Introduction

Online product launches have lots of moving parts. Many

different departments have a hand in getting to the finish

line with a winning product. If you are managing this type

of launch, there are a variety of ways to plan strategy and

set goals. One way is to target your four main audience

types. Using this method, you won’t risk missing the big

target—making it easy for your customers to buy your

products.

Making your plan “customer-centric” allows you to focus on

what matters and makes it easier to revise as you progress.

You can determine which groups need more attention and

which groups are performing well.

Audience Type One —“Self-directed”

This is the easiest type to satisfy. This person is an

“early adopter” or someone with a defined need. For

example, they have determined they need a “defragmentation”

software utility. They have read some online articles,

made a decision and want to go directly to the website to

buy. To satisfy this type’s needs you must have a clearly

defined buying process with quick check out.

Areas to target:

Online Store—Make sure you have a clear, well-run shopping

cart in place. Make it easy for him to buy his product and

leave satisfied.

Customer Service—Have an e-mail confirmation process in

place that makes it clear that a product was purchased and

a credit card (or other mechanism) was charged.

Offer testing—Begin with a special offer that can be

tracked online. Make sure to tweak it during the launch

period as you see results come in.

Audience Type Two— “Tester”

Satisfying this type is very straightforward. This is a

person who wants to get his hands on the “trial version”

for a test drive. If you are a software vendor this is

easy. If you are a consumer electronics vendor or sell a

service, you must determine a way to give your “tester” a

chance to try it.

With services you can offer a free “one-time” offer. As an

electronics vendor you must be more careful. You might

have a “tester” masquerading as a buyer who will quickly

buy the product to test it and just as quickly return it.

Be fair with your return policies, but be clear that a

sub-set of this group is going to return products no matter

what you do.

Areas to target:

Downloadable software —this area needs to be operable from

the day of product launch. I have seen companies postpone

providing a trial until other areas are in place. You miss

a big opportunity if you allow that. Some testers will

show up on day one never to return.

Free limited offer—if you are a service provider, have this

in place and expect people to try it. If you need to

assign resources to it, do so. Nothing is worse than

having an online message say “check back with us later…”

They won’t.

Audience Type Three —“Fact-Checker”

You may notice we are moving to the harder audience types.

You knew they were coming. The “fact checker” is a

cautious person who weighs information very carefully and

doesn’t buy until every question is answered. This is the

person that websites were made for. If you provide a

variety of different information formats, e.g. audio,

video, PDFs, etc. it makes it more likely that this type

will find what he’s looking for and make a purchase.

Areas to target:

Multimedia Product Movies—I call these “Digimovies

(sm).”They are generally done in Flash, are no more that

three minutes in length and they provide the most “bang for

your buck.” Feature these prominently as little

infomercials wherever you want to alert your audience to

top features and benefits of the product.

Written Information—these are the most common type of

information available on new products. Provide free

articles, links to online reviews, White papers, online

brochures, anything the fact-checker can study at his

leisure.

Webinars and Tele-seminars—these are relatively new

formats, ideal for the fact checker. A Webinars allows you

to invite website visitors to an online presentation about

your new product. She can view your presentation and ask

questions via a messaging facility. If you can’t afford a

Webinars, consider a tele-seminar that allows your audience

to join a phone-conference setup to discuss the merits of

your product.

Audience Type Four—“Mr./Ms. Remorseful”

We all know and dread this audience type. This is the

person who buys on impulse, repents at leisure and obsesses

about returning the product as soon as he gets it.

Obviously, the goal here is to overcome his feeling of

being “duped” and make him feel that buying the product or

service was a good idea after all. Believe it or not, you

have more control over this than you realize. You need to

quickly contact him and reinforce his reasons for buying.

Areas to Target:

Monthly newsletter—you should have a product newsletter

(that is track able) ready as an auto-responder after

product purchase and/or registration. In this newsletter

you should have links to:

1. Step by step tutorials that are easy to follow and get

her started using the product. Don’t count on her finding

the area herself; she’s too busy regretting her purchase.

2. Community—Provide an area that brings users together to

discuss the product and share information. This idea is as

old as the Internet and is often overlooked.

3. Online help—make it clear that help exists and can be

found online. This can be in the form of FAQs, a knowledge

database and links to other helpful resources.