What is Product Marketing? A Guide for SMBs

Has anyone ever told you, “Your product should sell itself?” Well, that’s a nice thought, but product marketing is a little more complicated than that.

Product marketing is the process of promoting products and services. First, you build your product. Then, find ways to share it with customers. Product marketing improves those delivery methods and makes people want to learn more about your products, services, and business.

This post will explain everything you need to know about product marketing. I’ll show you examples of successful campaigns and share a list of strategies you can use to promote your products or services. You’ll have everything you need to launch a successful product marketing campaign for your small business.

What is product marketing?

Product marketing is a marketing campaign that promotes a product (or service). It educates buyers about your product and explains why they should buy it. These campaigns highlight your product’s key features, unique benefits, and problems you’ll solve while using it.

Here’s how it works. After creating a product, look at your competitors and research how they promote them. Then, create your own content that differentiates your product from these other brands. Usually, the best approach is to show customers how your product will solve their problems and why your solution is better than other brands.

If you manage a service-based company (like HVAC, plumbing, etc.), you might not think product marketing is for you. However, these strategies work with services as well. For example, let’s say we manage a landscaping company and recently expanded our services to snowplowing. We can use product marketing like this ad to promote our service.

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Those who haven’t worked in marketing might assume all marketing is product marketing, right? However, that’s not the case. Here’s the difference:

• Product marketing focuses on one specific product — your overall marketing strategy should include much more than that.
• You can use marketing to promote your brand, an event, or a company’s mission statement. These are just a few other ways to leverage marketing campaigns.

Product marketing is essential because you’re competing against other products and services in your industry. How do you get yours to stand out? You promote it, and product marketing is the first step to ensure that happens. Let’s look at an example.

Product Marketing Example

Sephora, a popular beauty store, launched the “Beauty Uncomplicated” campaign to promote its new Sephora Collection. The Sephora Collection featured several products, including lipsticks, foundations, skincare, and more.

In the beauty industry, launching a new collection is complicated because it showcases multiple products simultaneously. However, Sephora brilliantly marketed this collection by developing a theme that spoke directly to consumers’ pain points – making make-up simple.

Below, you’ll see one of the ads featured everywhere — on billboards, magazines, online, and storefront displays.

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This ad was a simple introduction to the new collection. It showed the new product (the Sephora Collection) and created a message to help it stand out in its industry (simple, everyday make-up).

It also visually tied together different marketing channels, like its website. Below, you’ll see what Sephora featured on its homepage: a “Mad-Libs” marketing campaign that helped consumers discover different products.

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This campaign resonated with buyers because the underlined text would periodically change into different product advertisements. In this example, people who wanted a “matte lip” look could learn more about the cream lip stain. Sephora promoted each item in the collection like this while also showing customers the benefits of each product.

Now that we know what product marketing looks like, let’s review how to create an effective product marketing strategy for your small business.

1. Understand your target audience.

The first step for a great product marketing strategy is deeply understanding your target audience and defining what problem your product or service solves. Before promoting anything, you should know why buyers are interested in your product.

Here’s where market research can help. Buyer personas represent your ideal customers, and they’re created based on data from your CRM and your industry. With this information, you can determine why customers are interested in your product and use that information as a theme for your marketing campaigns.

Here’s an example of a buyer persona; this one is for a pet daycare service.

Let’s focus on the “Challenges” section. The second challenge reads, “She wants a daycare that doesn’t crate her dog.” That’s an opportunity for a small business. Our pet daycare center can advertise as a “crate-free” business to customers.

Action items for this strategy:

• Create your buyer personas.
• Write down why customers will be interested in your new product or service.

2. Position your product among competitors.

Now that you better understand your customer base, it’s time to examine your competitors. Below is a checklist to get you started.

Answer these questions about your competitors’ products and their marketing strategies:

What are the key features/benefits of their product?
How does their product differ from ours?
What is the main tagline for their product?

Now, think about your product and answer these questions:

Why did we make our product when so many others are on the market?
What makes ours different and stand out?
What does our product solve that our competitors don’t?
What are our product’s benefits as opposed to those of our competitors?

Now, write a positioning statement. A positioning statement is a short statement that describes what your product does and how it’s different than others on the market.

Let’s look at an example. Let’s say you’re an HVAC company that sells an eco-friendly HVAC system. Your positioning statement might look like this:

This statement showcases the benefits of our service (e.g., reduced energy consumption and lower carbon emissions) and states why this technology differs from those already on the market.

Action items for this strategy:

• Look how competitors market similar products.
• Answer why yours is better and different.
• Write a positioning statement.

3. Gather product information and create sales sheets.

Before you launch a new product or service, you should create a sales sheet to share with customers or business partners.

This sheet should include:

• The problem your product solves.
• Your positioning statement.
• The price.
• The product’s benefits.
• The product’s features.

A sales sheet will help you in future sales conversations. B2B companies use them to encourage potential buyers or partners to purchase their products. For example, here’s a sales sheet I created for a brewery in Boston.

Our sales team used them when traveling to new liquor stores and restaurants. Managers would read through the sales sheets and pick the beers they wanted to sell in their stores. Our team could use them as a handy sales tool to market our products and close deals.

Action item for this strategy:

• Create a sales sheet with important product information.

4. Pick your marketing channels and content.

With the research covered, now we can create content promoting our product. The best place to start is your marketing channels. You should choose the ones where your customers spend time, and your market research should identify those marketing channels, but here are a few common places to start:

• Websites
• Social Media
• Email Marketing
• Print Displays
• Online Ads
• Videos
• Customer Testimonials

You’ll likely use a combination of these channels, but I recommend starting with two or three. Business tools like marketing automation, social media management, and ad platforms will help you create content for these channels.

Now you have to decide what you’ll create. Here are a few ideas:

• Blogs about your product.
• Videos showcasing how to use the product.
• Photos of the product for social media.
• Testimonials from people who love your product.

This example from our social media team thanked our customers for helping Thryv get named a G2 leader for small business software.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Thryv | For Small Businesses (@getthryv)

Action items for this strategy:

• Choose at least two places to market your product.
• Create marketing content.

5. Create ads that promote your product.

The next step is to create ads that promote your product or service. You can publish print ads for billboards and mailers or use online methods like search engine marketing and social media.

I’d recommend creating and publishing image and video ads through your top sales channels. Think about where the majority of your sales come from. Is it online? Through your website? Through Google Maps? Word of mouth? Regardless, your best bet is to focus on publishing ads in those areas.

You can buy ads for:

• Google or any search engine (known as pay-per-click ads)
• Other websites (known as display ads)
• YouTube
• Any social media site
• Billboards
• TV
• Radio
• Direct mailers

Here’s an example of a display ad:

In this example, a MUD/WTR ad appears on another website I’m visiting. I’m a MUD/WTR customer, so this ad appears based on my previous experience with this brand.

Action items for this strategy:

• Decide your number one sales channel
• Create and publish ads

6. Include reviews and testimonials.

One of the best ways to sell your product is with reviews and testimonials. These are promotions from real customers who have had good experiences with your product. They might get early access to it, or you can use feedback collection tools to gather quotes and positive reviews about your business.

Once your product launches, keep track of positive reviews on sites like Google, Yelp, and your social media pages. Contact customers and ask if you can film them or if they can record a video testimonial. Then, turn that video into online ads for YouTube, social media, and your website.

Here’s an example of Thryv’s customer testimonial page:

Action items for this strategy:

• Give product to a few customers before launching
• Gather reviews
• Search for your best reviews or cases on a job after a product launch
• Ask customers if you can film or if they can send a video testimonial
• Promote as your new marketing material

Start Small Business Product Marketing Today

Product marketing is a great way to increase sales and create awareness around your products and services. When you market a new product, you need an effective strategy, and these tips can set you up for success when researching your audience and creating marketing content. If you have a strong plan in place, you’ll differentiate your product from other brands in your industry and create attention-grabbing messages that resonate with your customers.