Ultimate Product Marketing Strategy | 5 Steps to Success

What is Product Marketing? 

Product Marketing is the process of bringing a new product or feature to market. The main goal is to establish the products positioning and messaging to help communicate the value proposition to customers and ultimately generate adoption through a digital marketing strategy. Product Marketing can also provide insights to product development to help delight customers, increase retention and referrals.  Insights to the sales team, can also help them to best communicate the value to customers and increase conversions. 

Timestamps 👇

• 0:00 – 0:38 – Intro
• 0:39 – 1:59 – What is Product Marketing?
• 1:60 – 3:30 – Product Marketing Strategy
• 3:31 – 5:10 – 5 Step Product Marketing Plan
• 5:11-5:56 – Product Marketing tips

The Product Marketing Trifeca. 

Product Marketing Plan | Simplified 

Product Marketing Plan | Advanced | Social Genie

Choosing a Product Marketing Goal?

• Raise Brand Awareness

• Go to Market/Product Launch Strategy

• Product Market Fit Testing 

• Pre Launch Plan

• Feature Market Fit 

• Increase Sales

• Improve Retention

• Increase Engagement 

• Improve NPS Score

• Increase Upsells

• New Feature Launch 

• New Market Entry

Recommended Prerequisites:

• Business Plan/Strategy 
• Product Development Strategy/Plan
• Market Strategy/Competitor Analysis
• SWOT Analysis 
• Resource Plan (Talent & Finance)
• Financial Plan/Forecasts/TAM
• Project Management Plan 

Defining a Buyer Persona 

A buyer persona is a fictionalised generalisation of your ideal customer. These are people your product offering best resonates with.  Put yourself in their shoes and really get into their mind. Can use existing customer data, Email List, Highest converting customers, CRM data or make an hypothesis. 

• Demographics (Age/Gender)
• Location/Language/Culture 
• Job Title/Career Path
• Company Profile/Size
• Income/Education
• Lifestyle/Relationships
• Pain Points/Challenges/Roadblocks “Hair on Fire Problem” 
• Aspirations
• Interests
• Psychology (Emotions) (Buying Emotion)]
• Day in the life. (Journey Mapping)
• Real Quotes/Vocabulary/Phrases  (Customer Service Calls, Emails, Interviews, Focus Groups, Product reviews, Testimonials. Competitors) 

Useful Questions to ask

• How would they describe your product to a friend?
• Marketing Messages
• Which Questions? (Objections)
• What Job would they hire your product to do? (“Mcdonalds Milkshake driving snack)
• What sign would be outside the restaurant?
• Elevator Pitch
• What Content do they read/watch consume? 
• Which Social Media Platforms?

Anti persona: 

This is the complete opposite person your product is aimed at. Thus defining them can help you to focus your efforts and exclude people like this from the list. Ex. Product aimed at 20 year old who’s into gaming. Exclude Senior Citizens who don’t use a computer.

2. Define Product Messaging/Value Proposition

• Brand Voice/Mission

• Value Proposition

• Feature to Value Proposition Mapping

• Website Copy

• Website Graphics

• Taglines/Phrasing 

•  Vocabulary

3. Platform Marketing 

• Customer Journey Mapping 
• Funnel Type
• Touchpoints
• Define Marketing Tech Stack (CRM, Email, Social) 
• Audience Segmentation/Personalisation
• Define the optimum marketing mix, based upon media 

Marketing Strategy: 

• Account Based Marketing (ABM)
• Lead Generation/Nurturing Marketing. 
• Direct Sales Marketing (Impulse buys)

Customer Journey Mapping

4. Content Marketing Strategy

• Social Media Posts 
• Ad Copy/Creative
• Video Marketing
• Email Copy/Automation.
• Lead nurturing. 
• Landing Pages
• Webinars 
• Whitepapers
• Blog Posts 
• Ebooks.

Can also include:

• Lead Database Segmentation
• Personalisation
• Localisation 

Data And Testing:

• Consumer Insights. 

• Lookalike Audiences

• Personalization

• A/B Testing

5. Data Analytics/Reporting

• Hubspot/Marketo

• Google Analytics

• Facebook Ad Manager. (Ad Platforms)

• Tableau with SQL database.

• Excel/Powerpoint/Canva

• Funnel.io (Used by Adidas)(Premium)

Pro Tips:

• Analyse Data,

•  metrics and KPI’s. 

•  Set Strategies to 

• Improve. (“Kaizen”) 

• Double Down on what’s working.

• Feed Data back to business/product/design /pricing/Sales team.

Product Marketing Framework 2:

• Product Research

• Product Story

• Product Focused Content

• Product Launch Plan

• Product Launch Meeting

• Community Engagement

• Sales Enablement

Product Led Growth 

Product Led Growth is a strategy where you let your product “do the talking”. This can be done through a demo, free trial or Proof of Concept (PoC) install. The goal is to create an  extremely “low friction” starting point. This can even be done via a “Freemium model” or have a time based or usage based model. For example, Instagram scheduling app Tailwind offers 10 free posts per month in the free tier and then users have to pay to upload more. The exact strategy depends upon the target customer profile, for example Small Businesses often want to “try and buy” at the same time. While Enterprises will try a demo and then speak to the buying committee after assessing all options. A DevOps audience loves to just dive right into the product or API and doesn’t really want to speak to a Sales rep.  A pro tip is to create a “aha” moment as soon as they start to use the product with instant value seen. The goal is to create a “Sticky” experience (this is why Facebook urges people to upload profile data and add friends at signup). After create a great product you want to create brand ambassadors and listen to user feedback to improve. It’s best to cultivate 100 people who love your product or find it very valuable than 1000 who does think it’s ok. 

Land and Expand

This is commonly used with a “Land and Expand” growth strategy where you “land” in a customers account and solve a small problem or use case for a specific team. Upon product success, your company has built credibility and trust and the product can spread to other accounts. This is the same strategy Silicon Valley tech companies such as Asana, Salesforce, Monday.com and many Cybersecurity companies such as Crowdstrike have used to grow at a blistering pace. 

Final Thoughts

Product Marketing is an essential part of product success and key part of any new product launch globally or in a specific market. Hopefully this blog post has provided you with more knowledge on the area and a plan for success.

Need Help with your Marketing?

If you need help with your marketing and want a bespoke plan put into place for you, then reach out to us at email: social genie(at)europe.com. Speak soon!