Posted by: Jessica Shepherd, Project Manager

The much anticipated day has finally arrived. Your company’s new product is officially launching. While this is a major feat in itself, many argue that the grueling work is only just beginning.

Marketing your product is a key factor for a successful launch, and the process should begin well before the actual launch date. An increasingly critical channel for product marketing is the Web. And while the ideal situation is to have top organic listings and major presence on the major search engines from Day 1, in most cases, this is just a pipe dream.

Search engine marketing (SEM) involves an ongoing process for both organic search results and paid placement. Whether you create a new landing page, a microsite, or additional product pages on your existing website in support of the launch, search engines will have to crawl the new pages, index them, and rank them for inclusion in the search results. Getting ranked toward the top takes some time and optimization efforts on your part, but you have to keep long-term benefits in mind.

Of course, this may not be the good news when you need immediate results to promote your product. So, it’s important to utilize the online mediums that yield those fast results and fuel your entire online marketing program for the long term. Many companies will leverage press releases as an official introduction of the product launch and rightfully so. Submitting press releases to relevant online sources is a great starting place for gaining some traction in the search landscape. Another online tactic to consider is Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising. While a successful PPC program takes time and energy to maintain and manage, it also shows that immediate gratification that you’re looking for. A campaign can be launched and active, giving your product a baseline level of exposure, in a matter of minutes. (Of course, your keyword strategy should take more time than that to formulate.)

As the marketer, you bid on your product’s key terms and create the message you want your target audience to see. With a strategic PPC program in place, you’re “in the driver’s seat” with full control of product messaging and upfront visibility. This paves the way for a successful launch and promotion strategy.