2024 ultimate guide to B2B product marketing
Most (87%) B2B buyers admit that the content they read online heavily influences their buying decisions (Demand Gen Report, 2022). You’ve just got to get the messaging right.
No pressure. 😅
So, when it comes to product marketing, there’s a simple formula to follow. Get to know your customer + create messaging that’s authentic (to relate and build trust) and solves their biggest problems.
And here’s something to think about: according to Gartner, companies nailing product marketing see a 20% uptick in keeping and growing their customer base (Gartner, 2022).
Despite all this, actually building effective product marketing plans is a little tricky. There’s a lot to consider and overlooking one element can cause entire campaigns to fail–and it may not be obvious why.
So, to give you the best chance of success, we’ve created this comprehensive guide. We’ll cover everything you need to make your product marketing strategies sharper and more effective… Whether you're a seasoned marketer or a CEO (and marketing isn’t usually in your remit).
Let’s get into it.
What is product marketing? Quick definition 🔍
Product marketing is when a business promotes its products (or services). The overall goal of product marketing is to make the value of a product clear. And make it resonate with target customers, compelling them to purchase it over alternatives.
When businesses focus on product marketing, they aren’t appealing to the masses (c.97% of the market)… They are targeting those who are ready to buy and weighing up their options (c.3%). They’re literally ready to push the button. 🔘
There’s research that backs this up. You can learn more about the 3:97 rule here 👇
📕 Innovate to win: transform your approach to B2B sales and marketing
Know your target audience: The basics of effective B2B product marketing
Without a deep understanding of the personas you're aiming to reach, building messaging that resonates and addresses unique challenges just isn’t going to happen.
And that’s where market research comes in. It's about understanding your competitors, keeping up with industry changes, and spotting trends that might influence your customers' choices.
Here’s what you need to do:
Competitor analysis: Look at what your competitors offer and how they communicate. Find ways to stand out.
Industry trends: Keep an eye on new regulations, technologies, and shifts that affect what your customers care about.
Customer interviews: Talk directly to your customers to understand their needs and how they make decisions.
Data analysis: Use customer data to spot patterns in how customers behave, what they buy, and who they are.
Once you’ve got a handle on the market, lasering in on personas helps shape positioning. For example, you can build fictional profiles of your ideal customers, covering:
✅Details like job role and company size.
✅What your customers aim to achieve and the obstacles they face.
✅How they decide on products–like who influences decisions.
✅The main problems they need solving.
✅Their preferred communication channels.
Just remember that this isn’t a one-off exercise. You’ll want to revisit this as customer needs and preferences change. This may be triggered by economic events or digital innovations, for example.
Positioning and differentiation: Standing out
To grab the attention of your target audience, you need a strategy that makes your product stand out–this is particularly the case for software providers where there are often many options to choose from.
Nailing your product positioning
Here, you need to identify the unique features and benefits that solve personas’ burning problems. It sounds simple but we tend to find businesses don’t laser in far enough on what makes them different–or try to appeal to too many so the message gets diluted and is less compelling.
So, here’s a quick checklist:
◽️Unique value proposition (UVP): State the main benefit your product offers that others don’t. (More on this later ⬇️)
◽️Target audience: Specify who your product is for. And if it appeals to multiple audiences, go through this checklist fresh for each audience.
◽️Competitive landscape: Look at how competitors portray themselves (e.g. on their blogs and socials) to find opportunities and gaps for differentiation.
◽️Product attributes: Detail the features and benefits that support your UVP.
◽️Brand perception: Think about things like tone of voice and use this across all channels (including the onboarding process and training collateral for consistency).
The bottom line: A clear positioning strategy makes it easy for your target audience to quickly grasp what your product does and why it matters to them.
Differentiating your product/service
Now, if you’ve high competition, differentiation is key. Just a word of advice: if you don’t face tough competition now, don’t get complacent. In areas like fintech, it’s quick and easy for new entrants to access the market so getting this right now future-proofs you.
Here are the ways to differentiate:
Unique features and capabilities: Highlight exclusive features that solve major problems for your audience.
Superior performance and quality: If your product performs better than others, make that a key part of your message. Provide metrics.
Industry-specific expertise: Show how your deep understanding of the industry shapes a product that meets its unique challenges.
Customer support and service: Promote your top-notch support and commitment to ongoing improvement.
Partnerships and software integrations: If your product integrates well with others or benefits from partnerships, showcase these as part of its value.
The bottom line: Highlighting the key differences up front makes it easier for potential customers to choose you.
Building your value proposition
Now, it's not a case of listing off the best bits to get attention. It’s about carefully creating a narrative, a story that makes you stand out. It excites them. Makes them emotionally connect with you. They need to feel compelled to invest in your solution.
There are several key ingredients to an engaging product story. We’ll start with the first interaction:
1. Burning bridge: Introduce the challenges, pain points, and obstacles faced by your target audience. This sets the stage for your product to be the hero that solves their problems.
2. Pivotal moment: Describe the turning point where your product enters the narrative, offering a solution that addresses the customer's specific needs and challenges.
3. Introduce real-world benefits: Case studies provide trustworthy and reliable examples of success. They act as proof points.
4. Build a human connection: Add emotion by highlighting how your product supports growth, or alleviates frustrations, creating an emotional resonance with your audience.
5. Tailor messaging: Different buyer personas will have different priorities, pain points, technical capabilities, and so on. So, while the narrative should be consistent, it will need tailoring.
For example: When communicating with C-suite executives, your product story might focus more on the high-level business impact, competitive advantages, and strategic vision. Whereas, when you speak to technical decision-makers, you may need to delve deeper into the specific features, capabilities, and technical specifications that address their concerns.
Let’s now look at the exciting stuff…
Content marketing and lead generation: Fueling sales pipelines
Content is like gold.🥇 Through educational, thought-provoking, and engaging content, companies can effectively nurture potential customers, establish industry authority, and ultimately drive product adoption.
In B2B marketing, it’s something–surprisingly–so few do. And even less do it right.
Working alongside product marketing, content marketing allows you to appeal to the entire market–the 3% ready to buy and the 97% that may not even be aware they’ve got a problem.
Here’s how:
Building brand awareness: Blog posts, whitepapers, and industry reports should be valuable, providing free advice to solve burning problems. This positions you as an expert, and a thought leader. People then seek your advice, share it and remember you when they are ready to buy.
Nurturing leads: When you use a mix of content–highly educational through to product promo–you can start by building trust and then nurture leads down the sales funnel (more on this here).
Showcasing product value: Case studies, success stories, and sales collateral (product-focused content) can highlight the real-world benefits and unique value proposition of your offering, reinforcing its relevance and effectiveness.
💡Sales collateral also makes it easier to sell products and services. There’s nothing worse than doing all this right and not having the correct sales support to follow up on leads.
Think customer engagement: Webinars, podcasts, and Q&A sessions create direct engagement with your audience, allowing you to address their specific concerns and gather valuable insights.
And like with your product marketing, content marketing should align with buyer personas.
Still on the fence about content marketing? This report should change your mind 📈
⏩Read the 2024 Edelman B2B thought leadership key takeaways here.
But it’s not just content that drives demand. It’s what you do with it that matters most. After all, if people don’t see it, it doesn’t have maximum impact. We’re talking about content distribution. As a minimum, you need content on all channels. To go beyond the basics, considering tactics like ABM allows you to personalise your marketing efforts and tailor your lead generation tactics to specific high-value accounts or decision-makers–increasing the likelihood of conversion and product adoption.
The bottom line? Ultimately, with content marketing, you can attract and support sales conversion.
But it doesn’t end there.
Tracking KPI and data-driven insights for continuous improvement
Success in B2B product marketing is not a one-off exercise. It’s an ongoing process if you aim to drive business growth. For this, you need to set key metrics and track them monthly. It’s not just key for growth–if you’ve got a board and investors to justify marketing spend to, then this is crucial.
So, what KPIs should you be tracking?
Must-have Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
KPIs should align with your business objectives, but also provide a comprehensive view of your product's performance across various stages of the customer journey.
Here are the base metrics to report on in B2B product marketing:
Lead generation and conversion metrics:
Website traffic
Content downloads
Form submission
Lead-to-opportunity conversion rates
Revenue and sales metrics:
Measure metrics such as sales-qualified leads (SQLs)
Pipeline value
Average deal size
Customer lifetime value (LTV) *This is an advanced metric*
Brand awareness and thought leadership metrics:
Social media engagement
Website authority / Google rankings
Plus, the metrics covered in lead generation ⬆
Product engagement and adoption metrics:
This one is a little more advanced and depends on your tech analytics capabilities:
Product usage data
Feature adoption rates
Customer retention rates
Net promoter scores (NPS) to assess customer engagement and satisfaction levels.
To monitor performance, you’ll need tools like marketing automation platforms, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, and product analytics platforms to capture and consolidate data from various sources.
Armed with data-driven insights, you can continuously optimise and refine your product marketing strategies to achieve better results. Such as using the insights to tweak:
Messaging and positioning: Refine your messaging and positioning based on customer feedback and engagement data.
Content and campaigns: Adjust your content and campaigns based on performance metrics to enhance their impact and engagement.
Targeting and segmentation: Use customer data to improve your targeting and segmentation, ensuring your marketing is tailored to specific buyer needs.
Customer experience: Improve customer interactions and support based on feedback and usage data.
Let’s round up with some best practices.
Staying ahead of the curve: Emerging trends and best practices in product marketing
B2B product marketing is always changing, thanks to new technologies, evolving customer expectations, and a very turbulent economy.
So, to keep up and stay competitive, here we’ve listed some of the latest trends and best practices (you’ll recognise some of them from earlier in this blog):
Key trends in B2B product marketing
Account-Based Marketing (ABM): ABM targets high-value accounts specifically, tailoring marketing to meet their unique needs and challenges. This focused approach helps deliver personalised experiences that engage key decision-makers effectively.
Personalisation and hyper-segmentation: Using customer data and advanced analytics, you can now personalise marketing more than ever. This lets you create detailed customer profiles and tailor your messages and campaigns to meet their specific needs and preferences.
Immersive and interactive experiences: Interactive demos are becoming popular tools for marketers. They help create engaging experiences that allow customers to see and interact with your products.
Partnering with industry bodies and thought leaders: This one is more for the thought leadership that accompanies your product marketing… Posting blog content, for example, on industry body’s websites (like Finextra) puts your content in front of your target audience via a trusted source. Plus, when you interview industry experts for content, you gain a new level of value for prospects and can tap into their networks too.
Integrating marketing and sales enablement: Aligning product marketing with sales enablement ensures that your sales team has what they need to successfully sell your products. This helps provide a consistent experience to your customers.
B2B product marketing best practices
Customer-centric approach: Understand your customers’ needs, challenges, and preferences deeply. Use this knowledge to guide your marketing strategies and keep collecting customer feedback to refine your approach.
Encourage team collaboration: Product marketing works best when there’s teamwork across departments—product management, sales, customer success, and marketing. Promote open communication and shared objectives to ensure everyone understands the product’s benefits.
Use data to guide decisions: Establish strong data collection and analysis practices to evaluate your marketing effectiveness. Use insights from this data to continuously improve your strategies and campaigns.
Remain flexible and ready to adapt: Market conditions can change quickly, so be ready to adjust your strategies based on new trends and customer feedback. Maintain an agile approach and encourage ongoing learning and innovation within your team.
Emphasise storytelling: Great product marketing relies on compelling stories that connect with your audience. Case studies are THE hottest form of content and easily allow you to tell real customer success stories–sharing your product’s value in engaging and understandable ways.
By staying updated with these trends and following these best practices, you can boost your product marketing efforts and create better customer experiences–not only attracting ideal customers but also supporting retention and cross-selling.
Your next steps
We’ve covered quite a bit of ground in this blog. Hopefully, you’ve found the advice useful. We’ve plenty of additional guidance on our website. Here are some blogs selected specifically for you:
If you need support with B2B product marketing, we’re just an email away. Email kerry@rooandeve.com or becca@rooandeve.com.