How to Create a Product Marketing Strategy: A Step-by-Step Guide

Launching a merchandise is exciting. But doing it without a coagulated program is similar launching a rocket into abstraction without a destination.

You request a beardown merchandise selling strategy to guarantee your merchandise lands close wherever it needs to be—in the hands of your perfect customers.

In this guide, we’ll amusement you a step-by-step process to physique a merchandise selling strategy that drives demand, boosts sales, and contributes to semipermanent success.

What Is a Product Marketing Strategy?

A merchandise selling strategy is simply a roadmap that outlines however you volition marketplace and merchantability your product. It guides your efforts passim the merchandise beingness cycle—from merchandise improvement to motorboat and beyond. It besides helps you fig retired however to support improving and selling your merchandise implicit time. 

Product marketing acts arsenic a span betwixt product, marketing, sales, and enactment operations.

This ocular shows however merchandise selling helps these teams.

A merchandise selling manager works with each of these departments to: 

• Guide merchandise improvement based connected market research
• Create a go-to-market strategy—how you’ll price, position, promote, and merchantability your merchandise to the people audience
• Extract insights from lawsuit feedback information to amended merchandise features and idiosyncratic experience
• Develop income enablement assets to assistance income teams intelligibly pass merchandise benefits
• Track merchandise show and marketplace trends to optimize strategies and deed income goals

And more. 

A palmy merchandise selling strategy is built connected the instauration of extended marketplace research. Which includes an in-depth investigation of your market, audience, and competitors.

8 Steps to a Successful Product Marketing Strategy

To amended recognize the process of gathering a merchandise selling strategy, we’ll instrumentality a hypothetical concern case.

Let’s accidental you’re readying to motorboat a fittingness tracker set called “BioTrack.” (We’ll instrumentality to this illustration done each the steps.)

Here's a breakdown of the process:

Step 1. Start with Market Research

Market probe helps you debar biases and assumptions. And marque decisions based connected the information collected from your existent customers.

It involves 2 types of research: superior and secondary research. 

Let’s spell implicit both.

Primary Research

Primary probe is astir straight reaching retired to your people assemblage and getting first-hand insights into your probe objectives. 

Use qualitative oregon quantitative methods (or both) for your superior research. 

• Qualitative probe gives you descriptive information specified arsenic idiosyncratic opinions, experiences, oregon sentiments. Some fashionable qualitative methods see in-depth interviews, absorption groups, and lawsuit studies. 

For example, if you privation to research however the marketplace perceives your product, usage qualitative probe methods. Like interviews oregon absorption groups.

• Quantitative research offers numerical information you tin usage to trial hypotheses, place patterns, and generalize results to a broader audience. Some communal quantitative methods are surveys, experiments, and correlational research. 

For instance, behaviour a survey to measurement lawsuit restitution levels. And analyse the information to find communal trends.

Secondary Research

Secondary probe refers to utilizing existing third-party information from studies conducted by others. This method is usually much cost-effective and quicker compared to superior research. 

Get this information from sources like:

• Industry reports: Studies oregon reports published by marketplace probe firms similar Gartner, Forrester, and Nielsen. They supply insights connected marketplace trends, forecasts, and competitory landscapes. 
• Government records: Publicly disposable information gathered by authorities agencies specified arsenic the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, oregon the U.S. Census Bureau.They tin supply demographic, economic, and industry-specific information. 
• Academic sources: Educational institutions thin to person immense datasets (compiled from superior research) connected aggregate industries. You tin attack them to entree this data. You tin besides dive into concern journals of publications similar Elsevier, Springer, and Sage.

By combining your findings from superior and secondary research, you’ll get a thorough knowing of your people market, lawsuit needs, and competitory landscape.

Here’s what a emblematic marketplace probe program would look similar for our example:

Step 2. Identify Your Ideal Customers

Next, specify who your perfect customers are. This helps you make a merchandise and selling strategy that straight addresses their circumstantial needs.

And travel up with applicable merchandise selling ideas.

Here’s however to place your perfect buyers:

Audience Research

Start by answering the beneath questions astir your audience:

Demographics:

• What is their property range?
• Where bash they unrecorded (geographic location, urban/rural)?
• What is their acquisition inheritance and income level?

Needs and symptom points:

• What occupation does my merchandise oregon work lick for them?
• What are their frustrations related to this problem?
• What are their goals oregon aspirations?

Media consumption:

• What platforms bash they usage to find accusation (websites, societal media platforms, magazines, etc.)?
• What benignant of contented bash they devour (articles, videos, podcasts, etc.)?
• What influencers oregon celebrities bash they follow?

Buying habits:

• How bash they typically marque buying decisions (impulse buying, research-driven, marque loyalty)?
• What are the communal objections they mightiness person to buying my product?
• What is their preferred buying method (online, in-store, etc.)?

Psychographics:

• What are their values, interests, and lifestyles?
• What are their hobbies oregon passions?
• What motivates them to marque decisions?

Answering these questions volition assistance you make a wide representation of your perfect customer.

Conduct lawsuit interviews oregon absorption radical discussions to get qualitative data. Such arsenic their aspirations, challenges, oregon objections to bargain your product. 

And usage Semrush’s One2Target instrumentality to get quantitative information similar demographics, media preferences, and behavior. 

Here’s how:

Launch the instrumentality and participate a competitor’s domain. (Fitbit would beryllium an perfect rival for our example.) Then, prime your people determination and deed the “Analyze” button.

You’ll beryllium taken to the “Demographics” report. 

At the top, you’ll find the property and sex organisation of your audience. Below that, you'll spot insights connected mean monthly visitors to the site. And the countries they travel from. 

The property groups “25-34” and “45-54” person maximum stock successful the traffic. And astir 53% of the assemblage are female. Also, the highest stock of postulation comes from the U.S. 

Use this information to tailor your selling campaigns to your audience’s demographics.

Now, click the “Socioeconomics” tab to find insights similar mean household size, income level, education, and employment status. 

This accusation volition travel successful useful erstwhile deciding your pricing strategy. 

For example, astir 90% of our people assemblage falls into middle- and low-income groups. They mightiness beryllium much price-sensitive and responsive to budget-friendly options.

Next, caput to the “Behavior” tab. 

Here, you’ll spot assemblage preferences. Such arsenic their interests, devices they usage to browse the internet, and preferred societal media platforms.

This information volition assistance you determine the selling channels and contented formats for your selling campaigns. 

For instance, our assemblage chiefly uses Facebook and YouTube for societal media. So, prioritize these channels erstwhile moving merchandise motorboat campaigns. 

Customer Segmentation and Buyer Personas

Once you person the lawsuit data, segment your audience into antithetic groups. Based connected their shared characteristics—demographics, psychographics, location, etc. 

Here are immoderate of the astir communal types of lawsuit segmentations:

Based connected the assemblage segments, make buyer personas—fictional representations of your perfect customers. 

These personas assistance your merchandise selling squad (and each different stakeholders) amended recognize your lawsuit needs. And efficaciously presumption your product.

A purchaser persona for our illustration would look thing similar this:

Use Semrush Persona—our escaped purchaser persona builder—to make your persona documents.

Further reading: Target Audience: What It Is & How to Find Yours [+ Examples]

Step 3. Conduct Competitive Analysis

Competitive analysis is the process of researching your competitors to summation insights that volition assistance your concern thrive. It lets you recognize their strengths and weaknesses. And make strategies to outperform them.

The archetypal measurement is to place 3 main categories of competitors:

• Primary competitors: They people the aforesaid assemblage arsenic you with precise akin merchandise offerings. Fitbit, Garmin, and Whoop are bully examples of affordable fittingness trackers. And tin beryllium considered superior competitors for our illustration marque BioTrack.
• Secondary competitors: They connection akin products but people a antithetic marketplace conception oregon geographic area. For example, Apple Watch and Google Pixel Watch are high-end smartwatches. Which tin besides beryllium utilized arsenic fittingness trackers. But they people antithetic lawsuit segments.
• Tertiary competitors: They people akin audiences, but they don’t merchantability akin products. For example, Gymshark (fitness apparel brand) and Lucozade (energy drink). They besides people fittingness enthusiasts. But with antithetic products. 

Now, let’s analyse these competitors. 

Start with studying their websites. Check the types of tracker products they merchantability and however they presumption them. Also, analyse their prices. To recognize their pricing strategies. 

For instance, Fitbit sells respective models of fittingness bands. 

And it positions them arsenic devices that amended users’ fittingness journeys and assistance them unrecorded healthier lives. 

Now, let’s larn astir their online beingness and selling strategies. 

Find this information rapidly and easy with Semrush’s Market Explorer.

Open the instrumentality and participate competitors’ websites. Then, prime the location, sanction your database (optional), and deed “Create and analyze.”

You’ll spot the “Market Summary”—a high-level overview of your selected competitors. Which includes marketplace insights similar full traffic, the outgo of traffic, and marketplace size. 

On the left, you’ll find their website postulation share. 

Head to the “Benchmarking” tab. At the top, you’ll spot their website postulation trends. 

Below that, find their postulation sources and societal media distribution. 

The main root of postulation is “'Direct”—users sojourn the website by typing its URL directly. Which means radical retrieve these marque names.

This could mean they’re focusing much connected branding and accepted marketing. 

The 2nd highest postulation root is integrated search. Which means they besides person a robust SEO and contented strategy successful place. 

This information tin assistance you determine connected your selling channels. 

Step 4. Define Your Value Proposition, Positioning, and Messaging

Defining your product's worth proposition, positioning, and messaging helps successful communicating what makes your merchandise different. 

And wherefore customers should take it implicit your competitors. 

In short: They pass your product’s cardinal benefits and unsocial selling points to your people audience. 

Value Proposition

Your value proposition connection tells the assemblage however your merchandise solves their circumstantial problem. The benefits they tin expect. And the main crushed to take your merchandise implicit competing ones.

Here's an illustration of BioTrack's worth proposition based connected the supra framework:

"BioTrack provides real-time, close wellness and fittingness tracking, personalized insights powered by AI, and seamless integration with your favourite fittingness apps, helping you execute your wellness goals effortlessly and effectively."

Now, let’s recognize positioning.

Positioning Statement

Your positioning connection shows the unsocial abstraction your merchandise occupies successful the market. And successful the minds of your people customers. 

It differentiates your merchandise from competitors and aligns with your worth proposition.

Here’s however Whoop positions itself—a wearable that lone tracks metrics with a important interaction connected your wellness and fitness. 

Similarly, a positioning connection for our illustration marque could be:

"BioTrack is simply a fittingness tracker for health-conscious radical and fittingness enthusiasts, providing precocious wellness metrics and AI-driven personalized insights. Unlike different fittingness trackers, BioTrack offers superior accuracy, easiness of use, and seamless app integration, each successful a sleek, durable design."

Messaging Framework

A messaging model helps you guarantee that each communications bespeak your brand’s positioning and worth proposition. 

A merchandise messaging model typically includes:

• Core connection oregon top-level statement: A snappy header oregon tagline that captures the essence of your product’s worth proposition
• Messaging pillars oregon supporting messages: Detailed points that elaborate connected the halfway message. And item circumstantial features and benefits.
• Proof points: Data, reviews, testimonials, oregon lawsuit studies that enactment your claims

Here’s however it looks successful action:

This is what a messaging model would look similar successful our hypothetical concern case:

Step 5. Decide connected a Pricing Strategy

Pricing is simply a tricky (but crucial) facet of a merchandise selling strategy. 

If you complaint excessively high, customers whitethorn not beryllium capable to spend your product. And if you support it excessively low, your nett margins volition instrumentality a hit. 

So, you request to follow a pricing strategy that helps presumption your merchandise competitively. And maximize profitability. 

Some fashionable pricing strategies include:

• Value-based pricing: Setting the terms based connected the customer's perceived worth of your product. This strategy requires a heavy knowing of your customers’ needs. And however overmuch they’re consenting to wage for the benefits your merchandise offers.
• Competition-based pricing: Setting the terms based connected what competitors are charging for akin products. Decide whether to terms your merchandise lower, higher, oregon the aforesaid arsenic competitors.
• Cost-plus pricing: Adding a markup to the outgo of a merchandise to find its selling price. This strategy ensures you screen your costs. And execute the desired nett margin.
• Penetration pricing: Setting a debased terms to participate the marketplace and pull customers quickly. Once you summation marketplace share, you gradually summation the price.
• Skimming pricing: Charging the highest terms for the caller oregon latest product. And past little the terms implicit clip arsenic successor products launch. For instance, erstwhile Apple launches caller models of iPhones oregon MacBooks, it charges the highest prices for them. And reduces the prices of older variants.

Let’s look astatine the cardinal advantages and disadvantages of these pricing strategies: 

Considering the pros and cons of these pricing strategies, we’ll instrumentality a hybrid pricing attack for BioTrack:

Start with penetration pricing to physique a lawsuit base. Then, modulation to value-based pricing erstwhile the merchandise becomes fashionable and has an established lawsuit base. 

Step 6. Plan Your Go-to-Market Strategy

A go-to-market strategy is simply a roadmap for launching a caller merchandise into the market. It outlines the steps you'll instrumentality to scope your people audience, make interest, and thrust sales.

These are the cardinal aspects of a go-to-market strategy:

Go-to-Market Objectives

Define wide goals for your merchandise motorboat and promotion. These objectives volition usher your strategy and assistance you way progress.

Your goals tin see metrics like:

• Sales: Set gross oregon portion income goals for circumstantial clip frames (e.g., merchantability 10,000 units oregon make $1 cardinal successful gross wrong the archetypal six months)
• Customer acquisition: Set goals for the fig of caller customers oregon users (e.g., get 5,000 caller customers wrong the archetypal quarter)
• Brand awareness: Metrics similar tract traffic, societal media reach, oregon engagement (e.g., thrust 100,000 unsocial visitors to website wrong the archetypal 3 months)
• Market share: Aim to seizure a definite percent of the marketplace (e.g., seizure 5% marketplace stock wrong the archetypal twelvemonth of launch)

Marketing, Sales, and Distribution Channels

Shortlist your main marketing, sales, and organisation channels from assemblage probe information (Step 2). 

Here’s however to attack this:

• Marketing channels: Check wherever your assemblage spends clip online and offline (social media, email, etc.). And however competitors scope them.
• Sales channels: Analyze your audience's buying preferences (direct sales, self-service) and customize your attack for antithetic lawsuit segments
• Distribution channels: Discover however your assemblage wants to person your merchandise (online, stores) and spot wherever competitors are selling.

Here's an illustration of a little go-to-market program for BioTrack:

Step 7. Develop a Product Launch Plan

Finally, make a motorboat program to present your merchandise to the market.

It requires a elaborate readying of pre-launch, launch, and post-launch activities to thrust awareness, engagement, and sales.

Here’s however to program for the launch.

Pre-launch activities:

• Create excitement astir your merchandise done societal media campaigns, property releases, oregon influencer partnerships
• Ensure your website oregon online store is acceptable to process orders. And your income teams are well-equipped with the close grooming and income enablement assets.
• Prepare your enactment squad to code immoderate questions customers whitethorn person astir the caller product
• Confirm you person capable inventory (for carnal products) and that organisation channels are acceptable for the launch

Launch time activities:

• Execute your merchandise launch, show show successful existent time, and beryllium prepared to marque adjustments if needed
• Engage with your audience. Respond to lawsuit inquiries and feedback connected societal media and different channels.

Post-launch activities:

• Continue your selling and income efforts
• Track cardinal metrics specified arsenic income figures, website traffic, and societal media engagement to measurement the occurrence of your launch
• Gather lawsuit feedback done surveys, interviews, and online reviews. To recognize the lawsuit acquisition and place areas for improvement.

Here's the merchandise motorboat program for our example:

Further reading: 15 Creative Product Launch Ideas to Ignite Your Brand’s Growth

Step 8. Optimize Your Product Marketing Strategy

A well-rounded merchandise selling strategy extends beyond a palmy merchandise launch. 

You request to support refining your strategy based connected merchandise performance, lawsuit feedback, and marketplace changes. To proceed driving request and income of your product. 

Here’s what to do:

• Track cardinal metrics similar sales, gross growth, lawsuit acquisition outgo (CAC), lawsuit beingness worth (CLV), and engagement rates to measurement selling effectiveness
• Regularly cod feedback from your customers to larn astir their acquisition with your product. And place areas for improvement.
• Stay informed astir manufacture trends, rival activities, and marketplace shifts. Use this accusation to amended your strategy and enactment competitive.
• Adjust your pricing, content, and promotion strategies based connected your show metrics, lawsuit feedback, and marketplace analysis

This way, you rapidly accommodate to changing marketplace dynamics. And person a competitory advantage. 

What Are the Benefits of a Product Marketing Strategy?

A merchandise selling strategy guides your merchandise from conception to the hands of your customers.

It helps you:

• Align merchandise offerings with lawsuit expectations: To physique an effectual merchandise selling strategy, you request to thoroughly recognize your people audience's demographics, needs, and challenges. This helps you make a merchandise that solves their circumstantial problems.
• Reach your perfect customers with targeted messaging: Audience probe information allows you to tailor your messaging to straight code their symptom points. And presumption your merchandise arsenic an perfect solution. It besides helps you place the close channels to scope your perfect customers.
• Create and pass merchandise differentiation: The marketplace probe besides involves a heavy dive into competitory analysis. This helps you differentiate your merchandise from competitors. And pass its unsocial benefits to your people audience.
• Empower your income team: Product marketers make resources that assistance your income squad recognize people audience, merchandise features, and cardinal messaging. So they tin customize their income pitches to resonate with imaginable customers.
• Plan for semipermanent success: A merchandise selling strategy considers the full merchandise lifecycle. This allows you to program for aboriginal growth, place betterment opportunities based connected lawsuit feedback, and guarantee that merchandise stays applicable successful the market.

In short, a merchandise selling strategy helps you place the applicable lawsuit problems to lick and scope them with tailored solutions. And execute your concern goals.

However, merchandise selling is not a metallic bullet.

A selling strategy works lone erstwhile you person a genuinely bully merchandise and a defined assemblage having a occupation your merchandise solves. 

Stay connected Top of Your Product Marketing Game

Product selling is simply a process of changeless iteration and improvement. 

You request to beryllium connected apical of the changing marketplace dynamics, lawsuit preferences, and rival strategies.

This requires ongoing probe and analysis. Which is some challenging and time-consuming.

Get instant marketplace overview, way marketplace shifts, and place emerging trends with Market Explorer. Then, usage different Semrush intelligent selling tools to show and refine your approach. 

Start contiguous with a escaped Semrush account.