From Strategy to Execution: The 10 Commandments of B2B Product Marketing

In the competitive world that B2B Product Marketers (PMMs) live in, having a strong strategy and execution plan is crucial for success. From defining your target market to developing compelling content, from sales enablement to competitive intel, there are many important steps to take in order to effectively promote your product. Here are my 10 commandments for PMMs that want to succeed in their jobs:

Commandment 1: Understand The Problem Your Product Is Solving

The first commandment of the B2B PMM is to understand the problem your product is solving. I am surprised to see that many PMMs can’t articulate the problem that their product solves. When asked about the problem, they immediately explain how the product solves it. But that is a huge mistake. You must dive deep to understand what exactly is the problem that needs to be solved? How was it done so far? Are there alternatives to solving it? (Don’t forget that doing nothing is also an alternative). What is the cost of the problem and the different alternatives? If you can’t articulate the problem, how can you know who it affects or why they would care?

Commandment 2: Know Your Audience

The second commandment of B2B PMMs is to properly define and understand your target market. This involves researching your ideal customer profile (ICP) - what type of companies are most likely to need your solution? What size are they? Do they belong to a specific vertical? Or Geo? What do they have in common?

Then you must also understand the personas that may be involved in the process (not just the buyer persona, but also influencers and gatekeepers): What are their responsibilities? What are their pain points? What influences their decisions? and why should your product or service be a priority for them?

By knowing your audience, you can tailor your marketing efforts to effectively reach and engage them.

Commandment 3: Focus on the Customer

The third commandment is to put the customer's needs first in all marketing efforts. This means creating messaging and content that addresses their pain points and communicates the unique value of your product in solving their problems.

Nobody cares about the cool technology your company developed, or the new features you introduced (well, that’s not accurate, some will, but they probably aren’t the decision makers). B2B companies need to justify investments in new technologies and the best justification will be either cost saving or improved operational efficiency (or both). Focus your efforts on showing your potential customers how much your solution can help.

Commandment 4: Develop a Strong Value Proposition

The fourth commandment is to communicate the unique value of your product to potential customers. This requires you not only to understand the problem you’re solving, and the customers you are solving it for, but also understand the alternatives available in the market, and how your solution differs from them. Make sure to research competitors in the market and understand their value proposition. Don’t forget to interview potential customers and ask them - ‘How are you addressing this today?’. In some cases the answer can be ‘we do this manually’ or even ‘we don’t do anything’. Doing things manually, or ignoring the problem all together, will also come at a cost.

After you understand all the alternatives, and the impact (or cost) to your customers, develop a strong value proposition that clearly and concisely communicates what your product does and why it is different and better than any alternative solution.

Commandment 5: Create Compelling Content

The fifth commandment is to produce high-quality, relevant content to engage your audience. This includes creating blog posts, whitepapers, videos, and other materials that provide value and establish your company as an expert and thought leader in the industry.

Here are a number of important benefits of creating compelling content:

• Drives traffic to your website or social media platforms: When people find your content interesting or helpful, they are more likely to share it with their friends and followers, which can increase your reach.

• Builds trust with your audience: When businesses provide valuable information or insights, they establish themselves as experts in their field. This can lead to increased credibility and trust with potential customers.

• Generates leads for your business: By providing valuable information or insights, you can attract potential customers who are interested in what you have to offer. You can then use this opportunity to convert them into customers.

• Improves your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts: When you create high-quality content that is optimized for search engines, it can help your website rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). This can lead to increased visibility and traffic to your website.

• It is a cost-effective marketing strategy: While it does require an investment of time and resources, it is generally less expensive than traditional advertising methods like print ads or TV commercials. However, that is also changing quickly thanks to AI tools that can help with content creation.

Commandment 6: Utilize Effective Marketing Events and Channels

As part of your ICP and persona research, you need to find out where your target audience goes to do their research, where they get educated and how they network. This will help you identify the most effective events that your company should participate in, and the most effective marketing channels to utilize to reach your target market. This includes utilizing social media, email marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), and other tactics to effectively reach and engage potential customers.

Commandment 7: Work Closely with Your Product Team

The seventh commandment is to work closely and collaborate with your product team. The collaboration between product marketers and the product team is essential for any successful product launch or feature launch, as well as for ongoing field support. By working closely together, not only can you ensure that the product is accurately positioned, and marketed to the right audience, but also share valuable feedback from sales, analysts, and other sources, to continually improve your efforts to meet customer needs.

Commandment 8: Collaborate with Sales

The eighth commandment is to work closely with the sales team to ensure they are enabled with the right training and sales tools to succeed in their role. Sales enablement is one of the most important responsibilities of B2B PMMs. Without proper training and sales tools, the great messaging you’ve created will stay at the corporate level and never reach the field. Sales executives that don’t have the right training and sales tools will struggle to explain to potential customers what value your solution can provide and closing deals will be more difficult and expensive.

Closed collaboration with sales will benefit both sides. Sales will know they have an ally that can provide them and information and tools they need. They will be more proactive, reach out to the PMMs in request for assistance. In return, by working closely with sales and getting their feedback, PMMs can better understand customer needs and preferences and tailor marketing efforts accordingly.

Commandment 9: Stay Agile

The ninth commandment is to remain flexible and adapt your strategy as needed. In the fast-paced world of B2B marketing, it is important to stay agile and pivot quickly to stay ahead of the competition.

This means that you need to constantly research the market, find out about new trends, and new concerns that potential customers might be interested in. Listen to your competitors, what are they talking about, what are they announcing. Stay ahead of the game - you don’t want to be surprised by any changes in the market that will require you to change your strategy at the last minute.

Commandment 10: Never Stop Learning

The tenth and final commandment is to continuously improve your skills and knowledge. As a B2B PMM you are expected to be a subject matter expert (SME). Your sales and marketing teams are counting on your expertise and knowledge of the market to help them get the answers they need. This requires you to always stay up-to-date with industry trends and best practices, attend conferences and events, and seek out new learning opportunities.

To Dummarize:

The 10 commandments of B2B PMMs highlight the important things you need to do to succeed in your role as a PMM. By understanding the problem your product solves, knowing your audience and what they care about, focusing on the value to your customer, developing a strong value proposition, creating compelling content, utilizing effective events and marketing channels, collaborating with product and sales, staying agile, and never stopping learning, you can effectively promote your product and achieve success in your role

Have I missed anything? Are there other things you would recommend that PMMs do? Let me know in the comments.