- The fourth phase of the product development life cycle is delivery. And as much as we like to believe that if we build it, customers will come, the world doesn't typically work that way.
- Product marketing is an incredibly important part of the product development life cycle, and really begins after we built the solution.
- This phase of the life cycle is where we launch our product, sharing it with the world, and letting our customers know how our product will help them.
- This phase of the product development life cycle, it's more than just messaging though. We'll also plan for the product's release. Release might involve planning a beta test, creating marketing assets for a website or ad, or working with key partners before the release, briefing the press, planning a launch event.
- The exact needs will vary from launch to launch. Now there are more options than ever. What is typical in marketing is on the left-hand side of the chart with interruption marketing where we are essentially interrupting the customer's flow of activity in order to get their attention. It's advertising.
- It's pop-up ads, it is social media ads, and things of that nature.What we find is that increasingly these are responsible for less than 10% of clicks on the web. But there's a higher average cost to acquire new customers in this way.
- But it's really powered by how big your budget is, and that the costs remain generally the same with scale. There is no economies of scales, so to speak. And firstly, an emerging area in recent years is in inbound marketing on the right-hand side. Where you're earning attention organically without interrupting anyone's path.
- Now, historically this has largely been word of mouth, and word of mouth is excellent if it happens and if it's positive. But it's hard to plan predicting control. Viral marketing is sometimes to your advantage, or it could be negative, pending the message and the content.What we found with these inbound marketing strategies is that they are responsible for over 90% of clicks on the web.
- There's a far lower average cost to acquire a new customer.It's powered not solely by budget, but by your creativity, your talent, your effort. And it generates momentum (quán tính), making future efforts easier, and branding and promoting your company and your product. In the sharing phase, you wanna emphasize four things to your target customers.
+ The first is the benefits, not the features.
+ The second is the capabilities. What can a customer achieve? Not the technology or the technical specifications.
+ Third, how are you different? How is your product unique? What can I do better with your product versus existing competing solutions
+ And lastly, the value proposition. Don't forget the need to communicate how your product will solve the customer's problem.
- This phase is done when the product is launched, but there will likely be many marketing campaigns and tasks to help achieve the product's success metrics beyond the launch. Marketing will continue even while the team internally has moved on to the next version of the product, or to a completely different product.
