What is Product Marketing Strategy?

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Strategy, strategy, strategy.

There are so many different names used for strategy — business, marketing, GTM, product — that it can be hard to understand exactly what is encompassed in each.

So what does the term “product marketing strategy” actually refer to?

Let’s start by revisiting What is Product Marketing:

Based on my definition of what is product marketing, the term “product marketing strategy” refers to the strategy that the product marketing team will be driving in order to drive business growth.

This will usually be a combination of four types of strategy: business strategy, marketing strategy, GTM (Go-to-market) strategy, and product strategy.

I write “product marketing strategy” in quotes here because the specific definition can be unique for each company since product marketing roles and responsibilities are often different at each company. Every company also uses different terminology for their specific strategies.

That said, “product marketing strategy” generally includes many of the following topics:

1. Business Performance Analysis — If your product is already in market, what is your evaluation of current business performance and the key areas for improvement that you need to address in your going forward strategy?
2. Market Trends — What are the key category and industry trends that are going to hurt or help your ability to drive business growth? How will you capitalize on tailwinds and how will you mitigate headwinds?
3. Business Opportunity — What is the size of the market opportunity you are capturing? The opportunity should be articulated in both a) customers and b) TAM (total addressable market — usually enumerated in revenue).
4. Segmentation and Targeting — What are the different types of customer segments in your potential customer base? Which group(s) are you pursuing as your target audience? Your target audience (primary/secondary/halo) will be the customer segments that find the most value in your product.
5. Key Customer Insights and Target Audience Personas — What are the demographic profiles, needs, motivations, and purchase influencers of your target audience? What are the key insights that will impact your positioning, product roadmap, and launch plan?
6. Competitive Analysis — What are the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors and how will you differentiate from them in both product and marketing? This often includes a full SWOT analysis, which articulates strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
7. Positioning — What is the key message you want to use in your marketing to reflect your differentiated benefits to customers?
8. Product Roadmap — What products and features will support your ability to deliver differentiated value to your target audiences?
9. Pricing and Packaging — How will your product be priced and how will it be offered to customers as either a part of or a standalone with your other product offerings?
10. Branding and Naming — What is the branding of your product and naming of key features (if applicable)?
11. Point of Sale or RTM (Route-to-market) strategy — How will you sell? Direct through an online website? Direct through a mobile app? Through a sales force?
12. Success Metrics — What KPIs will determine that you have been successful in growing the business? For Year 1? For Year 2?

Depending on your company’s Product Marketing definition, this may also be included:

Sometimes, a product marketing strategy may also include what is often the focus of the “marketing plan”, which is the outbound plan for executing the marketing strategy:

13. Channel marketing or GTM marketing plan — What marketing channels will you employ to get the word out about your product? Paid media? Social? Public relations? Influencers? Webinars? What are the initiatives for each channel? What is the scheduling of the initiatives/activities, and what does the messaging and creative look like?

Depending on the company, this marketing plan will be included in an overall strategy document or separately.

Regardless of how this information is presented, the elements of this product marketing strategy are critical for outlining the strategy for driving business growth — what great product marketing does.

What do you think? What’s included in the product marketing strategy at your company?

Read more:

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If you’re just starting out in product marketing or considering a career transition, check out my product marketing classes:

• Product Marketing Bootcamp class for new and aspiring marketers to learn the essentials of end-to-end strategic product marketing so they can launch with confidence. Learn more.
• Product Marketing Resume Boost is the only online course that teaches you how to tailor your resume specifically for product marketing manager roles. Learn more.