08/22/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 08/22/2024 06:40
Launching a product is exciting. But doing it without a solid plan is like launching a rocket into space without a destination.
You need a strong product marketing strategy to ensure your product lands right where it needs to be-in the hands of your ideal customers.
In this guide, we'll show you a step-by-step process to build a product marketing strategy that drives demand, boosts sales, and contributes to long-term success.
What Is a Product Marketing Strategy?
A product marketing strategy is a roadmap that outlines how you will market and sell your product. It guides your efforts throughout the product life cycle-from product development to launch and beyond. It also helps you figure out how to keep improving and selling your product over time.
Product marketing acts as a bridge between product, marketing, sales, and support operations.
This visual shows how product marketing helps these teams.
A product marketing manager works with each of these departments to:
And more.
A successful product marketing strategy is built on the foundation of extensive market research. Which includes an in-depth analysis of your market, audience, and competitors.
8 Steps to a Successful Product Marketing Strategy
To better understand the process of building a product marketing strategy, we'll take a hypothetical business case.
Let's say you're planning to launch a fitness tracker band called "BioTrack." (We'll stick to this example through all the steps.)
Here's a breakdown of the process:
Step 1. Start with Market Research
Market research helps you avoid biases and assumptions. And make decisions based on the data collected from your actual customers.
It involves two types of research: primary and secondary research.
Let's go over both.
Primary Research
Primary research is about directly reaching out to your target audience and getting first-hand insights into your research objectives.
Use qualitative or quantitative methods (or both) for your primary research.
For example, if you want to explore how the market perceives your product, use qualitative research methods. Like interviews or focus groups.
For instance, conduct a survey to measure customer satisfaction levels. And analyze the data to find common trends.
Secondary Research
Secondary research refers to using existing third-party data from studies conducted by others. This method is usually more cost-effective and quicker compared to primary research.
Get this data from sources like:
By combining your findings from primary and secondary research, you'll get a thorough understanding of your target market, customer needs, and competitive landscape.
Here's what a typical market research plan would look like for our example:
Research Type |
Data Source |
Details |
Primary Research |
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Surveys |
Survey fitness enthusiasts, gym-goers, and tech-savvy individuals. Collect data on their preferences, features they value in a fitness tracker, and willingness to spend. |
|
Interviews |
Conduct in-depth interviews with fitness trainers, athletes, and current fitness tracker users to understand their expectations and challenges. |
|
Focus Groups |
Organize focus groups to discuss their experiences with current fitness trackers. And what improvements they desire. |
|
Secondary Research |
||
Industry Reports |
Analyze reports from market research firms like Nielsen and Gartner to understand trends in the wearable technology market. |
|
Government Publications |
Use data from health and technology departments to learn about the adoption rates of fitness technologies. |
|
Academic Journals |
Review studies on consumer behavior regarding fitness and health technology. |
|
Competitors |
Study reports on leading fitness tracker brands to benchmark BioTrack against competitors. |
Step 2. Identify Your Ideal Customers
Next, define who your ideal customers are. This helps you create a product and marketing strategy that directly addresses their specific needs.
And come up with relevant product marketing ideas.
Here's how to identify your ideal buyers:
Audience Research
Start by answering the below questions about your audience:
Demographics:
Needs and pain points:
Media consumption:
Buying habits:
Psychographics:
Answering these questions will help you develop a clear picture of your ideal customer.
Conduct customer interviews or focus group discussions to get qualitative data. Such as their aspirations, challenges, or objections to buy your product.
And use Semrush's One2Target tool to get quantitative data like demographics, media preferences, and behavior.
Here's how:
Launch the tool and enter a competitor's domain. (Fitbit would be an ideal competitor for our example.) Then, select your target location and hit the "Analyze" button.
You'll be taken to the "Demographics" report.
At the top, you'll find the age and gender distribution of your audience. Below that, you'll see insights on average monthly visitors to the site. And the countries they come from.
The age groups "25-34" and "45-54" have maximum share in the traffic. And nearly 53% of the audience are female. Also, the highest share of traffic comes from the U.S.
Use this data to tailor your marketing campaigns to your audience's demographics.
Now, click the "Socioeconomics" tab to find insights like average household size, income level, education, and employment status.
This information will come in handy when deciding your pricing strategy.
For example, nearly 90% of our target audience falls into middle- and low-income groups. They might be more price-sensitive and responsive to budget-friendly options.
Next, head to the "Behavior" tab.
Here, you'll see audience preferences. Such as their interests, devices they use to browse the internet, and preferred social media platforms.
This data will help you decide the marketing channels and content formats for your marketing campaigns.
For instance, our audience primarily uses Facebook and YouTube for social media. So, prioritize these channels when running product launch campaigns.
Customer Segmentation and Buyer Personas
Once you have the customer data, segment your audience into different groups. Based on their shared characteristics-demographics, psychographics, location, etc.
Here are some of the most common types of customer segmentations:
Based on the audience segments, create buyer personas -fictional representations of your ideal customers.
These personas help your product marketing team (and all other stakeholders) better understand your customer needs. And effectively position your product.
A buyer persona for our example would look something like this:
Use Semrush Persona-our free buyer persona builder-to create your persona documents.
Further reading: Target Audience: What It Is & How to Find Yours [+ Examples]
Step 3. Conduct Competitive Analysis
Competitive analysis is the process of researching your competitors to gain insights that will help your business thrive. It lets you understand their strengths and weaknesses. And develop strategies to outperform them.
The first step is to identify three main categories of competitors:
Now, let's analyze these competitors.
Start with studying their websites. Check the types of tracker products they sell and how they position them. Also, analyze their prices. To understand their pricing strategies.
For instance, Fitbit sells several models of fitness bands.
And it positions them as devices that improve users' fitness journeys and help them live healthier lives.
Now, let's learn about their online presence and marketing strategies.
Find this data quickly and easily with Semrush's Market Explorer.
Open the tool and enter competitors' websites. Then, select the location, name your list (optional), and hit "Create and analyze."
You'll see the "Market Summary"-a high-level overview of your selected competitors. Which includes market insights like total traffic, the cost of traffic, and market size.
On the left, you'll find their website traffic share.
Head to the "Benchmarking" tab. At the top, you'll see their website traffic trends.
Below that, find their traffic sources and social media distribution.
The main source of traffic is "'Direct"-users visit the website by typing its URL directly. Which means people remember these brand names.
This could mean they're focusing more on branding and traditional marketing.
The second highest traffic source is organic search. Which means they also have a robust SEO and content strategy in place.
This data can help you decide on your marketing channels.
Step 4. Define Your Value Proposition, Positioning, and Messaging
Defining your product's value proposition, positioning, and messaging helps in communicating what makes your product different.
And why customers should choose it over your competitors.
In short: They inform your product's key benefits and unique selling points to your target audience.
Value Proposition
Your value proposition statement tells the audience how your product solves their specific problem. The benefits they can expect. And the main reason to choose your product over competing ones.
Here's an example of BioTrack's value proposition based on the above framework:
"BioTrack provides real-time, accurate health and fitness tracking, personalized insights powered by AI, and seamless integration with your favorite fitness apps, helping you achieve your health goals effortlessly and effectively."
Now, let's understand positioning.
Positioning Statement
Your positioning statement shows the unique space your product occupies in the market. And in the minds of your target customers.
It differentiates your product from competitors and aligns with your value proposition.
Here's how Whoop positions itself-a wearable that only tracks metrics with a significant impact on your health and fitness.
Similarly, a positioning statement for our example brand could be:
"BioTrack is a fitness tracker for health-conscious people and fitness enthusiasts, providing advanced health metrics and AI-driven personalized insights. Unlike other fitness trackers, BioTrack offers superior accuracy, ease of use, and seamless app integration, all in a sleek, durable design."
Messaging Framework
A messaging framework helps you ensure that all communications reflect your brand's positioning and value proposition.
A product messaging framework typically includes:
Here's how it looks in action:
This is what a messaging framework would look like in our hypothetical business case:
Core Message |
BioTrack Fitness Band - Your ultimate fitness companion powered by AI. |
||||
Messaging Pillars |
|||||
Accurate Health Metrics |
Track your heart rate, sleep patterns, and daily activities with unmatched precision. |
||||
Personalized AI Insights |
Receive tailored recommendations based on your unique health data. |
||||
Seamless Integration |
Sync effortlessly with popular fitness apps like MyFitnessPal, Strava, and Apple Health. |
||||
User-Friendly Design |
A sleek, intuitive interface that makes tracking your fitness goals simple and enjoyable. |
||||
Proof Points |
|||||
Customer Testimonials |
"BioTrack helped me improve my fitness routine with personalized insights and accurate tracking." - Satisfied Customer |
||||
Expert Reviews |
Featured in top tech magazines for innovation in wearable technology. |
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Market Adoption |
Over 10,000 satisfied users have reached their health goals with BioTrack. |
Step 5. Decide on a Pricing Strategy
Pricing is a tricky (but crucial) aspect of a product marketing strategy.
If you charge too high, customers may not be able to afford your product. And if you keep it too low, your profit margins will take a hit.
So, you need to adopt a pricing strategy that helps position your product competitively. And maximize profitability.
Some popular pricing strategies include:
Let's look at the key advantages and disadvantages of these pricing strategies:
Pricing Strategy |
Pros |
Cons |
Value-Based Pricing |
Captures customer perceived value, higher profit margins |
Requires deep understanding of customer perception |
Competitor-Based Pricing |
Easy to implement, competitive positioning |
Ignores production costs and customer value perception |
Cost-Plus Pricing |
Simple to calculate, ensures cost coverage |
May not reflect market demand or customer willingness to pay |
Penetration Pricing |
Quickly attracts customers, increases market share |
Low initial profits, potential price wars |
Skimming Pricing |
Maximizes profits from early adopters, covers R&D costs |
May alienate price-sensitive customers, attracts competitors |
Considering the pros and cons of these pricing strategies, we'll take a hybrid pricing approach for BioTrack:
Start with penetration pricing to build a customer base. Then, transition to value-based pricing once the product becomes popular and has an established customer base.
Step 6. Plan Your Go-to-Market Strategy
A go-to-market strategy is a roadmap for launching a new product into the market. It outlines the steps you'll take to reach your target audience, generate interest, and drive sales.
These are the key aspects of a go-to-market strategy:
Go-to-Market Objectives
Define clear goals for your product launch and promotion. These objectives will guide your strategy and help you track progress.
Your goals can include metrics like:
Marketing, Sales, and Distribution Channels
Shortlist your main marketing, sales, and distribution channels from audience research data (Step 2).
Here's how to approach this:
Here's an example of a brief go-to-market plan for BioTrack:
Key Aspects |
Details |
Go-to-Market Objectives |
|
Marketing Channels |
|
Sales and Distribution Channels |
|
Step 7. Develop a Product Launch Plan
Finally, create a launch plan to introduce your product to the market.
It requires a detailed planning of pre-launch, launch, and post-launch activities to drive awareness, engagement, and sales.
Here's how to plan for the launch.
Pre-launch activities:
Launch day activities:
Post-launch activities:
Here's the product launch plan for our example:
Product Launch Plan: BioTrack |
||
Phase |
Activity |
Timeline |
Pre-Launch |
||
Beta Testing |
Begin beta testing with selected users |
Six weeks before the launch |
Teasers and Announcements |
Start social media teasers and email announcements |
Four weeks before the launch |
Sales Training |
Conduct sales training sessions |
Two weeks before the launch |
Launch |
||
Launch Event |
Host a virtual launch event |
On launch day |
Social Media Blitz |
Run intensive social media campaigns |
Starting on launch day and continuing for the next two weeks |
Promotional Offers |
Offer a 20% discount |
For the first month after the launch |
Post-Launch |
||
Performance Tracking |
Monitor sales and engagement metrics |
Daily for the first month, then weekly |
Customer Feedback |
Send out feedback surveys |
One month post-launch |
Content Updates |
Publish a series of how-to guides and case studies |
Within the first three months of launch |
Further reading: 15 Creative Product Launch Ideas to Ignite Your Brand's Growth
Step 8. Optimize Your Product Marketing Strategy
A well-rounded product marketing strategy extends beyond a successful product launch.
You need to keep refining your strategy based on product performance, customer feedback, and market changes. To continue driving demand and sales of your product.
Here's what to do:
This way, you quickly adapt to changing market dynamics. And have a competitive advantage.
What Are the Benefits of a Product Marketing Strategy?
A product marketing strategy guides your product from conception to the hands of your customers.
It helps you:
In short, a product marketing strategy helps you identify the relevant customer problems to solve and reach them with tailored solutions. And achieve your business goals.
However, product marketing is not a silver bullet.
A marketing strategy works only when you have a genuinely good product and a defined audience having a problem your product solves.
Stay on Top of Your Product Marketing Game
Product marketing is a process of constant iteration and improvement.
You need to be on top of the changing market dynamics, customer preferences, and competitor strategies.
This requires ongoing research and analysis. Which is both challenging and time-consuming.
Get instant market overview, track market shifts, and identify emerging trends with Market Explorer. Then, use other Semrush intelligent marketing tools to monitor and refine your approach.
Start today with a free Semrush account.