Advice on managing a large rebrand & simultaneous product launch?
About a month ago I was hired by a startup whose primary product is a FB app that has ~2 million users on a freemium model. I am the first non-developer on a very small team.
We're building a new product that's meant to slowly replace our existing product over the next 3-6 months. The new product is still in beta, and will be ready for a soft public launch in the next month or so. The new product will have about 75% of the features from the old product, with many new features added on. As such, the new product will have a totally different name and feel from the original.
I have a good idea of what I need to be doing for this between social media, content strategy, reaching out to bloggers etc, but am rather unsure as to the timing of it all.
So: what are your experiences with managing a simultaneous rebrand + product launch? My primary concern is retaining as much of our current 2M userbase as possible while dealing with all the challenges that come with a regular product launch.
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Additional details for those interested:
-We've received a good amount of press coverage from B/C level bloggers in the past. How best can I leverage that for this launch?
-We'll be doing a soft launch. Due to the complexity of the app, there's likely to be a few bugs upon launch and we don't want to over-hype only for potential bugs to leave a bad taste in people's mouths.
-We have a relatively large following on social media, but have been very inactive in the past (only announcing major updates/fixes 3-5 times a year).
-I'm particularly inexperienced in traditional PR beyond blogger outreach/social media. Any tips for that realm?
We're building a new product that's meant to slowly replace our existing product over the next 3-6 months. The new product is still in beta, and will be ready for a soft public launch in the next month or so. The new product will have about 75% of the features from the old product, with many new features added on. As such, the new product will have a totally different name and feel from the original.
I have a good idea of what I need to be doing for this between social media, content strategy, reaching out to bloggers etc, but am rather unsure as to the timing of it all.
So: what are your experiences with managing a simultaneous rebrand + product launch? My primary concern is retaining as much of our current 2M userbase as possible while dealing with all the challenges that come with a regular product launch.
__
Additional details for those interested:
-We've received a good amount of press coverage from B/C level bloggers in the past. How best can I leverage that for this launch?
-We'll be doing a soft launch. Due to the complexity of the app, there's likely to be a few bugs upon launch and we don't want to over-hype only for potential bugs to leave a bad taste in people's mouths.
-We have a relatively large following on social media, but have been very inactive in the past (only announcing major updates/fixes 3-5 times a year).
-I'm particularly inexperienced in traditional PR beyond blogger outreach/social media. Any tips for that realm?
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