6 SOW Templates to Create a Statement of Work That Delivers
An estimated 30,000 products are launched each year—however, of those 30,000 product launches, an astounding 95% of them fail. Too many companies try to launch new products or product lines without a proper launch strategy in place.
So how can you make sure your next product launch doesn’t go up in flames?
To have a successful product launch, you need to first have an amazing product. Second, you need to take the time to put together a proper product launch strategy with a realistic timeline.
Throughout this article, we’ll dive deeper into what a product launch should look like, what you need to include in your launch plan and how to create a successful launch.
Before you jump in, don’t miss this exciting video where we uncover essential elements that might be slipping through the cracks in your product launch. It's also packed with invaluable tips and tricks to make your launch a stellar success!
Here’s a short selection of 8 easy-to-edit product launch templates you can edit, share and download with Visme. View more templates below:
A product launch is a business’s plan to bring a new product to market. It requires a coordinated effort on your marketing and sales teams to ensure that new, potential and existing customers are all able to discover this product and purchase it if they so wish.
You should plan a product launch for any new product, whether it’s your company’s very first launch, a new product line or collection, or even just an addition to an existing line. However, the size of your launch will vary depending on what you’re launching.
There are three types of product launches you can use for your brand, they are:
This type of product launch revolves around introducing a product with just enough features to satisfy early customers and provide feedback for future product development.
An MVP launch aims to understand customers' needs, test the market's response to the product, and gather user feedback to improve and perfect the product.
A soft or beta launch represents a release of a product (or a service) to a restricted audience or a particular geographical area for real-world testing before a wider release. Companies can test and improve outcomes by limiting initial releases and gathering user feedback. This helps in reducing risk and improving the product before a full-scale launch.
A full-scale launch is when the final product is launched to the broad market after all fine-tuning. This type of product launch usually involves a broad and strong marketing and PR campaign to create maximum awareness and conversions. It's the point at which the product becomes readily available for purchase by the broader public.
Here are other types of product launches:
Use a template like the one below to document your launch plan, regardless of what type of launch you undertake.
When creating your product launch plan, there are a few key elements that you need to include. Save this product launch checklist to keep on hand during the next time you’re launching a product or creating a launch strategy.
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Your Product Launch Checklist:
Keep all of these action items in mind when planning out your next product launch.
Now let’s talk strategy. As we’ve mentioned, you don’t want to go into a product launch blindly. Instead, you need to create a documented product launch strategy that can help guide you each step of the way.
When figuring out how to launch a new product, there are three main sections of a product launch strategy that you need to consider: pre-launch, launch and post-launch. Each phase of your launch is just as important as the next. We’ll walk you through how to create a strategy that leaves no stone unturned.
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First, you need to make sure you have a quality product that’s ready to hit the market. Whether you’re working on testing your app, adding a new product feature or creating a physical product, you need to ensure it’s been tested and perfected before you launch.
Once your product is 100% ready to ship out to customers, you’ll get started on your pre-launch documentation and marketing essentials.
This includes the following:
With Visme you can work smarter and not harder with the help of AI. If you're short on time use Visme's AI Press Release Generator to get the word out on your product.
If you already have a template in mind then use Visme's AI writer to significantly streamline your copywriting process as you prepare for your product launch.
This intelligent tool can assist in crafting a compelling messaging guide, a newsworthy press release, and copy for other visuals while keeping the tone consistent and engaging. With Visme's AI Writer, your pre-launch documentation and marketing essentials can turn into a targeted and successful product launch campaign.
Pro Tip: Consider using Visme to turn some of these documents into interactive PDFs.
The next phase is your product launch sequence. Here, you’ll send out your press release, you’ll start creating content and you’ll implement your strategy. Here are some guidelines for creating a product launch that generates results.
Where will you promote your launch? Start planning your channels early so that you can adequately plan and create your marketing content and other assets.
Some of the channels you should consider are:
You’ll need to create a unique go-to market strategy for each of these sites while still ensuring that your messaging and creative assets remain cohesive.
Build anticipation for your launch by teasing the product before it’s even been launched. Start sharing sneak peeks on social media and quick videos on Instagram Stories, Reels and TikTok.
You can utilize a teaser trailer template like the one below to share quick video clips of your product and tease how exciting it is:
Here’s a real-life example of a teaser video that a new beer company put out during their launch four years ago:
View this post on Instagram
The possibilities are endless, but it’s a good idea to get your audience buzzing before you even launch.
What do you want this launch to look like? This needs to be more than “reach a lot of people” or “get a lot of sales.”
Instead, create SMART goals that clearly lay out what you’re hoping to achieve with this product launch. A few examples are:
Specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound goals. This is what you want to set so that you know if you hit your main objectives or not.
Here’s a goal-setting template to help you set goals and track progress.
Sometimes a successful launch takes a village. Working with influencers, pitching to media publications or even working with other companies in your industry (that are not, of course, direct competitors) can be a great way to reach even more potential customers.
Take that press release you made during your pre-launch phase (or even a media kit if you have one) and begin to send it out to each contact on your list to see if you can create partnership campaigns to further your reach.
Not sure how to create a media kit? Use our editable template below to get started.
Create ads for your most popular social media platforms, like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc. This will help you reach even more people with your launch, increasing the number of sales you’re likely to get.
Utilize a template like the one below for an animated ad:
Or consider creating a video that showcases your new product and proves why someone in your audience might want to buy it.
Make sure everyone involved knows what their role is in the launch so they’re able to ensure their part goes off without a hitch.
You might have your partnerships manager keeping a close eye on all of your influencer and media campaigns. Your social media team will be in charge of sharing and interacting with information related to your launch. Your content team may be on standby to write up snippets about the product to share with publications.
There are so many moving parts to a successful product launch, so ensure that each person on your team knows their role and is ready to help out when you need them.
With Visme's dynamic range of collaboration features, collaborating with your teammates on all your product launch related documents becomes a breeze.
Utilize the live editing features to work together on the same document simultaneously, or share it with your team to get feedback using the commenting, annotating and version control features.
Whether creating engaging presentations, fine-tuning marketing materials, or brainstorming on eye-catching social media posts, Visme has you covered. Watch the video below to see how the feature works.
Once you’ve completed the product launch timeline, that doesn’t necessarily mean your work is over. First, you need to make sure your sales and marketing teams continue to tout this new product so it remains prominent in your audience’s minds.
You’ll also want to put together a strategy for customer retention to ensure any new customers you picked up from this launch turn into loyal, repeat customers.
Then, analyze your results to see if you hit your goals. If not, reassess what you can do for your next launch to reach more customers and increase sales. If you did hit your goals, consider creating even more aggressive goals for your next launch.
Some tactics to consider during your post-launch include:
The Ultimate Product Launch Checklist
We've compiled a comprehensive 10-point product launch checklist that ensures a smooth and successful rollout of your new offering. This checklist will guide you through all aspects of the product launch process, helping you maximize your product's potential while engaging customers effectively.
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Now that we’ve walked you through the basics of how to do a product launch strategy, let’s get into some specific launch ideas. This can help you pinpoint the best ways to utilize your marketing channels and make the biggest impact.
One great way to spread the word about a new product unveiling is by hosting an event. There are many different ways to go about this, including in-person and online product launches.
For one, you could host an event seemingly unrelated to your launch, then surprise attendees at the end with the news. Plan a fun local event and sell tickets for attendance. You might have games, a DJ and catering to help make the event more fun.
Then, you can stand up to make an announcement—and consider live streaming this on social media to bring in the rest of your audience as well—and share the news about your brand new product or collection. Top it off by giving away free products to certain attendees as part of a raffle.
This is a great way to generate buzz around a new product launch while still making the event fun for your customers.
However, that’s not the only option you have. You could take a page out of Meta’s book by hosting an event that’s all about your product launch. They host their annual F8 Conference where their development team announces some of their newest products and features each year.
You can do these in person or online. If you turn the event into a larger conference with experts, speakers, networking, panels and more, you can easily charge a pretty penny for attendance. Otherwise, you may consider holding an online event for free just for your audience to tune in and learn more about what you’re launching.
Apple is one of the most successful companies doing it perfectly for years. Every year, they host a product launch event where they provide an in-depth understanding of their products. Here's a video of the Apple Event for the year 2023:
We mentioned this briefly, but let’s talk more about how you can use influencer partnerships to help ramp up your product launch. By working with popular influencers and content creators, you can reach brand new audiences that might be interested in your product.
You can provide influencers with early access to your product so they can test it and use it to create content. You can also ask influencers to review your product and offer their unfiltered opinion.
Here’s an example of what the latter option might look like in this video review of Apple’s new iPhone 15 lineup:
Influencers share honest reviews and opinions about your new product with their loyal followers, which in turn makes their audience much more likely to make a purchase from your brand.
Start building anticipation well before your launch even begins by creating a waiting list filled with interested consumers. Build a landing page, create a new email list specifically for sending out information in regards to your launch and start promoting it in order to get signups.
This tactic works for launching a new product, app or even a business.
For example, this is exactly what Robinhood did as they built their investing app. Their goal was to generate 1,000,000 subscribers to their email list before they even launched—just by showcasing their beta, providing a select few with early access and creating an incredibly basic landing page.
When users landed on the website, all they had to do was insert their email address to get early access. This was a great way to validate their idea and make sure they were going to have a solid customer base as soon as they launched.
Social media is the perfect tool to have in your arsenal when launching a product—or really any major campaign. There are billions of social media users, so you have the opportunity to reach a vast number of potential new customers with a social media product launch.
So whether you work on creating organic content or take advantage of paid ads is up to you—just make sure you use it.
Companies like GoPro create exciting YouTube videos showcasing their new products' capabilities. These videos often go viral on social media, creating anticipation and excitement among their potential customers.
Brainstorm your own viral-worthy social media content ideas and work to bring them to life. Share across multiple platforms for the best chance to maximize your reach.
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“Visme helped us improve our operational efficiency by empowering our subject-matter experts to create content that aligns to our brand voice and standards”
Ready to make a splash with your next product launch? You need these 10 templates to help it go off without a hitch.
Easily create a one-page product launch schedule that you can share with all team members involved in the launch. This ensures everyone is on the same page and each team’s tasks will be completed right on time.
Put together a fully-fledged product launch plan with this document template. Match your branding, input your own product photos, update the placeholder information with your launch information and share with your team.
You can also easily have your logo show up in the placeholder area by taking advantage of Visme’s brand kit and brand wizard and inputting your logo and brand colors for easy access.
Hosting an event? Use this sponsorship presentation to help secure event sponsorship and create a more enticing event. Sponsorship helps foot some of the costs associated with venue for product launching plus catering rentals. They can help you create a bigger event than you may otherwise have been able to afford.
No product launch is complete without a press release. Use a template like this to help you create a visually appealing press release that grabs attention and helps secure spots in media publications to further spread the word about your launch.
Match your press release to your brand colors with the click of a button. With Visme’s brand wizard, you can set up your color palette as a theme palette and upload your brand fonts. Head to theme colors and click on your brand’s palette, then watch as the colors adjust right before your eyes.
Watch this video tutorial to learn more about setting up your brand assets in Visme.
If you’re hosting an event, create an invitation to hand out in your place of business, to share online or to have your employees hand it out to their friends and families. This product launch example is a great way to increase exposure and get more people in the door at your event.
Consider creating an animated or interactive invitation that you share online. Visme makes it easy to share your invitation with a shareable link or even by inputting your recipients’ email addresses. Track opens and views of the launch invitation using Visme’s analytics features.
Promote your event on Facebook by creating a Facebook event. Use this template to help improve brand recognition by matching the design to your brand fonts and colors and placing it at the top of the Facebook event page.
A PERT chart is a visual project management chart that allows you to keep track of how a project is going. Utilize this template to make sure your team stays on track during each step of the launch.
Take advantage of hover effects and pop-ups in your PERT chart with Visme’s hotspot feature. Interactive charts provide even more context and information to the end user, enhancing the overall experience management without taking up more space on the canvas.
After your launch, consider creating a credits video like this one that allows you to thank everyone who played such a huge role in creating and releasing your new product.
A dichotomous key like the example above is a great way to make sure your team is ready for launch. Has the product been tested? Is your plan ready? Are your marketing copy and visual assets created and ready to go? If the answer to any of these questions is no, you’re not ready to launch.
Showcase your biggest USPs by putting together a product sell sheet. You can use this at your launch event, place on your website, share on social media, add it to your product catalog and more. Let customers know exactly why they need your new product.
Upload your own product images or take advantage of our stock images, icons and illustrations to add even more design elements to your product sell sheet. We have a number of animated and interactive elements you can use to provide even more information to your audience.
You've explored the world of product launches. You've understood its significance, identified crucial elements, created a launch strategy, gained inspiration from successful examples and found valuable templates.
Now, it's time for you to take action.
Start planning out your next product launch today. Take advantage of Visme’s professional document creator to help you create a standardized and documented product launch plan for your team to follow. Chart every step your team needs to take to ensure success and generate new sales for your brand new product.
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