State of Product Marketing 2019 - RegalixPaid search (SEM) Organic search (SEO) Online display ads...
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www.regalix.com March 2019 State of Product Marketing 2019
Transcript of State of Product Marketing 2019 - RegalixPaid search (SEM) Organic search (SEO) Online display ads...
www.regalix.com
March 2019
State of ProductMarketing2019
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Introduction
The role of the product marketer hasn’t changed over the years, but scope of work has. With changing buyer behavior and a more complex business environment to deal with, the product marketer’s function has grown in significance.
We have been tracking the state of product marketing for a few years now, with our last study having been conducted in 2017 (State of Product Marketing 2017). At that time, we had made a few observations about some practices that we thought were working well and some that weren’t. Coming to the present, we felt it was perhaps time to revisit the subject and see what’s changed and what hasn’t. To arrive at our findings, we surveyed senior executives responsible for product marketing in mid- to large-sized corporations across regions.
Read on to know what we found.
3State of Product Marketing 2019
Industry break up
Revenue break up
Level break up
Employee break up
Department break up
Computer Software
Internet
Information Technology & Services
Hospital & Healthcare
Telecommunications
Semiconductor
Marketing & Advertising
Others
25%
14%
11%
8%
5%
3%
1%
33%
> $1B
$500M - $1B
$250M - $500M
$100M - $250M
$50M - $100M
< $50M
> 10,000
5,001-10,000
1,001-5,000
501-1,000
201-500
< 200
Vice Presidents
Directors
Managers
Others
33%
7%
18%
12%
10%
20%
30%
3%
29%
22%
14%
2%
90%
4%
4%
2%
4%
19%
61%
16%
Product Marketing
Marketing
Others
Customer Support
Profile of respondents
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Key insights from the study
• 83% of organizations invest in product marketing.
• Product videos (61%) and case studies (54%) are the top two content types used in product marketing.
• Website (64%), email (60%) and webinar (55%) are the channels that marketers find most effective in achieving their product marketing goals.
• Creating quality content (58%) and tracking the customer journey (58%) are the main challenges that product marketers face.
• Emails (67%), webinars and seminars (60%), and events (53%) are the most effective channels in driving customer engagement.
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Most organizations take 2-6 months to execute a product launch and have 1-2 major product launches each year. 47% of organizations surveyed said they have 1-2 major product launches every year (Figure 1).
68% of the organizations said their go-to-market plan for product launches take around 2-6 months to execute (Figure 2).
How many major product launches do you have every year?
How long does your go-to-market plan take to execute for a product launch?
Figure 1
Figure 2
1 - 2
3 - 5
6 - 10
Above 10
1 month
2 - 3 months
4 - 6 months
6 - 12 months
More than a year
47%
33%
13%
7%
7%
34%
35%
16%
8%
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Product marketing teams own product launch activities.77% of respondents said that they have a dedicated product marketing team that looks after all the activities related to a product launch (Figure 3). In comparison, only 62% of the respondents in our earlier study (State of Product Marketing 2017) had said that their product marketing teams handled their product launches. This is a positive trend pointing to the growing importance of product marketing in driving product launches within an organization.
Which of the following teams own product launch activities in your organization?
Figure 3
Product Marketing (dedicated team)
Product Management
Other
Corporate Marketing/Marketing Communication
77%
14%
5%
4%
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Does your organization invest in product marketing?
Most organizations invest in product marketing or have plans to do so in the future.83% of the organizations surveyed invest in product marketing (Figure 4).
Interestingly, 75% of those who have not invested in product marketing as yet would like to do so in the future (Figure 5).
Figure 4
83%Yes
17%No
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Do you want to invest in product marketing in the upcoming years?
Figure 5
75%Yes
25%No
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A majority of organizations allocate up to a quarter of their marketing budgets to product marketing activities.84% of the organizations have up to 24% of their marketing budgets allocated to product marketing activities, while only 5% of organizations have over 50% of their marketing budgets allocated to product marketing activities (Figure 6).
Less than 10%
10 - 24%
25 - 50%
More than 50%
41%
43%
11%
5%
What percentage of your marketing budget is currently allocated to product marketing?
Figure 6
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Organizations with a higher proportion of online sales spend significantly more on digital marketing.80% of organizations achieve less than 25% of their product sales online and 79% of organizations spend less than 25% of their product marketing budget on digital marketing (Figure 7).
Here’s an interesting fact: Only 29% of organizations surveyed spend over 25% of their product marketing budgets on digital marketing. However, when we consider just those organizations that have 25% or more of their sales online, as many as 53% of them spend 25% or more of their product marketing budgets on digital marketing (Figure 8).
Less than 10%
10 - 24%
25 - 50%
More than 50%
67%
13%
6%
14%
What proportion of your product sales is online?
Figure 7
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Less than 10%
10 - 24%
25 - 50%
More than 50%
32%
39%
16%
13%
What percentage of your product marketing budget is currently allocated to digital marketing?
Figure 8
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Creating quality content (marketing collaterals)
Sales enablement
Market research
Lead generation
Developing a customer acquisition and retention plan
Other
86%
77%
55%
45%
28%
6%
Of the following activities, which are the top 3 that you invest your time in to achieve your product marketing goals?
Figure 9
Creating quality content tops the list of activities that marketers invest their time into.86% of marketers chose creating quality content over all other options when asked to list the top 3 activities they invest their time into.
This is a 20% increase as compared to our earlier study (State of Product Marketing 2017); perhaps a sign of things to come as more and more buyers go online and content becomes an important differentiator.
Sales enablement (77%) and market research (54%) were the other two activities that made it to the list.
Developing a customer acquisition and retention plan (28%) holds a surprisingly low ranking in the list; this is unfortunate, considering the long-established fact that retaining an existing customer is far more profitable than acquiring a new one (Figure 9).
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Website and email are the top channels that marketers found to be effective in meeting their product marketing goals.Like in previous years (State of Product Marketing 2017), this year too, website (64%) maintains pole position as the most effective channel for product marketers. It’s followed by email (60%) and webinar (55%) in second and third respectively.
In the list of the top three channels, ‘webinar’ is an interesting inclusion. A webinar is a great engagement tool, as it’s both live and interactive. However, as a marketer, you need to ensure that your audience derives value out of the time that they spend with you.
Interestingly, organic search (24%) seems to have fallen out of favor, and marketers have picked paid search (33%) as the better option, in contrast to our previous study. Blogs, too, have fallen sharply in the ratings - perhaps a reflection of an overload of content on the web (Figure 10).
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Website
Webinars
Social media
Paid search (SEM)
Organic search (SEO)
Online display ads
Blog/Microblog
Micro-websites
Affiliate marketing
Mobile web & apps
Other
Mobile campaigns
63%
60%
55%
34%
33%
23%
15%
14%
9%
9%
7%
7%
5%
Which of the following online channels have you found to be most effective in meeting your product marketing goals?
Figure 10
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LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook are the top 3 social media platforms for a product launch.LinkedIn (79%) continues to be the favorite channel for marketers in social media, though it is not as dominant as before (State of Product Marketing 2017). Twitter (79%), on the other hand, has risen in the ratings (Figure 11).
Youtube
Google+
79%
79%
55%
41%
14%
3%
What are your top 3 social media platforms for a product launch?
Figure 11
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Product videos and case studies are the top content assets that marketers find most effective in their product marketing programs.Product videos (61%) and case studies (54%) are the leading digital content assets that marketers use in their product marketing programs. This is in line with our earlier study and nothing appears to have changed.
Video continues to lead as the medium of choice for product marketers. In fact, according to Cisco, video (both business and consumer) will account for 82% of all internet traffic by 2021. That’s data no marketer can afford to ignore.
Blogs (27%) and social media posts (14%) appear to have not delivered on their promise. Mobile apps (3%) continue to be one of the least preferred assets (Figure 12).
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Product videos
Webinars/online events
Case studies
Blogs
White papers
Infographics
Research reports
Press releases
Social media posts
Display ads
Newsletters
Webcasts
Mobile apps
Other
61%
55%
54%
27%
20%
19%
16%
16%
14%
11%
6%
6%
3%
3%
Which of the following digital content assets have you found to be most effective in your product marketing programs?
Figure 12
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Revenue and number of leads generated remain the top two metrics for measuring the impact of product marketing.Revenue generated (66%) and the number of leads generated (60%) continue to be the leading metrics for measuring the impact of product marketing, just as they were earlier (State of Product Marketing 2017).
As one can see, sales metrics are still the most popular and widely accepted metrics for measuring product marketing impact.
Relationship metrics such as customer engagement level (29%) and CSAT score (12%) remain low priority. This is not a trend that we would like to see at a time when customer retention and customer expansion are proving to be more important than ever in the growth of a business(Figure 13).
Revenue generated
Number of leads generated
Number of customers acquired
Page views/clicks/shares/likes/retweets
Level of customer engagement
ROI
CSAT scores
Free trials
Other
65%
59%
39%
33%
29%
25%
12%
12%
8%
Which of these metrics does your organization use for measuring the impact of product marketing (top 3)?
Figure 13
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Creating quality content, tracking the customer journey and generating quality leads are the top 3 challenges that marketers face in product marketing.Creating quality content (58%) and tracking the customer journey (58%) are the top two challenges that marketers face in product marketing; generating quality leads (50%) comes in third (Figure 14).
Creating quality content
Tracking the customer buying journey
Generating quality traffic and leads
Lack of a clear product strategy
Managing multiple channels
Lack of training for the team
Other
58%
58%
50%
39%
39%
17%
15%
What are the top 3 product marketing challenges you face?
Figure 14
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Emailers and webinars are the most popular channels for driving customer engagement.Emailers (67%) and webinars/seminars (60%) are the most popular channels that organizations used to drive customer engagement. They are followed by events (53%).
Social media updates (34%) are now seen as being less effective, unlike previously observed (State of Product Marketing 2017).
Given that marketers invest a lot of their time in creating quality content and the significant relevance it has in customer engagement, it’s disheartening to see that only 7% of respondents leverage the idea of sharing exclusive content as a way to engage with their existing customers.
We also believe marketers would do well if they give more importance to product feedback surveys (25%). Such surveys can provide valuable insights about the customer. However, gathering customer feedback should not be restricted to a few touchpoints; it should be extended to all relevant touchpoints throughout the customer journey. Combining feedback from multiple touchpoints will provide insights that would be missed otherwise (Figure 15).
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Emailers (product updates/news)
Webinars & seminars
Events
Social media updates/news
Monthly newsletters
Product feedback surveys
Run a community or forum
Create product tours
Share exclusive content
Other
67%
60%
53%
35%
28%
25%
22%
8%
8%
2%
How do you engage with your existing users on a regular basis?
Figure 15
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46% of respondents who currently invest in product marketing feel that there will be an increase in their product marketing budget next year.While 43% of those who currently invest in product marketing feelt there will be no change in the budget, 11% felt there would be a decrease (Figure 16).
How do you see your product marketing budget changing over the next 12 months?
Figure 16
43%No Change
46%Increase
11%Decrease
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Recommendations
• Invest in digital marketing
79% of organizations spend less than 25% of their product marketing budget on digital marketing. 32% of organizations spend less than 10%.
Selling a product or service in the digital era is challenging. Buyers are more aware and have a stronger idea of exactly what they are looking for. In fact, according to a Gartner report, technology buyers spend 65% of their time gathering information and checking reviews from external sources before they engage with a vendor sales rep.
Considering that a significant part of the consumers’ research is done online, investing in digital marketing is critical for product marketing. We hope to see larger spends in the coming years.
• Develop a multi-device strategy
Mobile has become ubiquitous today. In 2017, 80% of internet users accessed the web via smartphone. A majority of all emails in 2018 were read on mobile devices. Today, customers are present at various touchpoints. Most of the product research occurs on a handheld device, while the actual connection with the sales team and further content requests might happen over a laptop or workstation. It is important to develop content in different formats that can be accessed via different devices.
However, businesses don’t seem to have successfully leveraged the mobile platform as yet. This needs to change. With the increasing adoption of multiple channels by buyers, it is imperative that businesses are where their customers are, and that they produce content in formats that their customers want to consume.
• Unscramble the customer journey puzzle
Personalization is the driving force behind much of the digital transformation that is taking place today. To stay relevant, organizations need to integrate personalization into their content strategy.
A key step in personalizing content is mapping the customer journey. However, as seen in the study, tracking the customer journey tops the list of challenges that marketers face in product marketing. This needs to be resolved. Perhaps marketers need to invest more time in unraveling
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this puzzle or turn to technology that would help them do so. Whatever be the measures taken, understanding the customer at a granular level would help marketers align content with the customer journey, and that should go a long way in optimizing their investment in content.
• Harness the power of social
A recent report by Forrester (Use Social to Bridge the Gap between Marketing andCustomer Service) explores how social can be the glue that binds marketing and customer support, thereby creating a seamless digital channel for customers to interact with businesses.
At present, social media doesn’t seem to be delivering on its initial promise to the B2B marketer. But marketers need to find a way around this. Customers have already begun using social media to connect with organizations for their service needs. Going forward, social media could very well be the place where customers and businesses discover each other and forge relationships. Product marketers who are preparing themselves for such an outcome will reap the benefits.
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Research contributors
Arunh Krishnan
Shubharthi Ghosh
Survey operations
Aishani Majumdar
Swastika Singh
Creative services
Priyokumar Singh Naorem
About the analysts
Credits
Nimish Vohra SVP, Principal Analyst
Nimish works with CMOs and senior marketing professionals. His research focuses on customer success management, predictive analytics, mobile enablement and other emerging trends that help customers leverage technology as an enabler of marketing and business outcomes.
Ravish Kamath VP, Products Technology & Quality
Ravish Kamath has over a decade of experience in bringing products and ideas to life. At Regalix, Ravish is responsible for driving the overall product strategy and its execution. He is passionate about prototyping, evangelizing new technologies, building and mentoring teams and of course launching new products.
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About Regalix ResearchRegalix Research supports organizations across the globe to augment their marketing, customer satisfaction and retention initiatives through timely insights. Headquartered in Palo Alto, in the Silicon Valley, the organization boasts of an extensive network of top executives and practitioners across the globe who help identify and answer the ‘when’ and ‘why’ of disruptive trends.
About RegalixRegalix is a Customer Acquisition and Customer Success company that re-imagines digital experiences across hi-tech, ad-tech, and retail domains. The company has partnered with some of the largest global B2B organizations in their efforts at customer acquisition, growth and retention. Regalix works with businesses, supporting their customers through the entire journey, to deliver reliable products and services in today’s subscription-based economy.
Regalix has a long history of creating award-winning ventures with enterprises through co-innovation and idea-driven frameworks that inspire companies to think different. Headquartered in the Silicon Valley — Palo Alto, California — Regalix has offices in Europeand Asia.
