an inbound marketer's guide to product marketing
DESCRIPTION
A tactical guide to product marketing in an inbound world. The presentation covers best practices for buyer personas, buyer's journeys, product launches and sales enablement.TRANSCRIPT
#inbound2013
An Inbound Marketer’s Guide to Product MarketingHow marketers can improve the top line with product content and sales enablement tools.
Rick Burnes
1 What is Inbound Product Marketing?
2 The Starting Point: Your Buyer Persona
3 7 Steps Needed to Nail a Product Launch
4 4 Pieces of the Sales Enablement Foundation
1 What Is Inbound Product Marketing?
“Don’t talk about the product.”David Meerman ScottInbound Marketing Godfather
HubSpot’s early growth was fueled by its inbound marketing story, not its product story.
Here’s the problem with that ...
Answers to ‘What does HubSpot Sell?’
Survey conducted in November 2011.
No Product Knowledge
Deep Product Knowledge
No Product Knowledge
Deep Product Knowledge
No Product Knowledge
No Product Knowledge
What’s HubSpot?
SEO
Website
Social Media
Blogging
Landing Pages
Lead Manageme
nt
Email Marketing
Marketing Automation
Marketing Analytics
So we started to do product marketing.
Product
content.
Great product marketing is a great product story.
It’s told through product launches and sales enablement.
And in an inbound world, it’s driven by content & data.
2 The Starting Point: Your Buyer Persona
Who are you writing your product story for?
Image: Kadient marketing team, via David Meerman Scott.
• Formalize your persona
profile in internal
documents
• Follow your customers
home
• Collect assets and
documents they use
• Conduct win/loss
interviews
• Conduct user testing
• Keep updating the profile
Buyer Persona Tips
To teach the persona, have new hires write case studies.
Once you know your buyer, map their journey to your company.
Once you know your buyer, map their journey to your company.
Step #1: Find the Right Interview Subjects
50% From Your Funnel
50% Not From Your Funnel LinkedIn
Groups, social networks, and PPC can all work.
Closed won and lost deals are usually best.
Step #2: Interview to Document the Path
Forks: Which ebooks did she read? Who did she talk to?
Routes: What steps did she take to make a decision?
Use Sources to See How Buyers Find You
Use Conversion Assists to See Buyers’ Influences
Step #3: Share and Implement
Framework Route-Level Data
Fork-Level Data
Brand Awareness Search Searched for “small business heathcare plans”
Triggering Event Executive identifies need.
Board decides to improve benefits.
Research & Evaluation
Product research via content.
Downloaded pdf of healthcare services.
Decision Contract signed. Negotiated for security and consulting exceptions.
A T
ypic
al Jo
urn
ey
Core knowledge
for your team.
Guide for launch
and enablement priorities.
+
3 7 Steps Needed to Nail a Product Launch
1. The story clarifies
2. It has reach3. It sells
Let’s look at 7 steps to executing a product launch effectively.
Flickr Photo: SeanJCPhoto
• Sit in on product testing
• Test your messaging
• Use social networks + Amazon gift
cards to get participants
• Keep testing lightweight
• Participate in the beta program
(encourage development of one if
you don’t have one)
Step #1: Product Research
Flickr Photo: Barack Obama
Important information to spell out early
on:
• Elevator pitch
• Target audience
• User benefits (problems it solves)
• Key features
• Competitive positioning &
differentiation
Step #2: Spell Out the Story
Focus on the buyer’s journey, e.g.:
• ‘What is [Your Company]?’ video
• ‘What is [Your Company]?’ page
• Launch video (what’s new?)
• Product web pages
• Product deck for sales
• Case studies
• Related top-of-the funnel content
Step #3: Start Creating Your Content
Make the audience forget you’re pitching them.
It’s easy to forget case studies. Don’t.
Polish product content.
Step #4. Setup a launch war room.
• Who’s most likely to create content
about your launch? Maybe:– Partners– Customers– Analysts– Influencers
• Create content and resources that
make it easy for them to write
about your product.
• Create sample or template blog
articles.
Step #5: Engage Your Community Pre-Launch
Step 1: Create an exclusive sales
beta program staffed with top-
performing reps.
Step 2: Work with top reps to identify
and create key sales collateral for
launch.
Step 3: Train the rest of the team
based on what you’ve learned in
steps #1 & #2.
Step #6: Prepare Your Sales Team
If you’re launching via a big presentation, do an internal dry-run.
Step #7: Spell Out a Launch Plan
*Directly Responsible Individuals, a concept HubSpot borrowed from Apple.
Create a document that spells out the plan minute-by-minute, with DRIs* for each action.
How do you know if you’ve been successful?
1. Did the story clarify?
2. Did it get reach?
3. Did it sell?
Does your persona understand your product and its positioning?
Bounce Rate Is a Signal of Comprehension
Was your message amplified by on-message third-party content?
Did your launch generate a bump in coverage of your product?
Did you generate good leads from launch-related offers?
Are more customers using the new products?
Share of customers using HubSpot’s Salesforce.com connector, by cohort.
4 4 Pieces of the Sales Enablement Foundation
Why sales enablement?
Launches drive awareness here
Sales takes over here …… but there’s a lot marketing
can do to make sales more productive.
Sales Yield: % of leads worked by sales that convert to customers.
More productive = higher sales yield.
“Could you write this
email to my
prospect.”
A Typical Sales Enablement Pitfall
But of course!
Not Scalable
Thank you. I looked
at one of them.
Another Typical Sales Enablement Pitfall
Sir, I created 100 PowerPoint decks for
you.
Waste of Time
Let’s look at 4 pieces of a strong sales enablement foundation.
Flickr Photo: Martin Lopatka
• What is the sales process?
– What are the steps in the sales process?
– What’s the best process for training?
– How do you hold reps and managers
accountable for learning?
• What is the product story?
– Who are you selling to?
– What is the value?
#1 Push for Sales/Marketing Alignment
Flickr Photo: QUEEN YUNA
Create content to answer common
questions, in a scalable way:
• What is it?
• How is it different?
• How much does it cost?
• Your most frequent objections.
#2 Focus on Content for the Buyer’s Journey
Are your key content assets being used?
Throw Out Your Demo Decks
Website content is richer, and you control the story.
Are there survey tools you can create?
HubSpot’s 40-question assessment tool has a 25% close rate vs. 9% for all worked opportunities.
Make sure your happy customers are creating content, too.
Some channels that can work well:
• Internal wiki (eg, Confluence)
• Inside the CRM (eg Salesforce,
Chatter)
• Sales ideas site
• Q&A forum
• Internal meetings
• Webinars (large teams)
#3 Build Effective Communication Channels
When you create internal forums, reps answer their own questions.
Measure the Content Your Reps Are Using
Possible elements of a scalable
training:
• Use multiple channels
• Regular product quizzes
• Wiki pages with Q&A forums
• Manager-driven assessments
• Certifications
#4 Create Scalable Product Training
Publish Results So Reps Take Quizzes Seriously
How do you know it’s working?
Percentage of the Reps Who Demo’d Specific Apps
Measure What Your Reps Are Selling
Did you improve sales yield?
5 Final Thought
Great product marketing is a great product story.
But your ability to tell that story depends on big assumptions that may be out of your control.
What can an individual do to ensure success?
Work at a company you believe in.
Thank You.Questions?