What is your messaging strategy for a new product that is early in its lifecycle, but is a differentiator for the company?

Is your company comfortable with sharing the vision of where the product will eventually land and the stage-gates to get there? If they are, this type of thought leadership can distinguish your company for corporate audiences and press, especially if it is a differentiating product. This is an area where I think it is important to be transparent and honest about what hasn't been figured out yet but instead acknowledge the types of questions you are working to answer. This approach will also rall ...Read More

An old boss used to say "don't let the product get in the way of a good story". In order to stay head of your competitors, you will likely need to future sell. It is important to be aligned with the product team on WHY they are building the product, jobs to be done, etc and articulate that north star in your marketing. The amount of detail revealed is generally correlated to the confidence in delivering the product as described. For example, for an alpha product (we aren't sure this is going to ...Read More

I agree there is value in getting ahead of the market and positioning your new, amazing product early in its lifecycle. This can also be risky if use cases and backend infrastructure are not solid yet. One of the most costly mistakes with messaging is the smoke and mirrors effect. You want to build trust early on with your audience. Don't dupe them and don't make any promises that aren't possible with the product. You need social proof and use cases to message your product confidently. Another r ...Read More

I think the worse thing you can do as a brand is to have your messaging get too far ahead of the product by promising something that you can't deliver, particularly if it's on a differentiating piece of functionality that could be game changing for the company. If you lean hard into messaging something that's not ready for prime time your customers will lose the trust in you that you've probably worked hard to establish. Trust and reputation is everything particularly in markets where competitio ...Read More