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.
HomeRoots Pitch Deck | Investor Insights | April 2024
An Inbound Marketer's Guide to Product Marketing
1. #inbound2013
An Inbound Marketer’s
Guide to Product Marketing
How marketers can improve the top line
with product content and sales
enablement tools.
Rick Burnes
2. 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
16. Who are you
writing your
product story
for?
Image: Kadient marketing team, via David Meerman Scott.
17. • 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
19. Once you know your
buyer, map their
journey to your
company.
20. Once you know your
buyer, map their
journey to your
company.
21. 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.
22. 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?
25. 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.
ATypicalJourney
Core
knowledge for
your team.
Guide for
launch
and enablement
priorities.
+
29. Let‟s look at 7 steps to
executing a product
launch effectively.
Flickr Photo: SeanJCPhoto
30. • 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
31. 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
32. 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
37. • 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
38. 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
40. 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.
50. Why sales enablement?
Launches drive
awareness here
Sales takes over here …
… but there‟s a lot marketing can
do to make sales more
productive.
51. Sales Yield: % of leads worked by sales that convert to customers.
More productive = higher sales
yield.
52. “Could you write this
email to my prospect.”
A Typical Sales Enablement Pitfall
But of course!
53. Thank you. I looked at
one of them.
Another Typical Sales Enablement Pitfall
Sir, I created 100
PowerPoint decks for you.
54. Let‟s look at 4 pieces
of a strong sales
enablement
foundation.
Flickr Photo: Martin Lopatka
55. • 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
56. 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
61. Some channels that can work well:
• Internal wiki (eg, Confluence)
• Inside the CRM (eg Salesforce, Chatter)
• Sales ideas site
• Q&A forum
• Email
• Internal meetings
• Webinars (large teams)
#3 Build Effective Communication Channels
64. 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