What is product marketing for?

Successful product marketing drives sales. But what exactly is product marketing and what is product marketing TO DO?

Despite its necessity and ubiquity, many business owners are unsure how to answer this question. Although a quick Google query brings up a slew of articles on how to use product marketing, very few articles start from scratch.

For what? Because product marketing is one of the few professional functions that touch on product, marketing, and sales. It all comes down to knowing the target customer and finding ways to learn more about them and how best to interact with them.

What is product marketing for?

Product marketing is the process of facilitating a product’s journey to market.

This involves deciding the positioning and message of the product, launching the product, and making sure sellers and customers understand it.

Product marketing aims to stimulate demand and use of the product.

The basics of product marketing

Product marketing does not stop once the product is on the market. Instead, product marketing is an ongoing process that helps products succeed immediately and over time. Here’s an overview of the basics of product marketing.

The first step is to create a strategic plan. Inbound marketing can help define the scope of this plan by focusing on attracting your audience and turning them into loyal customers who champion your product.

Then you create a story for your product. This involves defining buyer personas and clearly identifying what your product does, why it is important, and how it can specifically help your target audience.

Finally, product marketing focuses on long-term success. In practice, this means regularly reviewing product marketing strategies to ensure stable sales over time.

Start strong: act, engage, rejoice

As noted above, inbound marketing can help jump-start your product marketing efforts. A useful framework for this process is Attract, Engage and Delight.

Attract

To attract is to attract attention. Common tools include ads, videos, blogs, or social media posts that help your brand stand out and capture consumer interest.

to commit

Engage aims to get potential consumers to interact with your brand. This can include strategies like email marketing and tools like chatbots. Engagement also aims to identify and manage potential sources of leads.

Pleasure

Pleasure is the step that keeps customers coming back.

This can include automation tools or creating smart content that gives users a personalized experience where, when and how they want it, helping your brand stand out from the competition.

Finding the Focus: Telling Your Story

A good product means nothing if it doesn’t catch the attention of the people who would benefit from it. Therefore, defining, writing, and then telling your story to the world is essential. To find the theme of your story, start with a few simple questions:

Who is the target audience for this product?

How (and where) do you reach them?

What audience need does your product meet?

What sets you apart from the competition?

Answering these questions forms the basis of your product story, allowing you to create a message that reliably captures the audience’s attention.

Digging: Seven Critical Steps to Effective Product Marketing

Once marketers understand their target audience and the needs they serve, product marketing can begin in earnest. Here are seven steps to help streamline the process.

1. Product search

A useful and well-designed product is not made in a vacuum, nor is it marketed in such a context.

In the weeks and months leading up to a product launch, product marketers work with product developers to test the product both internally and externally through controlled beta environments.

2. Product History

The products are also marketed in the form of a story.

What problem does the product solve? Who is facing this problem? How does he solve this problem? What does it do that competitors don’t?

3. Product Focused Content

The next step in product marketing is in the content creators’ office.

Here, product marketers can create and A/B test various marketing copy, blog content, case studies, and landing pages on their website, all dedicated to product description.

4. Product launch plan

No product marketing team is complete without a written launch plan, outlining every final step of the marketing process and who is responsible at each point.

5. Product launch meeting

When the product is released, everyone involved comes together the same day it rolls out.

Like the launch of a rocket, it’s the product marketer’s finest hour: it’s the culmination of a product marketing campaign.

6. Community involvement

Since product marketing generates enough buzz around the product within the industry, it is common for the marketing team to capitalize on what the market is saying about it.

This includes reaching out to partners, influencers, and existing customers for feedback.

7. Sales support

While a product is being readied for market, the sales team is waiting behind the scenes to develop a business strategy around this new business opportunity.

It is the product marketing team’s job to meet with sales personnel before, during, and after the product is launched to the public.

This ensures that the message created for this product is consistent until the first sales call.

With all of this in mind, you might be wondering what exactly a product marketer needs to do to complete these projects. Let’s dive in.

Taking the reins: the role of a product marketer

To enable effective product marketing, companies need someone to take the reins. This is the role of the product marketer.

Product marketers, also known as product marketers, promote products and their features to an organization’s target audience.

Their duties include researching the company’s products, highlighting key features to attract customers, and creating marketing campaigns for the products.

Product Marketing Manager Responsibilities

The main responsibility of a product marketer is to promote the value of a product to the target audience. This goal is achieved through a combination of strategy and ideation, such as:

• Determine the content marketing mix for creation and distribution

• Creating and managing marketing campaign budgets

• Work with content creators to create content that reflects the product and brand image

• Manage a content calendar and create the schedule

Product Marketing Specialist Salary

The salary of a product marketer in the United States varies greatly depending on experience and level.

According to 2023 industry averagesthe median salaries of the different levels are as follows:

• Email Marketing Manager: $78,333
• Product Marketing Specialist or Product Marketing Manager: $117,872
• Product Marketing Director: $170,936

Promote your product with a plan

Product marketing is not a one-size-fits-all process. Rather, it’s a series of steps that help capture audience attention, tell your brand story, and build customer loyalty.

In practice, effective product marketing requires continuous efforts from marketers, sales teams, and managers to ensure the right audience hears the right story at the right time.

Simply put? To be successful, start with a plan and stay the course with a long-term product marketing strategy.