There always seems to be room for improvement or thinking you could have done it better in certain areas that are involved when you launch a brand new product or relaunch a revamped existing one. Obviously here we will focus on digital products, online products or products like premium app features by default.
Many companies often invest heavily in marketing efforts that drive signups, in product efforts that drive ongoing use but it all needs to be worthwhile in the long run because we want to make that long run happen … don´t we ?
Being attentive to new signups and also to their needs related to your product is key because a huge signups percentage never log back in a second time.

For example the “email confirmation” strategy is commonly used as a key step although being a fairly risky way to head for because it sets a “pause” in the middle of the path: will the user verify that email ? , is it to much of an effort ? , do expectations make it a wise option ? , is it absolutely necessary ? , isn´t it to much of a distraction ?
Here we could use patterns like trial periods, give samples or limited products to try and avoid this step.
As a second step and to ensure situations like resetting passwords or trying to avoid spam as much as possible email confirmation might be useful. I think we should always, always, always try to keep the users attention intact and with the sensation that the sign up process will be easy and clean, really straightforward to match the initial expectations landing them in their new home as quickly as possible.
So, it looks like we are back to the traditional and well known moment in marketing where we have to explain something and be convincing about it, an idea … a digital product in this case, in very few seconds as clear and convincing as possible but there is a difference… we are not facing the user ourselves, it´s our software instead which is taking command of this task and the advantage is that we can prepare things in advance and try to cover things coherently.
Once new users have finally reached a product´s actual interface, they still probably need to be presented with another layer of intervention: the product tour, product tips, mobile related apps … show what a product can offer, but sometimes we should be able to skip this to avoid the “next, next, next” online situation specially for today´s impatient online profile user. Here in Hopandup we think that the “product tours” should be used only if you find them absolutely necessary to present your product or its features. So, to cleverly propose a natural and quick path mixed with clearly introducing the highlights and possibilities of the launching of a digital product can be like preparing a cocktail the right way only that in this case it happens to be a new or revamped one.
To take this concept into action we can take advantage of already well known patterns from social media interfaces in areas like engagement, visual progress tracking details or invitations that the user will probably recognize and has already been taught how to interact with and more or less knows what to expect from them.

I have to say that I´m a great fan to let the product present itself meaning by this that we should pay special attention to copy in blank states as well as a good product designed layout to focus and highlight the desired goal funnel.

Of course user onboarding is also and basically about a good product and hard work but has it ever been easier to bring digital products to market with the loads of digital exhibitors and platforms we can use for this ? But it still stands to organize an entire business model around the product when launching. Taking care of a nice and good email list (we use MailChimp for this but there are a few similar tools out there) highlighting the product launch day, getting some previous feedback from early viewers or having lots of Twitter followers to announce it can also be useful. The user´s feedback can also be important to keep developing the product after launch day, it may show and guide us where to head for. For this we can try to build up an audience in Social Media platforms.
Now, competing on price can result in a race to the bottom, and if your competitors are well funded, they will win, competing on price may only work if you target a different market to more expensive competitors and therefore we should be careful choosing a price model that can support your success. If you go for a “freemium model“, consider that your paying users will need to bring enough revenue to cover all the free users you get even if the free users don´t cost you much while considering it may be a good idea to have a free plan to get people on board. It obviously is important to get people paying you as quickly as possible even if you are able survive without the cash because of the real feedback and energy it may transmit so we should be prepared to give high quality customer support to be able to get all that nice feedback.