Most people think of launch day as the culmination of a product launch. The product’s shipped! The campaign’s live! The website’s updated!

But, for me, it’s just the beginning.

Now, you have data. This is when the fun part begins: optimizing messaging, running adoption campaigns and identifying product enhancements.

That’s why I’ve always loved the concept of the rolling thunder launch. Each phase gives you new information that makes the next phase of the launch even stronger.

In today’s edition, we’re going to dig into what metrics to track and measure post-launch to help you make adjustments and identify your next go-to-market activities.

Post Launch Metrics

The first step to choosing the metrics you’ll track post-launch is identifying the main goal of the rolling thunder campaign.

Are you trying to deepen adoption within a specific segment? Improve your ability to win against a competitor? Increase expansion revenue from existing customers?

Once you’ve set this goal you can choose the 1 - 3 metrics you’ll use to track your progress. Here’s a list of 8 common metrics you may want to consider.

1 - Trials and/or Demo Requests

How many trials or demo requests (depends on your go-to-market motion) are you generating from this new product? Track anything that comes in from a campaign asset like a customer email, the product page or an advertisement.

I like to look at the segmentation results for this cohort - this will give you a signal into the types of customers who may be early adopters.

2 - Win Rate

Have you shipped a new feature that a competitor doesn’t have? Or, are you shipping a feature that now puts you at parity with a competitor? Track the win rate against this specific company to see if the sales pitch is resonating.

3 - Adoption Rate

Adoption rate may seem obvious for a product launch, but most companies do it wrong. They track adoption at the highest level (ie. % of customer base that adopts) rather than doing it at the segment level. When you track adoption at the segment level you can identify early patterns, fast.

For example, is there a segment that is adopting at a higher rate than others? Great indication that there is strong product market fit here. You may want to run a targeted campaign to all customers in this segment with tailored messaging. Is there a segment you expected to adopt who isn’t? Get on customer calls to see why the message or product is falling flat.

I could write a whole newsletter edition on this topic alone.

4 - Support Tickets

What support tickets are coming in after launch? Is there a trend to the types of questions being asked? If something is being asked repeatedly, it usually means there’s an opportunity to socialize more broadly. For example, you can add it to the FAQ section on the product page, make a community post or even turn it into a piece of educational content.

5 - Feature Requests

Are customers submitting feature requests? You can usually spot these in support tickets (mentioned above) or through any feature request tooling you may have (like Beamer). If customers are requesting features that exist, this means you most likely need to adjust your campaign messaging or build more in app guides/tours. If customers are requesting new features, work with the product team to prioritize these on the roadmap.

6 - Churn Rate

Does churn rate decrease in the days or weeks after launch? Again, most companies look at this at an aggregate level. Dig one or two levels deeper to look by segment or cohort. If it’s a major product launch, I specifically like to track churn rate of customers who have adopted the product versus churn rate of non-adopters.

7 - Attributed Revenue

It can be difficult to attribute a specific revenue number to a product launch since there are so many other factors involved. One exception to this is upsell and expansion campaigns. If you are launching a product that requires customers to purchase an add-on or upgrade their account, you can track the revenue generated from the campaign.

What types of customers are upgrading? Are there any patterns you can spot that would allow you to build a more segmented upgrade campaign?

8 - Conversion Rate of Campaign Assets

I love to see how launch campaign assets perform because it’s a clear indication of whether or not we’ve nailed product messaging. The best way to get actionable results is to run an A/B test. Test subject lines, product images, call to actions. Use the results to keep optimizing every time you create a new campaign asset.

CAMPER ESSENTIALS

🎧 Playlist: Grab my (controversial?) take on the perfect C-Suite role for product marketers on the newest episode of We’re Not Marketers.

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Until next week,

-Tamara

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