You could be launching a product line, relaunching a successful course you’ve created, or launching your brand new small business. No matter the type of launch you are preparing for, you’ll still need to create and gather up these 6 types of marketing assets to use during your small business launch.

Your total launch timeframe will likely include both pre-launch and launch segments. During your pre-launch, your goal is to get your audience (ideal customers) warmed up with content that showcases your knowledge and expertise, and demonstrates that you identify and understand your ideal customers’ pain points and needs. That way when you move into your live launch period, they already know you, trust you, and are ready to buy.

Let’s jump into your small business launch asset needs.

Launch Assets: What do you need for a successful launch?

• Written content – Checklists, worksheets, a free chapter, free guides, PDF downloads, blog posts – there are many forms of written content. The main point here is that you need and want this content created before you begin your launch process. This is the type of content that needs to be offered in the weeks leading up to your live launch – through organic posts, paid ads, and your email series – as a way to give people a chance to get to know you, what you’re about, that you are an expert they can trust, and that you understand and can address their needs.
• Branded images – Your launch process will unfold online, so images are a must for any type of social media activity, including ads. Plus, your images on any content you’ll be offering during your pre-launch period should be coordinated and branded in look. Note: Even with offline launches, you should be creating printed marketing materials that are cohesive in look and branded to your business.
• Videos – Videos you produce as part of your pre-launch and launch periods could be live, pre-recorded, or a combination of both. Ideally, you would be in at least some of the videos to give your prospective clients a great chance to get to know you, hear and see you, and develop a deeper trust with you and your brand, but videos used for your launch could also be of product or service demos, your employees, and testimonials from existing clients.
• Testimonials – Testimonials can be put onto branded images, printed materials, and used in ad or post copy. If you are launching something that’s brand new, you could give a small group of people beta access ahead of your small business launch in exchange for their feedback on how to improve what you are going to launch, and for testimonials. But even if you don’t have beta testers, you can ask other clients and people you’ve worked with in a similar capacity as what you are about to launch, to provide testimonials for you to use.
• Ad strategy and budget – There’s a high likelihood that you are planning some type of online ads for your launch. Ideally, you’d map out your total ad plan ahead of even your pre-launch phase, and write the ad copy and create the ad assets that you’ll need. While mapping this out, assign ad spend dollars to each ad/ad phase so you can keep track of those outgoing costs and don’t spend your total ad budget before you even reach your live launch phase. Also, if it’s possible, you should plan to utilize your Facebook pixel traffic (or pixel traffic from whatever other social media account(s) you are active on) so you can advertise at least some of your ads to a warm audience. Your pixel is going to be critical for any conversion-type ads you plan to run, too, so you’ll want a pixel in place on your website either way.
• (Preferably) Email series – Because there are different kinds of launches, I put email series as a preferable launch asset. If you are launching something that’s fairly low dollar and even considered more of an impulse by, utilizing email marketing may not be as essential a launch asset. But it’s important to know that for many launches, the likelihood of someone buying directly from a single ad they saw on Facebook is pretty low. Your potential customers need to be nurtured in some way – either through repeated ad exposure and/or through an email series. And once you get to higher dollar sells, those are primarily sold through email nurture/selling sequences. So having an email list and developing an email series is a valuable marketing tool, but not as essential for some types of launches.

Once you enter your pre-launch phase, the time clock starts ticking! Don’t be caught off-guard and unprepared by not having all your launch assets created, lined up, and ready to go.

If you are planning a small business launch, and think you might need some help, check out our Small Business Launch services.