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
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#inbound2013
An Inbound Marketer’s Guide to Product MarketingHow marketers can improve the top line with product content and sales enablement tools.
Rick Burnes
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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
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1 What Is Inbound Product Marketing?
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“Don’t talk about the product.”David Meerman ScottInbound Marketing Godfather
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HubSpot’s early growth was fueled by its inbound marketing story, not its product story.
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Here’s the problem with that ...
Answers to ‘What does HubSpot Sell?’
Survey conducted in November 2011.
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No Product Knowledge
Deep Product Knowledge
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No Product Knowledge
Deep Product Knowledge
No Product Knowledge
No Product Knowledge
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What’s HubSpot?
SEO
Website
Social Media
Blogging
Landing Pages
Lead Manageme
nt
Email Marketing
Marketing Automation
Marketing Analytics
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So we started to do product marketing.
Product
content.
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Great product marketing is a great product story.
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It’s told through product launches and sales enablement.
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And in an inbound world, it’s driven by content & data.
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2 The Starting Point: Your Buyer Persona
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Who are you writing your product story for?
Image: Kadient marketing team, via David Meerman Scott.
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• 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
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To teach the persona, have new hires write case studies.
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Once you know your buyer, map their journey to your company.
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Once you know your buyer, map their journey to your company.
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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.
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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?
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Use Sources to See How Buyers Find You
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Use Conversion Assists to See Buyers’ Influences
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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.
+
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3 7 Steps Needed to Nail a Product Launch
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1. The story clarifies
2. It has reach3. It sells
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Let’s look at 7 steps to executing a product launch effectively.
Flickr Photo: SeanJCPhoto
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• 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
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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
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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
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It’s easy to forget case studies. Don’t.
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Polish product content.
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Step #4. Setup a launch war room.
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• 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
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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
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If you’re launching via a big presentation, do an internal dry-run.
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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.
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How do you know if you’ve been successful?
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1. Did the story clarify?
2. Did it get reach?
3. Did it sell?
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Does your persona understand your product and its positioning?
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Bounce Rate Is a Signal of Comprehension
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Was your message amplified by on-message third-party content?
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Did your launch generate a bump in coverage of your product?
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Did you generate good leads from launch-related offers?
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Are more customers using the new products?
Share of customers using HubSpot’s Salesforce.com connector, by cohort.
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4 4 Pieces of the Sales Enablement Foundation
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Why sales enablement?
Launches drive awareness here
Sales takes over here …… but there’s a lot marketing
can do to make sales more productive.
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Sales Yield: % of leads worked by sales that convert to customers.
More productive = higher sales yield.
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“Could you write this
email to my
prospect.”
A Typical Sales Enablement Pitfall
But of course!
Not Scalable
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Thank you. I looked
at one of them.
Another Typical Sales Enablement Pitfall
Sir, I created 100 PowerPoint decks for
you.
Waste of Time
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Let’s look at 4 pieces of a strong sales enablement foundation.
Flickr Photo: Martin Lopatka
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• 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
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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
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Are your key content assets being used?
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Throw Out Your Demo Decks
Website content is richer, and you control the story.
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Are there survey tools you can create?
HubSpot’s 40-question assessment tool has a 25% close rate vs. 9% for all worked opportunities.
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Make sure your happy customers are creating content, too.
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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
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When you create internal forums, reps answer their own questions.
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Measure the Content Your Reps Are Using
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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
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Publish Results So Reps Take Quizzes Seriously
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How do you know it’s working?
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Percentage of the Reps Who Demo’d Specific Apps
Measure What Your Reps Are Selling
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Did you improve sales yield?
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5 Final Thought
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Great product marketing is a great product story.
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But your ability to tell that story depends on big assumptions that may be out of your control.
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What can an individual do to ensure success?
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Work at a company you believe in.
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Thank You.Questions?