It’s an understatement to say the business world is full of noise: lackluster products, confusing value propositions, information overload. It’s this crowded landscape that can sometimes keep new ventures from shining.
Whether you’re part of a start-up or established organization, the process of forging connections with your customers can be challenging. Remember, however, that you’re not alone. As Kapost’s The Blueprint of Product Launch Marketing puts it:
Most B2B product marketers are struggling to make a splash.
More than 95% of new products launched by established companies each year fail, according to an AcuPoll study.
Here’s how brands can outsmart these pitfalls to avoid the three biggest barriers in product marketing.
1. Messaging That Misses the Mark
When it comes to making purchasing decisions, today’s customers are swimming through option overload. That’s why your messaging needs to be spot-on.
Before creating any content or copy, talk to your customers. Pay attention to the words they’re using to describe their pain points and your product’s value proposition. These nuances will help you determine how to position your brand, all the way down to the exact words you should be using.
Convert your findings from this research into a messaging style guide. Try it out on your target audience, collecting feedback and doing A/B testing. Merge creative and analytical thinking to uncover opportunities for impact.
2. Mismatched Timing
In the world of product marketing, timing is everything. Your brand needs to reach audiences with the right messaging, at the right stage of their buying journeys. If you’re slightly off-base, you’ll risk missing out on a critical window of opportunity.
In developing your messaging for step #1, ask questions about your target customers’ decision-making processes. Learn how long it takes to evaluate potential products and what challenges they might be facing (in terms of securing the budget, for instance).
These learnings will position your brand as a guide throughout your customers’ decision-making processes.
3. Lack of Process and Coordination
Without process and coordination, creativity falls flat. Every product marketing strategy needs structure to perform at its best. Organizations that throw spaghetti at the wall trade quality for speed, which diminishes their core value and positioning.
Rather than moving faster, product-marketing teams should position themselves to drive more efficiency. Implement tools to remove dead weight from your processes, such as scheduling and other redundant project management operations. When you spend less time chasing loose ends, you can invest more of your mental energy on strategy.
Above all, be optimistic. No product-marketing barrier is impossible to overcome.
By identifying your pain points and bottlenecks, you’ll be able to push past them. And with a clear process in place, you’ll be well positioned to learn what works—and what doesn’t—early on.