In hopes to endure the tumultuous times of the global COVID-19 pandemic, companies have been doubling up on brand and product innovation. However, re-inventing and improving your product is only the beginning. Businesses looking to attract larger clients need to publicise and market their innovative products or newly introduced features.
Following up on my last article about brand marketing v.s feature marketing, I wanted to get more insights from my peers. So I’ve reached out to some of the best marketing professionals out there and here is what 8 marketing executives from top international companies had to say about product Feature Marketing.
Invest in Personalization
“Marketing effectiveness will require increasing levels of personalization through multi-modal campaigns that engage your target market buyers in the places they are most likely to respond,” says Benjamin Lazar VP Marketing at Net Health. Doing your due diligence to make sure your messages will effectively reach your audience is key for successful Feature Marketing.
“There are two rules of thumb every marketer should follow: personalize to help and keep things in context. The first increases relevancy and can be achieved by segmenting customers based on their usage and expertise, tailoring the message and presentation for each group. The second will ensure customers receive the marketing message when it is most useful, maximizing its impact,” explains Rony Vexelman, Director of product marketing at Optimove.
Foster an Emotional connection
A great way for keeping consumers engaged with your product is cultivating an emotional connection, a commitment if you will.
“Marketing has always been about Art & Science. Today, those things are very different then they were a few short years ago. […] As such, marketers need to meet the consumer where they are today. This requires a new playbook. […] Today, we are in the relationship business. We need to build segments of one based on consumer identity resolution. We need to expand our value proposition beyond features and benefits to truly stand apart. We need to form recursive consumer relationships enabled by data, technology, and meaningful storytelling,” expands Ken Krasnow, Vice President Omnichannel Marketing, Digital Transformation at Henkel.
Expand your tool box
Another important part of Feature Marketing is using all the tools in your disposal. Hence, don’t fear reaching out and utilizing different departments and resources to create an innovative campaign for an innovative product.
Tiffany Marie Corpuz, Head of Digital at AMOREPACIFIC US, outlines key stages for launching a new feature or product –
- Win on your P-Page with this Content Recipe: Texture shot, lifestyle shots, ingredient shot, and how to apply GIFs or videos (on model). People want to visualize if they can see themselves using [the product].
- Launch Day Strategy: Send products out to influencers and coordinate launch communication cadence.
- Launch with reviews: Send products out to key influencers or customers and incentive reviews.
Stephanie Kang, Senior Director, Digital Marketing & eCommerce at Laboratories Expanscience (Mustela & Babo Botanicals brands), added a few more –
“It will depend on the scale of launch but in essence, you need a complete 360° digital plan that includes both organic and paid campaign strategies.”
- Social media and email calendar with complete timeline – from teaser to post-launch assets that include ingredient stories and how-to contents.
- Blog articles created based on robust keyword research and low hanging fruit opportunities that include product links.
- Seed products to influencers in advance for the hype and to secure UGCs.
- If the budget allows, strategic programmatic media placements.
“Then once the campaign kicks off, constant monitoring and optimization on all fronts,” she adds.
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Keep the customer in mind
As it is often the case with effective marketing campaigns, consumer-centric strategies tend to get the job done.
“Many marketers, when building their campaigns, are still forgetting to answer the simple question “so what – what’s in it for the customer?” Product leaders fall in love with their features and functionality and it is the job of the marketing team to convey the differentiated value for the customer,” says Karen Krivaa, VP Marketing at GigaSpaces.
“Remember to adjust the answer to the “so what,” question for the various targeted persona to speak directly to their pain points, and to try and keep it simple with facts and proof points,” she adds.
It is vital for you to know your market, your consumer audience, and how your new product benefits them.
Just like Kevin Sterneckert, CMO, at Symphony RetailAI explains, “Strong feature marketing illustrates – in relatable and clear language – your understanding of a specific market and the challenges faced by customers and prospects in that market. It should spotlight the benefits that your new feature provides to alleviate specific customer pain points and should be backed by a pedigree of real experience that includes customer feedback to product release cycles.”
And perhaps more importantly, you should wrap it up neatly, making the advantages and benefits clear.
“I started practicing in Feature Marketing in late 2013, right after Wix.com IPO. Every new feature was sent to me for “packaging” — starting with storytelling, highlighting the key benefits, designing a great landing page plus an email that ties everything together. This really helped to boost new features’ usage and adoption across our user base,” tells us Tal Zilberman VP Marketing at Natural Intelligence
Conclusion
To sum up, innovating and improving products is great, but how you communicate those new and exciting features to your clients is what you should really care about.
Creating and launching a well informed, personalized, and consumer-centric marketing campaign will allow you to cultivate current clientele, but also attract new and effective leads. Make sure you use all resources and tools available to you, and watch you product virtually selling itself.
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