Anatomy of a product launch: Box
How Box brought a new e-signature product to market with an enterprise approach.
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We can all learn a thing or two from enterprise marketers.
VC-funded startup launches or beautiful DTC branding may get all the hype and attention, but it takes fundamental marketing chops and solid execution to bring an enterprise product to market.
That’s the approach Box took with their recent product launch.
After acquiring e-signature startup SignRequest in February of 2021, Box integrated the technology into their Content Cloud and launched the product as Box Sign last month.
Launched as a free addition to their customers, their approach leaned more towards growing adoption of the new product with current customers rather than bringing in net-new customers (though always welcomed).
The launch also provided an opportunity to reinforce Box’s Content Cloud, their suite of complementary products for the entire content lifecycle, and position Box as a full platform, rather than a one-off solution, like competing products such as Docusign.
While not sexy, the perks of an enterprise marketing motion is the breadth of content that can be created around a launch, each for an intended audience.
No viral video or waitlist growth hacks here, just solid enterprise marketing execution. You love to see it.
Here’s how Box launched Box Sign:
✅ Product Page
✅ Launch Video
✅ Blog Post
✅ Pre-launch On-demand Webinar
✅ Launch On-demand Webinar
✅ Linkedin Live Webinar
✅ Downloadable PDF
✅ Press Release
✅ Product Announcement in Help Center
✅ Education Course
✅ Social media (Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook)
✅ CEO social promotion
✅ Monthly Roundup Video
✨ Bonus: How Box tiers their product releases
Product Page
The primary call-to-action in a majority of Box’s messaging pointed interested people to a well-crafted landing page for the new product. The page is linked in their navigation as one of their eight featured “products” so it’s clearly seen as an important product within the Box Content Cloud.
Launch Video
The 1-minute explainer video does a good job of setting up the problem, showcases their product as the solution, explains how it works, and handles any objections. It’s concise, polished, and informative; can’t get much better than that.
Blog Post
The announcement blog post is your standard “we’re excited to launch” type of blog, but what I like about it (that not enough marketers do) is they provide a TL;DR in the form of “Here’s what you need to know” and three bullet points. The majority of people reading the blog post are going to skim, so it’s a great technique to make sure that you get your main points across in an easy-to-consume way.
Pre-launch On-demand Webinar
Change management is one of the biggest points of friction in adopting new software, especially at the enterprise level, so the fact that Box created a pre-launch, on-demand webinar just for admins is a brilliant idea. Getting admins, who can control the activation of new features for thousands of users, onboarded early and ready to use new capabilities, is a brilliant idea that every enterprise-focused company should copy.
Launch On-Demand Webinar
In addition to the pre-launch webinar, they created an on-demand webinar for anyone who is interested in the general capabilities of the new product. They also leveraged their analyst relationships to secure a Forrester Analyst as a guest speaker, which is a nice bonus and incentive to listen.
Linkedin Live Webinar
Their third(!) webinar took place live on Linkedin on launch day, featuring Box CEO Aaron Levie talking about the new product line. The fact that it was live and on Linkedin, where people are already consuming content, was a smart decision to meet consumers where they are and make it easy for them to consume the content.
Downloadable PDF
The Box product marketing team created a downloadable PDF / one-pager that was linked on the product page. These types of PDFs are usually created as sales enablement and are not typically included on marketing pages.
But in today’s market where buyers are doing more and more research before talking to sales and advocating internally for new technology, it’s a smart idea to enable champions of your product in any way.
Press Release
Press
Techcrunch: Box unwraps its answer to the $3.8B e-signature market: Box Sign
Forbes: Box Wants To Disrupt The ESignature Market With ‘Sign’
Tech Radar: Box Sign wants to make e-signatures easier than ever
Diginomica: Box Sign adds e-signature to content collaboration at no extra cost
Product Announcement in Help Center
Education Course
As a new addition to Box’s Content Cloud, the Education team created a course as part of Box University to help drive product adoption among their existing users.
Social Media
Similar posts also shared on LinkedIn and Facebook leveraged the launch video.
Executive Posting
Box CEO Aaron Levie is a great follow on Twitter, regularly sharing his thoughts on the impact of the cloud on enterpise software, new technologies, and pithy business tips.
Monthly Roundup Video
Though some people may think it, product launches don’t end the day the product is launched, so Box included Box Sign in their monthly product release recap video.
It’s an effective asset to keep the product top of mind after the launch and nudge users who haven’t learned about it or implemented it yet.
Not Shown: Marketing / User emails, in-app messages
I’m not a Box customer so I don’t have access to the messages, but based on the thoroughness of all the other launch assets, I’m sure these were created as well.
Bonus:
How Box tiers their product releases
Something I’ve never seen publicly done before, Box has a page in their Help Center that defines the way they tier their product releases and what types of communication go with each tier.
A vast majority of customers will not care about something like this, but it’s a fantastic resource for us product marketers to see how other companies tier out and communicate their product launches. I’ll definitely be saving this to refer to in the future.
Final Thoughts
Enterprise product launches don’t get much more thorough or well-thought-out than this. Kudos to the product marketing team at Box for orchestrating a product launch that checked every box.
My rating: 👑 👑 👑 👑 👑 / 5
What do you think of this launch? Anything you would add or improve upon?
I’d love your thoughts – leave a comment below!
Excellent.
Thanks for linking to the Box tiering page! Learning from that 💯
Excellent.
Thanks for linking to the Box tiering page! Learning from that 💯