Hi Marketing Bestie,

Tomorrow I try again.

Trip #1, my baby got sick two days before we left.

Trip #2, weather shut us down.

Tomorrow is attempt #3 and I'm equal parts nervous and hopeful.

If you've traveled with a baby, I need all your tips right now.

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SPARKNOTES FROM THE POD

5 WAYS TO LAUNCH PRODUCTS

Ari Murray is the Chief Digital Officer at Salt & Stone. Before that, she ran launches at an agency for 4.5 years. Now she's the brain behind product drops, website merchandising, and revenue strategy at one of the fastest-growing DTC brands.

She also writes Go-to-Millions, a newsletter for ecom operators who need tactical playbooks, not theory.

Here's what makes Ari different: She doesn't care about your launch announcement. She cares about your SESSION count at 9:47 AM on Black Friday.

She doesn't bet the farm on your new SKU. She protects the ENTIRE month in case your launch flops.

She doesn't force products to be heroes. She lets them fight for their life first.

Most brands launch products like they're unveiling art. Ari launches products like she's running a P&L. Because she is.

Her approach: Ruthlessly tactical. Data-driven. All execution.

This is episode 400 of The Marketing Millennials.

Listen to the full episode here where Ari breaks down why sessions matter more than revenue, why new SKUs need time to prove themselves, and why you should never hitch your wagon to one product launch.

1️⃣. Never Hitch Your Wagon To 1 New SKU. Protect Your Month.

Ari's Take: "Hitching your wagon to a certain skew and putting a lot of faith in something that's new to market. I found to be a really good way to misplan. And I think that whatever you can do for a new skew or a new drop to protect your month outside of that moment, should it not read the way you'd hoped is how I like to play it."

The mistake: Building your ENTIRE month around a new product launch.

Marketing calendar = New SKU launch. Email calendar = New SKU launch. Ad budget = New SKU launch. Homepage takeover = New SKU launch.

Then the SKU flops. And the entire month tanks.

Ari's approach: PROTECT THE MONTH.

Go into launches scaled. Find efficiency BEFORE the launch. Don't blow your budget betting on an unproven product.

Because new products are unproven. You don't know if they'll hit. You HOPE they will. But hope isn't a revenue strategy.

So you need insurance. The rest of your catalog needs to carry the month if the new SKU doesn't perform.

Scale your existing winners BEFORE the launch. Lock in efficiency on proven products. Build a baseline that hits your revenue target WITHOUT the new product.

THEN layer the new SKU on top.

If it works? You crush your targets. If it doesn't? You still hit your numbers.

That's the difference between betting and strategizing.

Ari doesn't bet. She plans for both outcomes.

Takeaway: Before your next product launch, build a revenue forecast that hits your target WITHOUT the new product.

Scale your existing best-sellers. Lock in efficient CAC on proven SKUs. Make sure your baseline carries the month. THEN add the new product as upside, not the foundation. If it works, you overdeliver. If it doesn't, you still hit your number. This removes the pressure to force a product that the market doesn't want yet.

2️⃣. Give New SKUs Time To Fight.

Ari's Take: "I think there's like a fallacy that gets created where you think a product is your hero. But that's because you've forced it to be your hero through years of repetition through prioritizing it in photo shoots through merchandising it first through talking about it always. And I think a new skew needs time to fight for its life, but also needs sometimes to take stage."

Your hero product didn't become a hero overnight.

It became a hero because you MADE it a hero. Through repetition. Through prioritization. Through years of showing it first in every photo shoot. Merchandising it at the top of every collection page. Mentioning it in every email.

That's not magic. That's strategy.

New products don't get that luxury. They launch. They get a moment. Then the expectation is they'll perform like heroes immediately.

That's not how it works.

New SKUs need TIME. Time to get reviews. Time to get customer feedback. Time to be seen by enough people. Time to prove themselves.

But they also need STAGE. You can't just launch it and bury it on page 3 of your shop. It needs visibility. It needs promotion. It needs a chance.

The balance: Give it stage. Give it a moment. Then let it fight for its life.

Don't force it to be a hero. Let it earn that status through actual performance data. Through repurchase rates. Through organic mentions. Through reviews.

If it proves itself? THEN you make it a hero. You prioritize it in shoots. You merchandise it first. You talk about it constantly.

But you let the MARKET decide. Not your assumptions.

Takeaway: Stop expecting new products to perform like heroes on day one. Launch them with a moment (homepage feature, email blast, ad push) for 2-4 weeks. Then WATCH THE DATA. Track: Add-to-cart rate. Conversion rate. Return rate. Repeat purchase rate. Reviews. Organic social mentions.

After 90 days, evaluate. Is the market telling you this is a winner? If yes, THEN make it a hero. Prioritize it in shoots. Merchandise it first. If no, let it live in the catalog but don't force it.

3️⃣. Sessions Are Your Leading Indicator.

Ari's Take: "You might think I'd say top line revenue or that number, but it's sessions. If sessions on site are low and let's say it's Black Friday and I'm watching what's happening. If sessions are like a thousand off of what I expected for that moment of when we sent that thing, that's when I freak out. I care a lot more about session growth in these pinnacle moments and in those minutes, that's the quickest read on if we're about to have a really big time."

On Black Friday, what metric are you watching?

Revenue? AOV? Conversion rate?

Ari watches SESSIONS.

Why? Because sessions are the LEADING indicator. Revenue is the lagging indicator.

If sessions are tracking 1,000 below your forecast at 9:47 AM, you KNOW the day is going to miss. Before revenue even tells you.

Because sessions = traffic. If traffic isn't showing up, revenue can't happen.

It's the earliest warning signal. The canary in the coal mine.

If you're watching revenue and it's low at 10 AM, you're already behind. The problem started at 9 AM when sessions didn't show up.

But if you're watching sessions at 9 AM and they're low, you can FIX it. Send another email. Push more budget to ads. Post on social. Create urgency.

You have TIME to react.

That's why sessions matter more than revenue in pinnacle moments.

It's your real-time diagnostic tool.

Takeaway: Build a session forecast for every major moment (launches, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, sales).

Track actual sessions vs forecast in REAL TIME. Set up a dashboard that refreshes every 15 minutes. If sessions are 10%+ below forecast, take immediate action: Send another email. Increase ad spend.

Post urgency on social. Don't wait for revenue to tell you there's a problem. Sessions tell you first. And they give you time to fix it.

4️⃣. Urgency Works. Scarcity Works. Limited Time Works. Use Them.

Ari's Take: "I think the power of urgency... I think scarcity really does work. I think limited time really does work."

Launching products with no deadline. No limit. No urgency.

Just... "New product available now."

Then wondering why it doesn't convert.

Ari's take: Urgency WORKS. Scarcity WORKS. Limited time WORKS.

Not fake urgency. REAL urgency.

Member-only drops. Password-protected launches. Limited inventory. 48-hour windows.

These aren't gimmicks. They're conversion drivers.

Because people need a reason to buy NOW. Not later. Not next week. NOW.

Without urgency, they add to cart and leave. They "think about it." They get distracted.

With urgency, they buy.

Ari uses this strategically. Some SKUs get homepage takeovers. Some get gated to members first. Some get limited inventory drops.

It depends on the product. But the principle stays the same: Give people a reason to act now.

Takeaway: Build urgency into every launch. Not fake countdown timers.

REAL constraints: Member-only access for first 48 hours (then public). Limited inventory drop (100 units, when they're gone they're gone). 72-hour early access window. Pre-order with limited slots. These create real urgency. Communicate them clearly in every channel (email, ads, site, social). Track conversion rate with urgency vs without. You'll see the difference immediately.

5️⃣. Timing Isn't Just When You Launch. It's When You Create A Moment.

Ari's Take: "Timing, I think, is sometimes the biggest opportunity because I have so many opinions on calendar and on when to make a moment, when we're going to need a moment, what type of moment."

Here's what hits Ari's desk: Timing and forecasting.

Not just "when do we launch this product." But WHEN do we NEED a moment. What TYPE of moment. Where does it fit in the calendar.

Because ecom isn't about individual launches. It's about CALENDAR STRATEGY.

You have peak seasons. You have valleys. You have competitive windows. You have inventory constraints.

A product launch in February hits different than the same launch in November. Same product. Same messaging. Different outcome.

Why? Because the MOMENT is different.

February might be a valley month. You NEED a moment to drive traffic and revenue. That product launch becomes critical.

November is peak season. You already have momentum. That same launch might get buried. Or worse, cannibalize your existing winners.

Ari thinks about this constantly. WHEN does the business need a moment? What TYPE of moment makes sense for that window?

Homepage takeover moment. Member-exclusive moment. Limited drop moment. Restock moment.

Different moments serve different goals. And timing determines which moment you pick.

This isn't just marketing. It's revenue strategy. It's inventory planning. It's forecasting.

Ari's role is CDO. Chief DIGITAL Officer. That means she's thinking about the full P&L. Not just the launch announcement.

When you launch matters as much as WHAT you launch.

Takeaway: Map your calendar for the next 12 months. Mark your peak seasons, valley months, competitive windows (Prime Day, Black Friday, etc). Identify where you NEED moments vs where you have natural momentum.

Then plan your launches strategically: Valley months = bigger moments, homepage takeovers, new hero products. Peak months = supporting launches, restocks, limited drops (don't compete with yourself). Competitive windows = member exclusives, early access (capture demand before competitors). Stop launching products randomly. Launch them when the calendar NEEDS them.

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