How To Build The Perfect Product Marketing Campaign

The role of a product marketer can be tricky to define, despite the fact that it is a prominent department in many B2B and B2C businesses. 

According to Hubspot:

However, product marketing does not just stop after the initial introduction of the product to the market. There is a lot of work to be done after the launch too, separating the process into “before” and “after” the product launch. It is one of the few job roles that require input and strong communication between the product, marketing, sales, and customer success departments.

The main responsibilities of the role involve:

1. An understanding of the product, inside and out
2. The ability to predict industry trends
3. Shaping the product by understanding the needs and wants of the target market
4. Helping to set the right price
5. Eyes on what the competitors are doing at all times
6. Communicating the product to the market 

Essentially, product marketing bridges the gap between product management and marketing. It encompasses everything that concerns how a product is positioned, promoted, reshaped, and sold. The role is vital to the expansion of your business and for achieving that solid product-market fit.

8 Steps For Building The Perfect Product Marketing Campaign

When your new product is almost ready for launch then it’s time to start thinking about your “go-to-market strategy”. This is essentially your plan of action for how you’re going to launch your new product to the world. Don’t just put it out there and hope for the best. Having a solid plan in place will help you get to where you need to be. 

So let’s jump straight into our 8 key areas of a product marketing campaign that need to be considered for success…

Prior to the development stages, it’s likely that you identified the target audience for which you were building your product. So, when it comes to the launch of your marketing campaign, this is a good place to start. The goal here is to figure out the use cases you need to include as part of your campaign to demonstrate how customers could use and benefit from your product in the long run.

According to Gartner, for a complex B2B solution, the typical buying group involves six to ten decision-makers. These people make up what is called the "buying centre". In many situations, each one of these buyers plays an important role when it comes to the adoption of new products within the company.

Of course, this can vary based on your product and the industry you’re selling to. Have a brainstorm with your team to discuss the various parties that might be involved to get the go-ahead to adopt your product.

It’s critical to the success of your campaign that you are aware of each role and have an understanding of what they do, along with their goals and pain points so that you can have the best possible resources ready for targeting them.

Also known as your unique selling proposition, this is what you promise to deliver to your customers. Determining your value proposition by identifying the various advantages of your product and how that can add value to the day-to-day lives of your target audience. Consider what problems or challenges can be solved by using your product and this will play a key part when designing your messaging. 

With a value proposition in place, you can start to think about your pricing strategy. This can be tricky when launching a brand new product as you need to figure out how to monetise it. How you go about this will also depend on the product itself, but some common examples include:

• Subscription-based pricing
• Value-based pricing
• Tiered pricing
• Price skimming 
• Competitive pricing
• ...and more!

Take the time to familiarise yourself with all the various strategies to decide on the right strategy for your product. Be sure to work alongside your sales team to determine your pricing too, as this will go hand in hand with your sales strategy.

Having a clear understanding of your buyer’s journey will enable you to decide what content they need and when. Generally, the buyer’s journey is broken down into three stages: 

• Awareness: The buyer is aware that they have a problem.
• Consideration: The buyer has narrowed down their options and is beginning to evaluate the available solutions.
• Decision: The buyer is ready to do something about this problem and make an informed decision on the right solution.
  
  

With this in mind, it’s important to have the right content and resources ready to help the buyer progress smoothly through this process, helping your sales team close more deals and win more business. 

A key element of any marketing campaign is, of course, the marketing itself. Building out the marketing strategy for your new product campaign will involve deciding what tactics you are going to use and where you are going to use them. 

Deciding on your preferred marketing channels will come down to your target audience and where they are likely to be most receptive to your efforts. For example, there would be little to no value in spending time and energy making TikToks if your product is targeted at large corporate enterprises. Instead, your time might be better spent in pursuing a more professional social media platform, such as LinkedIn.

Common product marketing channels include:

• Pay-per-click advertising

• Social media

• Email marketing

• Website

• Content marketing & SEO
• PR & Events

Whatever channels you select, be sure that any content shared across them is consistent and on-brand. Consistency is key when it comes to launching a new product as, without it, potential customers will just view your brand as unreliable, confusing and sloppy. The ultimate goal is to give your customers positive and consistent experiences across the board, no matter where they are engaging with your brand.

6)   Define your most important metrics

Being data-driven is a vital part of your product marketing campaign. You want to know whether your campaign is doing well, as if not, you’ll need to make the necessary adjustments in order to try and turn things around. Determining the objectives prior to launch will make it easier to measure success down the line. 

Sit down with your team and figure out what your goals are for the campaign. Is this just the initial brand awareness stage? Do you want to attract leads, customers on a free trial, or full-blown paying customers? 

There is no one right answer for which metrics you should be keeping a close eye on. This will be unique to each individual campaign. For an idea of where to start, 10 of the most important product marketing KPIs include:

• Revenue

• Product usage

• Frequency of high-value actions

• Customer lifetime value (CLTV)

• Close rate

• Average cost per lead

• Average contract value

• Customer acquisition cost

• Usage of product marketing assets
• Net promoter score 
  
  

Be specific and help keep your sales and marketing team on target for the highest chances of success.

Customer acquisition is important, but if you really want to see true success, then you need to know how to retain them, too. 

Source: Invesp

The success rate of selling to a customer you already have is 60-70%, while the success rate of selling to a new customer is 5-20%. So once you’ve attracted a loyal, paying customer, you’ll find it much easier to upsell various elements of your product to them than you do in attracting new customers. Having a dedicated customer retention strategy can increase profits by anything from 25% to 95%.

The first step in customer retention is to have a great onboarding experience in place, to ensure your customers get off to a great start. You should also have a customer support team on hand to answer any questions or issues that may arise as they get to grips with your product. While you might think your product is straightforward and one that doesn’t require explanation, you can’t assume that will apply to others and should be prepared for those that will struggle. Otherwise, you could lose them before they’ve even got started. 

It’s likely that your product will be competing with a number of already existing versions on the market. Keeping a close eye on what your competition is up to is the best way to ensure you stay one step ahead of them. 

Here are some of the things you should be looking for:

• The keywords they are targeting to ensure you are including them in your own marketing strategy. Use tools such as SEMrush and Ahrefs to help you with this.
• What sort of posts are gaining the most traction on their social media channels. This will help to guide your own social media marketing strategy.
• What sort of content they have on their website, and determine if there is something you can do better than them.
• The additional features they are currently working on or set to release. If they keep adding value for their customers and you don’t, you’ll fall way behind. 

Conclusion

Having a proper marketing plan in place for your product ensures that it is seen, used, and discussed by your target audience. In this article, we’ve only scratched the surface on these 8 key areas to provide you with a starting point on building the perfect product marketing campaign. Take the time to get to grips with each of these elements and you’ll be well on your way to launching a product that delights your customers and brings huge success to your brand. 

Learn how to combat customer churn with this free guide: A Complete Guide To The SaaS Customer Onboarding Process 💌 Feel free to get in touch with me via emma@hurree.co if you have any questions or comments.