Every startup has to undergo the pre-launch process. The period of pre-launch will determine whether your product will make its way to the users or fade in oblivion. However, many entrepreneurs feel that it is only about getting the product out the door. Unless you are an experienced businessman, this approach can disappoint you. The marketing of a SaaS business can be difficult. Often, SaaS startups enter the market with a new kind of software, which is unfamiliar. This new product may not be well-refined, and most of the audience may find it weary to sign up for another monthly expense. Therefore, SaaS startups need to figure out how quickly they can establish themselves as an authority with the help of effective digital marketing techniques that include utilizing content marketing and the best SEO software for startups. Let us take a look at the saas product launch checklist that will help you effectively launch your SaaS startup.

Free Download: Software Product Launch Checklist

Steps for Pre-Launch Marketing

Create A Pre-Launch Page

It is significant to think about the growth before you launch your product. You can do this by building propaganda, then funnel it into a pre-launch list. Create a landing page and make it viral, which will allow users to refer friends in exchange for free products. The main aim of creating a marketing landing page during pre-launch is to collect emails from your primary users. Also, monitor visitors to ensure that they are motivated to leave an email on your page. When you prompt them to sign up, you must keep the process as smooth as possible. Do not include complicated multi-field forms.

Have Customer Onboarding

Even if your SaaS product is simple, you are required to have an automated process to onboard new users to your application. As a result, it will be easier for people to use your product and they are likely to get converted into customers. This is a important box that you should tick in saas launch checklist. Additionally, it provides the following to users:

• Allow users to sign up and sign in
• It should display a welcome screen
• Provide a quick product tour of your top 3 features, which will help them get started.
• Incorporate automated lifecycle emails, after they sign up, after activation, and end of the trial.

Gather Feedback & Innovate

It is always better to know if your resources are feasible before pouring them into your product. Moreover, when your customers will use your product, they will tell you about the issues to be solved. Therefore, it is essential to listen to them and make changes accordingly in the product. Often, it happens that SaaS companies go off the rails while developing the product focusing more on technology instead of their core functionality and user-friendliness. If users will not be able to connect themselves with the product, then it won’t sell. It is significant for a SaaS product to gather feedback from customers and function accordingly. You can collect feedback via surveys or one-on-one interviews. In both cases, you need to create a list of set questions to ask your current consumers. Make sure you share the feedback with your cross-functional team.

Test Your Product Thoroughly

One of the simplest ways of impressing your target audience is to release an effective first version of your product. You can achieve this goal in various ways. Firstly, test your product thoroughly with your team and fix any loose ends. Further, release it to a few people who are similar to your target audience. Invite them who actually can relate to your product and find it helpful. These people are likely to give their honest feedback. Also, avoid inviting family, friends, and anyone who is emotionally close to you. You are required to have unbiased feedback to refine your product. Several entrepreneurs create a launch page with a signup form to collect beta users before they start working on their products. While developing their product, they spare some time to promote their launch page via email, social media, and other channels. There are some websites where you can easily find the beta testers for your products. Some of the popular ones are as listed below:

• BetaList

• BetaBound

• PreApps

• KillerStartups
• UserTesting

So, go to any of the sites, register yourself and you get a lot of data in terms of beta testers.

Try Not To Charge Your Customers Initially

It is the natural tendency of startups to charge their customers when they launch their product. However, it may not be in the good interest of your business in the beginning to charge them. When you want to charge your customers, you need to add a payment gateway to your website, which will cost you integration time. That’s why knowing the software product launch checklist is crucial. Moreover, you also need to apply for a bank account and run around for additional procedures like incorporation. The entire process can take months, which will also delay your launch unnecessarily. To avoid all this hassle, it is advisable to release your SaaS product as a beta version, and mention that it will be free of cost for the beta duration. As a result, you will have enough time to validate your idea along with setting up the payment module.

Outline Product Priorities

It is always better to have a software launch checklist and a strategy outlined step-by-step. It will help you and your team understand where you stand and what the priorities for the pre-launch stage are. Moreover, you can postpone the beta launch and add several features to the product. Therefore, it is crucial to stick to the initial functionality that you have planned for the Minimum Viable Product (MVP). As a result, you will not get carried away and will be able to meet your deadlines.

Coordinate Your Team

When you have a startup and you plan to launch your product, you are responsible for your team as well. You need to make sure that everyone in your team is on the same page and all of them move in the same direction towards the same goal. Set up weekly meetings and discuss the achievements and plans of team members. It is significant to explain the product roadmap to your freshly joined colleagues. It may be their first time as well. Therefore, it is essential to make them understand well.

Free Download: Software Product Launch Checklist

Watch Your Competitors

A thorough competitive analysis is crucial to put up a marketing strategy for your startup. The results could turn in to great blog articles and attract traffic to your website. You can use certain available tools such as Ahrefs or SEMrush to gain valuable insights into your competitors. It will help you ensure which marketing channels bring them traffic, what their top landing pages are, and analyze their backlink sources. As a result, you can effectively plan your marketing strategy.

Learn About your Target Market

When you run a business, it is extremely significant to know your buyer persona. Therefore, always keep learning about your target audience, as their needs evolve, and so should your product. Initially, you can start out by putting a survey with several questions. It will help you find out the biggest pain point. Besides, communicate with your potential clients directly, which will help you understand their needs and get direct feedback.

Create A Blog

When you are done setting up your website, go ahead by adding a blog to it. Blogging is an effective way of increasing awareness and establishing industry authority for your SaaS startup. You can leverage it to share your ideas with a wide range of audiences that may include those outside your social network. Moreover, you can also focus on the pain points of your target consumers and provide solutions through your blogs.

Set Up Email Marketing

SaaS Email Marketing has always been a significant part of digital marketing strategies. It is also the most personal way to reach the target audience that allows you to customize each message. At the end of the day, we all check our inboxes regardless of anything. It means that if your message can make it to your prospect’s inbox, they are likely to know about your product. Make an email list of your prospective clients before you launch your product. You can collect them via multiple sources. Today, you will find several email marketing platforms for free that allow you to manage a list of 2000 people. Moreover, some of them even provide out-of-the-box plugins that allow you to add an email subscription form at places like your launch page, blog, and even Facebook business page.

Set Up Analysis

When you plan to launch your SaaS product, you need to do a few things. It will be unproductive if you are unable to measure, analyze, and improve its performance. Fortunately, Google offers amazing free tools to make your life better. These tools are Google Analytics (GA) and Google Tag Manager (GTM). GA helps you analyze website traffic and understand user behavior while GTM is designed to simplify both developers’ and marketers’ lives by making their respective tasks easier.

Beta Test With Current Clients

When you enter the real market with your SaaS product, you are bound to face customers in all ways. They will push it, pull it, stretch it to its limits, ask questions you have never dreamed of, and discover new apps for it. They will break it and learn how to fix it. Therefore, make sure you are prepared to answer their mind-bolting questions related to your product. Therefore, you can plan to take a beta test with your existing customers and ensure whether they want to work with you and continue the relationship with you. It will surely be in their best interest. However, it is crucial to implement this with a new customer for real insights. For this purpose, your product and development teams need to closely align with this process.

Create A Product Launch Plan

The purpose of a product launch plan is to build momentum and sales velocity. When you launch a new product, it can act as rocket fuel for your sales pipeline in terms of renewals for existing consumers and share-of-wallet for brand new business. When you plan a product launch campaign, consider the existing customer launch and the prospective customer launch.

Launch

When the final saas product launch time arrives, maximize your product by selecting a specific relevant date for the company anniversary, significant trade show, and user conference. It is obvious that your sales team will be occupied in releasing the trailer of the new product in the market for months. However, the launch day makes it official. It indicates that the product is ready for purchase, the new website has launched, migration can start, and the PR efforts begin. In this type of scenario, you can take assistance from the trustworthy Product Launching Platforms. It can help you to forget all your worries related to saas launch plan and make your life easier. Some of the popular Product Launching Platforms are as listed follows:

• Product Hunt

• AngelList

• SpringWise

• SignUpFirst
• Launching Next

Here, you can register your product and the site will provide you with all the necessary features as well as tools that will help you in smooth conduct of launch.

Wrapping Up

When you plan to launch your SaaS product, it is essential to have a go-to-market strategy. Additionally, it requires to have a planning strategy, cross-company collaboration, and focus. During the pre-launch stage, make sure that your product solves issues that people are struggling with and they are ready to pay for your solution. Take your startup to new heights of success today.INBOUND MARKETING BEST PRACTICES TO INCREASE SAAS COMPANY’S SALES DOWNLOAD YOUR E-BOOK