By Brianne Miller, Director
I get quite a few calls each week from prospective new clients – some exciting, some not-right-for-us, some downright bizarre. One of the things I love about my job is that I get to educate people hiring communications agencies for the first time…or, as is happening more and more of late, hiring SMART for the first time.
Take a call I had this morning from a Silicon Valley start-up in the consumer services space. Interesting product, something I think will be very intriguing to the media once we uncover that “have-to-know-about-it” news nugget. The prospect was an engaging, corporate culture newsworthy, well-funded company – and then I asked the all-important question. “When are you launching?” The answer – August.
Here’s the thing – you can have the best/most innovative/coolest product on the planet, but if you don’t take enough time to PLAN your launch, you’re going to miss opportunities and make mistakes. (Don’t ask me how I know that – just trust that in my more than 30 years of experience I’ve made a mistake here and there).
At LCI we take the foundation work seriously – know your competitors and how they’re perceived in the media marketplace (competitive analysis), create great messaging, train your spokespersons on that great messaging, write a plan (PR, social media, SEM), identify keywords so your launch supports SEO. This takes time and consideration, but pays off big in results. We ask prospective clients to engage us at least three months in advance of launch.
How do you work with clients to get enough lead time to do a great job? Leave a comment below or email [email protected].
Brianne, I couldn’t agree more. Planning and taking the time to execute properly is the difference between success and failure – especially for communications pros. I’d like more clients to understand this so thanks for the reminder. Cheers, David
Thanks for the great tips Brianne – it’s amazing how much planning and hard work needs to be done to ensure the best possible product launch!
There are so many adages about planning, and with good reason. Planning is key if you want to be successful during any launch, product or otherwise. You’re right on the money, Brianne! Thanks for sharing your wisdom.
Brianne, this is why I’m proud to have you leading LCI’s new business efforts! Your experience + common sense = a streamlined, strategic and successful approach to interacting with — and signing on — new clients. Thank you!
Brianne,
I’m launching a new product next week – can you help?
Sean
It is more critical when a company is going for an IPO. We usually convince our IPO clients to get us on board six months to a year earlier to do pre-publicity, get the collaterals and website done etc.
Boh Tiong