A complete guide to ToB product operation and promotion

Product promotion can be divided into new function promotion and new product promotion. There is a big difference between the two in terms of scale and issues to be considered. Since most of the time there are far fewer new products than new features, and the promotion of new products is too complicated for novices, in the first article we will start from the promotion of new features to explore the core responsibilities of a PMM in product promotion.

01 Introduction

"Product Promotion" is a required course for product marketing managers.

Compared with traditional software, the core difference between SaaS products is the rapid update of new products. Agile development processes are commonly used in SaaS companies, and a sprint cycle is often one week or two weeks.

The failure of product features or even product lines may be caused not only by problems with the product itself, but also by incorrect product promotion rhythm and strategy:

• A common mistake made by early products is blindly pursuing commercialization, which leads to an accumulation of demand, and they start to add new features without even considering improving product performance. In the end, the positioning of the core user group of the product will become increasingly out of focus, and the product functions will become spread out.
• Common mistakes made when developing new product features - lack of extensive and objective research, being led by one or two big customers, and developing features that don't match the core user group, which leads to a waste of development resources and no one buying the new features.
• A common mistake in product feature iteration is to blindly push the new version to the market without sufficient grayscale customer verification. After wasting promotion resources, it is discovered that the feature is useless and cannot be rolled back. It cannot be sold and is left there as a thorn in everyone's side.

The above problems are just examples. In actual work, the problems caused by product promotion rhythm and strategy are far more than that. It's hard to say that it's the PM or sales (sales always brings back a lot of customer demands) who are at fault, it's just that a role is missing in the product development process - product marketing.

The core responsibility of PMM is to serve as a bridge between products and the market - ensuring the launch rhythm of new products/new functions, formulating reasonable promotion strategies, and coordinating product development directions are all important responsibilities of PMM in the process of launching new products.

Product promotion can be divided into new function promotion and new product promotion. There is a big difference between the two in terms of scale and issues to be considered.

Since most of the time there are far fewer new products than new features, and the promotion of new products is too complicated for novices, in the first article we will start from the promotion of new features to explore the core responsibilities of a PMM in product promotion.

02 Why do we need to promote new features?

To explain it in terms of user life cycle:

• For users before making a purchase, the promotion of product features can attract the attention of new customers . If the value of the feature can impress them, it will undoubtedly add a lot of impression points. Some features can even lead to signups directly.
• For after-sales users, product function promotion can encourage old customers to become active . Basically, any action to increase user stickiness will contribute to renewal.
• From a branding perspective, a product that is frequently updated and iterated often gives people the impression that it is full of vitality and that the company is on the rise. During client visits, I have heard clients say more than once: "I often see your product updates, which means you are developing very fast ." The subtext is "Even if you are not satisfied with certain functions at the moment, there is hope that you will be satisfied with them in the future." This is such a rare trust.

03 How to promote products

I summarize the process of function promotion into the following keywords:

1. Get involved early
2. Customer Perspective
3. Function Rating
4. Tell a good story
5. Make a good strategy
6. Collect feedback

3.1 Intervene early

How early? Before the product PRD comes out!

If someone has no PMM experience, they will subconsciously think that product promotion is a step that is carried out after the function is launched or simultaneously.

In fact, product promotion should be involved before the PRD goes online, because once the PRD is written, you will not be able to participate in the product strategy. At this time, the PMM will completely become a mere promotion manager.

When you read some articles, they will tell you that PMM should be fully involved in every update of the product and every step of the product launch. This is of course an ideal situation, but it is difficult to implement in actual promotion because the input-output ratio is too low.

You simply don't have the energy to follow so many functions and steps. In my personal experience, PMM only needs to participate at some key points, pay more attention, ask more about the progress and stay well-informed.

• Product planning stage : The product manager will plan the product plan quarterly/monthly. Participate in this stage to understand which functions will be included in the next stage and which functions are the key ones that need to be followed up, so as to be targeted.
• PRD review stage: The PRD stage determines the framework of the product. Participate in it to understand the design ideas of the product, put forward opinions from the perspective of the market, and participate in discussions.
• Customer grayscale stage: What is the effect after the product is launched? Clues can be foreseen in the gray stage. Understand the real usage scenarios of the product, collect cases and testimonials, and you will be at ease during the promotion process.

3.2 Customer Perspective

When it comes to product updates, the focus should be on “product” rather than “update”. Because users don’t care what the product has updated, they only care about what value the feature brings.

Throughout the entire process, PMM's thinking logic should be based on the user's perspective and be value-oriented.

3.3 Functional Rating

Why do we need to do functional rating? Because product function updates can take many forms. Big functions, small functions, new functions, completing old functions...it is difficult to produce good results if every function is promoted, or promoted based on feeling. Even the product manager can't agree with you.

As a PMM, the first thing you need to do is to have a clear understanding of the product roadmap. The value of this function to product development is very clear. Corresponding to different functions, we can determine the scale and timing of marketing. Since product function promotion is a routine job, the model can be fixed and a function scoring table can be used to distinguish product functions.

To explain it in simple terms, perhaps we can divide the levels of product feature promotion into the following categories:

• The "informing type" is best combined with some small gameplay, or directly use lightweight gameplay such as monthly reports.
• "Small scene type" updates some small functions and introduces a small scene.
• "Large Scenario Type" A set of large scenario solutions with multiple promotion methods running in parallel.
• The "concept type" will have a series of actions to follow, first occupying the peak of the concept, with concepts first and functions later. It requires the entire marketing department to work together, mobilize various resources, and conduct department-level campaigns.

Functional rating requires the formulation of some standards based on product form and company processes, and also requires discussion based on one's own experience to come up with intuitive opinions. The two are combined to develop promotion plans and strategies for different levels of functions.

3.4 Tell a good story

The essence of marketing is storytelling, and the same is true for product promotion.

When telling a story, you need elements such as time, place, and characters. When it comes to product promotion, it is the upper-level information of the product, which needs to include the following:

• Customer Profile
• Customer pain points
• Competitive product analysis
• slogan（core value）
• Value Description
• Customer Scenario

The upper-level information of the product includes but is not limited to the above.

To complete the extraction of this high-level information, a lot of communication and research work is required. Understand the product's design ideas, user scenarios, and market information, and also conduct a lot of user research.

The value of this information is to level the entire company's understanding of product features. Let colleagues in sales, marketing, pre-sales and after-sales have a deep understanding of product information, so that they can accurately convey information in their subsequent work with customers and the market.

Before promoting, you need to understand who the users are and where they will appear. This information can answer this question.

3.5 Make a good strategy

The promotion strategy is a set of combined punches. It does not necessarily have to be large in scale, but the whole thing must be complete.

Each supporting process from preheating, publicity, conversion, lead acquisition, etc. is indispensable. Although the number of users may be small, the marketing actions must be strong enough.

Any marketing activity should be systematic and have a settled process. If we regard user traffic as water, we should dig a canal to continuously generate traffic and conversions to irrigate revenue. Instead of carrying water with a shoulder pole, if you don't carry it, it will be gone.

The entire promotion process roughly includes: obtaining leads in the market - landing page conversion - SDR (telemarketing) value delivery - sales signing - after-sales service. The conversion process can be optimized by monitoring with data analysis and revising the product design.

At the same time, marketing promotion needs to consider more issues, such as:

• How can we let more target users see our high-quality content and promotional information?
• How to make the conversion process better?
• How to make SDR and sales value delivery more efficient?

3.6 Collect feedback

If user feedback is good enough, you can build on your success. If user feedback is not good, it is also necessary to review the situation in a timely manner. Find out whether the problem is a promotion strategy problem or a product problem. Optimize in a timely manner.

04 Function promotion is more internal

According to past experience, customers' explosive growth and purchasing period are often 3-6 months after product promotion. Why is this?

For sales: not noticing feature updates, not caring, not understanding , and therefore not being proactive enough in the sales pitch. This is a reflection of the inadequate delivery of product value.

At the same time, it may also be that they don’t understand the product. It takes time for the salesperson to understand the function and value and learn how to operate the product. Since the salesperson cannot fully grasp it, he or she will naturally not be in a hurry to sell to customers.

In addition, more than 90% of the first batch of customers brought by publicity will not easily pay:

• Because the publicity only brings interested people, not necessarily real customers.
• New products have just been launched and may not be mature, and customers may not fully trust them.

Therefore, it is normal to give sales and customers a certain amount of education and observation time. How to shorten this time is the value of product promotion within the company.

There is no need to rush this process, as there is definitely a time lag between marketing promotion and sales. Market promotion comes first, occupying the position first and winning the market opportunity. The second is to give the market a certain amount of time to receive education and establish trust management.

05 Some small suggestions

(1) Regarding timeliness

Timeliness can be considered from two aspects. One is the timeliness within the enterprise. Is it necessary to promote a function after it is launched? Not necessarily, because new features often have certain risks, such as many bugs, customer value not effectively verified, insufficient accumulation of customer cases/scenario materials, and lack of persuasiveness in promotion.

Back to the original point, the core of promotion is the product, not the "update", so you don't have to worry about the timeliness. On the other hand, timeliness may include timeliness outside the enterprise. The homogeneity of modern products is often very serious. The introduction of new functions is nothing more than a race with competitors. Timely launch of products that can occupy the minds of customers and ensure product stability can be achieved through slow iteration with the MVP version.

(2) Boundaries and integration with product managers

Product managers/operations should be responsible for the activity within the product, while marketing is about attracting new users, targeting potential users and users in conversion. But product managers can help the market with training, ensure the accuracy of content, and even output content.

(3) What is the ultimate goal of promotion?

Each department likes to focus on itself. In fact, sales are the core of the company. It doesn't mean that everything is based on the needs of the sales department. Instead, all strategies and tactics are centered on selling products.

The market is the air force, after-sales service is the guarantee, and sales are the ground force for attacking tough problems. And winning the war (winning the order) is the core goal. The market, products and R&D all need to have a sales mindset and combine it with one's own job to ultimately achieve victory.

The above is just the tip of the iceberg on the topic of feature promotion. The differences in product form and target groups have a huge impact on ToB products, and the same set of theories may not be applicable to all of them.

This article is just a starting point. I hope you can leave me a message in the comment section for more tips and insights.

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Author: Yuan Lin

Source: Yuan Lin