What Is Product Marketing?

With products central to the success of many businesses, product marketing is essential and has a role in many organisations. Respondents to a survey by the Product Marketing Alliance noted that artificial intelligence is changing the landscape of product marketing, creating an environment in which companies must find new ways to differentiate their products from the competition.

According to the 2024 State of Product Marketing report from the Product Marketing Alliance, the primary goal of product marketing is to position products and ensure their targeted audience sees their products [1]. If you're a natural storyteller with a passion for sales, a career in product marketing may be a good fit. Read on to explore product marketing strategies, what a product marketer does, and more. 

What is product marketing? 

Product marketing involves guiding a product through its lifecycle—from development to market launch—by understanding customer needs, crafting consistent and effective messaging, and driving adoption and sales. For companies, having a product marketing strategy in place helps create products that appeal to a particular market and audience. A good product marketing strategy analyses the market to determine whether product improvements and creations effectively cater to customers.

What do product marketers do? 

Product marketers collaborate with various teams, including sales, marketing, product development, and customer service, to bring a product to market. They are responsible for bringing products back to the production team for improvements and using insights for future products. 

Other roles

Within product marketing are various roles, including product marketer, product marketing manager, and product marketing head, which is a C-level position. A small company may have one product marketer, or it may incorporate the duties into product manager role. Larger companies may have whole teams dedicated to product marketing.

How much do product marketing managers make? 

According to Glassdoor, the average salary for a product marketing manager in India is ₹9,20,000, with an additional ₹1,20,000 in additional pay [2]. The job outlook for product marketers is positive, with an anticipated growth of around 8 per cent in India over the next 10 years [3]. 

Different types of product marketing strategies 

In product marketing, many strategies exist to get your products seen and sold to your target audience. As a professional in this field, understanding these strategies is essential to your success.

Storytelling 

How you connect with customers is important because building a relatable product or brand creates trust. A great way to do this is with a true story about why someone decided to create the brand or product, especially if it’s emotive to your target audience. The right story will draw someone in, entertain or provoke emotion, and connect your product to a concept. 

Create value for the target consumer.

Adding value will attract customers. One way to do this is through your content like blogs, free resources, and how-to videos that put the customers’ needs first. Adding value to a product will more likely align customers with your brand when they are ready to purchase. 

Product sampling 

Like adding value, you can provide product samples for customers to try before buying. This may include asking customers to try a product sample in exchange for feedback or offering customers a sample to test out as a trial. This builds trust and takes away the risk of buying something they don’t need or want. For example, a flooring specialist may give out small samples so the customer can see the quality and colour. 

Email marketing 

Email marketing is highly effective at capturing potential customers via mailing list sign-ups, keeping previous customers engaged, and bringing back past customers. 

A call to action is essential. Email marketing has to capture a reader's attention enough for them to open the email, and the content must be good enough to provoke interest. Examples of calls to action include discount codes, links to your website or how-to videos, invitations to view a new product, or limited-time offers. 

Align your product with a similar popular product.

Aligning your products with other similar products is a good way to attract customers who are in the same target audience. You can do this with a ‘recommended products’ section on your website, aligning your products with others you sell. You can also align your products with other brands through collaboration or partnering with popular personalities through working with influencers. For example, a retailer may recommend inner soles on their website for someone who has added shoes to their basket.

How to choose product marketing strategies 

Product marketing relies on different strategies and processes. The right strategy for you depends on your product, the problem it will solve for a customer, and your target audience. To define your strategy, think about answering the following questions: 

What’s the problem you’re trying to solve for potential consumers? 

To determine how to market a product, decide on a solution to a problem. If you can convince consumers that your product will solve their problem, they are more likely to buy it. Answering this question may help you establish which product marketing strategy to use. 

What are you selling or creating? 

Market research of what your target customer buys and needs informs what you sell or create. Once you know this, determine your strategy with the following factors:

• Product type

• Where it’s marketed 

• Ideal consumer base 

• The message that’s portrayed 

You will incorporate all of this information into a launch plan. 

Who is your target consumer? 

It's vital to identify and base your product on the needs of a particular group. To do this, create a buyer persona using insights from previous customers, customers of similar products, and their common traits. 

Once you have created your buyer persona, research the following things:

• Find out this person’s pain points

• What the person wants

• What appeals to the potential customer 

• How the person communicates

• Where your targeted audience spends their time

Finding out these details can help you to understand where to reach your customers and how. 

Various stages of product marketing

You can break down the product marketing process into four main stages. It starts with product development, generating sales, improving the product, and responding to customer feedback. This process aligns with the product life cycle: introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. 

1. Product development and launch 

The first stage of the product marketing process is product development and launch. In this stage, you decide which strategies to use, define the product audience, and conduct market research and tests of the product. All of this shapes the final product and its market launch.

2. Sales and promotion 

Stage two of the product life cycle and product marketing process is the sale and promotion of the product (growth). This is the sales part of the process and is concerned with growing markets, selling to consumers, and using feedback to upgrade the product.

3. Marketing and market research 

The third stage is marketing the product further once it gains popularity and you know it is as good as possible. Sales can drop at this point as the buzz has worn off, and it can signal the point for new product launches.

4. Customer service and satisfaction 

The final stage is the end of the product marketing lifecycle, known as decline. The product sales have slowed down, and it is time to consider the following:

• Customer opinion on product satisfaction 

• Whether new features should be added

• Whether the product would benefit from a price cut

• Whether it is time to retire the product in favour of new ones

Next steps 

Product marketing is crucial for businesses, guiding products through their lifecycle by understanding customer needs, crafting effective messaging, and driving adoption and sales. Product markers play an important role in developing and implementing campaigns.

A career in product marketing can be a great choice if you have experience in product management and qualifications in your industry or in marketing. To get a step ahead, consider an online course like Marketing Strategy on Coursera, or get up to speed on the process of product management through this course on Real World Product Management.