I’ve had this in my Notes app for 7 years, and now you can take it too!
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Happy Sunday!
If you’re reading this, I hope you’re sitting comfortably, you have a beverage in your hand, and you’re launching new products this year. If you’re looking for a strategic partner or growth marketing agency to maximize your launches, fill out this form and let’s talk!
Today’s newsletter is a resource you can use in the future to make sure you don’t miss anything on your product launch checklist. But before we get to that…
Vendor of the Week
impact.com — The leading affiliate platform now has built-in incrementality measurement.
It’s 2025, and most people are still running affiliate and creator programs without proper measurement and attribution periods with their campaigns. With a channel like Paid Search or Paid Social, you can start and stop the campaigns for measurement, but with affiliate, you can’t... yet!
impact.com released its Incrementality Playbook for affiliate marketing, which covers affiliate partnerships, creator partnerships, and customer referrals—three things the impact.com platform does well.
I found the suggestions on paying affiliates/creators based on bounties vs %’s the most interesting in this deck.
If there’s one thing we do well at Sharma Brands, it’s new brand launches, like POV Beauty last week, or new product launches for brands already scaling. When you’re scaling a brand, one of the heaviest levers for driving existing-customer revenue is launching a new product. Your existing audience floods your first-day sales numbers, and for the hundreds or thousands who have been on the fence or want to make a purchase, a new product can likely get them over the fence.
When it comes to the actual crunch time of a product launch, it’s pure chaos. You have to ensure that everything from the product setup and tagging to the review emails to updated catalog ads is ready to go. It’s full of never-ending tasks, and one thing always gets forgotten.
Since 2017, I’ve kept a checklist in my iPhone Notes app of what to check off during a product launch. I encourage you to take this newsletter, turn it into a Notion or Asana checklist (wherever you manage your “to-do list”), and use it for the next launch. If I missed something here that you would add, reply to this email with it, and I’ll add it to the final list.
Backend Site Setup
Product created in backend (SKU, inventory, variants)
Tagged and categorized correctly
SEO metadata: title, description, alt text, share image (for iMessage/DMs)
Clean and logical URL slug (optional: vanity URLs)
Pricing and discount logic/scripts (bundles, promos)
Product page site speed, especially mobile
Website (front-end)
Homepage
Above the fold hero section
Notification/promo bar language
Email/SMS pop-up offer updated with new product
PDP updates:
Product images (studio and lifestyle)
Product video or demo (bonus: UGC/unboxing)
Feature and benefit iconography/animations
Reviews (speaking to benefits)
Ingredients, materials, certifications (above the fold)
Collection page merchandising to put new product in slot 1
Product appears in site search (bonus: as a suggestion before typing)
Cross-sell and upsell logic implemented (bonus: post-purchase upsell logic updated)
Apps / Technology / Integrations
Reviews app configured for new product(s) — updated messaging or incentives
Subscription logic setup (if applicable)
Churn and retention tools updated
For example, if you’re selling chocolate colostrum and someone tries to cancel, you can now add a step to downgrade to just the unflavored colostrum vs cancelling the whole thing.
Pop-up updated to promote new product (with offer)
Post-purchase upsell flow created & configured
Klaviyo flows and tracking are updated/integrated
Loyalty/rewards app updated
Email & SNS
Segment lists: VIPs, past buyers, waitlist, high LTV customers, etc
Email sequences:
Pre-launch teaser (2 emails)
Launch announcement (with resend to non-openers)
Post-purchase product education
Welcome series updated
SMS flows:
Teaser messages
Launch-day blast
Early access or exclusive drop for VIPs or SMS subscribers
Customer support team prepped with FAQs and macros
Press kit or site newsroom updated
What else would you add to this?
That's all for this week
I hope this checklist helps you maximize your revenue on your next launch. When you spend weeks, months, or even years developing new products and don’t have a good plan to get the word out, or invest enough time in putting that plan together, your product will help everyone it can.
It’s Sunday night, so I hope you get 9 hours of sleep tonight and have a fantastic upcoming week. I am working on a deep dive with my thoughts on the tariffs and everything adjacent, and I look forward to publishing that soon.
