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Creating metrics that matter

A case study: Launching a product process in a project-based company

B2B product management

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Lidia S. Hovhan is Digital Marketing expert and SEO guru. She contributes articles about how to integrate digital marketing strategy with traditional marketing to help business owners to meet their online goals. You can find really professional insights in her writings.

Lidia Hovhan

For any business to sell its products, it requires having a unique product marketing strategy. The success of any product in the market is directly linked to the product marketing strategy used. With the right product marketing strategy, a company can know its product&#8217;s place in the market.
A product marketing strategy is simply a plan followed by a business to move a product and create visibility in the market. Without this plan, it is almost impossible for a product to enjoy success. A product marketing strategy ensures that the consumer does not forget the product.
<h2>Why is a product marketing strategy important?</h2>
A product marketing strategy makes it possible for a company to know the current marketing position for similar products while analyzing the competitive environment in the market. A marketing strategy reveals the market structure, product development trends, and principles around pricing. With this information, the company can find smart ways <a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/five-steps-to-positioning-your-product/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">to position its product in the market</a> to gain a competitive advantage.
A brand can set goals and implement them with a marketing strategy while identifying ways to ensure business success in the future. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to design a successful product marketing strategy.
<h2>Start from researching and understanding your target market</h2>
The first step to take when designing a product marketing is first <a href="https://extension.psu.edu/marketing-research-basics-identifying-your-target-market" target="_blank" rel="noopener">determining your target market</a>. These are your ideal customers, the people you imagine your product is made for. When researching your target audience, you need to understand their buying patterns, factors that influence their purchase decisions, and the problems they need a product to solve.
Understanding your target audience is key to knowing how you can design a product that meets their needs. Having this critical information at hand can go a long way in helping you create the perfect product marketing strategy.
For example, if you run a female online clothing store, your target market is mainly comprised of women. You can determine how old your target audience is based on the type of clothes you stock. This will give you a clear idea of which social media platform you can find them.
<h2>Conduct competitor analysis</h2>
To fully understand the market, it is important for a company first to understand the competitive landscape of their niche. This can be achieved by confuting a competitor analysis to understand the must-have products or features for a product to be competitive in the market.
A competitor analysis can also help a company identify key differentiators that can encourage potential consumers to switch to their product while making the product stand out.
To conduct competitor analysis, you first need to identify three to five competitors on google. You can find your key competitors by searching by keywords related to your product or niche. For someone in the female online clothing store business, typing ‘female clothing store online’ on Google will show a list of competitors based on ranking.
Generally, the biggest competitors for your business are the companies ranking on the first page of Google for your main keywords. Also, look for companies with ads in your keywords and those that appear at the top of search engine results.
Once you have found your competition, you need to assess their business language and see how they position themselves in the market. This will give you an idea of customer expectations in your market. Ask the following questions:
<ul>
<li>Why are customers buying from them?</li>
<li>What makes them unique from their competition?</li>
<li>What product benefits do they focus on?</li>
</ul>
By answering these questions, you will come up with the ideas your strategy should center on. Also, look at their social media pages to see how they engage with their client base. Be sure to check which platform they are most active and where they get the most customer engagement. Analyze their content strategy and look at their promotional strategy.
<h2>Consider the importance of SEO</h2>
SEO or search engine optimization is important to the success of your product marketing strategy and should be a priority for your strategy. SEO involves creating high-quality marketing content to ensure your product is visible online and your brand and website to search engines.
When creating an ideal SEO strategy, you need content that <a href="http://www.omnicoreagency.com/high-quality-link-building/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">delivers quality link building</a>, the proper use of keywords, Meta tags, and Meta descriptions, and creating content that provides value to your audience.
SEO can help increase the reach of the product by using deeper keywords and long-tail keywords that are easy to rank for. SEO also makes a brand more competitive by using highly competitive keywords that are being used by your competition.
SEO also helps to attract higher-quality leads for more targeted traffic. This is achieved by understanding what your target audience is searching for, making it easier for you to create content to meet their needs, thus creating more traffic, which can translate to more product sales.
In reference to our online clothing store example above, the right keywords for an online clothing store for women would be something like women, clothing, women pants, women dresses, online clothing for women etc., as these are ideally the most common words potential clients use to find online clothing stores for women.
If you are unsure of the right keywords to use, consider using tools such as <a href="https://ahrefs.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ahrefs</a> to find the most relevant keywords for your niche.
<h2>Set your budget</h2>
Marketing can be an expensive endeavour for most businesses. When not well budgeted, it can eat into your profits and even drive a company into debt. Part of having a successful product marketing strategy is having a budget and sticking to it. Tying your strategy to your finances is the best way to ensure you meet your goals.
Creating a budget for your product marketing strategy requires dedication and research to ensure resources are allocated appropriately. Aspects that need to be included in the budget include social media marketing, paid advertising, traditional advertising, content creation, and lead conversion.
Expenses you can expect to incur include advertising, pay for your marketing team, payment for freelance contributors, and sponsorships you want to include in your strategy.
<h2>Design a promotion plan for the product</h2>
Having a unique product that meets the needs of your client base does not guarantee maximum sales. If your customers do not know you exist, they cannot buy from you. This is why you need a promotion plan for your product.
In the current market landscape, at least 80% of <a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/why-do-products-fail/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">new products fail,</a> which calls for an excellent promotional plan if your product is to survive. Promoting a product is all about ensuring <a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/5-product-positioning-mistakes-to-absolutely-avoid/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">you get the right message to your target audience</a> at the right time.
To ensure you design the best promotional plan for your product, you need first to determine your product’s launch priority.
Generally, you can offer one of four types of products:
<ul>
<li>A product that offers new ways to address a problem. This type of product is new in the market with the potential of attracting new clients, therefore calling for the most marketing and promotional effort.</li>
<li>A product that is only new to your company and may already have a similar one offered by your competition. This too presents a chance to get new clients.</li>
<li>A product that offers new solutions to a pressing problem amongst your existing customers. This one may not attract new customers since it may be hard to convince them to use it over a readily existing solution.</li>
<li>A product that your existing clients have been asking for. It is not necessarily a game-changer but can include an updated feature or enhancement to attract new clients.</li>
</ul>
Once you have chosen the priority for your product launch, you can determine the best promo activities to suit your product launch and timelines. Having a promotion plan based on the type of product you are launching ensures you do not use unnecessary resources on a product promotion while still reaching a suitable client base for the product.
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
Taking time to research and make considerations in your marketing strategy gives you a better chance of reaping more benefits from your efforts. A well-thought-out product marketing strategy can boost sales and enhance product visibility to the right target audience. Following the steps highlighted in this guide can help you create the best marketing strategy for your product.
Discover more content on <a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/category/product-marketing/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">product marketing</a>. For even more content on a range of product management topics, see our <a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/content-a-z/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Content A-Z</a>.

Designing a successful product marketing strategy

Lidia Hovhan

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