Business Building

By the time Robinhood launched, it had already gained almost a million users. 

The stock-trading company called out one of the biggest trading pain points (fees) in their tagline: “$0 commission stock trading. Stop paying up to $10 for every trade.”

Then they used a waiting-list product launch model to create excitement and FOMO while giving them access to beta-model feedback ahead of launch.

Robinhood’s messaging aimed at the right audience, at the right time and place, is what gained them a million subscribers before they even launched. It’s also a prime example of successful product marketing.

In this article, you’ll learn how to strengthen new product development with product marketing so you can deliver on customer needs.

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In 2015, chiefmartec.com reported a “staggering” 1,876 SaaS vendors. In 2020, there were over 8,000. That’s some serious growth.

Drift’s CEO, Dave Cancel, says there are three phases to every industry:

  1. The Edison phase, where companies are innovating and everything is new;
  2. The Model-T phase, where companies are improving early versions, and it’s easy to stand out because you’re one of the first, and;
  3. The P&G phase, where you have to find a way to be the top 1% in a saturated market either by becoming a massive global brand or a leader in your niche.

SaaS is in the final phase. It’s now winner-take-all.

Product marketing gives you the edge to compete in this hyper-crowded market—and win. It helps you pinpoint the unique positioning and messaging that builds an emotional moat around your brand.

In this article, you’ll learn how to design an effective product marketing strategy that propels your brand to that top 1%.

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Product lifecycle marketing

The classic graph for the product lifecycle is a sales curve that progresses through stages:

  • a sharp rise from the x-axis as a product transitions from the Introduction to the Growth phase;
  • a sustained, rounded peak in Maturity;
  • and a gradual Decline that portends its withdrawal from the market.

Each stage of the product lifecycle has implications for marketing. But an MBA-friendly curve rarely translates to reality. The goal of product lifecycle marketing is not to match the curve but to outline what may work best now and plan for the future.

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When WordStream began receiving complaints that the seven-day free trial of their PPC management software wasn’t long enough, the brand decided to A/B test 14-day and 30-day trials.

The results? Prospect trial to conversion rates fell with the longer trials.

WordStream confirmed that seven days was plenty of trial time, and they didn’t need to waste resources chasing customers down a longer funnel. 

No changes were made to the customer journey, and it had nothing to do with revenue lift. Yet, this was a successful growth marketing campaign. 

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Founded in 2015, revenue intelligence startup Gong is now valued at $7.25 billion. They’ve grown to attract big-name clients like LinkedIn, PayPal, and Shopify, mostly through social media channels rather than organic search.

Gong is an excellent example of a company dedicated to finding the best content marketing fit and delivering insights that resonate in formats that engage.

In this article, you’ll learn how to use social media brand marketing to build a well-known brand and grow your business.

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Brand Marketing vs Product Marketing Article Header

In 2018, after two short years and $3 million raised in startup funds, recruitment AI company Ansaro shut down due to bad market fit. As it turned out, their AI interview notetaker didn’t address a huge pain point.

Muun found a market need but failed to compete with bigger names that provided customers with authoritative content and resources. Muun’s more well-known competitors had more features and better pricing.

Both companies suffered from a fatal lack of marketing. One neglected its positioning by failing to target the biggest pain point, and the other failed to build a brand that its customers could trust above the other major players. 

To succeed in today’s crowded market, you need to harmonize product marketing and brand marketing.

In this article, you’ll learn the difference between brand marketing and product marketing, and how to balance both to stand out above the crowd.

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79% of consumers trust an online review as much as they would a recommendation from a friend.

And 94% of shoppers state that just one bad review has convinced them not to buy from a company.

Reputation management is the practice of actively influencing what people think of your brand and what they see others saying about your company when they look online.

In this guide, we’ll discuss how to implement a brand reputation management strategy, use personal branding to develop a good reputation, and protect your company from developing a negative one.

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Top Product Marketers Header

Product marketing is today’s most critical marketing function. And yet, it’s unfamiliar and confusing to many. The best way to think about it: product marketing is strategy.

Product marketers work to understand the market and what motivates customers. They choose the market segments to target. They determine what attributes the product needs to win against the competition. They design an effective go-to-market plan along with the required positioning and messaging.

In this article, we brought together 17 of the best product marketers from companies like Gong, Privy, HighSpot and Vanguard (most of them are your instructors in CXL’s Product Marketing Minidegree) and asked them for their best advice for those who want to rise through the ranks of the most in-demand marketing role today.

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The marketing and sales funnel is a time-tested framework for mapping the customer journey.

However, with every new technology, channel, and distraction served up by the internet, that journey becomes less linear, and the traditional funnel becomes less relevant. 

In the current landscape, to successfully guide a person from prospect to customer, you need to think about their behavior and deliver marketing that fits their needs at every stage of the funnel.

In this article, you’ll learn how to do just that. We’ll look at how to use the marketing funnel as a model for your content, how users behave throughout their journey, and what it takes to inspire action. 

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The classic lifespan of successful products is a story in four parts:

  1. Introduction
  2. Growth
  3. Maturity
  4. Decline

How this story plays out has a lot to do with the type of product and how it’s improved over time, if at all.

However, the shape of the curve—the length of the arc and the speed of the decline—is also determined by how you market that product at each stage of its life. 

In this article, we’ll look at the different stages of the product lifecycle through the lens of marketing. You’ll learn about the different strategies available and the impact they’ll have on the future of your product.

(Want to learn more about product marketing? Take the Product Marketing Certification Training program).

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AI agents for B2B marketing

Automate content, SEO, and ads. Add buyer strategy, content funnels, apps, and AI readiness.

This program is designed to keep you up-to-date with B2B marketing and AI.

Check out the program