Product Launch Strategy: 3 Mistakes to Avoid with Amy Traugh
- Dec 18, 2024
- 9 min read
TL;DR
What are the most common mistakes business owners make when launching a product, and how can I avoid them?
Product Launch Strategy: 3 Mistakes to Avoid
Build Momentum Before the Launch
A successful launch starts long before cart open. The early phase is where you build awareness, attract the right people, and create interest in what you are selling. If that foundation is weak, the launch will feel rushed and harder to convert.
This is why list building and audience nurturing matter so much. You want to know exactly who your offer is for and where they spend their time. That allows you to focus your energy on the platforms and messages most likely to reach the right buyers.
Instead of trying to be everywhere, concentrate on a few channels and use them well. Market research, audience feedback, and testing can help you refine your message before launch day arrives. The stronger the groundwork, the easier it is to create real momentum.
Keep Talking About the Offer
One of the biggest mistakes in a product launch is not mentioning the offer enough. Many business owners worry about sounding repetitive or annoying, so they hold back just when their audience needs more reminders. In reality, people are busy and often need to hear a message several times before they take action.
Consistent communication does not mean spamming your audience. It means showing up with value, clarity, and repetition so your offer stays top of mind. A strong launch includes email, social content, and reminders that help people understand why the offer matters.
The goal is to make the product feel familiar by the time they are ready to buy. If you only mention it once or twice, many people will miss it entirely. Repetition, when done thoughtfully, increases visibility and trust.
Review the Launch After It Ends
The third mistake is skipping the debrief. After a launch, it is tempting to move on immediately, especially if the process was exhausting. But this is one of the most valuable moments to learn what worked and what did not.
Look at the data closely. Which posts got the most engagement? Which emails performed best? Which calls to action led to clicks or conversions? These details show you where your launch was strong and where it needs improvement.
A debrief helps you make smarter decisions next time. Instead of starting over from scratch, you can adjust the parts that matter most. Over time, that creates a launch process that becomes more effective and less stressful.
A Better Way to Launch
The best product launch strategy is built on preparation, visibility, and reflection. When you nurture your audience before launch, communicate clearly during the launch, and review the data afterward, you create a stronger system for growth.
You do not need a perfect launch to get better results. You need a repeatable process that helps each launch build on the last. That is what turns a launch from a stressful event into a strategic business asset.
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Transcript for Episode 381. Struggling to Sell? 3 Launch Mistakes You're Probably Making
When you think of launching a new product or service, what comes to mind if you're like so many solopreneurs out there? Things like exhausting, tiring, an endless list of to do's, those and more. It can feel heavy, it can feel hard, it can feel exhausting, but it doesn't have to be. And in today's episode, what I want to do is dive into three mistakes that you're likely making with your launches that you may not even be aware of. And take it from me, I say these things coming from experience, because I have launched a lot over the last almost five years and I've learned some things. And I want to share those tidbits with you so that you can collapse time and make progress even faster, so that your next launch is even more wildly successful. And the first mistake that I see entrepreneurs making is forgetting about the Runway. All right, so what the heck is the Runway? Runway is everything leading up to the launch. This is where you're really focusing on list building and nurturing, getting ideal buyers into your world.
Amy [00:01:30]:
And this is why it's so important to know exactly who your product or service is a good fit for. Because remember, when you're speaking to everyone, you speak to no one. But the more specific you become and the more you really understand exactly what your ideal client's challenges are, what their desires are, and how your service fills that gap for them, the easier this process becomes. So really take the time to dive into that, to figure out what that is to leverage things like market research. And this is again why data is so valuable, because it tells you where those quality leads are coming in from, where your ideal buyers are at, so you can position yourself there strategically. You don't need to be everywhere. And I know it feels like it. It's such a noisy world out there.
Amy [00:02:30]:
It's like, okay, well, but if I'm on this platform and this platform, people are more likely to find me. Go all in on one, maybe two max, and get creative. Repurpose. I love doing A to B split testing over on Instagram and LinkedIn. Those are my two platforms that I really focus in on. And what I do is I actually post the same, but there's a delay. So if you follow along, you can watch me do this. Like, I am not gatekeeping anything.
Amy [00:03:03]:
I legitimately will take the same content, make a tweak or two, and see how it performs. And that's the beauty of it. It's so cool to see what resonates, and it really allows me to dial in my messaging even further onto those platforms. So the first one is, you know, stop waiting until that cart opens. Don't wait until your cart opens to sell. Make sure you're building up that excitement beforehand. It's just like a plane. If you put a plane on somebody's driveway and you show them, okay, you're going to take off from my driveway, it's not going to work, right.
Amy [00:03:45]:
It's just going to crash. You don't have enough momentum to create that lift. But if you have a nice long Runway, what happens is you can gain that speed, you create that momentum and then you easily take off. It's the same thing in sales. So be intentional. Always be focusing on that list building when you're not actively in lunch. That is your pre launch. Nurture those leads that are already in your world.
Amy [00:04:17]:
That's something else I see all of the time. You know, we focus so much on I need to be visible. I need to be visible. But how are you serving the people that are already in your world that have already opted into your amazing product or service? How are we retaining them? How are we getting those people that loved us to advocate for us? So this is where it's really important to focus on that Runway and nurture to list build, to build those relationships so that when the cart opens up, it's an automatic yes. So the next one that I see entrepreneurs making all of the time. And I'm also guilty of this one, not talking about your product or your service enough. I mean, how many of us are constantly telling ourselves stories? I don't want to be a bother. I talked about it once on social media and nobody bought.
Amy [00:05:17]:
I sent out an email to my list. I mean, that stings a little bit, right? But we've all done it. I did that too. I was totally guilty of this one when I first started. But what I realized is it's a noisy world. And take social media for example. You don't know who's seeing your content. It's kind of at the algorithm's mercy.
Amy [00:05:38]:
And even with your email list, are you taking the time that if it's a really important email, are you resending it to those that aren't opening it? Are you taking the time to regularly clean out your list? The person that hasn't opened your emails in six months, you can either send them a re engagement campaign where you say, hey, are you still here? Are you still interested? Or you can simply remove them from your list because obviously if they haven't opened up anything from you in the past six months. Chances are they're not a warm lead. They're not going to be buying anything anytime soon. And that's okay. You just have to bless and release. And it's an ego thing. It's a total ego thing that gets in our way. We get in our heads and we're like, oh, my gosh, they don't like me.
Amy [00:06:28]:
It has nothing to do with you. It has nothing to do with your worth. It just simply means they don't have a need for what you're offering right this minute. And that's okay. One of my favorite analogies is if somebody comes up to you and says, hey, do you want a piece of gum? And you're like, no, no thanks. It doesn't mean anything about you. It doesn't mean anything about your worth. It just means that they didn't want the piece of gum you had right now.
Amy [00:06:51]:
Like, that's okay. And once you work through that head drama and move past that, it gets so much easier because now you don't have all of that weighing you down. So be a broken record. Talk about it over and over and over. By the end of your lunch week, you should be sick of it. Now, I am not saying do what the children's place does. So if you have kids, if you're a mom, and you've ordered anything from the children's place, they legitimately sign you up for their email list anytime you place an order. Do you know how many emails they send per day? They send upwards of 10.
Amy [00:07:28]:
10 emails. 5 in the morning, 5 in the afternoon, evening. It's crazy. Like, yeah, children's place. I'm unsubscribing. That is a bit excessive. But I'm using this to really emphasize the fact that you cannot just send one email saying, here's my thing, be intentional. When you've taken the time to nurture and warm them up, then you can dive into your story.
Amy [00:07:56]:
You can really dive into that transformation, how this is going to help them, help them solve those problems that they have. So mistake number two, not talking about it. And then finally number three, the biggest, and this is probably the biggest mistake that I see over and over and over working with clients. It is not taking the time to debrief post launch. Now, what the heck do I mean by that? I mean taking the time to look at your data, to really look for those opportunities as to, okay, which posts did well, which calls to action were people clicking on? Which emails were they opening? Where were those quality leads coming in from? Really taking the time to dive into that data is a gold mine. And you can find so many little opportunities for improvement so that your next launch of this same thing, we're not scrapping it. We're not starting from ground zero. We're making one or two little adjustments and then leveraging that deal data in order to improve.
Amy [00:09:21]:
That's all it is. We're looking at the trail of breadcrumbs that is right there, leading us to more money, more sales, and even bigger lunch so that we can create that even bigger impact. So in summary, our three biggest mistakes are not having that Runway, forgetting to list, build, forgetting to nurture those that are in our world. Number two, not talking about it enough. And number three, not taking the time to do a post launch debrief. I guarantee that if you start doing these three things, start fixing these mistakes, you will see your income increase, you will see more successful launches. I speak from experience. I've done all three of these things.
Amy [00:10:20]:
Don't make those mistakes. Because now that I do these things on repeat, now that I talk about my stuff all of the time, now that I have a solid nurture plan in place, and then I take the time to leverage my data, I have seen the results that I want. So remember, until next time, I am here cheering for you. But remember to leverage your data and shatter your sales plateau.
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