There are very few times that are more exciting in a company than during a product launch. Anticipation brews and a sense of optimism emerges around the prospect of growth in market share. Still, a question always arises when a new product launches: do enough people know about this launch for it to be successful? There are multiple avenues to communicate through during a product launch — ads, social media, PR, and blog promotion, to name a few. Yet, one of the most underrated and effective communication methods to alert internal and external stakeholders is a product launch email.
Internal Product Launch Email
With this email, you'll want to turn all of the employees at your company into an enthusiastic, well-informed, word-of-mouth marketing team
- The subject line and preview text - Keep the subject line at or under 12 words
- Greeting and tl;dr - employees at your company are busy, so capture their attention with a quick hello and a 1-2 sentence overview on the product launch.
- What is it? - Give your readers the very basic info on your product, like what it's called, what it does, when it's available to the public, and how much it costs.
- Why it matters - Why should your employees be excited about this launch? You can go a little more in-depth here, so explain what void this product fills in the market and what opportunity you're seizing on to expand your market share, delight more users, and expand your customer base.
- How it works - give a brief overview of the steps required to get or use this product/feature. How do your customers sign up? Are there any usage limitations? Anticipate frequently asked questions — particularly from salespeople, marketers, account managers, and support reps — and try to reduce confusion upfront.
- Who it's for - who the intended audience for this product is, or if any users will automatically see this new feature. This section is particularly important for regional or language-specific products.
- where to go with questions - Provide the contact info and name of the person or people who are best equipped to answer any questions about the product, its launch, or its promotion.
- Lazy copy - You'll want to make it as simple as possible for employees to share the product launch over email or social media. Provide sample text and URLs that can be copied and pasted.
External Product launch email
Share your exciting new product with the world. If you have an established list of loyal contacts in your CRM, create a list of recipients you think would benefit from the product launch email. While you can send out a mass email to all of your contacts, it makes sense to group your contacts together by their lifecycle stage or their interests so that you're prioritizing customers who would be most interested or ready for your new product.
It's similar to the Internal Product Launch, but with key differences noted below;
Overview of the product (instead of what is it, why it matters, how it works and who it's for)
Provide a high-level summary of what the product is, why it was made, and what it does.
Key features (instead of where to go with questions)
List the key features or benefits of this offer. If you have a product demo video, you may want to link to it here.
Call to action (instead of Lazy Copy)
Leave your contacts with an actionable next step. Do you want them to reply to you with questions? Sign up for a demo? Check out the new product page on your website? Whatever your desired next step is, make it abundantly clear with a link or by bolding the action.
