Brands can strive to achieve a number of objectives with the help of innovative marketing strategies, such as increasing web traffic, boosting brand awareness, or getting more leads. Another important objective is product marketing that involves selling a new product or increasing sales for an existing one.
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What is product marketing?
Product marketing is about promoting a product and tactfully selling it to the target audience. It is primarily concerned with understanding the market for the product and strategically positioning it to increase its demand.
It is understood that product marketing lies at the centre of product management, marketing, and sales.
Product marketing is different from conventional marketing in its scope. While conventional marketing has a broader focus on all your marketing goals like SEO and lead generation, product marketing is solely focused on driving demand for a product. Conventional marketing is about promoting the brand as a whole and product marketing is one of its many components.
Product marketers try to understand both existing and potential customers and their motivation behind buying a product to use the right messaging and position the product in the market in a way that appeals to the target audience. They are concerned with the launch and demand of the product, for which they rely on effective product marketing strategies.
How do you develop a marketing strategy for a product?
A product marketing strategy framework acts as a roadmap for the successful positioning, pricing, and promotion of a product. It takes care of the product from its development to launch stage and also informs the marketers about the market segment to target.
The following steps can help you in developing a product marketing strategy:
- Identify buyer personas for your product
The first step to market your product is knowing whom to market to. You may have a specific demographic to cater to as a brand, but each of your products can still have a different target audience. Therefore, by gaining a deeper understanding of different buyer personas to whom the product is being sold, and the customers’ needs and challenges, you are all set to frame a product marketing strategy that will resonate with your target audience.
- Decide on the positioning and messaging for your product
Your product marketing strategy is a way to present your product before the audience in the best possible manner. After you are done researching the customers’ needs and are aware of their challenges, you can position your product before them to resolve those challenges.
Right messaging and positioning can set you apart from your competitors and answer customer queries about your product. Make sure to include answers to the questions below in your product’s positioning and messaging.
- What makes your product unique?
- Why is your product the best option for customers?
- Why should customers trust your product?
- Why is your product better than your competitors’?
Answer these questions and capture the essence of the responses into one bold and impactful statement for the best product positioning.
- Set goals specific to your product
Set targets for your product that align with your overall marketing targets. You can choose to focus on one goal or several goals together. Standard product marketing goals include increasing sales, expanding market shares, gaining customers from competitors, or simply engaging with customers. However, set precise goals, preferably using the SMART format, which stands for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound results.
- Price your product
Setting a price for your product is also a part of your marketing strategy. You can consider either competitive or value-based pricing. Competitive pricing of your product is based on the price of a similar product launched by your competitors. If you believe that your product offers extra or unique features, you can set a higher price.
Value-based pricing depends on the value your product will bring or the issues it will resolve for the customers, rather than on market trends. This is used mainly by companies that have very few competitors.
- Plan the launch of your product
Finally, you are ready to launch your product. The product launch consists of two aspects: internal and external. The internal aspects consist of everything within the organisation. It is basically to make sure that the marketing, product, and sales teams are on the same page about your product. This ensures that consistent and accurate information is made available to the customers.
The external aspects of product launch include everything that goes on with the target audience post-launch. It can include the decision on which marketing channels to focus on depending on your goals and resources.
Incorporate the marketing activities to be done to address the internal and external aspects of product launch.
With this, you have successfully drafted a product marketing strategy.
Elements of good marketing practices
Your marketing strategy can differ from product to product. However, there are six essential elements that should be present in each marketing strategy.
- Product
Your product marketing strategy is effective only when you have a strong product that is created keeping customers’ needs and challenges at the fore. While promoting the product, focus on its benefits rather than its features. The value the product offers to the customers should determine the right positioning.
- Target audience
Your strategy needs to be created in accordance with your target audience. Gather information like age, gender, education, employment, and preferences. While engaging in customer research, you will come across some patterns and commonalities that can be leveraged to categorise them and create buyer personas to get an idea of what your ideal customer looks like. This helps in creating highly targeted campaigns to reach the right prospects at the right time.
As per Cintell, highly successful companies are 2.3 times more likely to research their customers’ motivations and preferences.
- Messaging
Messaging is another important element of any marketing strategy. creating a good product is of no use until you are able to communicate its value to the target audience. Use narratives for product messaging, since they are relatable and can bring out the core of your product in ways that can resonate with your audience.
- People
Many people work together in teams to develop a product and bring it to the audience. Thus, it is not easy to ensure that everyone is on the same page to deliver a consistent brand experience. It can lead to disorganisation and miscommunication. The product marketing strategy can help avoid such a situation by aligning all the involved people. It serves as a roadmap to guide the teams along each step of the project.
- Promotion
Promotion helps in spreading awareness about the utility of your product to target customers. Timing is of great relevance in the promotion since you need to get your message to the right audience at the right time. Look for the right communication channels where your audience spends time and then select a combination of such channels to reach out to them.
- Analysis
Analyzing the marketing strategy by keeping a track of brand and successful customer-related metrics is essential. You cannot be sure of how customers will respond to your product. So, after the launch and promotions, observe the market and see what went well and where you faltered.
Examples of marketing strategies for products
- Apple
Apple never focuses on the product features but on its benefits for users. It does not just list features but explains them to inform users about what challenges they could meet and what can be resolved by using the product.
Apple also tells stories and narratives involving its products to inspire people to purchase them.
- Pepsi Cola
Pepsi has positioned itself as a brand associated with youthful energy and excitement, a feature that is consistently reflected in all of its marketing campaigns. Its target audience lies between the age of 13 and 35 years with modern and active lifestyles. So, it seems beneficial to collaborate with celebrities like Doja Cat for a commercial. Today, Pepsi has a global reach with its consistent branding strategies and highly targeted messaging.
- MailChimp
There are plenty of email marketing tools today, but MailChimp has overcome the competition by positioning itself as an all-in-one marketing tool for your business. It showcases the benefits it offers rather than its product features. A recent rebranding and site redesign initiative has highlighted this even more.
Conclusion
Many businesses have an overall marketing strategy to achieve marketing goals for your brand as a whole. That is certainly the right thing to do, but you must not forget that promoting each product as being unique in itself will leave an altogether positive impact on customers. A solid product marketing strategy will present your product as a strong competitor and is more appealing to the target audience.
Today, there are a number of product marketing strategy templates available to guide you through the process. So, if you are just starting out, take the help of one of these templates and start product marketing today!