As a product manager, you’re probably focused on building cool features, improving user experience, and making sure everything on your roadmap is running smoothly. But let’s be real—no matter how awesome your product is, it’s not going to sell itself. That’s where marketing comes in.
Even if you’re not a marketer, learning to think like one can take your product to the next level. Here’s how you can start flexing those marketing muscles, even if you’re more of a product person at heart.
1. Understand Your Audience on a Deeper Level
Sure, you’re already solving problems for your users, but marketing is about more than just solutions. It’s about figuring out what really makes your audience tick—what they care about, what motivates them, and why they choose your product over others.
Go beyond basic customer personas and dig into what drives your users. What are their pain points, but also, what excites them? Once you get that, you can use it to shape both your product and the messaging around it.
2. Talk About Benefits, Not Just Features
You probably know every feature of your product inside and out. But guess what? Most customers don’t care about all the technical stuff. What they do care about is how your product makes their life better or easier.
Focus on the outcome. Instead of rattling off features, talk about how your product solves problems, saves time, or helps users achieve their goals. That’s the kind of messaging that sticks.
3. Tell a Story
Marketers know how to tell a story that gets people interested. You can do the same. Instead of just listing features, tell a compelling story about how your product came to be, why it matters, and how it changes things for your users.
Build a simple narrative. Maybe it’s about a customer who overcame a challenge using your product, or the journey your team took to create a solution to a tough problem. People remember stories, so use them to make your product relatable.
4. Create a Feedback Loop
Good marketing is all about adapting based on feedback, and as a product person, you’ve got tons of direct access to user insights. Whether through customer support, analytics, or conversations with sales, you’re sitting on a goldmine of information that can help improve both the product and the marketing strategy.
Share customer insights with your marketing team regularly. Let them know what’s working, what users love, and where the pain points are. This way, marketing campaigns can focus on what truly matters to customers.
5. Think About the Buyer’s Journey
Marketers don’t just think about the product—they think about the entire process a customer goes through before deciding to buy. It’s called the buyer’s journey, and as a product person, understanding this can help you see where your product fits in each stage of that journey.
Work with marketing to figure out what users need at each stage—whether they’re just learning about your product, comparing options, or ready to make a decision. This helps you build better features and create more targeted messaging.
6. Use Data to Drive Decisions
Marketers are obsessed with data, and so are you—just in different ways. You’re tracking user behavior, feature engagement, and product usage, while they’re looking at conversions, click-through rates, and campaign performance. When you combine both, you get a full picture.
Share your product data with the marketing team and vice versa. If you notice a feature is driving a lot of engagement, that’s something marketing can use to build campaigns around. Data-driven insights will lead to stronger marketing and product decisions.
7. Team Up for Product Launches
A product launch is a big deal, and it’s not just about getting the features right. How you introduce the product to the world matters just as much. Marketers know how to create buzz and excitement, so you need to be on the same page when launching something new.
Collaborate with marketing early on in the process. Make sure the messaging around the launch matches the product’s strengths. Highlight the key benefits, and be clear about what makes your product stand out. A great launch combines both good product and strong marketing.
8. Keep an Eye on Competitors
Marketers are always checking out the competition to see what’s working and where there’s room for improvement. As a product person, you can do the same. Keeping tabs on your competitors helps you see what you can do better and how to position your product in a way that stands out.
Regularly look at what your competitors are doing. Are they adding new features? Running interesting marketing campaigns? Use that info to tweak your product and your messaging to highlight what makes yours the better choice.
Wrap-up
You don’t need to be a marketing expert to make an impact, but thinking like one can give your product a huge boost. It’s all about shifting your perspective—seeing your product not just as a list of features, but as something that delivers value to people’s lives.
By learning some marketing basics and teaming up with your marketing crew, you’ll have everything you need to take your product from good to great. After all, even the best products need a little help getting noticed!
[Featured image from freepik.com]