Basics of Product Marketing

How to Win at Product Marketing

Introduction

If you’ve thought about sales or starting your own business, but have thought about it in a negative way, then this article will change your mind. Because the majority of the population believe that sales is not a career or a real job, they never take the time to understand what it is and why it exists. In its most basic form, sales is the transfer of information and values from one person to another. This most often happens in a way in which one of the individuals is swayed to change their mind and accept the other’s point of view. This is called “buying”. Sales and marketing go hand-in-hand and so in this article we will be discussing the basics of product marketing and why it is essential if you ever want to sell a product, just like Universal Manufacturing Corp does.

Yes, products can sometimes sell themselves, but if you want to sell more or higher cost items then you will have to employ some sort of marketing campaign to attract more potential buyers to your product. So what are the basics of product marketing?

Understand your “buyer persona”
Know the business plan and how you will get the product to the market
Know how your clientele will use or are using the product
Decide on and create a financial sales target
Know who else is selling the same or a similar product
Have the right sales tools
Find out who the top three competitors are for your product
Understand what influences the market in which your product resides
KNOW YOUR PRODUCT

In the introduction we mentioned how sales and marketing are correlated and in order to sell you first have to market. In order to market your product effectively and to the right people you will have to understand exactly who your buyers are and why they are buying. You’ve probably heard the saying “don’t sell ice to an Eskimo.” This is marketing and sales 101 right here because why would you sell something to someone who doesn’t need it? It just doesn’t make sense. So, if you’re selling a product or service, for example web design, look for new business owners who are not yet on the internet and sell them the benefits of having a website for their business. They’re more inclined to purchase than a car salesman who works on commission for a car dealer.

Before you start selling anything it is imperative that you create or at least understand the business plan of the company whose product you’re selling, just like Universal Manufacturing Corp does. Lets go back to the car salesman. He’s selling a product which happens to be cars. If he doesn’t know the plan of the business, for example to sell fifteen cars every month because this will allow the dealership to hire more people which in turn will allow him to become a manager, then he will not know what to shoot for. The other basics are self-explanatory and the most important thing about product marketing is to know your product. If you know your product, know who you’re selling it to, and know why they need it, your job will be a lot easier. Another thing you should take into consideration is product placement and packaging, but it all depends on what product you end up selling.

If you understand the nine points we listed above, completely, now you’re ready to start marketing your specific product to the target market. Though this is an article on the basics of product marketing, we feel like being generous and giving you some of the major ways in which you can market and sell your product in order of customer contact:

In person (face-to-face)
Over the phone
Through email
Using social media
Online
By direct mail

These marketing channels all have specific marketing methods you can implement, but these call for another article and will take up a lot more space to write.

Conclusion

In conclusion, in this article we discussed some of the basics of product marketing which include knowing your product, knowing your buyer, and understanding the reasons why they are buying so you can present the right benefits to them. You don’t have to worry about product packaging, colors, fonts or anything like that unless you’re doing both the marketing and the selling yourself. Oftentimes the products and marketing material will be given to you and all you have to do is find the right buyer by using the most effective marketing channels like in-person meetings, cold calls, email campaigns, social media platforms like Instagram, through your website, or by traditional direct mail like postcards and flyers. Choose your preferred marketing channels, select the products or services you’re going to sell, and start selling!