Product marketing is the promotion and sales of a specific product or service to consumers, an ongoing process continuing throughout the product lifecycle. Successful product marketing seeks to maximize customer lifetime value by not only finding the right customers but retaining them over the long term. This is especially important in the era of digital products, where you can quickly lose users if you fail to keep them engaged on an ongoing basis.

As with marketing more generally, successful product marketing starts with knowing your customer. Market research often combines qualitative analysis from customer surveys and interviews with data-driven customer analytics, which is an increasingly powerful approach with today’s wealth of data on buying behavior and product usage. These findings can be used to divide potential customers into groups as part of a market segmentation analysis, which can then be used to create personas that capture how different customers find and use your product.

Product marketing teams use this information to formulate a marketing strategy that starts with the product launch, which may use digital, broadcast, or other marketing channels depending on the best way to reach your target customers. After launch, a marketing plan may include elements including subsequent advertising to find new customers, e-mail nurture sequences to keep current users engaged, and promotional offers for different market segments. Throughout this cycle, savvy product marketers may use A/B testing and extensive customer analytics to continually refine their efforts.‎

Product marketing teams bring together a variety of skills, as this field brings together product development, marketing, and sales. Software developers must be able to work with product marketing teams to incorporate customer insights into app functionality and user experience (UX). Graphic designers are needed to help develop a visual brand identity for products that will appeal to target customers. And digital marketing specialists and copywriters work to analyze and optimize communications around launch as well as ongoing nurture campaigns.

Advertising and marketing managers are responsible for determining overarching product marketing strategy and coordinating the work of these teams to ensure that marketing plans are executed successfully and on schedule. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, professionals in these managerial roles earned a median annual salary of $135,900 in 2019. Advertising and marketing managers may have a bachelor’s degree from a wide range of subjects, ranging from journalism to computer science to visual arts.‎

Absolutely! Coursera has partnered with top-ranked universities such as the University of Virginia, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and IE business school to offer a variety of courses and Specializations in product marketing and related subjects. You can learn remotely on a flexible schedule, enabling you to fit this valuable online education into your current work or family life. And, with significantly lower tuition than on-campus programs, learning online with Coursera is a great deal that practically sells itself.‎