The Ultimate Guide to Product Marketing in 2020

The process of bringing your product to the market, promoting, and selling it to consumers is called product marketing. The process entails understanding the target audience and using messaging and strategic positioning to increase product demand and revenue.

Conventional Marketing vs. Product Marketing:

Product marketing is unique and very different from conventional marketing. Conventional marketing takes an all-encompassing approach, while product marketing is strategic. In a real sense, product marketing is a sub-set of conventional marketing.

However, there is no denying the fact that there are some common elements to both conventional marketing and product marketing. For example, brands are always looking to create resource material for their products and services. In this regard getting in touch with the best booklet makers can be beneficial for both conventional as well as product marketing. The resources created can be used by both teams in different ways of marketing and promotion.

In the seven Ps of marketing, product marketing is an essential element of business success. It focuses on driving the adoption of and demand for the product among current clients. It looks at the steps that consumers take when purchasing a product.

Marketers should build campaigns that support this task. In product marketing, you should understand the audience of a specific product on a deep level. You should also develop the product positioning and messaging that will appeal to your audience.

It encompasses launching and executing the product on top of the marketing strategy. Therefore, the role of the product marketer is at the center of the product, sales, and marketing teams.

On the other hand, conventional marketing looks at broad marketing topics. Some of them include SEO, lead generation, to the acquisition of new customers and leads. It covers the promotion of your brand and company as a whole, including the products. The marketer ensures that there is a consistent and on-brand message behind the content.

Benefits of Product Marketing:

Product marketing has a critical part to play in the marketing strategy of the business. The product cannot achieve the maximum potential in the market if there is no product marketing. The reason is that product marketing;

• Allows you to understand your clients
• Helps you in targeting your buyer persona
• Helps you learn the products and marketing tactics of your competitors
• Make sure that the sales, product, and marketing teams of your company read on the same page
• Helps you in positioning your products in the market
• Improves sales and boosts revenue

Product marketers should ask themselves several questions and reflect on them. It will make sure that your products receive customer approval. Some of these questions include;

• Is the product relevant in the modern market?
• Is the product idea for today’s customers?
• How is the product unique from the similar products that competitors offer?
• Can you differentiate this product from the competition further?
• Have we sold some products in the past that we wouldn’t sell or market again? If so, why is this not the case?

In product marketing, you should look at your products from a strategic point of view. It will make sure that you get a competitive advantage in the market. It is good to understand your duties as a product marketing expert.

The roles of a product marketer depend on the company resources and size, products, company, and industry. If you are operating on a budget or limited resources, you may go for the content that broader marketers produce. As your brand continues to grow, your team can start to focus on product marketing.

Read more: The Ultimate Guide to B2B Marketing in 2019

The Main responsibilities of a Product Marketer:

1. Identify Your Target Audience & Buyer Personas for Your Product:

You should identify the audience and buyer personas for your product. It helps you to target your customers in a convincing manner that will create in them a desire to purchase. It will make sure that you tailor the features of your product to solve the problems that your audience are facing.

2. Create, Implement, and Manage Your Product Marketing Strategy Successfully:

The content marketing strategy allows people to create, build, and execute campaigns and content. It supports the steps that will result in customers and buyer personas, making a purchase.

3. Enable and Work With Sales to Attract the Right Clients:

You need to target the right people with your product. Product marketers should always maintain direct relationships with sales. Working with sales identity allows you to attract the right clients for your products. Give reps sales enablement materials to help them understand your product inside and out.

It will make sure that you are reading on the same page with your teams on what you are sharing with your customers. Therefore, you will provide an on-brand experience that is consistent for all the people who come into contact with your products.

4. Determine the Positioning on Your Products in the Market:

The most critical part on the job of a product marketer is to determine its positioning in the market. Think of the process as storytelling so that you can create a story about your product and tell it.

Product marketers’ work with the broader product and marketing teams to tell a story that answers these questions;

• Why was the product designed?
• Who is the product intended for
• Which problems does the product solve?
• How is the product unique?

5. Make Sure the Product Addresses The Needs of Your Customers:

It is meaningless to market a product that does not meet the needs of your target audience. The research to determine your target audience and buyer personas will uncover the customer’s challenges and pain points. Your product will be working to solve these challenges. Customers will not choose your product over the competition if it does not address their problems.

6. Your Product Should Remain Relevant Over Time:

The product should remain relevant over time. Customer challenges, expectations, and needs change over time. You have to make sure that the product marketing strategy and the product itself remains constant among your clients.

The Process of Marketing a Product:

i) Define the Buyer Personas and Target Audience of Your Products:

The product marketer should define the buyer personas and target audience of the product he is selling. Different products have varied target audience. You need to understand your customers, their unique needs, pain points, and challenges.

It will help you to tailor all elements of your product marketing to your persona and target customer. In this way, both the marketing content and product will resonate with your target audience.

ii) Determine your Messaging and Positioning to Set Your Product Apart:

Once you are over with your customer research and know about your audience, you will know their pain points, challenges, and needs. You can now look at how to highlight the ways the product revolves the customer challenges.

However, it does not necessarily imply that you have differentiated your products from the competition. Competitors solve the same customer needs like the ones your products do. Your messaging and positioning will answer the key questions that customers have about your product.

The answers will tell your audience what differentiates your products from the competition. The consumers will turn these answers into the main points of your product marketing strategy.

Your audience and customers should get the answers to the questions we mentioned in the previous sections. Don’t allow them to dig around endlessly and make their assumptions about these questions.

After answering the questions, compile the responses in a single sharable and impactful statement. It should capture your messaging and positioning as a whole.

To do this, turn your answers to the messaging and positioning questions into elevator pitches. Use action words because they excite your customers. The tome of your statement should also capture your brand’s tone. Lastly, focus on the benefits of your product and not just the features.

The product marketer should make sure that the product, marketing, and sales teams are aware of the messaging and positioning. This knowledge will help them to communicate the same info to current customers and prospects.

It will make sure that your company remains consistent in the information and content it shares about the product. You can also share the same information with the support team if you feel that it is necessary.

iii) Set Goals for Your Products:

The third step entails setting goals for your product. How you do it varies depending on the type of company, a specific product, and your marketing goals, among others. The goals should be specific to the situation and business. Some of the common goals for product marketing include;

• Boosting brand recognition
• Gaining customers from competitors
• Improving the market share
• Engaging with customers
• Increasing revenue

You can combine these goals or focus on one because each product and company have different objectives. Make sure you use the SMART format to set your goals.

iv) Price Your Product:

Product marketers have to contribute to the marketing discussion. It is good to work with other teams on product pricing. You can either go for value-based or competitive pricing. You need to get the one that is a perfect match for your product.

In competitive pricing, you base the price of your product to similar products from competitors. The approach is ideal if your product is identical to what another company is selling.

Do you think that the unique features of your product call for higher prices than what your competitors charge? You are free to charge the product different from what the market does. The best way forward is to look at industry trends and financial reports.

Value-based pricing will help you to maximize your profits. However, it will take you more time to establish this when you compare to competitive pricing. It is ideal for a company that sells a product that has little competition.

Value-based pricing also works for products that have unique features or are exceptionally new. It quantifies the value of your product so that customers can relate to it profitably. You will base the price of your product on its value. It pays no interest to what the industry trends, market, and competitors have to say.

iv) Launch Your Product:

Product launching is the most critical and exciting stage in product marketing. You can either choose internal or external launching. You have to make sure that the whole organization is reading from the same page regarding your product.

It is the only way to give your customers accurate and consistent details about your product. An internal product launch aspects, the team should have the following information at their fingertips;

• Product benefits
• Product demo info
• Sales training opportunities on how to use the product
• How the messaging and positioning looks like
• Your ideal customers and buyer personas
• The product goals
• Your product features
• Product pricing
• How you are launching the product to your customers

Several channels can help you to pass this information to your sales, product, and marketing teams. You can use the sales enablement kit for your sales team. The knowledge base is suitable for support while the presentation works well for the product and broad marketing department.

External aspects look at marketing your product to your target audience, prospects, and customers. These groups should learn about the products that you are selling.

The first thing is to determine where you will be focusing the product marketing efforts. Some of the channels to use include

• Online and offline promotion event or campaign
• Exclusive product review
• Website landing page
• Blog
• Product launch event
• In-store
• Social media

Be keen to include relevant product info on the channel that you choose for the product launch. Remember to focus on the messaging and positioning of your product. It will help your customers and prospects to learn about your product and how it can benefit them.

The details include your product features, pricing, uniqueness, customer training, and customer demos, among other materials you wish to share. Product launch market the end of your product marketing efforts.

Critically think about this process and update it as your product evolves and changes. It will make sure that the product remains relevant to customers.

Conclusion:

To finish the product marketing process, you have to bring your product to the market. Product marketers are at the center of the product, sales, and marketing teams.

These people are an integral part of the success of the product. The product marketer has to make sure that everyone on the company reads from the same page regarding the product. It is the only way to create consistency in the organization.

Also, you will be sure that everyone communicates the same message to your customers and target audience. For the best product marketing support, don’t hesitate to write to us at info@viacon.in.

Have any views about product marketing? Feel free to share here for further advice and guidance.

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