6 Things You Need to Know About Product Marketing a New Brand

Whether you’re a marketer, sales manager, or product manager, we all want to be the top brand of choice for our customers. Increasing and sustaining profit wouldn’t be so bad either. But when it takes an average of 10 seconds for consumers to form an opinion of a company, the pressure is really on to get it right. That’s where an effective product marketing strategy comes into play.

Here are six things to think about when bringing a product to market:

1. Curate a brand identity with a Messaging Framework
2. Develop brand assets
3. Create a personalized customer experience
4. Build a strategic product marketing roadmap
5. Advertise smart
6. Cultivate a strong social media presence

1 | Curate a brand identity with a Messaging Framework

With 74% of individuals becoming loyal to companies through content, the first step is to create distinctive messaging for your brand. A solid brand will have a mission statement, values, market positioning, and brand voice. Your Messaging Framework should include elements such as  your marketing personas, points of differentiation, product features, competitive analysis, and brand personality. If there’s no consistency on these, your messaging will be muddled, leaving customers confused.

2 | Develop brand assets, such as logo and colors

Did you know using certain colors in a logo, product, ad, or web design can improve brand recognition by as much as 80% and different colors impact people differently? Consider the main message you want to convey before selecting your colors. Do you want to evoke feelings of elegance and refinement, trust and dependability, or are you trying for a more eco-friendly vibe?

Consider the same questions for your logo, while also making sure your design can scale up to the size of a billboard, and down to the size of a website favicon without losing impact.

Your logo, colors, and messaging aren’t the only tenants of a powerful brand. Memorable marketing materials should include unique design elements that promote your brand, even if the logo is obscured. According to Forbes, brands that are considered the most valuable tend to opt for versatile but simple designs. These designs create continuity between marketing materials, and reinforce brand recognition.

Create a personalized customer experience

Relevance drives revenue. In this highly competitive world, creating value for your target customers is one of the most effective ways to secure their interest, as well as their loyalty. When it comes to product marketing, developing unique content for multiple audience segments (marketing personas) creates an “emotional connection that is no longer a nice-to-have but a need-to-have” for brand loyalty, according to Rene Vader, Global Sector Leader, Consumer & Retail at KPMG International.

One way to start creating a personalized experience is by understanding your target customers – what do they like, what do they care about, what do they do. And in the same turn, what problem does your product solve? How does it solve this problem? What does your product do that your competitors don't?

The answers to these questions should be central to your brand positioning, and can help design more effective customer journeys.

4 | Build a strategic product marketing roadmap

It takes the average consumer 5–7 impressions to remember a brand or product. This means not every piece of content will directly lead to a sale. So how and where will you reach your customers those 5-7 times, and what story will you tell them?

A product marketing strategy requires an understanding of the customer journey, where content fits in and what the relevant and effective communication channels are for your target audience.  First, identify the journey you want your customers to take and hammer home the message that will most impactfully speak to each segment. Your strategy could include promotional emails, conversational marketing (chat boxes and text messaging), social media marketing, or digital content like videos. The effect will be a curated experience for your growing customer base.

5 | Advertise Smart

The highest return on investment for paid advertising continues to come from Social Media marketing and Google Search advertising. Paid advertising is a way to cut through the vast web of content out there, positioning your product messaging on the top of page to an incredibly granular target audience. And when you can choose ad placement based on where your customers consume content, it’s easier than ever to get your brand in front of your target audience.

One trend in advertising that is worth watching is video advertising. According to Wyzowl, 94% of people report watching explainer videos to learn more about a product, with 84% being swayed to make a purchase. 

6 | Cultivate a strong social media presence

With billions of people using social media worldwide, knowing how to sell on many platforms (omnichannel marketing) has become a critical component of any business's success. 74% of global marketers continue to utilize social media as part of their product marketing strategy, unsurprising considering its proven history of growing a brand’s reach, raising brand recognition, and promoting products on a global scale.

But did you realize that social media platforms also offer a way to better understand your customers? Private groups, micro-influencers and social movements are all worth paying attention.  We call it “organic social media,” and it provides an intimate understanding of your customers which can feed back into your product marketing strategy.

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Don’t start building your brand until you’ve considered these six essential steps.

Not sure where to start? Try a product marketing workshop, where Extra Mile Marketing experts will help you identify your value proposition, brand identity, and go-to-market strategy.