Last updated on September 10th, 2021 at 12:15 pm
As a Chief Product Officer for a B2B, promotion may not be top-of-mind when you are in the conception and development stage. But, this is a good time to talk to your public relations (PR) team members. Sure, they will take your product and promote it once it’s ready to launch, but it’s important to share data with them from the beginning. Why?
Research.
Members of your PR team are aware of what’s going on with industry trends, competitors, customer feedback, and more. They may have some up-to-the-minute data you can use as you develop your product.
Talk to them in advance to discover unique benefits customers want, what the competition is working on, hot trends, and more. Your PR pros can give you new perspectives and insights that can help enhance your product in the conception phase.
Prep Time.
When it comes to promotion, the more time your PR team has, the better. They can develop the right messages for the right people, create campaigns relative to industry news and trends, save money on event planning by making advance purchases, and more.
Instead of just sending out a last-minute press release, more time gives your PR team the opportunity to plan coordinated campaigns that cover the product introduction all the way through the year-end sales cycle and beyond. Plus, they can be more creative when they have long periods to think and develop unique, promotional ideas.
Teamwork.
While you may want the credit for an innovative product you designed, you’ll have better results when you include your entire team from Day One. Today’s B2Bs are fast-paced organizations that communicate without old-fashioned silos.
By involving your PR pros AND your teams in marketing, sales, finance, customer service, and more, you can bounce ideas off of each other and get a well-rounded picture of how your product will best serve the needs of your customers. (You may even uncover a few issues before they turn into costly problems.)
Is Your Product Going to Do Well?
By including the knowledge of your PR pros (and all of your team members for that matter), you may discover some new and interesting ways to improve your idea and develop creative campaigns that will present your new product in the best light to customers, the media and the industry. Plus, you can save your B2B time, money and resources with careful, advanced planning.
Keep this in mind the next time you start developing a new product. With some teamwork, you can improve the entire process so that your product launch is a huge success for everyone involved!
