I joined Growth Mentor to discuss this very topic on their podcast.
Someone who’s done this before – a lot – and knows what it takes to bring products successfully to market?
Well hello.
I am Nichole Elizabeth DeMeré, an early-stage B2B SaaS consultant, go-to-market strategist, and product marketer.
I am a top hunter at Product Hunt (previous Community Manager) and Mentor at GrowthMentor.com.
Here are some of their listings on Product Hunt:
But beyond those hundreds of companies, I’ve seen far too many who didn’t have the basic ingredients in place for successful launches.
And they didn’t even know they were missing them until their launches… never took off.
Don’t be like them.
The Product Launch Mastermind is a four-week long program for startups preparing their launches who want to ensure they have everything they need to make it to the stratosphere in terms of strategy, marketing and messaging.
I’ll be your (nearly) on-demand product launch consultant during the four weeks via Slack, 1:1 meetings with your teams, and group workshops. Think of me as an extension of your team as an experienced go-to-market product marketer.
__________
💬 Invitation to a private Slack community for up to five of your team members. I will be available for questions and feedback, Monday – Friday.
🗓 1:1 hour-long discovery call with your team. We’ll discuss your company stage, challenges, launch goals, and more.
🗓 Virtual coffee a.k.a. Zoom call with other community members to get to know everyone. ☕️
Based on your 1:1 discovery call, I’ll provide:
🗓 Group workshop on Market Strategy. 1 hr.
🗓 1:1 consulting call with your team. 45 mins.
Market Strategy Workshop
Here is the area of your plan that includes your efforts to generate awareness with your customers and employees, especially those employees who interact with customers from product instruction, interest, purchase, and then support.
In the Market Strategy Workshop, we will cover topics such as:
✔️ Related worksheets and exercises will be added to Notion beforehand.
🗓 Group workshop on Product Strategy. 1 hr.
🗓 1:1 consulting call with your team. 45 mins.
Product Strategy Workshop
Here we’ll lay out what differentiates your product offering and those of your competitors. We’ll also want to consider special pricing promotions and cross promotions at launch.
In the Product Strategy Workshop, we will cover topics such as:
✔️ Related worksheets and exercises will be added to Notion beforehand.
🗓 Group workshop on Channel Strategy. 1 hr.
🗓 1:1 consulting call with your team. 45 mins.
Channel Strategy Workshop
What channels will we utilize not only to sell your products but also to educate and support your partners and customers? Having a strong channel strategy will help you increase your channel performance.
In the Channel Strategy Workshop, we will cover topics such as:
✔️ Related worksheets and exercises will be added to Notion beforehand.
Get hyped!
During launch week (you set the date!), I will also act as your biggest cheerleader within my social media communities, most of whom are highly interested in startups as customers and investors. I have over 100,00 connections across social media.
I will also provide feedback on everything you’ve prepared for launch week:
Your strategy, to make sure it helps you truly connect with your potential customers and users, while positioning you to create lasting relationships with them.
Your tactics, objectives and action plans to make sure they’re consistent
All of your messaging to make sure you’re telling your story in the way your customers need to hear it.
For example, I will review, analyze and provide feedback and suggestions on:
“Nichole and I worked together on Inbound.org, where she was an invaluable contributor to and moderator of the community. Thanks to her help, Inbound’s audience, participation, and quality grew dramatically.”
— Rand Fishkin, Founder, Moz & SparkToro
“Let’s put it this way…Nichole is one of a kind. She’s the #1 expert in helping SaaS companies to truly connect with their customers and grow without using shady/hack-y/aggressive marketing. She knows more about SaaS community building, customer success, and customer-obsessed growth strategies than anyone on the planet. She’s also an amazing human being who CARES about people. Hire her before it’s too late.”
— Louis Grenier, Founder, Everyone Hates Marketers
“Nichole is the most passionate, hardest working, fastest learning, fiercely loyal person I’ve ever met. Period. If you get the chance to work with her, not only will she deliver amazing results in whatever she’s doing for you, you’ll never be the same (in a great way!). When Nichole speaks (or writes, or shares curated content, etc.) you’ll listen if you know what’s good for you.”
— Lincoln Murphy, Founder, Sixteen Ventures
“Nichole is one of the most insightful and effective marketing experts that I’ve had the pleasure to work with. She is one of those rare people who I hesitate to call talented, because it would be an insult to the work and experience that she continuously puts into improving her skills. Her marketing superpower is in uncovering opportunities which not only increase visibility and brand trust, but which do so by actually improving the ability of the company to delivering value to customers over time. She also habitually passes her knowledge on to those around her, which I have been fortunate to benefit from on many occasions.”
— Jim Gray, Founder, Ioseed
“Nichole is a very special marketer, unique in fact. We’ve worked with dozens of marketers, but are yet to come across anyone with such an intimate understanding of the human psyche. Nichole’s ability to authentically connect with different audiences – across so many channels, and up and down the funnel – is what makes her stand out. I’d go as far as saying that she is a customer success-first marketer, in that her efforts start and end with “how can we help this person we’re trying to reach achieve their goal”? As opposed to “how can we get this prospect to buy our thing?”. Guess what, it works!”
— Omer Molad, Founder, Vervoe
Nichole is the realness. A woman WELL worth knowing. She is brilliant at cultivating communities and getting people engaged. Anyone who cares to look can see how amazing she is at getting people to pay attention to what she’s doing. She’s built an amazing network for herself. I’m confident she could do it for ANY business.
— Joel Klettke, Founder, Case Study Buddy
I joined Quuu to co-host a Twitter chat about running successful product launches on social media.
They rounded up the highlights…
Our Qchatters all pointed out that social media is key for building awareness around your new product:
“I don’t know if I’m being too obvious here… but awareness! Let your followers know that you have a product coming out.” — Ruben Richardson
“I think social media is a great way to build awareness for a product, you can tease information and build anticipation.” — Georgia Burgoyne
“If it is a launch the part of the funnel is probably awareness. Paid social is key for targeting, especially if it is not a mass market launch. Influencers may also be effective if they are strategically used.” — Brandi Rand
It’s really important to leverage your network:
“A community is one of the most important ways to build and launch a new idea. People are power!” — Daniel Kempe
“You want to reach out to your network and let them know way in advance to see how they can help support you.” — Nichole Elizabeth DeMeré
“Find influencers & engage. Build anticipation with a countdown. Include any reputable names you can for social proof — customers, partners, as seen on, etc. What Nichole did with the Hotjar podcast launch was a great example.” — Nicki Laycoax
Nichole also shared some tips on what not to do:
“Don’t spam people. Mass-tweeting/emailing people unsolicited, asking for feedback or upvotes, even if they’ve upvoted similar products in the past isn’t effective. If your timeline is filled with dozens of identical messages, you’re spamming. Be authentic.
“If you’re launching on Product Hunt, do not ask for upvotes anywhere. Feel free to ask for feedback, but asking for upvotes is a big no-no. People should upvote the product because they like it, not because they’re peer pressured into doing so.
“If you’re launching on Product Hunt, link directly to your product page. Linking to “http://producthunt.com” only makes it harder for people to find you and doesn’t have any effect on the algorithm.
“Tools like Thunderclap that shout about your launch are notoriously ineffective — it comes across as spammy, and the super secret algorithm for Product Hunt doesn’t like spammy.”
Wish you had someone to tell you if you’re planning your product launch right? Someone who’s done this before – a lot – and knows what it takes to bring SaaS products successfully to market?
Well hello.
I’ve helped hundreds of companies with their product launches – and I am happy to help you, too!
In today’s competitive landscape, brands are continually on a quest for innovation. A lot of research goes into understanding the consumer mind, their wants, and demands. Using such knowledge, companies invest thousands of dollars every day to develop new products.
A Nielsen report shows that almost 3000 new products are launched every year in the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) space. Out of these, only 15% are truly successful.
Even if you have created a great product, a lot of its success is dependent on the launch. A product launch is vital because it creates the first impression in your audience’s minds. Here are some of the best tips shared by experts to help you avoid a product launch failure.
Shane Barker asked 32 experts to share their best tips on how to avoid product launch failure…
Here’s my tip:
You don’t want to launch without a strong value proposition. I see this happen far too often when people submit products to me for review (to post on Product Hunt – because that’s how they’re going to launch), I go to their website, and their value proposition does not convey their product’s value. It’s generic, or vague, or not there at all. There’s nothing that tells potential customers, at a glance, why they should be interested in the product or how it helps them solve their pain points. I recommend that anyone looking to launch a product first get the Value Proposition Design book (strategyzer.com/vpd) and work through it. Although there are many ways to work on your value prop, this is my favorite.
Two really good value propositions are on Lyft right now. They have a two-way marketplace, one for drivers, one for riders, and both value propositions are on point. The driver’s value prop is “turn miles into money” and the riders value prop is “meet your 5-star ride.” The first is stronger than the second, in my opinion, but that “meet your 5-star ride” basically tells riders that they will, absolutely, have a great experience.
Wish you had someone to tell you if you’re planning your product launch right? Someone who’s done this before – a lot – and knows what it takes to bring SaaS products successfully to market?
Well hello.
I’ve helped hundreds of companies with their product launches – and I am happy to help you, too!