While the prospect of introducing something new and groundbreaking is exciting, the reality is a bit more challenging. Many new products fail to gain market traction and fizzle out shortly after launch.
However, one consistent method of building (and eventually maintaining) product sales and usage is through well-crafted product marketing strategies.
Today, we'll explore tools, techniques, and tips to help you develop a solid product marketing strategy that will win your market share.
The Challenges of Bringing a New Product to Market
Statistics paint a sobering picture of new products' challenges when entering the market. According to research, approximately 80% of new products fail within the first two years of launch.
Even major brands aren't immune to these challenges. Remember "Google Glass"? While innovative and backed by an industry titan, the product failed to gain consumer acceptance or widespread interest, causing Google to stop production approximately two years after launch.
Common challenges new products face can include:
Fierce competitionLack of market demandIneffective marketing strategiesFailure to meet customer needs and expectations
As mentioned in the list above, the sheer competitiveness of your market can be a significant challenge to overcome. With countless products vying for consumers' attention, breaking through the noise and capturing their interest can be daunting.
Similarly, a failure to truly meet the needs and expectations of your customers is a major hindrance to your product's success. Without a deep understanding of your target audience and their pain points, you risk developing products that miss the mark and fail to resonate with consumers.
And, of course, we can't forget the role of marketing strategies. If you don't know your target audience- who they are, what motivates them, what matters most- then you won't be able to use marketing as a driver of inbound sales effectively.
Believe it or not, answering many of your product marketing questions (like: "What problems do I really solve?" or "What actually sets me apart from competitors?") will help your product win in every aspect.
How to Develop a Strong Product Marketing Strategy (Step-by-Step)
Crafting a robust product marketing strategy is vital for overcoming the challenges your new product will face and positioning yourself for success. Here's a step-by-step approach to developing a winning strategy:
1. Know Your Target Audience
Understanding your target audience is not just a step; it's the cornerstone of effective product marketing.
Who is your ideal customer, exactly? Do they have a similar demographic or geographic makeup? Or do they share similar values and behaviors?
For example, maybe your jewelry line targets women between the ages of 25 and 40 in urban communities. Or, perhaps your new clothing line targets active people who value sustainability.
No matter who your audience is, you need to understand what they expect from your brand and products, what motivates them to buy, and how you can better speak their language.
By conducting surveys, interviews, and market research studies, you can identify your ideal customer profile (ICP) and gain insights into their pain points, challenges, and preferences. This knowledge empowers you to tailor your messaging and marketing efforts to resonate with them effectively.
2. Find Your Unique Selling Proposition
Differentiating your product from competitors is an important part of product marketing. You can do this by identifying your unique selling proposition (USP).
What sets your product apart from others in the market? Is it superior quality, innovative features, or exceptional customer service? If you aren't sure, conduct market research to uncover your USP and leverage it to position your product as the best solution for your target audience's needs.
3. Collect Feedback from Early Adopters
Engage with early adopters or beta testers to gather feedback and insights into their experiences with your product. Their feedback can provide valuable insights into feature preferences, usage patterns, and areas for improvement. In turn, you can use this information to tweak your marketing messaging to better align with your market.
4. Learn Where Your Target Audience Spends Their Time
To serve more relevant ads, identify the digital spaces where your target audience spends their time. Using surveys of existing users (or a sample of your target audience), you can gather insights into their preferred social media platforms, online communities, and content consumption habits. This information will help you prioritize the proper channels and allocate resources effectively.
5. Set Goals and Choose Metrics
Define clear goals and objectives for your product marketing efforts and choose relevant metrics to track your progress. Popular key metrics may include conversion rates, website traffic, customer engagement, and sales revenue.
By setting goals and tracking performance metrics, you can measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns and make data-driven decisions to optimize your strategy.
Tools to Help Your Market A New Product
Here are some essential product marketing tools that can grow with you as your strategy evolves:
HubSpot
HubSpot is an all-in-one marketing platform that offers email marketing, social media management, content management, and analytics tools. It's ideal for smaller, growing brands looking to launch and scale their marketing campaigns quickly.
Notion
Notion is a versatile collaboration and project management tool that allows teams to organize tasks, share documents, and track progress in one centralized platform. It's great for planning and executing product marketing campaigns effectively.
SightX
SightX is a market research platform that provides access to consumer insights, trend analysis, and competitive intelligence. It's ideal for conducting product research and gathering data to inform your product marketing strategy.
SEMRush
SEMRush is a comprehensive SEO and competitor analysis tool that provides insights into keyword rankings, backlink profiles, and advertising strategies. It's valuable for understanding your competitors' tactics and optimizing your own marketing efforts.
UserPilot
UserPilot is a user onboarding and product adoption platform specifically designed for SaaS companies. It helps you analyze user behavior, optimize the user experience, and drive product adoption through personalized interactions.
Product Marketing Tactics
Here are some product marketing tactics to consider when putting together your strategy:
SEO
Optimize your website and create a solid content strategy for search engines to improve visibility and drive organic traffic to your website. You'll need to conduct keyword research to find the best keywords for your product (this is where tools like SEMRush come in handy) and create landing pages and blog posts that align. Conduct keyword research, create high-quality content, and build authoritative backlinks to improve your search engine rankings.
Guerrilla Marketing
Get creative with your marketing tactics and implement guerrilla marketing strategies to generate buzz and create memorable experiences for your audience. Think outside the box and leverage unconventional channels to reach your target audience effectively.
Looking for some examples to inspire you? Think:
Red Bull's icon Stratos Space Jump
These clever door handles by the beer brand Tyskie Or UNICEF's dirty water vending machines.
Social Media
Leverage social media platforms to engage with your audience, share interesting or valuable content, and build brand awareness. If you have the budget, develop a comprehensive social media strategy that includes both organic and paid tactics to reach and engage your target audience more effectively.
Influencer Marketing
Partner with influencers and thought leaders in your industry to amplify your product launch and reach a broader audience. Identify influencers whose values or expertise align with your brand and collaborate with them to create authentic, compelling content that will resonate with their followers.
Share Customer Content
Encourage your customers to create and share user-generated content (UGC) showcasing their experiences with your product. UGC is seen as authentic, trustworthy, and highly engaging, which makes it a powerful tool for building brand credibility and driving customer engagement.
Start a Waitlist to Build Interest
Create anticipation and build hype around your product launch by starting a waitlist or pre-order campaign. Offering exclusive early access or incentives to early adopters can generate excitement and drive word-of-mouth referrals, helping you create momentum around your new product.
Tips for Marketing a New Product
Now that you have the tools and tactics, here are the tips you need to really kickstart your new product marketing journey:
Base Your Decisions on Data
From identifying your target audience to choosing marketing channels and messaging strategies, use data to back your decisions. Conduct market research, analyze customer data, and track performance metrics to confirm your choices.
Make Sure Your Messaging Aligns with Customer Needs
Messaging and copy can make (or break) your marketing campaigns. If you want your messaging to resonate with your target audience, you'll need to address their needs, pain points, and motivators head-on.
You'll also want to make sure that you clearly communicate how your product solves their problems, meets their needs, or fulfills their desires to drive engagement.
Focus on Solutions, Not on Features
One common pitfall in product marketing is an over-emphasis on features and not enough attention paid to the benefits/solutions your product provides.
Use your marketing to help your audience understand how your product can improve their lives, solve their problems, or fulfill their aspirations, positioning it as the best solution for their needs.
Target the Right Audience
Identify and target the right audience for your product by conducting thorough market research and understanding their demographics, preferences, and behaviors. Tailor your marketing efforts to reach and engage your ideal customers effectively, maximizing the impact of your campaigns.
Marketing Research with SightX
SightX is an AI-driven market research platform offering a single solution for product and marketing research. While powerful enough for insights teams at Fortune 500 companies, our user-friendly interface makes it simple for anyone to start, optimize, and scale their research.
With our new Generative AI consultant, Ada, you can harness the power of OpenAI's GPT to transform your marketing research and insights. Collaborating with Ada is like having an expert researcher, brilliant statistician, and ace marketer on your team, helping you ask the right questions, choose the best experiments, pick out key insights, and seamlessly apply them to your business.
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