Product Marketing Made Practical

By Jerry Rackley

Here at Demand Metric, we regularly talk to members that come to us with a similar sounding request: help us put together a marketing strategy. This is work we relish; so don’t think for a minute that we’re complaining about these requests. In fact, keep them coming!

What we’ve learned is that the term “marketing strategy” has different meanings. For some, they really do want help developing a marketing strategy that is based on core values and the corporate vision, a strategy that defines the philosophy and culture of marketing. No problem, we’ve got you covered here.

Others who seek guidance with marketing strategy really are looking for help with a marketing communications plan. The marcom plan is important but not the same as the marketing strategy. We’ve written about the importance of the marcom plan before, and our marcom planning methodology is still one of the most sought after pieces of content in our resource library. So important, in fact, that the first training course we offered in DM University teaches how to build a marketing communications plan. Once again, we have your back on this.

There’s another meaning of “marketing strategy” that we often encounter: a product marketing plan. We hear of this when a company needs to help a product succeed in the market. All three types of plans or strategies are needed. They fit together well across a strategic spectrum, where the Strategy, as expected is on the strategic side, the Marcom plan more on the tactical side and the Product Marketing Plan somewhere in the middle:

For those seeking help marketing products, Demand Metric has just launched a new product marketing training course to DM University that leads you through the process of creating a product marketing plan. This course includes six video modules, ranging in length from 10 to 50 minutes, each expanding on the stages of the Demand Metric Product Marketing Plan Methodology. At the end of each video module is a four or five question assessment.

Our goal with this course is to help you:

• Understand the steps in the product marketing process.
• Adapt proven "best practices" to develop your plan.
• Complete the analysis and planning activities efficiently and effectively.

The course offering includes video instruction and access to 28 tools and templates to create outputs that are the components of your product marketing plan. Access is free for all Analyst and Executive members, or is available for purchase through the DM Store. If product marketing is your need, we invite you to visit the course page and preview the eight-minute introductory video.