Product Marketingis a marketing process whose objective is to bring a certain product to the market, with all that that entails.
We refer to all aspects related to the product: its launch, positioning, ensuring that everything is in accordance with the company’s objectives, among other things.
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Product marketers, on the other hand,focus on making the product’s message understandable for customers and, therefore, on the Marketing campaign achieving the desired success.
These marketers not only have the job of launching the product, but of increasing demand and promoting messages that are consistent with the essence of the brand or company in question. Consequently, product positioning is part of its objectives.
Since the product marketer covers both marketing and sales, it has a huge impact on what a brand is offering, but at the same time it is a role that can be very confusing.
This is especially so when someone is given the task of comparing Product Marketing with Conventional Marketing. That is why in the following lines we want to update you on this topic,what differentiates them and how the product launch plan is carried out.
What is Product Marketing?
There is general confusion about the term Product Marketing; if you enter it in a search engine, you will see that you find one definition after another, and that some contradict each other.
Studying it a little, it is concluded that this confusion arises from a lack of understanding of what product marketers do.
It is striking that according to some these marketers are only in charge of the launch; Others claim that they are responsible for driving demand, and others that these marketers take care of all this.
So we have come to the conclusion that the best way to explain the process that is Product Marketing is to define what the marketer does. This will allow us to have it much clearer.
Before launching a product,these specialists are in charge of positioning, launching messages and collecting customer feedback; that is, of everything that has to do with publicizing the product.
After this launch, marketers will focus on increasing demand and ensuring success in product sales.
So, in simple words,Product Marketing is defined as the process of launching a product to the public, promoting it, and making purchases skyrocket.
By making use of a strategic positioning and messages that go according to what Buyer People want to hear, you can increase income and demand around the product.
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By choosing an Inbound Marketing agency , the process of creating messages and content for your target audience becomes more efficient.
Importance of the Product Marketing andProduct Marketing
The importance of Product Marketing lies in that, if not applied, the product offered by your brand would not reach its maximum potential when it goes on the market. Furthermore, this type of Marketing is important because:
- Offer a better understanding of your consumers.
- It gives you the opportunity to reach your target audience.
- Show how your competitors do it, not to copy them but to make it even better.
- Ensure that your Marketing and Sales teams are in tune.
- It supports you in the positioning of your product within the market.
- By increasing income you can improve your sales.
On the other hand,there are some questions that you as a product marketer should ask yourself to ensure that your product achieves the success you desire:
- Do you have the ideal product for today’s market?
- Is this product functional for your clients?
- What is the competitive advantage of this product ?; That is, what differentiates it from your competition?
- Is there a way to further differentiate this product from your competitors?
- Are there any products that the brand has sold in the past and you are not marketing today? If the answer is yes, why not?
Therefore,Product Marketing has a strategic vision of what you offer to ensure that this is what customers want and need.
However, there are some product marketer responsibilities that make this process even more important.
1.Product Marketing:Identify the Product Buyer
This is of utmost importance, becauseonce you have identified your Buyer Personas you will be able to address them with a more convincing messageand adapted to their specific needs. In this way, they will feel the desire to make you a purchase.
2. Create, manage and Succeed the Product
A good Product Marketing strategy allows you to not only create but alsorun content, including anSEO strategy, to ensure that consumers make a purchase.
3.Product Marketing:Enable Sales for Appropriate Customers to Get Close
All product marketers must maintain a close relationship with the Sales department, as it is the way to identify and attract the ideal audience to what you offer.
Therefore,the marketer needs to provide all possible sales enablement material. This ensures that all the characteristics, benefits and attributes of the product are known.
It is essential that anyone who comes into contact with any department dealing with the product gets a unified message, which gives them such a pleasant experience that their only option is to make a purchase.
4. Position the Product in the Market
Product Marketing must guarantee positioning in the market, which is why the story of how this product was born and developed is necessary.
To do this, you must have the Marketing department, which will probably be more aware of how to implementSEOand tell this story by answering fundamental questions such as:
- Why was the product created?
- Who is the product for?
- What needs does the product cover?
- What sets it apart from other existing ones?
5.Product Marketing:Guaranteeing the Satisfaction of the Needs of the Target Audience
It is simple: if your product does not meet the needs of your target audience, they will never have a reason to make a purchase.
By doing in-depth research on your target audience anddiscovering their personality, traits, behaviors, and more, you will have a clearer view of the challenges they must face on a daily basis.
6. Make the Product Remain Relevant Over Time
The needs and expectations of your customers regarding the product will change over time. So as a product marketer you must be prepared to make sure that your strategy continues to make your product relevant.
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This means that you may have to make changes over the months, updating some points of the product itself and even the campaign.
Product Marketing vs. Conventional Marketing
While Product Marketing is more strategy-based, conventional is really all-encompassing. In this sense, the first becomes part of the second, and that is that when studying the 7P of Marketing, you will notice that the product is specific and fundamental.
As previously mentioned, Product Marketing is about driving demand and making the product really attractive to the target audience.
This is achieved by being in direct contact with the Sales department and making what is offered respond to the needs of consumers.
Therefore,a product marketer must be in constant communication with the Marketing and Sales teams. This is the only way to ensure that the Buyer Persona is known well enough to have an ideal product to offer them, and adequate messages to convince them of the purchase.
The starting point of Product Marketing is the launch, and it goes through a Marketing strategy that sustains sales over time.
Conventional Marketing is actually an Umbrella Marketingthat focuses on broader topics such as SEO, B2B Inbound Marketing and everything that has to do with converting consumers into current customers.
And it is about promoting the product, as well as the company or brand, ensuring that there is a coherent message in each content that is released to the public at each stage of your journey .
Product Launch Plan (Stages)
To really see the benefit that a Product Marketing strategy brings, it is necessary to follow some stages to launch what you are going to offer to your target audience.
Stage 1. Client Development
The first thing to do as a product marketer is to specify the definition of this product in the target audience,and at the same time almost perfectly understand the ideal consumers.
Stage 2. Positioning and Messaging
Once you know who your ideal customer is and have developed it, it ‘s time to turn all this knowledge into something actionable. Thus the product will be attractive to consumers.
Usually, the way to deal with this stage is to create a positioning document or a list with the appropriate messages to persuade the public.
Stage 3. Show Positioning and Messaging
Once it is clear what the positioning and key messages to be launched around the product in question will be, the time has come to ensure that each person within your company is aware of this.
A positioning will not remain relevant in time if all the members of your company are not in tune.
Stage 4. Develop a Launch Plan
This plan should include several teams from the company, including conventional Marketing, Sales and others.
Once the launchiscomplete, it is the impact on demand that will measure the management of a product marketer, either with more cross-sales, new downloads, subscriptions, etc. This stage is crucial for a launch to be successful.
Stage 5. Create content for launch
Content is ideal at the launch stage of a product to not only publicize its history, but to inform about its features and benefits.
There are many content formats that a product marketer can work in conjunction with other company departments, such as eBooks, videos, landing pages, etc.
Stage 6. Equipment Preparation
Just as external messages are released so that the target audience is attracted to the product in question, internal communication is crucial so that everything is under control before launch.
Therefore, a product marketer must ensure that everything is ready at this stage, from the destination website to the preparation of the customer service team to answer the relevant questions.
Stage 7. Launch
This is the moment of truth for product sellers;As long as they are on the same page as the rest of the departments, the launch will be a success.
Differences between Product Marketing and Product Management
Despite what you may think, those responsible for Product Marketing and Product Management do not carry out the same activities.
The main difference is that while the Product Manager’s responsibility is to create and define new products and features, the job of product marketing is to bring all of these ideas to the target audience.
To help you see the differences even better, let’s look at the responsibilities of the leaders of each of these types of Marketing:
Product Marketer:
- Position the new product and its characteristics with messages.
- Help the Sales Department to close more sales.
- Have a deep understanding of the market and the competition.
- Drive demand and product adoption.
Product Management:
- Consumer development.
- Be the voice internally (in the company) of the consumer.
- Deep knowledge of competitive products and relationship with new technologies.
- Ensure that the team delivers the correct product.
Product Marketing:External Factors to Consider
When speaking externally, there are many aspects to consider when launching your product so that your current base and your target audience begin to have knowledge about what your company offers.
So the first thing you should do is focus on the channels, media or places where you will give this knowledge. You can use them all as you can use only some; It is up to you and the needs of your product:
- Social media.
- Physical store.
- Product launch event.
- Blog.
- Landing page.
- Exclusive preview of the product (before the official launch).
- Promotional event / campaign (in person and / or online).
In whatever you choose, you should make sure to include all the characteristics of the product as well as all the possible information: prices, product demonstrations, available colors, measurements, material used, etc.
conclusion
Guarantee the success of a product until it reaches its relevance after some time has passed since its launch: that’s what Product Marketing is all about.
This process brings to your Marketing strategy the benefit of having a manager who focuses solely on product positioning. It also allows you to deeply understand the needs of your target audience.
