The Product Marketing Strategy Isn't Effective - Fix It by Using Thematic Product Launches

Do you and your team of product managers trying to coordinate your marketing resources? Are you struggling to coordinate an endless stream of brand new launches with a lack of release dates and continuous stream of managers insisting on lots of focus from marketing departments for every launch? Are there better ways to do it?

• Be sure to pay attention to all product releases.
• You must create a narrative with a broader meaning where the whole is greater than each of the components.
• Make sure that marketing is organized and logical so that they are able to be the best at their job to market innovative product.

If you're dragging yourself to death with a constant stream of product roadmaps or incessant "t-shirt" sizes for agile project estimations or missing dates on the release date of your product, or afraid that you're failing to keep your bosses down, it's time to look into specific product releases. Find out how this is achieved in this segment of Growth Stage!

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Transcript

David Vogelpohl () (00:04)

Hello everyone! We invite you to participate in this episode of Growth Stage podcast by . I'm your host, David Vogelpohl. I'm part of the community for digital products working at . and I am a fan of bringing all the great things from this community's wisdom to the Growth Stage podcast. On this episode, we're talking to a particular person who's important to me. I work with him at . He's scheduled to talk about the way that market research has failed and how to address it with thematic

announcements on new products that we'd be pleased to have on Growth Stage Mr. Braden Steel. Braden, welcome.

Braden (00:39)

Thank you so much for your nice words. I truly like the introduction. I'm excited to chat about product marketing today.

David Vogelpohl () (00:44)

Awesome. And I am so happy to work with Braden. Braden. There was a moment of fear because I don't often use your last name in public. It's possible this is a weird pronunciation that I did not notice or have lost in the past, or something. But welcome here. Yes, absolutely. What Braden will be speaking about is his views on the problems with traditional product marketing, and how in which , what we're doing, is using quarterly launches of thematic products.

Braden (00:58)

Yeah. Thank you.

David Vogelpohl () (01:14)

In order to provide the greatest attention to product launches to ensure you've created a coherent product story that shows the whole is worth more than the sum of the components. Marketing will remain more organized and attentive to ensure that you're able to produce the top standard of work to the launches you create. I was at Spryng hosted by Wynter, W -Y -N T -E – R, I'm guessing it was S -P -R -Y -N -G, but it's an event.

There was a roundtable to talk about the various problems and issues that face marketers. The issue of product marketing was brought up. A lot of people felt overwhelmed and were having to cope each and every feature launch and new release of a product and try to make the most out of every single one of them. When the subject of thematic releases for products was brought up to me. There was a member of the group that had suggested the idea. We'd adopted the idea in the midst of a couple quarters back and

Then I decided that it would be fascinating to hold an open discussion about the topic this morning. And, Braden, are you willing to start the discussion?

Braden (02:18)

Yeah, let's do it. I'm looking forward to discussing the topic. it. it. it.

David Vogelpohl () (02:20)

Alright, good deal. I've searched for quite some but I don't have the right answer for this query. What was the first item that you purchased on the internet?

Braden (02:28)

This is definitely an awesome idea. I thought for a while about it. And it was in the junior high school years. eBay is at its peak. Then I purchased an PlayStation 2 with a bundle of games. The bundle included games for sports and other stuff. Then I debated the decision of whether to purchase it. Then, I purchased the console and was enthralled by the game. I gleaned a lot of information from it and enjoyed a great deal of enjoyment.

Another option was to pay with my own cash. One of the first things I got was guitar. It was the very first thing I bought with my own money. That was another option.

David Vogelpohl () (03:06)

Okay, I like the way you distinguished between your own money as well as what you believe to be the same as, your parent money? Which method did you use to finance the PSP?

Braden (03:14)

Yes, I could have earned it by trimming my lawn, or weeding the lawn or whatever. It was also like the money I earned from my real job that I earned on my own.

David Vogelpohl () (03:24)

If you're cutting your lawn, you're paying money, Braden. This is fine. Ok, so I gave some of it away during the intro, but could you please share with the viewers what you're up to or with what you're doing in this particular area?

Braden (03:27)

Sure, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, sure. I am a Product Marketing manager at . My responsibility includes all marketing for all of our products as well as the various sectors we operate in. If a product has been introduced, we have to communicate all the information that go with the product and also around the product in addition to supporting aspects like B2B, games and various other sectors which we're eager to reach out to. Merchant of Record.

What we do is that we turn every aspect from the buy button onwards to create a sales experience. We work in partnership with SaaS firms, gaming companies AI companies B2B, etc. the. that. that. that.

David Vogelpohl () (04:18)

Excellent, excellent. In your describe kind of what you accomplished you covered numerous elements. Releases of new products as well as the announcement of features. You also touched on verticals. You also mentioned B2B SaaS or video games. The current generation of product marketers favour this sort of vertical position with respect to a specific product. It, in my opinion, increases the difficulty of marketing products.

What do you believe is wrong with the marketing of products? What was it that didn't work for you using the previous model?

Braden (04:56)

Yes, that's a good answer. It's true that the release of a product depend on many moving factors that are outside the marketing manager's product. For instance, engineering issues or the need for commitments from customers, when sales have an issue of immense magnitude that states that you have to complete this product prior to when the release of another product. Furthermore, there are many shifting pieces to these launches. So, working with teams from the product team to determine commit dates and understand,

when are these products going to get released? What does "release" refer to? Does this mean it is generally accessible or is it currently in an early stage of testing? It's time for the following question to come up: what moment is the right time to speak about the software? What is it we'd like to talk about? What if we could even discuss about this because we're conducting tests of the product? This raises a number of concerns which is why a lot of misinformation that comes from this model of, you know the way engineers and their products function. So, I believe that one of the main problems is

There's a reason why it's difficult to visualize the final product, and think about a date for release and prepare a product to be prepared for launch. So what can happen is that professionals in the field of product marketing like me end up knowing, for example just a week prior to release, or just a week before GA, the product manager saying, This will be done. Finally, go complete this task. Then it's like okay but hold for a second. I have other tasks to complete. You've talked about verticals. It's been discussed.

It's a huge chunk of time, too. The question, you know I've been asked and thought about is: what can I do to manage the work of creating the product as well as other elements of my job with no control over that launch date?

David Vogelpohl () (06:40)

In case you're running a floating timeline so the product isn't yet ready. There is a glitch that they discover within the final second. They can push through the release, and get it released within the timeframe. They're trying to coordinate efforts with other marketing professionals as well as designers and webmasters as well as content experts and items like that. So it's this set-up of floating dates that I'm hearing. Do you think there's a second side? As as I've...

It's true that I've worked in the field of product marketing, and other capacities throughout the years. Every when I speak to someone from the product department They're saying, I'm making X and need to create a huge announcement about it. Do you think that expectations about the amount of work required for the various product launches is at times excessive? Could that be a part of the reason why you're in a bind with traditional product marketing?

Braden (07:28)

Yes, absolutely. The Product managers are managers with a purpose. They're the creators of the products. They're thrilled about this. They've worked on these products since the beginning up to several years striving to get the products out to the market. Naturally, they'll require as much help as they can for these items. It can be difficult to have an executive from the product team to come up to you and say I'm really excited about this new feature.

I'd appreciate lots of help and here's a summary of ideas I'm going to have the risk of saying Let's increase the pressure slightly for A, B or C motives, however, I'm unable to support the idea, or, you know, I'm not able to accomplish it, or I don't have I don't have the time or resources. It's difficult and frustrating to maintain a steady contact with product managers because, as you can imagine, they might feel that they're not worth contributing to the cause they're fighting for, or doing things differently. This doesn't happen, and clearly, you're not seeking to help as many people as you're able to.

David Vogelpohl () (08:26)

Yeah. It's like from your perspective when it comes to controlling a go-to-market strategy around the time of a launch, and having to deal with a floating date of the standard model, as well as every other manager of a product as you mentioned considering the amount of time and money they're investing in it and it's like we should announce this. With all these demands, and the floating dates it's as if you're not performing your best work. The feeling is that you're distributing yourself amongst the various things that make it difficult to be at the top of your game. It's a feeling I'm having. Do you think that's fair?

Braden (09:01)

Yeah, yeah, that's right. This is where the whole of the things fall apart at the same time. You have to find out what you can do to get everything done. Not only are there just 24 hours in a day, not to mention that you have to work all day long and the stress associated from having to take care to keep everything in your mind. Consider this approach that is highly advanced and.

make them more compact into a form that is market facing. That's why there are many challenges to overcome.

David Vogelpohl () (09:35)

You've mentioned this before when you discussed the importance of supporting product managers as well as the relation between PMMs and PMs, if you want to. If this seems to be the standard form of product marketing, is it right to claim that it may cause some tension with PMMs and PMs?

Braden (09:58)

It's the case. There have been times when, yes I've certainly had a bit of a tense dialogue to openly confess that I don't have the resources necessary to help the way you want to proceed. It's true that in those cases, you want to listen and try to understand what the PM's looking for but it can cause tension. And, you know that you have to be able to effectively communicate in situations where you're, you know, in the room to have conversations and be listening.

Being clear, being skilled in tracking changes you're making, being precise and logging what you're doing and, as in this instance, utilizing the process of thematic launches to solve some of the issues that come from traditional products.

David Vogelpohl () (10:41)

The product managers requesting the biggest megaphone possible to announce their new products. The other marketing departments asking"Can we plan better so we are able to be more effective? You've also talked about shifting to thematic announcements of your goods. We'll start with the basic. What is a thematic release?

Braden (10:59)

Yeah, great question. A thematic release refers to the bundle of goods under a umbrella of a topic. In this instance, B2B is the umbrella, and the other products are supporting that theme.

David Vogelpohl () (11:16)

So when we talk about themes, I'm assuming that we're talking about fewer releases every week. It could be that if you're committed to it, are you doing it in a quarterly manner or every month?

Braden (11:30)

Good question. We have a spring or summer and autumn release. The majority of people are not around during the Christmas season towards the close of the year so we don't make it available during that period. There are there are only three releases per year. We also release a few occasionally.

David Vogelpohl () (11:45)

Thus, the organization for product development will say that every quarter, we'll introduce the theme-based improvements on this particular product or line, and will bring it in advertising for the products we're planning introduce it in one big campaign. Do you think it will include all the components of every item and release inside the theme?

Braden (12:08)

It is. It has those aspects. Then we review our customers' plan and say OK how are you planning your plans for the coming year? This helps us classify these products in themes. Therefore, we don't have to go using an order-of-preference approach in telling ourselves that we need to come up with a solution to theme A. What are the products that are pertinent to theme A? Instead, let's consider the products we're planning to introduce in the coming year?

What's the overall theme that each of those items can be categorized into in this time of year.

David Vogelpohl () (12:44)

This means that it will increase the volume. It could be off by about a quarter moment of release, or perhaps however there could have been a delay, I think, prior to you knowing that you're getting it. Yeah. This means you're dissociating the GA when you'd like to from the promotional.

Braden (12:51)

That's correct, yeah.

That's correct. Yeah. This is a good strategy since we've already implemented our GA actions that we have because these products need to be promoted following their launch. We, therefore, as part of the process of thematic, have GA actions and activities that we can use to promote each item.

David Vogelpohl () (13:18)

Each product launch that you wish to, has the opportunity to be part of the thematic releases. Also, there is a sort of smaller version to something like the GA rollout. This means you have an additional dip. It could be.

Braden (13:31)

Yeah, that's right. Yeah. And it's really helped in making sure that our teams within the company have access to GA. So, success for customers doesn't come about by being able to receive feedback from clients. It's like "Hey, I'm using this fantastic product. I'd like to know more about it. Our customer success team was not activated. It's not the case since during GA we are releasing FAQs, value messaging to ensure that our internal teams understand what's happening.

Then, the most popular marketing campaigns, such as those you mentioned may be delayed occasionally. If you've got the product launched in January, but aren't planning an upcoming theme-based launch in April, the product will not be receiving the same level of publicity at the beginning of the year. However, it'll get an opportunity to participate in a larger marketing effort during the course of the year.

David Vogelpohl () (14:17)

If you had been extremely strategic do you want to include an X? That could be an even larger release, that fell between the other thematic releases in the event that you happen to own a copy, or that GA time for an very strategic thing that you've been anticipating?

Braden (14:30)

Yeah, absolutely. Also, we have releases which we can assist with. We attempt to limit them to just one or two releases when we're able. We've developed a procedure in conjunction with you and the team of product developers which involves having a conversation and we discuss"okay, we know that there's a really good product. This isn't in the theme It's still important to include A, B, and C. We plan together so that everyone is aware of what we're going to do. Then, as you can imagine, that does get separate focus.

The advantage, however, is that there isn't a chance of 15 products that crash at the end of the quarter. That happens, oftentimes when product is making every item available simultaneously.

David Vogelpohl () (15:08)

Thank you.

One of my favorite business jokes is the observation that executives Q3 means that Q3 is beginning, while the engineering team Q3 signifies the conclusion of Q3. This suggests that they're all in the same boat, and naturally, sliding into the gap towards the close to meet those quarterly OKRs. Yeah. Okay. I've got it.

Braden (15:33)

Absolutely right.

David Vogelpohl () (15:38)

There's a theme due to be released within the next quarter, or possibly in the in the future or some other time, but you're dealing with a large announcement of a feature or product that isn't in line with the general theme. Is this just one of those unusual ones you mentioned which might come up in between the thematic release?

Braden (15:55)

Yep, exactly right. Let me provide you with an illustration of how we're working. We released a payment release at the start of this year. There was a variety of interesting options for payments. One payment that didn't make it into the technical side of things was successful at the time that the launch was made. The payment is Google Pay and everyone knows Google Pay. Then we took a seat to look at the feature and thought, how can we help promote Google Pay? It's not really a B2B function. We did, however, release a mini release for Google Pay.

The website was developed using documents FAQ documents a blog post or on social media such as those.

David Vogelpohl () (16:29)

What happens when you've got this type of release that is for an anchor product and an thematic release which falls? There was a feeling that you used an anchor product, which was in the thematic release that Apple Pay was a blip from, or Google Pay slipped from. What can you do? Wait to release the thematic release till the anchoring products are installed? What do you do?

Braden (16:54)

Yeah, I mean, it depends. Sometimes it's waiting and seeing. It's happened. Yes, I was talking to the team behind product today who said"Hey, B2B could be a wait and watch to be announced later this year. The benefit of a theme-driven launch is that it's not a deadline. The date is decided by us. Therefore, if we wish to delay it slightly to meet product and engineering's deadlines then we are able to.

We can also alter the themes at any time. In the event that a key element does not get released, maybe we could take a couple of smaller elements to create a bundle which fits the theme in a different manner. This is why there's some flexibleness in the system that can be able to adapt to the alterations that take place all through the time.

David Vogelpohl () (17:47)

This is a great idea. If I think of a conventional marketing strategy to advertise a feature release It's much like the announcement blog post, or perhaps a press announcement or a social media post or email our clients, contact our potential customers, that kind of things. What is the difference between thematic releases with respect to its form?

Braden (18:07)

It's true, I've mentioned it in the past. Most of these happenings are still taking place. In the current thematic time events continue to occur However, we have what we'll call GA actions. Also, a great deal of like internal enablement, via in-app notifications. If someone is able to access a device or software, we're enabling those customers in addition to our internal teams. This is separated from this theme's release.

And then at the thematic stage, instead of at the forefront of all of it things that are more similar to, like that it's available at bits and pieces it's possible to create the tale of the benefits broadly by bringing all of these elements together. It's a big difference that's not possible in the case of releasing something in pieces through the course of a period of a quarter or a year.

David Vogelpohl () (19:04)

Yeah. And it helps, it's as if you're in a position to improve the narrative. The best illustration for me is the improvement in living quality that is very difficult for engineers to implement however, they don't always make the product more marketable. It's just that simple, isn't it? Anyone who's not inside doesn't even know that it is a problem. It's typically difficult as Phil or a member of a marketing firm for products to say"Hey we're here! we, we fixed this. In the end, the fix proved to be extremely valuable to the company and customers.

Braden (19:08)

Yeah.

David Vogelpohl () (19:34)

And so it feels like thematic releases do not just offer users the opportunity to hand away the megaphone, they also help to enhance the narratives of a handful of these higher quality of life enhancements.

Braden (19:43)

You are able to access, many functions profit of this feature, and normally would not be suitable for advertising or be able to benefit from a quick announcement in Pendo. Instead, they reside on an online platform that's element of a larger set of features. Therefore, it's a good idea to make sure to share the megaphone. Use that megaphone. It's beneficial from the smallest things like improvements to the your quality of life.

David Vogelpohl () (20:08)

So, is this technique working? How many quarters in are you?

Braden (20:13)

The third theme we've launched, next month we'll have our third theme launch during July.

David Vogelpohl () (20:20)

Three quarters into do you think it's improved your ability to handle marketing resources as well as support new product launches, or is it just too early to say?

Braden (20:33)

I'd like to say that it has improved, from my side. What I've observed is that not that I'm not able to do it, but also the capacity to better support the product team, instead of just supporting the team but also coordinate with other marketing departments specifically demand gen. You know, they are able to use a large amount of lead time now that they did not have prior to the advent of these tools.

We could also incorporate them in campaigns were previously challenging to execute. It could be the most significant benefit. But then the other benefit is that it allows time for us at to consider other ways to expand vertically. For instance, into video games, that we may not have enough time or manpower for pushing those verticals forward.

David Vogelpohl () (21:28)

The video gaming section while it was in existence as well as video game clients for quite some time, from the beginning of the business. The business was leaning into the video game segment. Do you think that segmentation can contribute to thematic releases or do you think it's mostly about feature sets?

Braden (21:51)

Yes, segmentation plays major parts. As I said, I've mentioned that our upcoming launch is centered around B2B. an industry we're hoping to sell into, that we're excited about expanding into. You can imagine that we'll do this with video games as well. The article has mentioned our efforts to improve the function that comes with Apple Pay and implemented Google Pay. The expansion of the vertical theme not only gives you the ability it also allows for...

The benefits of the theme-driven launch, however it also offers benefits of incorporating elements like thinking leadership to the launch, which you may be unable to integrate within a normal product release. It means that you can get larger, possibly bigger push for your campaign and gain more value from the launch you choose for your entire company.

David Vogelpohl () (22:44)

Excellent. Well, this has been a lot of fun, Braden. I really appreciate you taking to the airwaves and talking about this. It was an amazing debate that took place during Spryng at the moment in Austin. I was thinking it would be cool to bring it up to the stage. However, it was a blast. Thanks for coming along.

Braden (23:01)

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for inviting me. It was great fun.

David Vogelpohl () (23:04)

Awesome. If you'd like to check out the projects Braden is working on, possibly even his next thematic album, go to .com. We appreciate you participating in this week's episode of Growth Stage. I'm your host, David Vogelpohl. I am passionate about supporting the communities of digital goods in my job as . and I am awed by the chance to showcase the very best of our community at the Stage of Growth. Stage. Thank you to everyone.

David Vogelpohl David is the Chief Marketing Officer for . More than a quarter of a century ago, David Vogelpohl has led teams to develop elite engines to grow and developed software for leading companies like WP Engine, Genesis, AWS, Cloudflare, and several others.

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