Product Marketing Plan: The 5 Steps
Every new launch requires a product marketing strategy and plan, as only in this way can we coordinate the impacts to get it all the attention it deserves and get off to a good start in the market.
As with marketing plans in general, the service or product marketing plan should contain all the necessary information and resources so that nothing catches us off guard. To help you out, we’ve put together this checklist with 5 must-have steps you should have covered before launching.
Checklist: The 5 Key Steps of a Product Marketing Plan
1) Identify your target
Before launching a product or service to the market, it is important to clearly define who it is aimed at. Therefore, the first essential step of your product or service marketing plan should be to develop a detailed buyer persona.
A good buyer persona not only includes demographic information, but also data about your audience’s interests and motivations, the challenges they face, and the reasons why your product or service can help them overcome them.
2) Define unique messaging and sales pitches
To successfully launch a product or service, you need to be very clear about how it solves customer problems and what differentiates it from other products available on the market.
To do this, we need to sit down and think about what the key messages and differentiators are that we want to highlight during the launch. These messages will define conversations with media, prospects, industry analysts, and other influencers.
3) Create a media and influencer database
Once we have well defined the audience we are targeting and their key messages, it is time to decide which media, journalists, and influencers we will direct our communications to.
Although it is always a good idea to have a varied media base that includes the reference sites of our target, we must always keep in mind that we have to be critical and address only those people who are truly interested in the product or service.
4) Train company representatives
For communication to be organized effectively, it is advisable to select a handful of people to take charge of interviews and articles related to the launch. It is best to have both experts in the product and managers.
As part of your product marketing plan, make sure you’re clear about who these people are and go over the key messages to convey with them.
5) Plan your content marketing activities
Content marketing is an essential piece to support the launch of new products or services and continue to communicate key messages.
That’s why, before launching, you need to have a variety of materials read, such as technical spec sheets, video demos, blog articles, website content, and media presentations.
This way, you will have your marketing plan fully designed for a specific product or service. You may need to design a specific one for each release you have.
