Are you ready to bring your product to market? Do you already have a product but it’s not selling as much as you’d like? Would you like your target customer to learn about the changes you’ve made to an existing product?

You need one thing: product marketing.

Almost every company has a product marketing strategy. It’s the most effective way to spread the word about a certain product and get people to buy it. Without product marketing, your target customers might never know your product exists.

There’s a problem, though. Product marketing isn’t as simple as you might think. It takes a carefully designed strategy to deliver the results you’re looking for.

If you need help marketing your product, read on. We’re sharing various tips and strategies you can deploy.

Know Your Target Market

The rule of thumb in product marketing, as is in any form of marketing, is to have a clear picture of your target market. Yes, your product can appeal to diverse populations, but who exactly is your go-to buyer?

You have to profile your target customer by various parameters, including location, age, gender, income, political views, personal interests, hobbies, and more. Profiling your customers enables you to build a targeted product marketing strategy.

For example, let’s say you’re selling home care products for the elderly. Understanding how this target market consumes information will help you find an ideal product marketing platform. Most seniors use Facebook and YouTube, so you’d be making a big mistake if you want to advertise your eldercare products on TikTok or Instagram.

Also, most digital marketing platforms give you the power to target users in a certain geographical location. So, when you have a good idea of where your target consumers live, you’ll be in a good position to run targeted product ads.

Know Your Product’s Value Proposition

You created your product to solve a specific problem. However, there’s a good chance there are already other products in the market that solve the same problem.

How do you help the target consumer distinguish your product from competitors? In other words, why should they buy your product instead of a competing one?

That’s where the product value proposition comes in. This is a statement that fleshes out the product’s features, the problems it solves (uses), and most crucially, how it’s different from or better than the competitors.

In every product marketing campaign, one of the goals is to articulate the product’s value proposition clearly. If target customers are to get only one message from your ads, it’s the product’s value proposition. This is what will prompt them to choose your product over your competitor’s products.

The Importance of Proper Pricing in Product Marketing

Of course, as an entrepreneur, your primary goal is to make a profit. The only way to do this is to sell your product at a price that’s higher than its production cost. But how high should your markup be?

A lot goes into determining the pricing of a product. However, at the end of the day what matters the most is whether your customer is able and willing to purchase it at that price point.

In a competitive marketplace, your pricing strategy will have a big impact on your product marketing. If your product is priced way above what the market is willing to pay, for instance, it won’t matter how intense your product marketing campaign is. You can spend as much money as you can afford on product ads and customers still won’t buy it.

To get pricing just right, be sure to conduct extensive market research (price testing). Before you bring the product to market, run surveys to establish what potential customers would pay for it. Also, consider the pricing of competing products in your market.

Don’t Underestimate the Power of Word-of-Mouth Marketing

In a digital world, it’s easy to forget about word-of-mouth marketing. Yet, this is one of the marketing methods that has the biggest impact.

Although most product searches are beginning online, consumers still ask their friends and relatives for product recommendations. Sometimes they’ll buy a product just because they saw a friend using it.

To make word-of-mouth marketing work for you, you need your early customers to have a good impression of your product. This way, it’ll be easy for them to recommend it to people in their social (and even professional) circles.

Word-of-mouth marketing has gone digital as well. While a customer may not recommend your product to anyone offline, they can go online and post reviews of the product. Over 90 percent of consumers read online product reviews before making a purchase decision; you can see how accumulating lots of positive product reviews on the web will help market your product.

Trade Shows Are Ideal for Product Marketing

The COVID-19 pandemic greatly disrupted the trade show industry, but as restrictions ease, these events are coming back. If there are trade shows in your industry, don’t dismiss them. They offer a great opportunity to market your products directly to the target consumer.

Taking part in a trade show has its costs – and a small business like yours can feel the pinch. However, there are service providers like Rockway Exhibits that will make the work easier and cheaper.

In a trade show, you’ll interact with potential customers. They’ll have an opportunity to interact with your product, ask questions, and possibly make some purchases.

Product Marketing Is Key to Increasing Sales

Apple spends over $1 billion in marketing and advertising – even with the popularity of its products. As a small business, product marketing isn’t a choice. You have to spend money on it and you should do it the right way. Use the advice fleshed at above to craft and implement effective product marketing campaigns.

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