7 Tips for a Successful Product Launch
In the world of medical device marketing and sales, executing a well thought through product launch provides a huge opportunity to gain market share, grow your clientele, and increase your revenue.
Today, we are sharing seven tips from our team of professionals on how to launch a product smoothly and successfully!
1. Plan Ahead Before FDA Approval
Medical device products require approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before they go to market. With an unpredictable FDA timeline, the launch date could come sooner than you think. This often results in your team rushing to finalize everything for the product launch.
We recommend creating a plan with deadlines before FDA approval. Even though your timeline might change as things arise, you will at least have the foundation set so you can make adjustments as needed. With a product launch plan set in place, you will be able to create marketing collateral, train your sales reps, and cover anything else needed.
2. Have a Marketing Strategy
While we are talking about planning, it’s also important to have a marketing strategy set in place for your product launch. Complex products, like medical devices, require strong visualization for the end client. Your marketing strategy needs to focus on your target audience, what deliverables are going to work, and how you are going to convey your story.
You have to have all your bases covered in terms of deliverables, physical and digital. Some marketing deliverables you should consider are…
- Explainer videos
- 3D animations
- Website (don’t forget about SEO)
- Social media platforms
- Email campaigns
- Interactive apps
- Case studies
- Trial Studies (ie n=237)
- One-sheets
- Press releases
- Trade shows
- Events with Key Opinion Leaders
Your marketing strategy should focus on your target audience and the powerful idea that gives them value. If your target audience is consumers, they care about the quality of life and how your product addresses that. If your target audience is physicians, they care more about how it will improve their day-to-day work activities and MOA. When it comes to marketing utilize anything that reaches people, even if you have a small budget!
3. Set Goals to Guide the Launch
Before you launch your product, it’s important to set measurable goals to guide your launch. A product launch requires attention from many internal department – sales, marketing, training, customer support, manufacturing, quality, and regulatory. All of these departments must know the goals they are working towards, and work together to achieve them. You should set the main goal of your product launch, and then break it down into goals for each department. This way, each department can prioritize tasks for the product launch.
4. Know Your Competition
This might seem a little obvious, but it’s a critical component of a successful product launch. You need to evaluate the current market you are introducing your product to, the gaps in the market, and who your competitors are. Hopefully, you already have a good grasp on this, that’s why you are launching the product. As you gather competitive intelligence, don’t forget to incorporate it into your product launch and use it to your advantage.
5. Create Powerful Content
You are introducing customers to a powerful product so it only makes sense that you have powerful content to show it off. With the help of our team, you can create powerful content, like 3D animations, virtual reality, and procedural animations, to effectively tell the story of your product.
Medical device products and procedures can be hard to show and understand. With our visualization, you can strip away all the details and showcase the important features of your product. Whether that’s taking a 3D animation camera under the skin to show how your product works or breaking it down to the cellular level. Once you have powerful content created, you can use it throughout your product launch, SKO, and by your sales reps out in the field. What’s great about digital high-end content is that you can repurpose it in many ways, helping you get the most out of your investment!
6. Educate & Train Your Sales Force
Training is a critical part of your product launch plan. Your sales force needs to be adequately trained on the new product and its’ features so they are prepared to assist customers at every interaction. Equip your reps with in-depth training guides, product manuals, and anything else they need to be successful. It’s also a good idea to hold a product launch event within your company to create excitement and provide additional hands-on training.
7.Track Results
After you’ve launched your product, it’s important to track your results and the goals you set at the beginning. One way you can do this is with a sales enablement solution, like SoloFire, to help gauge effectiveness. With a sales enablement solution set in place, your sales and marketing teams receive instant analytics on the collateral created for the product launch. You can put more resources into producing content because you have content visibility! You can be sure you’re hitting the target, instead of just taking a shot in the dark.
Another powerful resource for tracking results is your field team! They are the ones closest to the action, and the ones interacting with your customers the most. Ask them questions and gather feedback on what they think could help them sell more effectively.
Creative Services to Fuel Your Product Launch
As you can see there’s a lot that goes into a successful product launch, but these seven tips will help get you started in the right direction.
If you need help creating digital sales aids, 3D animations, medical videos or other creative services for your product launch, you can start a project here. We have dedicated Creative Directors that are eager to help you take a strategic approach in launching your product, powered by high-end digital content!
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