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How to do product marketing. Successfully.

Writer's picture: Terri LucasTerri Lucas

The other day a client asked me what was the secret of taking new products to market. As a provider of complex business services, it became clear they didn't truly understand their customer needs, and were struggling to articulate a complex service in accessible, relevant and clear language. They were stuck, tying themselves up in lengthy and inconclusive debates, yet facing a problem that many marketers and business leaders face every day - how to make sure that your efforts in developing products and solutions that buyers actually want to buy don't go to waste.


The conversation got me thinking about the tips I can share with anyone facing similar challenges. A traditional place to start with product development (once you have the idea of course) is to work through the four Ps of product, price, promotion and place. It isn't a bad place to start although it only gets you so far. In my view, what the four Ps fail to do is get you thinking sufficiently about your target customer and really understanding their needs and how they are currently provided for. On the flip side, the matrix gives you some discipline to work through questions about price, how to distribute products, and so on - all part of shaping an initial launch plan. If you want to know more read this interesting article from the people at Mind Tools https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newSTR_94.htm.


Research the right thing

The very best examples of product marketing come from businesses that tackle this differently. Take Apple and Steve Jobs' attitude toward market research and product development (I know, another example from a very successful brand. Bear with me. It is pertinent) . He often talked about the impossibility of researching new products that people haven't experienced before, so why would you do it (plenty do) when customers can't be expected to articulate an experience they haven't had before. Although he gave the impression Apple didn't do any research at all, the reality is Steve Jobs made sure his marketers focused on learning what buyers do, how they do it, generating important insights into unmet needs and providing Apple with a clue as to how it could develop a product that could improve the existing experience and win fans for life. For Steve Jobs that was the whole point of designing new products - surprising, delighting and charging a premium for moving the product experience on a notch, or two. One of the financial and reputation-building successes of this approach was the iPad, thought by some to be irrelevant (in a world of desktops, laptops and smart phones) and by others, as a good example of how to differentiate, often strived for but not always achieved.


Tools that help you go deeper

Alongside researching what buyers do in their day jobs, you need a clear target buyer in mind and to understand some basics, such as the roles they have, the power they have to make buying decisions or influence purchase, the gains they would love to make if a provider were able to assist above and beyond the norms in their sector. There are a myriad tools out there to help marketers shape their thinking and go deeper into understanding the customer, an essential part of adding marketing value to an organisation. One toolkit that I enjoy using is the Value Proposition Canvas explained in an interesting book called Value Proposition Design by Dr Alexander Osterwalder available to download at https://www.strategyzer.com/books/value-proposition-design. The Value Proposition Canvas is an interactive map which can help teams ensure that a product or service is positioned around what the customer values and needs to add more marketing £ value to their organisation. The Value Proposition Canvas was initially developed as a framework to ensure there is a fit between the product and market. What I particularly like about it is twofold. First it gives you a visual method of drawing out customer needs, the jobs they do, the pains and gains they work on, then it encourages you to map this across to your product solutions, checking how well (or not) the features and benefits are aligned with your customers. Second, it is quick and easy to use and enables a team to work through the canvas together, and almost always identifies some issues that one must fix before launching anything new on the market.


Make sure your teams, systems and services are ready

The third idea is to make sure you are clear on who is responsible for what in the team, and how related departments will work together to maximise the results of any launches to market. For example, make sure the marketing plan is inputted into and shared with colleagues in sales, distribution and customer relationship teams. Agree with relevant colleagues how and when you will go to market, and what the respective roles of everyone are. The very best marketers make sure their businesses go to market joined-up, knowing that as the marketing campaign hits buyers' desks, the sales team is geared up to open doors, secure meetings and turn unqualified leads into opportunities. The timing is, believe me, critical. Back at the office, the customer relationship or experience team is ready, to deliver the designed experience that is part of the product success, ensuring new prospects who reach out have a brilliant experience, because you have thought about it upfront, and know you have the systems and service in place to impress and stand out from your competition.


Reputation, referrals and reviews

Finally let's explore the importance of getting your customers to help you build the reputation you deserve for your hard work developing solutions that make something better. It is always more powerful if your customers say in their own words what they experience in using your solution, how it makes their life easier, how it saves them time, money or improves efficiency. Making sure you incorporate customer case stories and testimonials into your marketing is essential. If you miss out this element, you miss out on the power of them, their network and the independence of their view, which has a huge amount of value tied to it. Use it. Leverage it.


Think also about incentives and ways you can encourage happy customers to spread the word or even get them to try a new product if you have truly innovated. One trick I used in the past for a brand new product launch was to offer a flexible pricing guarantee, offering the opportunity for the customer to determine what he/she paid if for any reason they were not satisfied. Incidentally no-one took us up on the offer (the business got paid exactly what it hoped for) but the point was, it got the business noticed, those first crucial meetings and took market share from competitors.


Alongside getting your customers involved, think too about incorporating a review system and publishing every customer review on your website. There are lots of recognised brands out there with the technology and credibility enabling reviews, and in my view, is not solely the domain of consumer goods. It is also relatively affordable and easy to implement. Systems worth looking at include TrustPilot https://uk.trustpilot.com/ and Feefo, both of which have decent review solutions attached to meaningful brands. For example, recently I worked with a client developing an online business development coaching service, and the CEO felt passionately that demonstrating what real customers make of the service is critical to success, and including automated reviews into its service offer in a sector where this is unheard of. The morale of this story is dare to be first. If you are curious to find out more check out BD Coaching Hub's website at https://www.bdcoachinghub.com/.


That is my quick round up of four practical things that anyone can implement to improve their product marketing - research the right things, use tools to help you understand needs, work closely with internal and relevant teams and colleagues, and think about using your customers' voice to amplify your own.


Clearly this is not an exhaustive list of tips, merely a bit of inspiration to get you thinking anew, or joining in the conversation, and offering your tips for successful product marketing? I would love to hear from you.








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