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Are you looking for the ultimate online resource with all the product launch plan templates you’ll need in one place?
Well, this is the one.
In this post, we’ll discuss the easiest way to launch a new product by using Google Sheets templates.
We’ll also give you a leg up by providing you with access to free spreadsheet templates for your:
In other words, by the end of this post, you’ll have everything you need for a successful product launch!
But first, let’s see why it’s important to have a launch plan in place.
Having a well-structured product launch plan is essential since it can help you and your team:
And more!
Plus, considering that 60% of developed products fail to enter the market, planning every step of your go-to market plan while ensuring that your team is following through every one of their planned tasks is imperative when it comes to a new product launch.
That is exactly what you’ll get to do when using our templates:
Let’s take a more in-depth look at the benefits of planning.
There’s a lot that goes into a launch strategy and it’s easy to lose sight of what’s important—sales and customer retention.
When having a step-by-step action plan, it will be easier for you and your team members to follow through with each process necessary for implementing your go-to-market strategy while also keeping the bigger picture in mind.
Did you know that almost 40% of product managers are worried about missing the launch date?
Chances are, you could be one of them if you don’t have a solid plan in place (and a way to track your progress as the launch date grows near).
If you’re on the same side of the fence, planning things ahead will ease your nerves by offering you:
And we’re not just saying that!
There’s actually scientific proof about how planning can get you closer to achieving your goals. Have a look below.
According to behavioral scientists, simply figuring out the whens and hows of you achieving your objectives increases the likelihood of you actually following through with your intention.
Moreover, the same report states that planning can help people in two ways:
The same applies to product launch planning: it helps you and your team identify possible bottlenecks and create strategies to overcome them so they don’t interfere with your product launch plans.
Moreover, the same report highlights that you can encourage your teammates to follow the plan simply by asking them details about how they are going to approach the assigned tasks, when they are planning to do it, and so on.
Plus, with the templates we’ve prepared for you, this bit will get easier. You’ll see in a moment why and how.
But before that, let’s talk more about why you absolutely need to have a launch plan in place.
Image Source: Scholar Harvard
The table captured in the image above highlights the benefits of plan-making and sharing your plan with other people (in this case, your team).
So, according to Harvard, when making plans:
Now let’s see how to create effective product launch plans using our five templates.
Below, you’ll find a brief description of each template and step-by-step instructions on how to use them.
Dive in to learn more.
The first template we have for you is the product launch plan template that can be used to track your marketing activities that correspond to each product launch stage.
This template offers you custom fields for keeping track of your pre-launch, launch, and post-launch campaigns for multiple products, keeping you highly organized and efficient.
To start using the template, first input the name of the product in the designated column and select the appropriate product launch stage from the dropdown menu.
Next, go to the Marketing Activity columns and choose the appropriate activity type you’re planning to implement for promoting your product.
Here, you have three columns dedicated to planning marketing activities. In each column, you can select one of the following options from the dropdown menu:
Next, go to the Objective field and type in your campaign goals. Right beside this field, you can keep track of whether the set campaign objective was met or not.
Then, type in the names of the team members assigned to the respective marketing activity.
And lastly, select whether or not the product needs to be improved with new features as per the user feedback collected after each marketing activity (remember, customer feedback is very valuable and important when it comes to improving future product iterations and launches).
What’s more, you can customize this template according to your business needs.
It’s a good starting point when you’re still figuring out the best possible way to promote your product in each stage of the launch.
If this template looks too complex for your needs, we’ve got you covered with the beginner-friendly template, which you can read about below.
The next product launch plan template is a simplified version of the previous one.
This format makes the template ideal for absolute beginners.
Specifically, we’ve reduced the number of columns from 10 to 7 while still keeping the most important fields for your strategy.
You’ll begin the same way, by typing in your product name in the designated column.
Next, you will have to establish at least one marketing activity for the pre-launch, launch, and post-launch phase. To make things easier, we’ve created separate columns for:
For each of these columns, you can select one of the following options from the dropdown menu:
Lastly, you can set up expectations for your marketing efforts as well as track the results of your campaigns by filling out the respective fields. This is an important way to track and measure your goals (and their success) to plan improvements for next time.
Setting up campaign objectives and tracking KPIs and product launch metrics might seem a bit complicated.
But it’s important to note that they're both essential to monitoring the success of your initiatives.
How else are you going to track progress?
Where are you going to look for the results of your marketing campaigns?
How will you be able to tell if your campaigns reach your target audience?
If you’re omitting this step, you might end up wasting money on marketing.
We will talk more about marketing in the context of a new product launch in the following section.
With our product launch marketing plan template, you will be able to keep track of everything related to marketing.
We're talking about value propositions, a competitive analysis, customer loyalty, and everything in-between.
The processes you are able to track here are grouped by launch stage and the 6 Rs corresponding to each stage:
Let’s take a closer look at what each of them entails.
First, we have the research row, corresponding to the pre-launch stage that involves lots and lots of market research.
More precisely, during this phase, you will need to establish your unique selling point and your product's value proposition.
You might also want to conduct a product analysis to identify any weaknesses your product might have so you can later patch them with lacking features.
Perhaps you need to create buyer personas, research competitors’ pricing strategies, and so on.
Guess what?
You can add all that to the template.
Another thing you might want to consider is doing a thorough competitive analysis.
In the template, you have designated fields for each of these actions and enough space to jot down your findings and ideas.
Next, we’ll cover the product launch roadmap phase of the pre-launch stage. Here, you’ll map out your pre-launch:
Moving on to the launch phase, you’ll start with the roll out stage, where you can:
Right after that comes the reporting section.
Here, you will write about the results you’ve registered after each marketing campaign.
The last section of this Google Sheets template is represented by the post-launch stage and its corresponding two Rs: response and retention.
Within the response section, you are able to track the reactions of your customers to different campaigns, take notes about any negative feedback received, and propose solutions to address customers’ pain points.
Lastly, you’ll have to come up with customer retention and loyalty strategies in the retention section.
Specifically, the template enables you to plan the next steps of your:
Now, let’s see what the best timing is for all of these campaigns and tasks.
To help you stay on schedule with all the processes we’ve discussed so far, you can use our product launch timeline template.
Having a detailed product launch timeline will help you make sure everything is ready until the day of your product launch, and beyond.
Similar to the previously presented templates, the timeline template enables you to track your progress throughout all three phases of the product launch.
It serves as a visual roadmap of your pre-launch, launch, and post-launch activities.
Plus, by using it, you’ll have everything that needs to be done in one place, ordered chronologically so you don’t miss a beat.
You can start planning even 6 months ahead. It’s entirely up to you how early you want to create your project plan.
Our template enables you to keep track of all the tasks that need to be completed 90, 60, and 30 days prior to the launch date, giving you an effective countdown and way to track your progress as your launch date grows closer.
Of course, you can go ahead and edit the deadlines to better fit with your established workflow.
After you’ve typed in your pre-launch plans, you can go ahead and fill out the fields for the desired dates of your launch day and post-launch.
Not only will this template enable you to keep a close eye on the timeline of the launch process, but it will also help you to streamline your team’s collaboration.
In detail, the timeline sheet improves teamwork thanks to Google’s sync features. This allows you and your teammates to work in the same document, as the templated spreadsheet will automatically sync across all the devices as people are working on them.
This basically means that the changes you make in this spreadsheet will be visible in real-time to all of your coworkers who have access to the document, so you can avoid accidentally doubling up on the same tasks or overwriting each others’ work.
The last thing you’ll need before getting to work on your product launch is a checklist.
And luckily, you can find one below.
The last template for today is our product launch checklist.
This template enables you to track the progress of all of your key projects within each stage of the launch process.
Specifically, the template follows the most important activities you need to do before, during, and after the launch.
For each activity, you can leave a comment and choose one of the following completion statuses from the dropdown menu:
In the pre-launch section, we’ve provided a wide range of tasks that we have found to be essential for a successful pre-launch, including:
Similarly, the launch phase section is comprised of multiple items that build up to the launch, such as:
The next and final section is the post-launch section, where you will discover what the typical strategy for after the launch consists of.
Here, we’ve included activities such as:
Remember, you can adjust each of these templates as you see fit in order to stay organized and true to your processes. The best template and workflow process is one that works for you.
Now over to you!
Hopefully you’ve found every template you were looking for to get your sales, customer support, and marketing team on board for an awesome product launch.
Our product launch templates will not only help you save time and money, but also take you closer to your objectives.
However, if you feel like you’re not ready to create your launch plan yet, don’t be discouraged!
We have tons of product launch resources, guides, case studies, and how-tos on our blog.
Viral Loops has your back!
Head over to our blog and get armed with the information you need to make competitors wonder “how did they do it???”.
Written by:
Nikitas is responsible for growth at Viral Loops and also helps customers on 1-on-1 basis to reach success with their referral campaigns. Let's connect on LinkedIn
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