6 Priceless Content Strategy Ideas for Your Next Product Launch
The results are in. Consumers are officially blind to digital advertising.
In other words, this generation of consumers are considering authenticity and credibility first when deciding where to spend their hard earned dollars. What does that mean for you and your product team? It means that the days of considering content strategy as an afterthought are over.
As a former journalist, content marketer and current product manager, I know first-hand that considering content at the beginning of the product development lifecycle as opposed to the end can make a world of difference when it comes to adoption.
From deciding which product to prioritize to determining the timing of a launch, incorporating content planning into your product planning can help avoid misalignment later on.
Here’s how to incorporate content planning into your product strategy to maximize your reach and blow up your next launch.
The “Ideation” Phase
Should you ever use content opportunities as a reason to prioritize one feature over another? In my experience, the answer is a resounding YES.
My reasoning has to do with the way users discover products today.
Let’s do a quick poll—when is the last time you bought anything that you had never purchased before without reading an article or a review, watching a video, or doing some sort of minimal online research beforehand? I’m willing to bet that none of you raised your hands.
The top-of-the-funnel journey has fundamentally changed. If your product doesn’t have the potential for an omni-platform content marketing strategy, the chances of anyone discovering it are slim-to-none.
Luckily, many of the tactics that content marketers and journalists use to identify winning ideas for blogs, articles, webinars, and social posts are also applicable to identifying great product ideas.
Keep reading to learn how to use the tricks of content strategists to find the best product ideas and craft a winning product story, all at once.
1. Learn the tricks of the SEO Trade
One of the quickest and most cost-effective ways you can get started is to leverage one of the oldest tricks in the SEO guidebook and research keywords related to your product or industry.
Not only will this practice give you a leg up on identifying which issues are top-of-mind for your customer base, but it will also give you a head start on creating content to guide potential customers to your product or feature.
This simple strategy will allow you to craft your product or feature idea to directly respond to the concerns of potential customers—which, in turn, will make developing content ideas to take this product to market much easier.
Relevant Tools: Ahrefs, Moz, BuzzSumo.
2. Get the Inside Scoop with Customer Reviews
Beyond reviewing content written by experts, influencers, and journalists to help inform their buying decisions, consumers increasingly turn to reviews to see what other buyers think.
Product teams don’t have to go far to find these insights. Scrolling through Reddit and other review platforms for common concerns that users have about competitors’ products—or even complaints that they might have about the market segment in general—can narrow your search for the perfect product idea.
These insights can also become an amazing source for competitive content ideas such as feature comparison lists, tech stack guides, and more to help users decide to spend their money with you over an industry competitor.
Relevant Tools: G2, Trustpilot, Google Business Profile.
3. Return to the Source: Your Own Customer Feedback
Lastly, as any great product manager knows, there’s no greater source of data than feedback from your own customers.
I’ve held a wide range of product and content roles, and they all have one thing in common—success in each role is dependent on collecting, correctly interpreting, and responding to customer feedback.
Seasoned PMs know that digging into their own customer feedback is the best place to source "quick win" ideas and bigger bets alike. It’s also the best place to learn how to address your customers’ concerns with a content-driven, product launch strategy.
Relevant Tools: ZenDesk (for support tickets), Pendo, HubSpot, SurveyMonkey.
The “Execution” Phase
Beyond developing product ideas, content strategy should be at the top of your mind while building your delivery plan.
If done correctly, product teams can leverage content to interact with users throughout the delivery process and iterate or shift gears if needed.
Furthermore, when considered throughout the execution phase, customer feedback from the delivery process can be used to build case studies, webinars and other forms of go-to-market content to bolster adoption of new products and features.
Here’s how to leverage content strategy throughout the delivery process to optimize the success of your product release.
4. Turn Early Feedback into Case Studies, Blog Posts, Social Posts, and more
Product managers and marketers know that nothing happens in a bubble.
Product releases are often coupled with blog posts, webinars, case studies, social posts, and more to increase awareness about the launch and drive adoption.
However, many product teams experience a usage lag immediately following launches due to the time it takes for users to become aware that something has, in fact, been released.
Effective content planning can be used to build excitement leading up to a product release and can reduce the burden of training on internal teams following that release.
Most product teams opt to test features with a beta group ahead of a launch. With a bit of foresight, data from these tests can be turned into any number of strategic pieces of content that can be used to drive sales alongside a larger launch.
5. Leverage your Newsletter to Build Brand Ambassadors
Every one of us has used a newsletter to inform customers about recent product changes.
I’d like to challenge you to take your newsletter strategy a step further. One way to do this is to use your newsletter as a way to collect insights from customers about which features they’d like to see next, and promptly let them know when those features have been delivered.
Coupled with the beta group you’re likely working with ahead of a launch, a newsletter is an excellent way to build suspense for upcoming releases by keeping users informed about all the exciting things coming down the pipeline.
The challenge here will be to ensure that you’re building suspense for features that you’re actually prepared to deliver. Nothing loses a customer’s trust faster than a broken commitment.
Furthermore, the newsletter is an excellent opportunity to share the well-researched and data-driven content produced by your team. From blog posts, to webinars to case studies, don’t be afraid to shamelessly plug all the resources you’ve created to help your customers thrive.
Relevant Tools: Substack, Podia, MailChimp.
6. Partner with Major Clients to Co-Develop Training
Many product teams have clients that have higher-than-average value contracts, who often have a major say in the allocation of resources on the product team.
If you’ve ever asked your engineering lead to fix a bug outside the sprint cycle, and then had to explain that it was for THAT client, you know what I’m talking about.
These high-value clients present an opportunity to bring a major customer onboard as a beta tester during the delivery cycle while co-creating training materials for other customers ahead of launch.
This process of co-creating products with customers is becoming increasingly common as brand loyalty becomes one of the number-one reasons clients choose to stick with a specific product versus switching to another one.
I’d approach this by inviting one major client onboard to be a beta tester for a new product or feature early on in the process. If your leadership team is open to co-creating the product with a major client from the very beginning, this approach often works well.
As you bring this client along while ideating on the details of a new feature, the insights collected during this phase can often be turned into highly engaging, co-branded training materials.
Relevant Tools: Miro, MURAL, Figma
Yep, content is still king.
Even as the internet evolves and changes, content still reigns. By integrating your product and content strategies, you can turbo-charge your next launch and build a loyal customer base at the same time.
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