Product marketing strategy seems to baffle a lot of newcomers to the marketing world. Many young marketers have that ambitious, just- graduated, out-of-school mentality that they must grab the bull by the horns and run with it. This is a mistake, but when you’re new to marketing, and are surrounded by superficial advertising and competitive campaigns (with no explanation as to how they came to be); it’s an easy enough mistake to make.

But, you need to slow down. You need to plan. Successful marketers have to develop a marketing strategy; this involves knowing what information to take from the pre-marketing phases (product creation phase), how to approach people, how to analyze your demographic and how to communicate in effective ways. Marketers maximize all the resources at their disposal.

That said, I want to talk about five basic tips for planning your strategy – before you launch any marketing campaigns or product lifecycles.

#1 – Limit Negative Feedback

During the initial testing stages of a product, it’s important to be open and share ideas, even if the ideas are ‘not great.’ An environment that is open and free of intimidation can create the greatest brainstorming opportunities. Constructive criticism is important but it’s more important to know when negative feedback stops being constructive and starts turning ugly. This is especially pertinent to the early stages of product marketing, when the sky is the limit.

#2 – Understanding Human Nature

Remember that people are human. This is a critical fact; People are emotional creatures who respond via emotions, such as empathy, excitement, happiness and fear. Use emotion in your marketing. This is a well-documented marketing strategy for reaching your audience. Make them laugh, mystify them, show them injustice, spread a heartfelt message of love…anything that elicits emotion will have an impact.

#3 – Know Your Demographic

Building upon the previous point, you must know how your demographic thinks. Get inside their heads, and imagine how they will react to any given ad. Will it make them laugh, intrigue them, get them hooked on your product? It does not matter if it affects your staff and designers; it needs to click with your demographic.

#4 – Use Social Media

Social media has really taken off, and it’s become ubiquitous in all walks of life. Social Media applications are varied and diverse, which means that you can target all types of demographics by simply using a specific type of platforms for a specific demographic. Harnessing social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Tumbler – to put your information out there – is effective for engaging local and foreign customers.

#5 – Incentives

Provide incentives for trying your product or even for just recommending it. This is an old tactic, but just because it’s old does not mean it doesn’t work, so learn from successful businesses who have come before you and who have harnessed the power of customer rewards. It may sound like an overhead nightmare at first, but when you realize the results it may achieve, it’s well worth it.

I hope the 5 tips above have provided some insight into the word of product marketing strategy. I will discuss more product marketing strategy tips in the future, so keep checking in for more updates!