Key elements of Product Marketing Strategy – Messaging

3 Pillars of Marketing on a Product Strategy FoundationSpreading your message far and wide is certainly a key part of a successful online marketing plan – for an SMB / small business or a large business; to promote a new product or existing products.

With a huge variety of message distribution/ advertising options, it is easy to get immersed in tactics – instead of exploring ways to maximize your effectiveness with a sharp messaging strategy and plan.

As presented in the strategic marketing blueprint write-ups on our home page, strategy-driven online marketing that delivers results, is a lot more than promotional / advertising tactics – though the latter is often confused as "marketing".  With that, let’s take a closer look at …

Understanding and applying the power of Messaging

What are the benefits of compelling and effective messaging?

What are the critical ingredients of a successful messaging strategy?

Understanding message development vs. message distribution

 

MESSAGING
Improved Messaging
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Key marketing messages

  • Strategic Creation
  • Core ideas & themes
  • Buying stages + roles
  • Efficient Distribution
  • Formats + channels

 

Healthy outcomes

Good marketing messages help to attract, convert, and engage your customers – developing a positive relationship from the initial awareness stage through purchase to post-purchase satisfaction and referrals.

Successful companies use messaging effectively to build and reinforce their brand – addressing the communications priorities described in the branding strategy section. It is also about building and nurturing a relationship with your customer base.

From healthy ingredients

There are many tools and platforms for distributing and monitoring marketing communications these days – reaching different audiences with much-touted efficiency.

Strategic marketing professionals recognize that the effectiveness of these marketing communications efforts is driven by the quality of the vital ingredients –

  • a clear definition of the target audience
  • a set of key marketing messages.

Key marketing messages

These key marketing messages convey the core ideas and themes that are shaped by business analysis and marketing strategy.

These key messages are then fleshed out in different forms depending on the medium (from a brief tweet to a longer article in a well read magazine or blog) and target audience.

3 Pillars of Marketing on a Product Strategy Foundation

Key strategic inputs

Crafting the core marketing messages for a product or company requires a judicious integration of insights – insights that come from a solid understanding of:

  • Customers needs & attributes
  • Buying process & buyer roles
  • Competitors & alternatives
  • Branding goals
  • Product benefits & value

Areas spanning all the foundational elements of strategy, hence the term “big picture.”

Message conception vs. production + distribution

It is quite common to focus energies on the message production and distribution aspects (the Promotion part of the 4 Ps of the good old marketing mix). And then measure "success" by tracking the quantity of channels and communication pieces (tweets, articles, ads etc.). Or by the quality of message design (visual / layout, language, graphics, etc.)

What gets overlooked is the strategic process of message conception – which requires good insights from marketing analysis combined with creativity and marketing savvy.

Strategy vs. Tactics

The focus of Promotion / Advertising / PR Tactics is on getting attractively crafted messages distributed to large numbers in an efficient manner. That is a necessary step. However, to get to that point, Communications Strategy tackles the hard underlying questions – what does it take to influence your target audience with the right message (content) at the right step in their buying process – with a good knowledge of the buyer’s situation, options, and alternatives.

Investing in strategic marketing helps you achieve sustained results over the long term. That does not happen by using promotion tactics by themselves. Recognizing that takes good judgment and strong leadership – to not get overly swayed by fads and hype – especially from all the vendor-driven excitement surrounding new tools that automate the delivery and monitoring of these messages.

It is good to remember the saying, activity is not the same as results! And that, efficiency becomes irrelevant when there are basic issues that hinder effectiveness.

Getting there

Companies that have achieved high growth in a consistent manner over time, recognize the great value / ROI of creating the underlying foundation. They invest in ongoing strategic analysis to identify and refine core communication themes & target segments – to continually strengthen their brand, reputation, market share.

Ready to get started on that path?

 

An innovation-focused, strategic marketing consultant can help you uncover opportunities for growth and innovation – sharpening your product strategy & communications strategy to boost your brand, sales, and market share.

Contact us today to set up an initial call to discuss your business goals & online marketing needs – and how we can partner together to achieve them.

 

 

 

 

View these additional key elements of Marketing Strategy

NEXT SECTION

How to examine your market and competitive environment — for lessons, insights, strategic opportunities for business growth

Once we see the power and interconnectedness of these key components of strategic online marketing, we can focus on an effective, sharp approach to achieving marketing and sales goals.

In the section titled Marketing Analysis, you can scan helpful overviews of the four areas of marketing analysis. These high-level summaries illustrate how these key marketing analysis activities build the foundation for your online marketing strategy. The Strategic Marketing Analysis page presents the challenges as well as the great opportunities in each area – whether you are a small business, SMB, or a large organization.

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Drop me a line when you wish to partner with a sharp, creative thinker & strategist, an objective sounding board, to help you solidify your brand, marketing communications / messaging, and product innovation efforts.

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Auri Biswas

MBA, Duke University

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Marketing Strategy & Innovation

  • Big-4 Management Consulting firm experience
  • Fortune 500 and other leading global corporations
  • As well as SMB, small business, entrepreneurial startups.

 

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