Why do some new products fail and others flourish? The reason is often whether or not the company has an effective product marketing strategy. This specific type of promotion aims to create a pre-launch buzz that increases sales.
What is Product Marketing?
“Product marketing is the process of bringing a product to market,” according to HubSpot. “This includes deciding the products positioning and messaging, launching the product and ensuring salespeople and customers understand it. Product marketing aims to drive the demand and usage of the product.”
This type of marketing should provide answers to three key questions.
- Who is the product for?
- What does the product do?
- Why is the product different than what’s out there?
The promotion of a product can include online marketing, advertising, traditional marketing, public relations and more.
How does it Build Product Awareness?
If you are launching a new product, you must create a marketing strategy that raises awareness of potential customers in your target audience. Many marketers use a four-fold plan to build product recognition: branding, positioning, messaging and pre-launch marketing strategy.
Branding
Branding is the first step of the promotion a new product. It’s a great way to help define how you would like to present your product to the public. Branding is the process of creating a name or design that identifies and differentiates one product from another. It also includes the creation of a logo that appeals to your target audience both aesthetically and emotionally.
Positioning
Before launch, you should do a competitive analysis to better understand how you can position your product against the competition. In the positioning phase, you should learn more about your customer’s pain points. Then, you can begin to create a strategy to attract the attention of your buyer personas.
Messaging
After positioning, you can develop an actionable plan from your pre-launch research. A product marketing strategy will document key messages that will define the promotion of your product going forward. This outline can then be the basis for a social media marketing strategy, pay per click advertising prompts and other inbound marketing tactics.
Pre-Launch Marketing Strategy
Next, you will need a content strategy to entice customers to buy your product. Since they may be unfamiliar with your new offering, you will need marketing materials that can broadcast your message. Whether you choose traditional marketing, special events, blogging or another promotional strategy, the key is to find a way to stand out from the crowd.
The Value of Launching a Marketing Campaign for your Product
If these steps are followed correctly, you will see several tangible benefits.
- Your product will be positioned to fit well inside its segment of the marketplace.
- You will know how to best differentiate your product from that of your competitors.
- Your business will be able to more quickly and easily target your ideal customers.
- You will have a guide to create consistent communication of your product’s message.
- You can determine the type and role of marketing in the ongoing promotion of your product
Today, there is more competition than ever before, so it pays to take advantage of marketing and advertising best practices to raise product awareness and most importantly sales.
