The myth behind Product Marketing

You've heard about Product Marketing. You've watched great products come out of companies. You've often wondered how these companies market their products, making them so desirable.

And maybe, just maybe it's in your job description to know how to market a product that every individual craves for. But there's a small roadblock: try explaining what Product Marketing does for someone else.

Lost for words, right?

No matter how much you read, conceptualize or rack your brain to think, there is no perfect way to define what product marketing is, what product marketing can do and if there is such a thing called a Product Marketer.

Heck, a Product Marketer could even be a new, super scary Halloween costume! 👻

I ended up ransacking the Internet to find out what Product Marketing is - and no, it's not a Halloween costume (although I wish it was) but it could turn out to be scary if it isn't understood or worked on properly.

Defining Product Marketing

Product marketing is the process of bringing a product to the market. This includes deciding the products' positioning and messaging, launching the product and ensuring that both salespeople and customers understand it. Product marketing also aims to drive the demand and usage of the product.

Source: HubSpot

Product Marketing touches Product, Marketing and Sales and sits at the intersection of these three fields - which means that the role played by Product Marketing can have a big impact and can also be challenging to define.

Source: Drift

Who is a Product Marketer?

In order to put out a great product, it's important to understand the target market, test ways to learn more about them and how to interact with them. A Product Marketer is someone who exercises all the principles and practices of Product Marketing to it's full potential.

A Product Marketer is responsible for,

• Positioning a product and it's features appropriately in the market
• Driving demand and usage of a product and it's features
• Equipping Marketing and Sales teams with the necessary knowledge to attract new customers
• Ensuring that the product satisfies the target audience's needs and overcomes pain points
• Making a product that remains relevant even as markets evolve
• Focusing more on Marketing to customers rather than prospects and leads

Now that we've fixed a definition for Product Marketing and also covered what Product Marketers do, let's try unraveling Product Marketing a bit more to see how and where else Product Marketing can be extended.

What does Product Marketing do?

Product Marketing is essentially about understanding what your customer wants and then providing that through your product. Your product's message will convey to people what that particular product can do for them with the goal of engaging, converting and retaining a stable customer base.

The goals that translate to Product Marketing can be done in two parts - one, before the Product Launch and the other post the Product Launch. I found this image on Drift's Blog that pretty much sums up the two parts applying Product Marketing,

Source: Drift

I think that it's safe to say that we've at least busted the myth that is Product Marketing - it's in no way a scary Halloween legend, but rather an exciting activity to indulge in. The topic has been broached but you'll need these as well,

• A well-thought out Market Strategy
• A pre-launch Product checklist to follow through with the messaging, positioning and customer development
• A post-launch continuous and comprehensive Sales/Marketing Plan

And you'll find these resources in Part 2 of the Product Marketing Series! 😉