How to Create a Product Marketing Strategy: A Step-by-Step Guide

Launching a product is exciting. But doing it without a solid plan is like launching a rocket into space without a destination.

You need a strong product marketing strategy to ensure your product lands right where it needs to be—in the hands of your ideal customers.

In this guide, we’ll show you a step-by-step process to build a product marketing strategy that drives demand, boosts sales, and contributes to long-term success.

What Is a Product Marketing Strategy?

A product marketing strategy is a roadmap that outlines how you will market and sell your product. It guides your efforts throughout the product life cycle—from product development to launch and beyond. It also helps you figure out how to keep improving and selling your product over time. 

Product marketing acts as a bridge between product, marketing, sales, and support operations.

This visual shows how product marketing helps these teams.

A product marketing manager works with each of these departments to: 

• Guide product development based on market research
• Create a go-to-market strategy—how you’ll price, position, promote, and sell your product to the target audience
• Extract insights from customer feedback data to improve product features and user experience
• Develop sales enablement assets to help sales teams clearly communicate product benefits
• Track product performance and market trends to optimize strategies and hit sales goals

And more. 

A successful product marketing strategy is built on the foundation of extensive market research. Which includes an in-depth analysis of your market, audience, and competitors.

8 Steps to a Successful Product Marketing Strategy

To better understand the process of building a product marketing strategy, we’ll take a hypothetical business case.

Let’s say you’re planning to launch a fitness tracker band called “BioTrack.” (We’ll stick to this example through all the steps.)

Here’s a breakdown of the process:

Step 1. Start with Market Research

Market research helps you avoid biases and assumptions. And make decisions based on the data collected from your actual customers.

It involves two types of research: primary and secondary research. 

Let’s go over both.

Primary Research

Primary research is about directly reaching out to your target audience and getting first-hand insights into your research objectives. 

Use qualitative or quantitative methods (or both) for your primary research. 

• Qualitative research gives you descriptive data such as individual opinions, experiences, or sentiments. Some popular qualitative methods include in-depth interviews, focus groups, and case studies. 

For example, if you want to explore how the market perceives your product, use qualitative research methods. Like interviews or focus groups.

• Quantitative research offers numerical data you can use to test hypotheses, identify patterns, and generalize results to a broader audience. Some common quantitative methods are surveys, experiments, and correlational research. 

For instance, conduct a survey to measure customer satisfaction levels. And analyze the data to find common trends.

Secondary Research

Secondary research refers to using existing third-party data from studies conducted by others. This method is usually more cost-effective and quicker compared to primary research. 

Get this data from sources like:

• Industry reports: Studies or reports published by market research firms like Gartner, Forrester, and Nielsen. They provide insights on market trends, forecasts, and competitive landscapes. 
• Government records: Publicly available data gathered by government agencies such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or the U.S. Census Bureau.They can provide demographic, economic, and industry-specific information. 
• Academic sources: Educational institutions tend to have huge datasets (compiled from primary research) on multiple industries. You can approach them to access this data. You can also dive into business journals of publications like Elsevier, Springer, and Sage.

By combining your findings from primary and secondary research, you’ll get a thorough understanding of your target market, customer needs, and competitive landscape.

Here’s what a typical market research plan would look like for our example:

Step 2. Identify Your Ideal Customers

Next, define who your ideal customers are. This helps you create a product and marketing strategy that directly addresses their specific needs.

And come up with relevant product marketing ideas.

Here’s how to identify your ideal buyers:

Audience Research

Start by answering the below questions about your audience:

Demographics:

• What is their age range?
• Where do they live (geographic location, urban/rural)?
• What is their educational background and income level?

Needs and pain points:

• What problem does my product or service solve for them?
• What are their frustrations related to this problem?
• What are their goals or aspirations?

Media consumption:

• What platforms do they use to find information (websites, social media platforms, magazines, etc.)?
• What type of content do they consume (articles, videos, podcasts, etc.)?
• What influencers or celebrities do they follow?

Buying habits:

• How do they typically make buying decisions (impulse buying, research-driven, brand loyalty)?
• What are the common objections they might have to buying my product?
• What is their preferred buying method (online, in-store, etc.)?

Psychographics:

• What are their values, interests, and lifestyles?
• What are their hobbies or passions?
• What motivates them to make decisions?

Answering these questions will help you develop a clear picture of your ideal customer.

Conduct customer interviews or focus group discussions to get qualitative data. Such as their aspirations, challenges, or objections to buy your product. 

And use Semrush’s One2Target tool to get quantitative data like demographics, media preferences, and behavior. 

Here’s how:

Launch the tool and enter a competitor’s domain. (Fitbit would be an ideal competitor for our example.) Then, select your target location and hit the “Analyze” button.

You’ll be taken to the “Demographics” report. 

At the top, you’ll find the age and gender distribution of your audience. Below that, you’ll see insights on average monthly visitors to the site. And the countries they come from. 

The age groups “25-34” and “45-54” have maximum share in the traffic. And nearly 53% of the audience are female. Also, the highest share of traffic comes from the U.S. 

Use this data to tailor your marketing campaigns to your audience’s demographics.

Now, click the “Socioeconomics” tab to find insights like average household size, income level, education, and employment status. 

This information will come in handy when deciding your pricing strategy. 

For example, nearly 90% of our target audience falls into middle- and low-income groups. They might be more price-sensitive and responsive to budget-friendly options.

Next, head to the “Behavior” tab. 

Here, you’ll see audience preferences. Such as their interests, devices they use to browse the internet, and preferred social media platforms.

This data will help you decide the marketing channels and content formats for your marketing campaigns. 

For instance, our audience primarily uses Facebook and YouTube for social media. So, prioritize these channels when running product launch campaigns. 

Customer Segmentation and Buyer Personas

Once you have the customer data, segment your audience into different groups. Based on their shared characteristics—demographics, psychographics, location, etc. 

Here are some of the most common types of customer segmentations:

Based on the audience segments, create buyer personas—fictional representations of your ideal customers. 

These personas help your product marketing team (and all other stakeholders) better understand your customer needs. And effectively position your product.

A buyer persona for our example would look something like this:

Use Semrush Persona—our free buyer persona builder—to create your persona documents.

Further reading: Target Audience: What It Is & How to Find Yours [+ Examples]

Step 3. Conduct Competitive Analysis

Competitive analysis is the process of researching your competitors to gain insights that will help your business thrive. It lets you understand their strengths and weaknesses. And develop strategies to outperform them.

The first step is to identify three main categories of competitors:

• Primary competitors: They target the same audience as you with very similar product offerings. Fitbit, Garmin, and Whoop are good examples of affordable fitness trackers. And can be considered primary competitors for our example brand BioTrack.
• Secondary competitors: They offer similar products but target a different market segment or geographic area. For example, Apple Watch and Google Pixel Watch are high-end smartwatches. Which can also be used as fitness trackers. But they target different customer segments.
• Tertiary competitors: They target similar audiences, but they don’t sell similar products. For example, Gymshark (fitness apparel brand) and Lucozade (energy drink). They also target fitness enthusiasts. But with different products. 

Now, let’s analyze these competitors. 

Start with studying their websites. Check the types of tracker products they sell and how they position them. Also, analyze their prices. To understand their pricing strategies. 

For instance, Fitbit sells several models of fitness bands. 

And it positions them as devices that improve users’ fitness journeys and help them live healthier lives. 

Now, let’s learn about their online presence and marketing strategies. 

Find this data quickly and easily with Semrush’s Market Explorer.

Open the tool and enter competitors’ websites. Then, select the location, name your list (optional), and hit “Create and analyze.”

You’ll see the “Market Summary”—a high-level overview of your selected competitors. Which includes market insights like total traffic, the cost of traffic, and market size. 

On the left, you’ll find their website traffic share. 

Head to the “Benchmarking” tab. At the top, you’ll see their website traffic trends. 

Below that, find their traffic sources and social media distribution. 

The main source of traffic is “’Direct”—users visit the website by typing its URL directly. Which means people remember these brand names.

This could mean they’re focusing more on branding and traditional marketing. 

The second highest traffic source is organic search. Which means they also have a robust SEO and content strategy in place. 

This data can help you decide on your marketing channels. 

Step 4. Define Your Value Proposition, Positioning, and Messaging

Defining your product’s value proposition, positioning, and messaging helps in communicating what makes your product different. 

And why customers should choose it over your competitors. 

In short: They inform your product’s key benefits and unique selling points to your target audience. 

Value Proposition

Your value proposition statement tells the audience how your product solves their specific problem. The benefits they can expect. And the main reason to choose your product over competing ones.

Here’s an example of BioTrack’s value proposition based on the above framework:

“BioTrack provides real-time, accurate health and fitness tracking, personalized insights powered by AI, and seamless integration with your favorite fitness apps, helping you achieve your health goals effortlessly and effectively.”

Now, let’s understand positioning.

Positioning Statement

Your positioning statement shows the unique space your product occupies in the market. And in the minds of your target customers. 

It differentiates your product from competitors and aligns with your value proposition.

Here’s how Whoop positions itself—a wearable that only tracks metrics with a significant impact on your health and fitness. 

Similarly, a positioning statement for our example brand could be:

“BioTrack is a fitness tracker for health-conscious people and fitness enthusiasts, providing advanced health metrics and AI-driven personalized insights. Unlike other fitness trackers, BioTrack offers superior accuracy, ease of use, and seamless app integration, all in a sleek, durable design.”

Messaging Framework

A messaging framework helps you ensure that all communications reflect your brand’s positioning and value proposition. 

A product messaging framework typically includes:

• Core message or top-level statement: A snappy headline or tagline that captures the essence of your product’s value proposition
• Messaging pillars or supporting messages: Detailed points that elaborate on the core message. And highlight specific features and benefits.
• Proof points: Data, reviews, testimonials, or case studies that support your claims

Here’s how it looks in action:

This is what a messaging framework would look like in our hypothetical business case:

Step 5. Decide on a Pricing Strategy

Pricing is a tricky (but crucial) aspect of a product marketing strategy. 

If you charge too high, customers may not be able to afford your product. And if you keep it too low, your profit margins will take a hit. 

So, you need to adopt a pricing strategy that helps position your product competitively. And maximize profitability. 

Some popular pricing strategies include:

• Value-based pricing: Setting the price based on the customer’s perceived value of your product. This strategy requires a deep understanding of your customers’ needs. And how much they’re willing to pay for the benefits your product offers.
• Competition-based pricing: Setting the price based on what competitors are charging for similar products. Decide whether to price your product lower, higher, or the same as competitors.
• Cost-plus pricing: Adding a markup to the cost of a product to determine its selling price. This strategy ensures you cover your costs. And achieve the desired profit margin.
• Penetration pricing: Setting a low price to enter the market and attract customers quickly. Once you gain market share, you gradually increase the price.
• Skimming pricing: Charging the highest price for the new or latest product. And then lower the price over time as successor products launch. For instance, when Apple launches new models of iPhones or MacBooks, it charges the highest prices for them. And reduces the prices of older variants.

Let’s look at the key advantages and disadvantages of these pricing strategies: 

Considering the pros and cons of these pricing strategies, we’ll take a hybrid pricing approach for BioTrack:

Start with penetration pricing to build a customer base. Then, transition to value-based pricing once the product becomes popular and has an established customer base. 

Step 6. Plan Your Go-to-Market Strategy

A go-to-market strategy is a roadmap for launching a new product into the market. It outlines the steps you’ll take to reach your target audience, generate interest, and drive sales.

These are the key aspects of a go-to-market strategy:

Go-to-Market Objectives

Define clear goals for your product launch and promotion. These objectives will guide your strategy and help you track progress.

Your goals can include metrics like:

• Sales: Set revenue or unit sales goals for specific time frames (e.g., sell 10,000 units or generate $1 million in revenue within the first six months)
• Customer acquisition: Set goals for the number of new customers or users (e.g., acquire 5,000 new customers within the first quarter)
• Brand awareness: Metrics like site traffic, social media reach, or engagement (e.g., drive 100,000 unique visitors to website within the first three months)
• Market share: Aim to capture a certain percentage of the market (e.g., capture 5% market share within the first year of launch)

Marketing, Sales, and Distribution Channels

Shortlist your main marketing, sales, and distribution channels from audience research data (Step 2). 

Here’s how to approach this:

• Marketing channels: Check where your audience spends time online and offline (social media, email, etc.). And how competitors reach them.
• Sales channels: Analyze your audience’s buying preferences (direct sales, self-service) and customize your approach for different customer segments
• Distribution channels: Discover how your audience wants to receive your product (online, stores) and see where competitors are selling.

Here’s an example of a brief go-to-market plan for BioTrack:

Step 7. Develop a Product Launch Plan

Finally, create a launch plan to introduce your product to the market.

It requires a detailed planning of pre-launch, launch, and post-launch activities to drive awareness, engagement, and sales.

Here’s how to plan for the launch.

Pre-launch activities:

• Create excitement about your product through social media campaigns, press releases, or influencer partnerships
• Ensure your website or online store is ready to process orders. And your sales teams are well-equipped with the right training and sales enablement assets.
• Prepare your support team to address any questions customers may have about the new product
• Confirm you have sufficient inventory (for physical products) and that distribution channels are ready for the launch

Launch day activities:

• Execute your product launch, monitor performance in real time, and be prepared to make adjustments if needed
• Engage with your audience. Respond to customer inquiries and feedback on social media and other channels.

Post-launch activities:

• Continue your marketing and sales efforts
• Track key metrics such as sales figures, website traffic, and social media engagement to measure the success of your launch
• Gather customer feedback through surveys, interviews, and online reviews. To understand the customer experience and identify areas for improvement.

Here’s the product launch plan for our example:

Further reading: 15 Creative Product Launch Ideas to Ignite Your Brand’s Growth

Step 8. Optimize Your Product Marketing Strategy

A well-rounded product marketing strategy extends beyond a successful product launch. 

You need to keep refining your strategy based on product performance, customer feedback, and market changes. To continue driving demand and sales of your product. 

Here’s what to do:

• Track key metrics like sales, revenue growth, customer acquisition cost (CAC), customer lifetime value (CLV), and engagement rates to measure marketing effectiveness
• Regularly collect feedback from your customers to learn about their experience with your product. And identify areas for improvement.
• Stay informed about industry trends, competitor activities, and market shifts. Use this information to improve your strategy and stay competitive.
• Adjust your pricing, content, and promotion strategies based on your performance metrics, customer feedback, and market analysis

This way, you quickly adapt to changing market dynamics. And have a competitive advantage. 

What Are the Benefits of a Product Marketing Strategy?

A product marketing strategy guides your product from conception to the hands of your customers.

It helps you:

• Align product offerings with customer expectations: To build an effective product marketing strategy, you need to thoroughly understand your target audience’s demographics, needs, and challenges. This helps you develop a product that solves their specific problems.
• Reach your ideal customers with targeted messaging: Audience research data allows you to tailor your messaging to directly address their pain points. And position your product as an ideal solution. It also helps you identify the right channels to reach your ideal customers.
• Create and communicate product differentiation: The market research also involves a deep dive into competitive analysis. This helps you differentiate your product from competitors. And communicate its unique benefits to your target audience.
• Empower your sales team: Product marketers develop resources that help your sales team understand target audience, product features, and key messaging. So they can customize their sales pitches to resonate with potential customers.
• Plan for long-term success: A product marketing strategy considers the entire product lifecycle. This allows you to plan for future growth, identify improvement opportunities based on customer feedback, and ensure that product stays relevant in the market.

In short, a product marketing strategy helps you identify the relevant customer problems to solve and reach them with tailored solutions. And achieve your business goals.

However, product marketing is not a silver bullet.

A marketing strategy works only when you have a genuinely good product and a defined audience having a problem your product solves. 

Stay on Top of Your Product Marketing Game

Product marketing is a process of constant iteration and improvement. 

You need to be on top of the changing market dynamics, customer preferences, and competitor strategies.

This requires ongoing research and analysis. Which is both challenging and time-consuming.

Get instant market overview, track market shifts, and identify emerging trends with Market Explorer. Then, use other Semrush intelligent marketing tools to monitor and refine your approach. 

Start today with a free Semrush account.