horizontal (aka “shotgun”) approach.

If you are a larger company, I still recommend a buyer-centric launch strategy for introducing most new products – unless the new product is an exact fit for your existing customers and routes to market (like a major new version of an existing product), or you’re planning to risk investing millions of dollars on a broad market assault (e.g., the Apple iPhone launch).

One of the biggest mistakes made by large enterprises is attempting to enter a new market or reach a new buyer using the existing sales force and channels. I could probably write an entire book on this topic, as it’s such a common pitfall and the cause for so many new product failures. For now, suffice it to say that launching new products that appeal to a different buyer than your sales team currently knows and sells to require a different sales strategy (e.g., an overlay sales force, sales specialists or investing in an entirely new sales team, who will have to learn some new buyer language – something that’s not all that easy for sales folks to do).

Once enough individual buyer segments are penetrated, if the product truly has broad market appeal, broad adoption or standardization may occur naturally as the word spreads organically about the product’s many uses beyond its original niches. In larger corporate environments, this is why we need to start smaller, ensure success in targeted buyer segments and then allow organic growth and expansion to take place more naturally (vs. trying to force fit new products broadly across many segments at once).

Focusing on targeted buyer segments using buyer language is a much easier way to achieve rapid early success than a more diluted, broad market assault that relies on generic product language. Using buyer language makes it easier for people to quickly realize they want the product, reducing the effort and time required to sell the product, and increasing perceived value – a critical success factor when you have to prove a new product fast to reach profitability (or die as a start-up or new business unit).

Will SaaS + Virtualization Eat the Desktop and Transform IT?

Rick Braddy — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 22:30:41 +0000

Will a perfect storm of technologies, combined with the SaaS financial and delivery model disrupt traditional Windows desktops and transform how IT services are delivered, and how corporate data centers are managed? It may be more imminent than you think.

First, let’s examine a little background and the context that’s brought us to this point.

Over the last decade, application virtualization solutions provided by companies like CITRIX® Systems and Microsoft® Terminal Services have changed the way “legacy” Windows business applications are managed and delivered. At the same time, server consolidation projects have virtualized the majority of corporate servers, using server virtualization technology by companies like VMware® to reduce the physical server footprint in the data center.

More recently, interest in VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) solutions has grown markedly, as companies look for ways to deal with an aging desktop infrastructure and migrate to Windows 7.

At the same time, SaaS and Cloud Computing are changing the way new applications and data are developed, managed and delivered – outside the traditional data center, where data now commonly resides in third-party data centers, alongside their corresponding SaaS applications.

All this is happening at a time when extreme financial pressures continue to depress capital investments, and executives are hungry for ways to avoid capital spending and minimize operating costs. Local and state governments now find themselves operating under even more dire financial circumstances, brought on by contracted tax bases and local economies.

Both businesses and government agencies are searching for ways to reduce unnecessary spending, avoid large capital investment outlays and reduce operating costs wherever possible.

Meanwhile, the move is well afoot to virtualize the enterprise desktops, using VDI technology. However, the maturing VDI solution stacks are mostly premise-based – and highly capital-intensive.

Worse yet, these premise-based VDI solutions drive corporate data centers in the wrong direction – drastically growing the number of servers, power and air conditioning requirements and increasing data center management costs – wiping out gains from earlier server consolidation efforts.

Still, some companies are moving forward with VDI, despite its questionable ROI, CapEx intensity and the data center bloat factors involved. For many, the pains associated with managing, upgrading and replacing fat-client desktops and the Windows 7 desktop refresh cycle are simply too much to bear.

Even Microsoft acknowledges that VDI can’t help you reduce costs – VDI does not reduce desktop costs because it can represent a significant up-front investment in infrastructure, including hardware, software, storage, and network. And, unless steps are taken to improve basic desktop management and deployment processes, just choosing VDI for desktop deployment will not reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) either.

Enter the “cloud-hosted” virtual desktop, by vendors like Desktone®, Virtual-Q® and others. Cloud-hosted desktops virtualize Windows desktops and applications, similar to what CITRIX and Terminal Services have done on-premise. But instead of the virtual desktops residing in the corporate data center, they are hosted in the cloud – within a private, third-party data center.

Importantly, cloud-hosted virtual desktops are leased in bulk to the customer using a SaaS licensing model. There is no capital investment required on the part of the customer to virtualize their business desktops.

Instead, desktop and application delivery costs become operating expenses (“OpEx”) under a SaaS subscription model. The vendor incurs the capital investment costs associated with the VDI hardware and software, data center operations, security and management. Of course, IT continues to develop, install, update and manage the company’s applications and data – it just resides in a data center that’s physically located across the Internet.

For example, to implement a basic 100-user, premised-based VDI solution here’s what you would need:

For many companies and government entities, the cloud-hosted desktop is a very enticing proposition. However, desktops running applications require high-speed, secure access to server-side (e.g., client-server) application code and corresponding data, typically residing in SQL databases.

So how can cloud-hosted desktops access the data and application back-ends they require?

Answer. Move the existing virtualized servers and databases out of the corporate data center and collocate them with the cloud-based virtual desktops. By collocating both the virtual desktops and back-end servers and data within the same third-party data center, it’s possible to switch most, if not all, of the IT infrastructure from a capital-intensive, corporate-owned and managed data center into a fully cloud-hosted IT service.

I know, I know. That’s just blasphemy! Especially to many CIO’s and IT managers, who view their corporate data centers, servers and data as too business critical and sensitive to trust to any third party…

Well, there was a time when that attitude and perspective was completely understandable and even justified; however, times are changing.

In a 2010 article titled: Gartner Highlights Key Predictions for IT Organizations and Users in 2010 and Beyond. Gartner predicts that “by 2012, 20 percent of businesses will own no IT assets. Several interrelated trends are driving the movement toward decreased IT hardware assets, such as virtualization, cloud-enabled services, and employees running personal desktops and notebook systems on corporate networks”.

This is a little extreme – the need for computing hardware, either in a data center or on an employee’s desk, will not go away. However, if the ownership of hardware shifts to third parties, then there will be major shifts throughout every facet of the IT hardware industry. For example, enterprise IT budgets will either be shrunk or reallocated to more-strategic projects; enterprise IT staff will either be reduced or reskilled to meet new requirements, and/or hardware distribution will have to change radically to meet the requirements of the new IT hardware buying points.

Trusted, professionally-managed data center providers like Softlayer®, Rackspace® and others now provide viable alternatives to corporate-owned and operated data centers – arguably, better managed and even more secure in many cases.

As a consequence, what begins as a cloud-based, desktop-as-a-service pilot project quickly evolves into a more comprehensive cloud-based computing-as-a-service solution, whereby the IT infrastructure is relocated into a private, secure data center managed by one of these trusted data center providers. Backup data centers and multiple points of presence on the Internet provide the safety nets that make this a completely viable solution for most companies and government agencies.

This is even easier to contemplate today because most corporate servers are already virtualized, and IT has become more comfortable with virtualization and cloud technologies applied to business-critical computing.

It’s relatively straightforward to develop a plan to forklift application servers and databases, migrating them out of corporate data centers and into a cloud-hosted data center.

I know. Double-blasphemy!

Needless to say, even the suggestion that the corporate data center, servers and data could no longer be directly under IT management’s control makes many of us gray-haired IT managers either want to scream or perhaps reconsider early retirement!

Seriously though, many CIO’s are beginning to recognize this emerging cloud-hosted desktop and data center model as the next logical step in the evolution of virtualization of IT, combined with cloud computing and SaaS delivery of applications and IT services.

Another less obvious economic driver involves the costs of software licensing by companies like Microsoft. When a company switches from premise-based licensing to the cloud-hosted model, the Service Provider License Agreement (SPLA) can be applied to further reduce software licensing costs (typically covered under an ELA today). When you combine the capital investment savings of both the IT infrastructure and traditional software license costs, the TCO advantages become clear and very compelling.

The security and reliability provided by top-tier hosting, colocation facilities and cloud-hosted desktop solutions has reached an inflexion point – one that enables many companies and government agencies to leave their own data centers behind over the next 2 to 5 years. The service provider software rental licensing model is the icing on the TCO cake.

Is this really happening? Yes, it is.

Earlier I showed you the cost of implementing a basic 100 user VDI solution. Now add to that the cost of Redundancy, Firewalls, Support, Bigger Bandwidth, Power and Cooling. All this is included as part of a cloud-hosted solution.

The financial advantages of transforming IT from a largely CapEx constrained proposition into OpEx is extremely attractive by itself. And for many, it may be the only financially viable way forward.

As CFO’s and CEO’s become more aware of the cloud-hosted desktop and data center as a viable alternative to traditional IT-owned and managed computing infrastructure, the business pressure to consider these alternatives is sure to increase with time. And as the cloud-hosted IT-as-a-service model is proven across an increasingly broad range of industries, it could cross the chasm and become a mainstream IT strategy.

What does all this mean to IT? And what affect will it have on the vendors who rely on capital-intensive, premise-based data centers, traditional VDI and/or fat-client desktop architectures? And what about the architecture and security model of the cloud-based data center and cloud-hosted desktops? And how does all of this factor into a mobile computing strategy?

Great questions – topics we will explore in future articles and blog posts.

Does Disruptive Innovation Create Sustainable Wealth?

Rick Braddy — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 21:17:12 +0000

Apple Inc. today became the world’s most valued public company, surpassing Exxon Mobile Corp., according to various sources. Apple soared past its arch rival of decades past, Microsoft, last year, in terms of overall market valuation.

While on the surface it’s clear which products and innovations led to this amazing marketplace performance, what may be less obvious is how Apple was able to best so many more established players in seemingly entrenched markets like music, cell phones and computers. Interestingly, it’s a combination of factors that combine to make this possible, but at the heart of it all lurks “disruptive innovation” (combined with mass distribution and the right industry partners).

In a recent post, I wrote about the visionary leadership that preceded the innovative breakthroughs. Steve Jobs pinpointed one of the key “enablers” for disruptive innovation to take place – focus – and the ability to say No to most things, and Yes to the things that matter most.

Apple has always produced innovative, highly-usable products that are well-designed – one must certainly respect their refined usability and design practices and methods (not to mention personal oversight by Jobs himself). But is that the key to Apple’s innovation successes?

Apple has always exhibited keen engineering skills and extreme attention to detail in its product development and engineering. But is that the key to Apple’s innovation successes?

Apple has (more recently) been a leader in advanced technology creation and manufacturing. I wonder if that’s the key to their success?

I would submit that there are many companies with great vision, design and usability practices, tremendous engineering discipline and skills and world-class manufacturing capabilities.

But the key to bringing all of these things together and EXECUTING against that vision is the result of LEADERSHIP – the kind of leadership we have seen from Steve Jobs and his management team, who have repeatedly nailed the innovations, product development and mass distribution deals required to achieve this level of success.

It takes a lot of vision, commitment and a willingness to “bet the company” (and be right) on what, on the surface, would appear to be a risky strategy – disrupting the music industry, followed by the smart phone industry, in order to create a formidable base to come full circle back around to attacking the computer industry once again – with an enormous war chest of cash and assets at its disposal.

There’s a lot to be learned by studying Apple’s successes since the difficult days Apple faced when the video in this post was recorded.

My hat’s off to everyone at Apple, as it was one heck of a team effort – I’m sure of that!

3 Pillars of Sales Success Interview (audio clip)

Rick Braddy — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 01:57:19 +0000

I was contacted by Dhane Crowley, an influential Internet entrepreneur, who was moved by my recent post “3 Pillars of Online Success”. Dhane asked to interview me and include the interview content as a part of an upcoming product he will be launching. Naturally, I agreed to the interview, as I welcome opportunities to help fellow entrepreneurs and business owners anytime that I can.

I hope you get some value from the interview.

Rick

More Traffic or Increased Conversions?

Rick Braddy — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 22:54:53 +0000

The one thing all e-commerce providers have in common is, we all want to increase our sales results, lead flow and financial performance.

But what’s the best way to go? More Traffic? Increased conversions on existing traffic?

I read a blog post by a highly-successful online entrepreneur recently. His name is Dr. Neil Shearing – a trusted source of quality information and “scam-free” products (he’s sort of famous for going against the grain of traditional Internet marketing, downplaying the usual hyperbole, outrageous claims and B.S. that’s so typical from those of that ilk).

Anyway, Neil correctly points out in his post:

“…it’s a lot easier to improve your conversion rate by a percentage point or two than it is to double or treble your traffic. Let me illustrate with an example. If you get 1,000 visits per month at a 1% conversion rate, you make 10 sales. If you improve the conversion rate to 2%, you’ll double your sales to 20 per month. If you went in search of more traffic INSTEAD of improving your conversion rate, you’d have to double that… which means getting 2,000 visits per month instead of 1,000. Ouch!”

That’s a very astute observation, Dr. Shearing!

And in my experience, it’s certainly possible to boost one’s conversion by at least several percent, by a) applying best practices that are proven to boost conversions, and b) to fully understand causing people to buy (and not to buy) first, then apply that knowledge to amplify conversion results.

It’s common to simply run out of available “inventory” of qualified traffic, which causes one’s business growth to plateau and stagnate. Increasing conversions clearly provides better ROI than experimenting with new and unproven sources of traffic, as well.

I highly recommend this independent review article written by Dr. Shearing.

Incidentally, I invited Dr. Shearing to review Sales CSI months ago and he just now (finally) got around to actually doing it. This is a completely unbiased review by an expert in the conversion optimization area (Dr. Shearing used to sell a great conversion tool, before Google began offering Website Optimizer for free). And you will find his blog is full of other astute observations, strategies and tips of interest to online business owners and marketers.

Translating Brilliance into Market-leading Growth

Rick Braddy — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 18:55:28 +0000

Have you ever wondered what separates good companies from great ones? Well, there’s a great book written on that subject… and without repeating what’s in the book Good to Great (which I highly-recommend, by the way), it’s even more interesting to look at a real-world example we’re all familiar with today.

How would you like to have revenue growth like this?

This is the revenue growth posted by a market leader, whose leadership actually took their company from good to great over a 10+ year period. Of course, we’re talking about Apple Computer and Steve Jobs. There are numerous other examples of great companies, yet Apple is one who has gone from relative obscurity just 12 years ago to one of the most exciting, disruptive, high-growth computing powerhouses of our time today.

Apple is now number 1 in numerous market categories, and exhibiting sustained growth (even throughout a global recession), while countless others have suffered through multiple rounds of layoffs and struggled along. Even its old nemesis Microsoft has seen its flagship Windows product revenues flatten out, while Apple’s computer-related sales continue to soar and gain share.

How is this possible?

The short answer : Vision + Leadership + Focused execution.

In the late 1990′s, Steve Jobs recognized that Apple was struggling to find its way, investing in a too many projects and directions, trying to “grep” (search) it’s way through myriad potential opportunities from a technology standpoint to find the answers it needed. And the answer was not to be found in technology…

Many insights into the mindset, objective humility and attitude required as a leader during difficult times is portrayed in this video by Steve Jobs, at a time when Apple hadn’t yet made the specific breakthroughs that would lead to the record financial performance we see in the chart above and all around us today.

This video is well worth reviewing, and should serve as an inspiration to us all – no matter how dire or difficult our circumstances, the right combination of vision and leadership, plus a maniacal focus on execution in delivery of an outstanding user experience, quality and workmanship creates great companies.

There are many different insights and takeaways from this particular video. One that resonates with me (as I’ve personally made this particular mistake numerous times throughout my career) is on products – “start with the customer experience and work backwards from there to the technology”. As technologists, it’s always tempting to look at the technology and try to envision how that technology can translate into customer value. In reality, customer problems typically don’t map well to the technology, which can at best provide some stepping stones to bringing a new customer experience with real value-creation to market.

There are at least a dozen profound insights that Jobs talks about at this critical point in time, in the era preceeding Apple’s many breakthrough’s as a company. I hope you pick up some useful tips and perspectives that will help you grow your business.

Recommended Reading:

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t by Jim Collins http://t.co/0YliS3r via @amazon

Startup Launch Marketing Process

Rick Braddy — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 01:31:07 +0000

I read a great post on the Rocket Watcher blog today on launch marketing for startups by product marketing expert and blogger April Dunford.

In her post on startup launch marketing, she put forth this great sketch that really puts the product release process in perspective:

In particular, this perspective on the launch marketing and product release process shows how the pre-release (aka. pre-launch) phase continues and flows into the release/launch phase; i.e., the activities begun in earlier phase of the release cycle should continue and expand into each subsequent phase (they aren’t discrete steps that just stop after each phase). Of course, in practice, startups may not have sufficient resources to continue this all in parallel, so we must carefully choose the activities that do receive continuity across each launch phase.

I think you’ll like April’s blog, which contains a wealth of pragmatic product marketing insights and advice.

Product Launch and Business Growth Blog

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