Rocket Watcher Product Marketing for Startups

There are a lot of reasons for customers to not switch to your product even if it is clearly superior to what they are using today. Here are 10 examples.

I’ve gathered 4 of the leading experts on Content Marketing together to speak at SXSW: Jay Baer, Valeria Maltoni, David Meerman Scott and Joe Pulizzi. Please vote for this panel!

Startups sometimes worry they should spend more time thinking about building a brand. I believe that if you focus on building products that people love and providing services that keeps them happy, the brand will take care of itself.

Here’s a clip of me talking about my Blackberry on CBC’s The National. I talk about why I’m not using the iPhone and get to say the word “fart” on Canadian national TV.

Product Marketing and Product Management are disciplines where the theory is easily understood but practical execution is really hard. I asked Tim Johnson to share a couple of his favorite “from the trenches” stories to illustrate how shifting the focus from “product features” to “value to the customer” can make a huge difference.

Establishing a marketing foundation involves understanding your customers, identifying major themes, interviewing subject matter experts, and developing a content plan.

I gave a talk at DemoCamp Guelph on Messaging for Startups where I outlined the three key questions your messaging needs to answer for prospects – What the heck is it?, Is it for me? and Why buy it from you?

I’ve run customer advisory boards at larger companies and loved them but I’ve always avoided running one at a startup because of the costs. Recently however I’ve helped a startup launch a customer advisory council with zero budget. Here’s how we did it.

The recent issues with the iPhone 4 have ignited a debate about whether or not Apple lied to consumers. In the end it doesn’t matter because the damage is done. Rebuilding trust with consumers is difficult and expensive.

Great vertical marketing comes down to executing well in three areas: Messaging, Content and Sales Enablement.