How Product Managers Can Maximize Marketing

Product Managers Need To Find Effective Ways To Capture More Customers
Product Managers Need To Find Effective Ways To Capture More Customers

In order to have a successful product, you need to convince people to buy your product in the first place. We like to call this marketing. The problem is that lots of money can be spent on marketing with no real apparent return on the investment. Let’s take a look at what product managers should NOT be doing…

Mistake: Assuming that in order for your product to be successful, it will need to be differentiated from its competition.

Different? Why bother? Sure if you are selling iPhones this is probably the case, but then how many of us are doing that? Nope, more often than not there is somebody in your product category that has got it all figured out. If there is no way that they can serve the whole market, then go ahead and copy them – you’ll pick up the customers that they miss.

Mistake: Using promotions.

Don’t let sales talk you into this one. Promotions have been shown to attract folks who won’t remain long term customers and you end up just giving your steady customers a discount on something that they would have bought anyway.

Mistake: You must go out and capture new customers.

Yeah – back in the 1980’s. Nowadays the shoe is on the other foot, what you really want to have happen is to have your customers show up and capture you. This means that the role of the product manger is to make sure that your customers can find your product and that when they do, you respond to them in  a way that causes them to buy.

Are you still making any of these marketing mistakes? Is your product differentiated from its competition? Do you run promotions? Can your customers find you easily? Leave me a comment and let me know what you are thinking.