What type of marketing activities should be considered in parallel while products are in development?

When a product is in development you typically will be working on a launch plan in parallel.

These elements include:

- GTM strategy: product adoption strategy, pricing/packaging, competitive, customer playbook

- Internal enablement & comms strategy

- Sales enablement/technical enablement (product docs, training)

- External comms and planning (PR, analyst briefings, customer comms, customer testimonials, etc)

- Demand gen plan

Your positioning and messaging should be written in parallel with development, and ideally should be finalized before the product goes into a wide beta.

But if you're working on a larger launch, it's likely you'll need to start other activities ahead of time too like:

• Video: Any video asset you create will likely have a long lead-time. It will require things like a script or outline, planning, screenshots, and a whole lot more. You should get as much of the planning for video content done ahead of time as possible. As the product then gets into beta and is in more of a "final state" you can start to record the video itself in time for the launch.
• Audio: Depending on what you're doing with audio, it may not need as much time as video but it's another asset that typically requires a fair amount of time. 
• PR/AR: Start to think about analysts you want to talk to, or what the press release should touch on - and how to pitch to journalists. To be clear, you shouldn't necessarily start pitching to them too early, but you shoudl plan who to reach out to and what that pitch will include to make it easier as the product gets closer to release.
• Website: If you need any custom animations, or new pages to be built, work with someone who manages your website to get ahead of this. They'll need specifics on what you're thinking, where it lives on the site, what the purpose is, how other pages should link to this one, and more. If you work for a medium-to-large company it's likely you have a web team that has a big backlog of requests, so get ahead of that as much as possible and get this in early.
• Ads: If you are thinking about any billboards, or audio/video ads, then you will want to get ahead of those as the product is in development as well.

Essentially, anything with a long lead-time should be done - or at least planned - while the product is still in development. Some things, like one-pagers and internal enablement are a bit more turn key and can be created during beta if needed.

There are a few reasons I typically observe for why PMMs engage in Marketing before the product is ready for GA (general availability). If there's an alpha/beta stage, PMMs are working on tailored communication to drive success and learnings from those early customers. If the sales/deal cycle are longer for this product, PMMs may start enabling sales to start the pre-sell motion before the product is GA.

While products are in development the best thing to focus on to get a jump on your GTM is defining the target audience. The specific features may change and that may impact your specific messaging and content etc, but the overall use case should be fairly stable if it's in development so you can work on who you're going to go after and what you want them to do (adopt, upgrade, buy, etc) and then start making links to any existing GTM plays, is this product going to be part of an existing play or will you need to build a new motion for it? It's essentially the foundation of your positioning which you'll then be able to build your launch messaging off of and ultimately your launch plan. 

Since we're talking about influencing roadmap - sharing this with product and collaborating on it is super effective in continuing to hone the product. For example, let's say you think this product is going to be really effective at bringing a new audience to your company, but product was building it to be an add-on to an existing product...that's great fodder for a roadmap prioritization discussion. Is the new audience opportunity big enough to justify changing it to a stand-alone product, or is it better to adjust your GTM to focus on existing customers at launch. 

As products are being developed, Product Marketing can engage in several parallel activities to prepare for a successful launch and encourage adoption. These activities encompass strategy, market preparation, and internal enablement to ensure team alignment and readiness. Here are some key marketing activities to consider:

Market Research and Validation

• Customer and Persona Development: Based on updated market research, refine target personas and validate their needs and pain points with existing customers or prospects.

• Competitive Analysis: To craft your positioning, assess competitors’ offerings, and identify gaps or differentiators.

• Beta Testing Feedback: Select customers will be involved in beta testing to gather early feedback and testimonials.

Messaging and Positioning

• Value Proposition Development: Define the product's unique selling points and benefits for each target audience.

• Core Messaging: Craft consistent messaging to communicate the product’s value across channels.

 Go-to-Market Strategy Development

• Launch Planning: Develop a detailed launch plan, including goals, timelines, and roles across teams.

• Channel Strategy: Identify the primary channels (e.g., email, social media, events) to reach your audience effectively.

 Content Development

• Sales Enablement Materials: Develop internal resources for the sales team, such as product one-pagers, FAQs, and competitive battle cards.

• Early Teasers: Produce pre-launch teasers, such as "coming soon" videos, blog updates, or newsletters, to generate curiosity.

By carrying out these parallel activities, you will ensure a seamless transition from product development to launch and beyond, enhancing market readiness and customer impact.

While a product is still in the many phases of development, there are a number of activities that you, as the Product Marketer, can work on in parallel.

For example:

• Messaging

• Testimonials - There will likely be a beta release where you can tap some of the early users to capture a quote for the press release and other communications

• Press Release

• Internal Enablement

• Launch day communications (internal, customers, prospects, partners)

• Content Marketing (blogs, webpages, one pagers, research articles, social, etc.)

• SEO strategy

• Competitive updates

• Persona updates

• BDR/Demo communication updates

• Any video scripts or outlines for product tours

• Analyst outreach

• Lead flow/scoring

• Webinar slides and guests

Work outside of marketing you should think about:

• CRM update - If you use Salesforce, is there a field to capture this new product?

• Pricing and packaging

• Help documentation - This typically doesn't fall on PMM, but you may be asked to help if you're a strong writer and the product team is at capacity