As the pace of competition rapidly gains speed, maintaining alignment within an organization is crucial for success. One of the key contributors to achieving this alignment at the executive level and cascading it throughout the entire organization is product marketing documentation. When members of your organization across all organizational verticals are adequately equipped with an understanding of your products and the competitive landscape, they will make better day-to-day decisions to push your competitive advantage forward at an accelerated rate. Defining and training all teams around what differentiates your products, who competitors are, where your products fall flat against competitors, and the other aspects of product marketing documentation that I’ll cover in this post ensures that every member of your organization is thinking competitively.
What does that mean? Thinking competitively means your accountants design cost centers and expense categories that allow your product teams to better analyze the return on research and development projects. It means your product managers and cross-functional product councils will more quickly reach alignment around new features and investment in existing features. In other words, thinking competitively means everyone is thinking about how they can contribute to beating the competition – the value of which is limitless. In this blog post, I will explore what product marketing is and what product marketing documentation entails. We will then delve into how this documentation fosters better decision-making, alignment of sales and marketing efforts, enhanced customer support, and improved collaboration among product teams. For an in-depth guide on product marketing in 2023, consider reading The Ultimate Guide to Product Marketing in 2023 – HubSpot Blog.
Product Marketing is a strategic function that bridges the gap between product development and the market. It aims to understand the customers’ needs and pain points and then align the product’s value proposition with those customer requirements. Product marketers act as advocates for both the customers and the product, ensuring that the right messages reach the target audience. For more on creating a successful product marketing strategy, see Product Marketing Strategy: Here’s What You Need to Succeed – CXL.
Product Marketing Documentation, on the other hand, is a comprehensive outline that encompasses product features, capabilities, differentiators, key competitors, target audience, messaging, positioning, and other essential information. It acts as a repository of knowledge, providing a clear and consistent narrative for the entire organization to align with. For more insights into the role of product marketing in an organization, consider reading “A Comprehensive Guide to Launching Your New Product” from my blog.
Product marketing documentation refers to a collection of written materials and resources that provide a comprehensive outline and information about a product’s features, capabilities, positioning, target audience, competitive analysis, messaging, and other relevant details. This documentation is typically created and managed by product marketing teams within an organization.
The purpose of product marketing documentation is to serve as a centralized source of knowledge and guidance for various teams within the organization, with a focus on sales, marketing, customer support, and product development. It helps ensure that all teams are aligned with the product’s value proposition and positioning, allowing them to effectively communicate its unique benefits to customers, address market needs, and make informed decisions.
Some common components found in product marketing documentation include:
Overall, product marketing documentation is an essential resource that empowers teams throughout the organization to understand the product’s competitive advantages, target the right audience, and deliver a cohesive and compelling message to the market. Outside of sales, marketing, customer support, and product development teams, product marketing documentation is a valuable tool for accounting, security/legal, data science, business development, operations, and even IT teams to better understand how their day-to-day work relates to what your organization is selling.
Let’s dive a little deeper into what the benefits of developing and evangelizing product marketing documentation throughout your organization are.
Having a well-documented product marketing strategy empowers every team member to comprehend how their products compete in the market. By understanding the product’s unique value proposition and differentiators, teams can confidently position the offering to the right audience. This also means that teams can properly analyze valuable data tracked by various teams throughout the organization to improve cost margins, validate and optimize the return on investments, and positively impact many other revenue-generating metrics and key performance indicators. Product marketing documentation also sheds light on the competitive landscape, enabling teams to identify potential threats and risks posed by competitors. This knowledge helps the organization stay one step ahead in the market. For a comprehensive look at creating a product marketing strategy, read 4 steps for creating a successful product marketing strategy.
Accurate and accessible product marketing documentation fosters a culture of data-driven decision-making. With key insights and customer pain points at their fingertips, leaders can make strategic choices that are backed by evidence and market understanding. Consequently, this empowers all team members to align their efforts towards shared goals, creating a coherent and purposeful organization.
Sales and marketing teams are two pillars of any successful organization. Product marketing documentation provides them with a unified understanding of the product’s value proposition and messaging. It aligns their efforts, ensuring that the sales team is equipped to communicate the product’s unique benefits effectively. The marketing team, in turn, can craft compelling campaigns that resonate with the target audience. This synchronization drives better lead generation, conversion rates, and ultimately, revenue growth. It also has an incredible impact on accelerating the time-to-market of new products and features by drastically improving the operational efficiency of coordinating sales and marketing efforts. To understand more about aligning sales and marketing, read “Integrated Marketing 101: Boosting Your Brand’s Online Presence”.
In the modern business landscape, customer success is paramount. With access to detailed product marketing documentation, customer success teams can better support customers throughout their journey. Armed with knowledge about the product’s strengths and capabilities, they can address customer inquiries, anticipate potential challenges, and provide tailored solutions that enhance customer satisfaction and retention.
Clear product marketing documentation serves as a guiding light for product engineers and managers. By understanding the product’s unique selling points and its positioning in the market, they can make informed decisions during the development process. This alignment between marketing and product teams ensures that the final product meets customer needs while staying true to the company’s overall vision.
Aside from the points mentioned above, product marketing documentation provides several additional advantages. It serves as a knowledge hub for onboarding new employees, fostering a quicker and smoother integration into the organization. It can help marketing and sales teams design, track, and optimize their customer journey mapping efforts and determine what their optimal marketing channels are. Moreover, it assists in aligning the entire organization around customer-centricity, ensuring that every team prioritizes the customer’s needs and expectations.
Often times product marketing documentation is sacrificed for speed-to-market and production of other sales and marketing enablement materials. However, overlooking product marketing documentation is overlooking a tool that plays a pivotal role in driving alignment at the executive level and throughout the organization. By providing a clear outline of product features, differentiators, and competitive analysis, it equips teams with the knowledge they need to make informed decisions, align sales and marketing efforts, support customers effectively, and collaborate efficiently within product teams. It’s like the proverb, “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime” – by providing your entire organization with knowledge that enables them to onboard more quickly, be more self-sufficient, and make better business decisions, you’re net-net gaining speed and increasing the impact of decisions made throughout your organization that contribute to your competitive advantage.
With a strong foundation of product marketing documentation, organizations can create a culture of alignment, innovation, and customer-centricity, propelling them to greater heights of success in today’s competitive market. My tried-and-true approach to product marketing documentation is a highly impactful way to drive alignment after organizational changes, increase your speed-to-market, and leapfrog the competition.