Simple DTC brand launch checklist.
Launch day is the most exciting day of starting a new brand.
It's when you go from talking about your idea to, hopefully, making money.
It's exciting because getting your first dollar is what actually validates if your idea is any good. Until then, it's all talk. This transition to reality is why launch day feels so important. You think everything needs to be absolutely perfect because if not, the brand will fail—you will have failed.
Because we put so much pressure on ourselves to make sure it's perfect, we often overcomplicate what we're trying to do. We stress over irrelevant details and worry about how we have to do everything as we try to emulate other established brands.
So, without anything relevant to reference, we try to do as much as possible—just in case. We think the more we do, the better. When, in fact, the opposite is often a better approach. Instead of trying to do everything, the best thing we can do when launching a brand is to focus on doing only a few things—the things we're good at—exceptionally well.
Everything else can come later.
So, that's what this DTC brand launch checklist is for—to help you simplify your launch plan so you can focus on what's important.
The point isn't to think about what you could do but what you need to do.
When we launched Liip, I thought we had planned for everything. But at the time, we didn't know what we didn't know. And while we did a lot, there were a number of things we should have done but didn't think about until after the fact.
So, this checklist is the things we did that I'd do again. And the things I wish we would have done.
It'll help you focus on what's essential while making sure you think through everything else so there aren't any surprises on launch day. You'll have either planned for or at least thought about whatever might come up across these five elements of a successful brand launch:
Pre-launch product-market fit.
Setting up your eCommerce engine.
Minimum viable media library
Launch day content strategy
Standardized order fulfillment
Ready?
Let's go.
1. Pre-launch product-market fit.
Finding product-market fit is the hardest thing to do on this checklist, but it's also the most important part of launching a brand.
By the time you're ready to launch, your product needs to have found product-market fit. So, while there may be things you'll want, or rather, have to change, you need to be confident people will buy what you're selling.
To make sure this is the case, launch day cannot be the first time they hear about your product.
It's just the first day everyone can buy it.
To find product-market fit, you need to have a group of people use your product and give you honest feedback as you develop it. You want to know what they like, what they don't, and what, if anything, they'd do differently. You especially want to pay attention to how they talk about your product so you can speak like them in your marketing. It's funny how the benefits you think are most important might not be why others like your product.
You also need to make sure the product isn't just something they like but something they'll pay for. Many people will say they like a product but never buy it when it's available. This is especially true of your friends and family.
I always like to remind myself that my friends aren't my customers.
But, while there's no definitive way to say for sure whether you have product-market fit or not, if you can check these things off, you likely do:
You know who is and who isn't your ideal customer
You know what your audience values and how your product fits into their lives
You know how they talk about your product
You have a point of view and a way to position your product that's different from your competitors
You have people asking for your product before it's on sale, or they've signed up for a waitlist
You have positive pre-launch reviews from your early adopters
Pre-launch product-market fit can be a bit hard to define other than "you know it when you have it." So look for signals of demand and momentum as those will be the best indicators of whether you're heading in the right direction.
Before you keep going, though, know the rest of this doesn't matter if you don't have a product people want. So, make sure you figure this out first.
2. Setting up your eCommerce engine.
Your site is the center of your business and will connect everything you do.
However, when you start, there's only one thing you need to optimize for—getting sales. This is why we're not going to create a bunch of pages right now and only worry about the ones that move people to buy. We want to create as little friction as possible between someone visiting the site and checking out.
To do that, you only need 3-5 pages.
A Home page which I think should be your shop page as all we want people to do is buy our products
A product detail page, or pages, to explain the product benefits and why someone should buy them
An about page to tell our story as no one knows anything about you or why you exist; bonus points if you have a photo or video of yourself or the team
An FAQ page will increase your credibility by subtly telling people that others are interested in your product
Miscellaneous Terms & Conditions, Privacy Policy, Shipping & Return Policy pages are also good to have as they make you look more legitimate, and some platforms require them anyway
Then, you want to optimize these pages for basic SEO with unique page names, keywords, meta descriptions, clean URLs, etc. SEO is a long game, so you likely won't see it bringing in substantial traffic initially. But, tightening these things up helps create a better user experience for those visiting your site and lays the foundation for more traffic in the future.
So, since we can't rely on SEO right now, the site then needs to do these other things to capture user info and allow us to start building relationships.
Have a newsletter sign up in the footer, so it's on every page, and include it in the checkout flow
Set up an automated welcome email or series and make it as personal as possible
Allow people to create accounts so they can save their info for future purchases
Link to your social channels to give people a place to connect with you as the site won't have much to interact with
Add Google Analytics so you can track your most important metrics
Add a Meta pixel so you can run retargeting ads and track conversions
Add a Google AdWords pixel for remarketing and tracking conversions
Even if you don't have plans to use some of these things yet, you need to take advantage of the traffic spike you'll see on launch day. Because if you don't set up ways to reconnect with people, they may come once and never again.
3. Minimum viable media library.
The easiest thing to overlook during a brand launch is the media assets.
It's not that you won't think about them. It's that you will try to get away with doing what you think is just enough.
A content library, though, is one of the areas where you actually can't have too much. The more, the better. You don't know what opportunities might come up that you'll need an asset for. So, even if you think you're investing too much time or money into creating assets now, you should know you're not wasting resources. You can use them later for something else.
To know what assets you'll need, you need to plan ahead for the three types of media: Earned, Owned, and Paid.
Earned media.
Earned media are the things people say or post about you that you haven't paid for or created yourself.
Press
Interviews
Influencers
User-Generated Content (UGC)
Owned media.
Owned media are the things you do on the channels you control.
Company blog
Email list
Social media channels
Paid media.
Paid media is when you pay for placements or boost your posts.
Influencers
Social
Search
Native
Outdoor
Display
While there's a lot to think about, the best part is how you can use assets across media types. So it's really not as much as it sounds like. You just don't want to republish something without optimizing it for each platform—this isn't 2012 Facebook and Twitter anymore.
And while there are so many different media placements, you don't have to do them all at the start. Instead, you need to pick the channels that make sense for your brand, your audiences, and what you can manage.
To do that, a minimum viable media library would look something like this:
3-5 Hero and product detail photos
5-10 Lifestyle photos that feature the product
5-10 Lifestyle photos without product if it makes sense and you can get them
5-10 UGC, or what looks like UGC photos or video
3-5 Vertical videos for stories
This gets you about 20 different assets at a minimum, which should be enough to build out the channels you plan to start with and a couple extra for whatever comes up.
But remember, this is the minimum for launch day. You still need to think about what assets you'll need for days post-launch as you're going to want to build momentum with the people who are now hopefully following you.
For that, I would double down on some lifestyle and UGC type assets as they'll be the most versatile.
4. Launch day content strategy.
With your new asset library, you will want to start posting content on all of your channels ahead of your launch day. Even if you don't plan on using a platform, you don't want people showing up and there not being anything. So, publish 6-12 posts on each page, so they're not empty, and then use the bio to direct people to where you'll be more active.
And if you haven't gotten all of your social handles, do it now. Seriously, you don't want to find out the handle you want was available, but you waited too long, and now someone else has it. The same goes for any new platform that pops up. Just get it. You never know what's going to be popular.
Then, once your platforms are set up, here's what you need to think about as you plan your launch strategy.
Decide what your compelling launch offer will be
Develop and schedule your pre-planned content calendar
Define an audience for paid media and retargeting
Plan for what organic posts you'll put money behind
Set up a retargeting campaign
Something we didn't plan for when we launched Liip was having assets we could give people to post about it on their feeds. We didn't even think about it until people started asking us how they could share our product and links.
What we should have done was have a few assets and pre-written copy we could send people, so it was plug-and-play for them.
It wasn't the worst that we didn't have this, but it was an easy thing we could have done that would have probably made a difference.
5. Standardized order fulfillment.
Having more orders to fulfill than you anticipated is a good problem to have. But know, whether it's your first time launching a product or not, it's going to take way longer to get things packaged and shipped than you think it will. That's why we try to automate or plan ahead for all the other things because fulfillment will take priority once orders start coming in.
Now, of course, you want to get orders out as quickly as possible, so the product gets to your new customers as soon as possible. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't set expectations for how orders will be shipped, when they'll go out, and when people can expect them to be delivered.
Most customer complaints happen because something wasn't communicated. So being upfront about this stuff goes a long way. And, as a new brand, most people understand if things take a bit longer if you tell them why.
So, here's what you want to do to keep this manageable:
Pick one carrier—this way, you don't have to manage shipments going to different drop-off locations
Offer one standard shipping option to keep things simple—this will also help limit your costs if you're offering Free Shipping
Have at least two shipping boxes, mailers, envelopes, etc—one for small orders and one for big orders
Set a cut-off time for order fulfillment—for example, orders before 2pm ship the same day, and orders after 2pm will ship the next
Find out when the final pickup time is at your carrier location and be there well beforehand—otherwise, your packages will sit there until the next day
Also, get some extra help if you can.
Having another set of hands to do anything will make such a difference when you're focused on getting orders out. Either you'll be able to get more orders packed and shipped together. Or, you can free up some of your time to focus on other launch related things like responding to questions or continuing to promote the product.
Whatever happens, it will be better if you don't have to do it all yourself.
Launch is just the start.
So, will your launch day be perfect?
No. It won't be. Nothing ever is.
But this simple checklist will help you think through the critical things that will give you the best chance of success.
And, just because something is here doesn't mean you have to do it. Instead, you should use this checklist as a guideline to decide what's right for you.
Like I said, this is built from things we did that I'd do again and the things I wish we should have done.
The point is to do everything you can to be prepared but not overextend yourself to where you're not doing anything well.
Focus on the few things that will make a difference now and figure out the rest later.
Really, preparing to launch a new DTC brand comes down to two things. First, automate everything you can. And second, only worry about what you can control and be ok with whatever else happens.
No matter what, your launch day is going to feel incredibly important. And it is. But remember, it's just one day in what you hope to be a long journey.
So, you have to be ready to adapt, willing to change, and want to learn, as launching your brand is the only way you will get to the next step—proving it is good enough to become a real business.
