Your Brand/Product Launch: How to Set Marketing Priorities

What should you focus on when launching a new product or brand? I’ve launched several online courses for UK-based universities such as Cambridge ICE and King’s College London, so I understand the importance of focusing your time and energy on the right things at each stage of the process. Especially when it feels like everything is a priority!

A well-structured, staggered approach is the way to go — there’s no need to feel overwhelmed by all the marketing options out there. It’s all about understanding your customer and matching your brand’s activities to where they spend their time, what content they consume, and their specific needs. Focus on what works best for your brand now, and save the rest to implement later — or not at all.

Here’s a quick guide to help you choose your marketing priorities:

Pre-planning phase: First things first

1. Define Your Value Prop

What makes your product stand out? Be specific. If your online course is the first of its kind or your digital tool reduces meeting times by 40%, make sure people know about it.

Think about what truly matters to your audience. You can’t be everything to everyone. For example, a software platform might highlight ‘enterprise security made simple’, while a fashion accessories brand could focus on ‘hair accessories made specifically for thick hair’.

This central idea — your golden thread — should run through everything you do, tying your marketing together.

2. Understand Your Audience

76% of consumers would rather buy from a brand they feel connected to. So, take the time to get to know your customers: what they need, where they spend their time, and how they make decisions. Map their buyer journey, from their ‘research phase’ to the final purchase. This can be done through surveys and interviews with your ideal customer, market research, or competitor analysis.

For instance, B2B buyers might rely on LinkedIn, Gartner reports, or Reddit, while fashion lovers might follow Instagram and TikTok influencers and trust their recommendations. Make sure your content speaks to them in the right spaces — whether that takes the form of in-depth guides or short, creative TikToks.

3. Set Measurable Targets

Big goals are amazing, but breaking them into smaller, measurable steps makes them feel more attainable.

Top tip: Make sure your goals are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) rather than too broad and vague. For example, the goal of ‘reaching 10k Instagram followers by the end of Q1 2025’ is a SMART goal that’s much better than simply ‘growing Instagram following’.

Lay out a timeline with clear milestones (Miro is a great tool for this!), such as achieving X signup numbers by X date, X Instagram followers by X date, or monthly sales targets.

These checkpoints will keep you on track and give you reasons to celebrate the smaller wins along the way.

Execution Phase: Bringing the Plan to Life

4. Build Strong Foundations

• Create brand guidelines for visuals, tone of voice, and messaging. Be sure not to skip this part, as it’s the very foundation of what you do/who you are as a brand.

• Have a kick-ass website that’s fully optimised for mobile — this is non-negotiable in today’s digital-first world, where 30% of the global digital population browses and shops from their phones. Make sure your site loads quickly, is visually appealing, and functions perfectly across all devices. It's even worth investing in a UX expert to review its accessibility and usability.

• Start building a content bank of high-quality images, videos, blog posts, and testimonials to maintain consistency across your website and social media platforms.

5. Pick the Right Distribution Channels

• Choose platforms that your audience already uses. For B2B, LinkedIn is often a good choice. For fashion or lifestyle products, Instagram and TikTok will work better. (Good to know: 77% of consumers are more likely to buy from brands they follow on social media.)

• Use email marketing to nurture your connection with your audience — it’s cost-effective, delivers strong results, and allows for ongoing testing. Platforms like Mailchimp, Kit, or Klaviyo have great tools for automation, templates, and analytics.

• Paid search is also useful for reaching people who are actively ready to buy.

6. Plan Your Launch Activities

• Break your launch into phases to keep it manageable, e.g., pre-launch prep, soft launch, full launch, and post-launch activities.

• Start by building interest through previews, exclusive content, gated webinar content, or waitlists. You can even partner with influencers who align with your brand to expand your reach.

As an example, I recently launched an influencer campaign for my hair accessories brand, Spicy Ava. We collaborated with an influencer to design a product together and documented the process on social from start to finish. As someone passionate about fashion and design, she was excited to promote the campaign to her (super engaged) audience, creating most of the content herself. We spent minimally on paid ads and generated significant organic sales because her network was so supportive of her.

• When it’s time to launch, you could issue a press release, connect with media for coverage, focus on social media campaigns only, or even host an event. Your marketing activities should suit your brand/product and its audience — you don’t have to do it all!

• After launch, prioritise collecting feedback, retargeting your audience as needed, and keeping people engaged with regular content.

Implementation: Tracking and tweaking

Keep an eye on the numbers

Start tracking from day one — keep an eye on key metrics like customer acquisition costs, conversion rates, and website traffic. Check your progress regularly and make adjustments as needed.

Focus on the bigger picture too, with metrics like revenue growth, retention rates, and engagement. Small changes based on real data can make a big difference.