Event Marketing & Experience

The Complete Guide to Online Product Launch Event Planning

Victoria Rudi
July 22, 2023

Table of Contents

Launching a new product is a momentous occasion for any company. You’ve spent months fine-tuning prototypes, the launch strategy and the product road map. 

Now it’s time to let the world know about it which in other words means, it’s time to start planning an online event. In a previous article, we covered how to do this for physical events, and now it’s time to talk about how to take this online. 

Chances are you’ve seen the likes of Apple and Tesla live stream their product launches and the good news is that these principles can be applied directly to your online event.

You want to get people excited about your product. And you want to educate them on what the product is and why it was made, making it clear what problem it solves.

Here are a few tips on how to make a memorable product launch along with the actions needed to move this into the online world. 

Best practices to run a memorable product launch

Regardless of your industry and product, you can also deliver equally memorable product launches using the same techniques. Here are some of the best practices that can be applied to your online events: 

✅ Develop a personal brand: Promoting a product starts long before the event. Become known and active inside your industry. Whether it’s speaking at events, networking or being active on LinkedIn, but by having the right promotion and content creation strategy, you’ll be able to make a name for yourself and humanize your company’s brand.

✅ Create anticipation before the product launch: Get your future attendees excited about the event by releasing behind-the-scenes videos, providing unique, on-site images, or even announcing a catering collaboration with a prestigious chef.

✅ Build a strong mission around your product: Go to the roots of your business, unravel your values, and highlight your mission. Bring your products to life by wrapping them around your mission. Focus on their greater purpose and always pinpoint the greater good your product can provide.

Make your big event feel personal: A more intimate and friendlier environment will help your guests relax and pay more attention to your presentation. Apart from that, it will make them feel more comfortable, as if they were there at the real thing. 

✅ Build a product presentation style specific to your brand: From the backing music to your colour scheme, the voice of your brand should be everywhere. The same is true for your product launches. So before your event, work on building a specific presentation style that aligns with your brand.

How to apply this to your online product launch

Now we’ve got the basic concepts to a successful product launch out of the way, let’s take a look at how this can be transferred into actions with these five tips. 

Create some hype by leaving teasers and create FOMO

The key to any successful online product launch is the hype created beforehand. Doing this requires you to be mysterious. So instead of giving it all away in your first announcement, leave plenty of teasers well before the anticipated day of the event. 

People are curious by nature, so use this to leave them guessing about the product. Remember, if you tell them everything they need to know, they’re never going to follow up to get more information. Fewer details mean more mystery and when you’re able to do this you’ll drive your customer base into a frenzy.

To show you an example, the image below is an announcement for Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). At first glance, you might think it’s incredibly vague, and that’s the point because it leaves you with more questions than answers. 

Apple has been tipped to release a VR headset or pair of AR glasses for a long time now. So could this be it? Or are the character’s glasses just showing a reflection from their laptop? We’ll let you be the judge of that!

Use social media to spur the conversation

There’s no better place than social media to start building hype. With options for your followers to like, comment and share your posts, this is the perfect environment to gain even more exposure and excite your audience by grabbing their attention and building attention. 

In addition to this, it’s vital that you come up with a catchy hashtag that encourages attendees to take action online, share their experiences, and spread your event’s reach even more. Plus, it makes it easy for the online world to find information about your product through the hashtag.

Last but not least, consider inviting influencers to the product launch. This is a smart way to expand your reach and get the word out without you having to do any of the talking. 

Looking for more tips on how to use social media to promote your online event? Check out this article.

Make it exclusive

Every product launch event should be built around two types of attendees. First, your customer base and followers, and second, those that can help propel your product to new heights be it the media, influencers, or industry experts. 

Both play a huge part in making the event, and therefore your product, a success and that’s why you need to make it exclusive and special. For your customers, think about adding a personal touch with a product-related goody bag, special discount code, or VIP session. 

Then for the second set of attendees, send out invitations and other goodies to get them on board well before the product launches. Here the idea is to get them to do the talking for you, so spend time thinking about certain outlets and people that can get your product in the limelight. 

Remember that the more eyes and ears you have around the event, the more likely it is for the product to get free promotion on blogs, podcasts, and social media. 

Make it a talking point 

When Steve Jobs told the world about a new product he didn’t just list off a load of its new features. Why? Because he knew that most people don’t care, and those that do can easily access this information somewhere online. 

Instead, he would talk about how the product is going to impact the lives of people in a positive way and once you’re able to demonstrate this you’ll be able to get them excited. That’s why you need to build the content of your product launch event around this narrative, then consider how you can push this into all aspects of the event. 

Another good example was the Tesla truck. And in case you didn’t follow the event, Elon Musk ran a demo of Tesla armor glass on the truck which broke when he tried to smash it. The event was regarded as a complete failure. Yet, that didn’t stop Tesla from receiving 250,000 preorders in its first five days. 

Importantly, it goes to show that even if your product launch is regarded as a failure, having a talking point can often be enough to get people interested in your product. 

Use audience engagement tools for Q&A and include surveys and polling

If you want your product launch to be a success, then you need to make your audience involved so that they can buy into and then buy your product. As easy as it is to do, product launch presentations should never be a one sided affair, which is why you should look to use audience engagement tools. 

The opinion of your audience is always vital when it comes to launching a product. Why? Because understanding what has excited and interested your attendees the most about the product is extremely valuable for marketing your product further down the line. 

First impressions are key, and that’s why it’s important that you use audience engagement tools to gather the thoughts of your attendees through polls, surveys, and Q&As tracked in real time across the event. 

Final Thoughts

So there you have it, making a product launch event, regardless of whether it’s in-person or online, is all about making it memorable, exclusive and exciting. It’s just a case of understanding how to apply this to the online world. 

Consider what tools you have at your disposal, be it social media or audience engagement tools, and how these can be used to create some serious hype around your product. Figure this out and you’ll be sure to get your product launched on the right path. 

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Victoria Rudi
Senior Content Specialist
With a Master’s degree in Event Management and a keen follower of SaaS technologies, Victoria is an event content master, producing insightful and valuable for Eventtia’s blog and beyond