The relationship between #ProductMarketing and #ContentMarketing
I was recently reading some posts from one of the LinkedIn Groups that is focused on marketing. The discussion was about #contentmarketing. One of the participants couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about, stating that he had generated tons of great content and used it as part of his marketing efforts long before any one talked about “Content Marketing.”
Based on the list of the content that he had created, it was obvious that this person had done lots of #productmarketing and didn’t know anything about Content Marketing.
In short, Product Marketing material (as the name states) is all about your products and services. It is exactly the kind of “stuff” that you need to provide if your prospects already understand their own problem and that you offer a potential solution to that problem. It is the “stuff” that you need to provide in order to convince them that YOU have the BEST solution to their problem. It is feature lists, technical specifications, success stories, warranties, and business process documents that your sales team can use to close the deal.
Content Marketing material is all the “stuff” that comes before the Product Marketing material. It is the “stuff” that helps prospects define their problem, understand the potential solutions to their problem, establishes your company as experts in this problem space, and that you are worthy of consideration as the solution to their problem.
A successful Content Marketing program has to be built on top of Product Marketing. Good Content Marketing material attracts and converts, Product Marketing material closes.