If you’re a small business with a single or several incredible products, then creating the right product marketing plan is your key to amazing growth! Product marketing centers around how you present your products and to what audience. It seeks to understand what motivates buyers and how to draw them in Once you have a plan in place, then it’s all about implementation. Following through is a huge part of product marketing success. It’s got to be done intentionally because the image around products and the people using them needs to be constantly curated for the best results.
Established companies spend millions and billions of dollars on product development. However, the work doesn’t stop there. Once the product is ready, the planning on how it’s going to be introduced into the market begins. Product marketing is all about who you think needs your product the most, who will spend the money to buy it, and what kind of people you want to be associated with your products and brand.
Today, we’ve assembled an expert product marketing guide to get your product from concept into the marketplace effectively. With a good plan, you’ll generate the sales you expect and help countless people enjoy the benefits of what you’re selling.
How Product Marketing Gets Done
The best product marketing teams are collaborative. They work across an organization, gathering information about products that consumers love to know. For example, people are very into origin stories, so many product marketers highlight how a product came to by, its initial iterations, and what drove the people making it. Product marketers frequently partner with:
- Engineers
- Owners
- Materials Suppliers
- Sales
- Customer Service Teams
Essentially, they work through the entire sales cycle to ensure that all of the touchpoints are talking about and present the products the right way.
When Does Product Marketing Start?
Product marketing should start, ideally, in the early stages of product marketing. According to Ross Kernez of Marble says crafting a creative marketing campaign takes time, so learning about products in the pipeline makes the job of a marketer easier. In the weeks and months before launch, marketers are hard at work writing copy, designing ads, producing video content, and doing other preparations.
How Product Marketing Differs from Traditional Marketing
When most people think of marketing, they envision talk of conversion rates, lead generation, and other KPIs. Product marketing is a bit different because it’s focused more on the life of a product and how it’s received by the public. Presenting it in a certain way can increase demand and lead to more sales, but the attention is on the product rather than as much on the consumer.
Work also needs to be done to guarantee that the product fits into a brand’s image. Product marketing enhances the brand image by showcasing the product to key demographics.
Implementing an Effective Product Marketing Plan
Your plan will vary somewhat based on what product you have and what industry you’re in, but here are some basic steps you should take when designing your product marketing plan.
Do Your Research
As mentioned, do the work to understand the product lifecycle, its use cases, and who is going to be using it. Do some research on competitor products and how you can either replicate or differentiate your products. Also, if you can find areas where consumer demand isn’t being met, think about how you can match their demand with your products better.
Craft Creative Messaging Around Your Product
Start writing ads, articles, and making video content about your product. This should all be in place before your product launches. You should have months of marketing content ready to go.
Organize Your Campaign
Decide which marketing channels you’ll be working with, set budgets, and create your marketing calendar.
Get Everyone on the Same Page
The entire company should be in sync when a product launches. Everyone from the leadership team to customer support reps should be talking in a unified voice about the new products.
Monitor the Launch and Customer Feedback
Post-launch is not time to relax. Even with the perfect product marketing plan in place, there is going to be some feedback that you’ll need to respond to. How it affects your marketing campaign will depend on how significant the feedback is, but you’ll need to be ready to respond quickly to keep everything on the tracks.
Product marketing is not simply a value-add to a great product. It’s part of the product. An effective product marketing plan is what will get your product off the ground and what will separate it from the rest of the crowd. You can supercharge your sales performance and improve your brand image with creative product marketing that speaks to customers. Find out what they’re looking for, and tell them why your product is what they need.
