The launch of a company is a big deal, but if preparation hasn’t been taken to build momentum up to that launch, you’re wasting valuable time. Think of every musical artist that leaked a few songs to hype up their upcoming album.
Jonathan and Brett cover:
- Building momentum to the launch
- Buying the company, not the product
- Discussing the vision for the launch
Building momentum to the launch
Launch day is a big event for any business; but without ample preparation, it loses most of what makes the day important in the first place. Brett describes the launch of The Juice not as a one-day event, but the end result of many days’ work building momentum for the day.
Imagine planning a giant birthday party for your best friend. You show up to their house on the day without any plans. They look at you, confused — no one showed up because you didn’t invite them, all events are sold out, and you can’t get a reservation anywhere for dinner. As you sit in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant with your friend, you avoid their glare and think of all the ways this birthday could’ve gone better.
Don’t let your launch fizzle out due to poor planning.
A launch without a product
The launch for The Juice has been a little different than the norm — Brett needed to figure out how to build momentum in lieu of a product. Think of it like planning a birthday when your best friend doesn’t want any presents.
”I’m going to have conversations with people like me, I’m going to validate messages I’m going to learn. And I’m going to turn that into content.” — Brett McGrath
So how did Brett build hype around the launch? Customer relationships. With their brand message built on the conversations with 100 marketers, it was an organic move to turn conversations Brett had into content.
Brett looks to the momentum built by musicians when they leak a few songs off of an upcoming album as inspiration when building his content.
Buying the company, not the product
I hate to say it, but your product launch probably isn’t top of mind for most consumers. People are busy with their own lives and have a million distractions. Beyond this, those customers who are there for the launch will have questions that may delay their buy in.
“To think that what we’re doing at The Juice is someone else’s priority is silly,” Brett comments.
Brett brings this up not as a discouragement, but as a warning — the last thing you’d want to happen is to have a highly successful launch derailed because the result doesn’t seem to match what was expected.
Instead of putting all the focus on your product or the product you plan to launch later on, focus on those interested customers and build those relationships. There’s no way to avoid the business and distractions your customers will inevitably be faced with, but what you can do is make sure that relationship is strong enough that the customer will think of you when they’ve cleared their schedule.
”The more voices that you have in support of your mission and what you’re doing, the more likelihood that people are going to begin to adopt your message, your product and everything you’re doing over a long period of time.” — Brett McGrath
Discussing the vision for the launch
The initial vision of a company launch can look a lot differently than how it looks on the actual day. For Jonathan, the biggest difference in vision was what would be possible due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
One of the biggest shifts due to the pandemic has been the ability to host in-person events. So, when initially planning the launch, an in-person event was back-of-mind. Even so, Jonathan knew that they needed a differentiator in their company launch to set them apart. Fortunately, that back-of-mind in-person opportunity came to fruition for The Juice.
”I think it’s going to feel very different and be very different than most launch events.” — Jonathan Gandolf
A key takeaway
You’ve put your blood, sweat, and tears into building a company. It’s natural to want to start off on the right foot. Yet things don’t always go according to plan. Your launch may change from your initial vision, but as long as you’re making the right preparations and keeping your focus on the customers that will support your company well into the future, you’ll stay on track.
This post is based on an episode of the #FlipMyFunnel podcast. Check us out on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or here.
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The Juice: Website | Twitter | LinkedIn | Instagram
Jonathan Gandolf – Chief Executive Officer at The Juice – Twitter | LinkedIn
Jonathan is a left-brain marketer with a right-brain problem. Having launched his career in marketing data, a curiosity and appetite for problem-solving has led him from digital marketing, to craft beer (yes really), to healthcare analytics (yes, an even weirder transition).
Now, he’s tackling his most challenging problem yet — helping B2B marketers, like himself, break away from their old school habits. The Juice is a B2B Content Discovery Platform that more intelligently connects content consumers and content marketers. It’s the B2C experience for curated content we all know and love being applied to the B2B space. Stop filling out forms, start enjoying content.
Brett McGrath – VP, Marketing at The Juice – Twitter | LinkedIn
Brett has spent the past 12 years in the B2B SaaS industry in various marketing functional and leadership roles. He wakes up every morning thinking about creating value for the audience he is serving and loves building winning content programs. He believes the content marketing function is the catalyst for change in B2B marketing and spends his days learning from other marketers on the 3C (Curating Content Creators) Podcast. His evenings consist of creating content in the sports cards industry with his show Stacking Slabs and is always looking for rare Peyton Manning cards that he doesn’t already own.
