Launching a new product is an exciting time for any business. You have just spent months painstakingly preparing your new product for launch. You have conducted copious amounts of market research, developed countless prototypes, and created the ultimate product marketing strategy. Now that you’re officially at the starting line it is time to start implementing every marketer’s best friend, KPIs.
Marketing is becoming increasingly data-driven, and for good reason. Your ability to measure the success of a product launch comes down to how effectively you can use and track important metrics. Armed with the right metrics, businesses can use data to perform better, optimise their campaigns, and troubleshoot issues early.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) help ensure that your marketing efforts are successfully supporting your business objectives. Failure to track the right metrics can leave businesses vulnerable and is one of the reasons that up to 95% of new products fail.
Want to see what a successful product launch looks like? Take a look at how the team here at Think Creative Agency helped Felton Industries launch 3 new products and get fantastic results.
While every product and market is different, here are some of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that work across almost all industries.
PRODUCT LAUNCH KPIs
These metrics are crucial for measuring the success of the initial product launch campaign. They are extremely useful for identifying the impact of specific marketing efforts. During this stage marketing managers should remain flexible and dynamic to ensure that changes can be made to the product marketing strategy based on the results.
- Engagement with Promotions by Channel: Channel-specific metrics can help you understand where your audience likes being contacted, and how different types of promotional material perform best. Examples include:
- Email: Open rates, click-through rates
- Social media: Likes, comments, shares, link clicks
- PPC advertising: Clicks, cost-per-click
- Website Metrics: KPIs such as website traffic, page views, and the average session duration can be used to evaluate your digital marketing strategy. These metrics reveal whether people can find your product’s website and how effective your landing pages are.
- Leads Generated: Lead generation is often one of the central objectives behind any product launch and these metrics help to reveal how much interest your product is getting. Leads may be measured by the number of trials started, downloads completed, or quote forms submitted.
- Earned Media: PR is often an important component of larger product launches. Metrics like sentiment, number of mentions, and potential reach can be used to evaluate public opinion and gauge brand awareness.
PRODUCT ADOPTION KPIs
These metrics help you understand how customers are using your product and can reveal whether you have been successful in creating real customer value that translates into action.
- Trials: If you have offered free trials to customers, the number of trials successfully started is a great way to evaluate public interest.
- Adoption Rate: This KPI can measure how quickly your product is diffusing through the market and signals positive reception and an effective marketing strategy.
- Customer Usage: This can help you understand how customers are using your product over time and identify areas for improvement. Useful metrics include usage frequency, average time spent, feature usage, and the number of active users.
MARKET PENETRATION KPIs
Understanding how successfully your product has penetrated the market is crucial for evaluating the success of your product, marketing, and sales efforts, and for making data-driven decisions for the future.
- Revenue: This is often the most critical KPI for businesses- how much revenue did the product launch generate? It signals that you have successfully provided value to your customers and that they are willing and able to pay for that value.
- Competitive Win Rate: When customers are choosing between your product and your competitor’s, what percentage are choosing you? This is vital for understanding how you measure up to direct competition. Market research can also be used to further understand why you received the result you did.
- Market Share: This KPI indicates what portion of the market your product has successfully captured. This drastically changes depending on the industry, however, a strong market share generally indicates a very successful product launch. Over time it is vital that this metric increases.
Choosing the best metrics to track when launching a new product can present challenges for marketers. However, data is cheaper and more accessible than ever before, and even basic metrics can be hugely valuable. Product launch KPIs can help you evaluate your marketing strategy, see what worked best, and make data-driven decisions to drive your product to success.
If you are looking to launch an exciting new product, then the team at Think Creative Agency are here to help. We can offer experience and expertise in everything from the go-to market strategy to the creation and implementation of the entire marketing campaign. Take a look at this successful case study to see what we can do for your business.
Want to know more? Contact us today at +61 2 8068 2293 or email [email protected].
