Product Marketing vs. Portfolio Marketing: Which is More Effective in B2B?
The simplest way to understand product marketing versus portfolio marketing is the classic saying: the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Your portfolio holds more market and customer value than merely the collection of individual products.
What is Product Marketing?
In B2B, product marketing focuses on communicating the value of individual products. The goal is to explain how these products make users better at their jobs, delivering strategic value to the customer organization. For instance, an accounts payable solution can provide a company with more accurate cash flow by eliminating invoice errors, thereby offering both strategic and tactical benefits.
Product marketing aims to highlight the product’s value, build a strong sales pipeline, and ensure the sales team can effectively convey this value throughout the sales process. Ultimately, the goal is to increase revenue from existing products and grow their market share, aligning with the organization’s financial and strategic objectives.
What is Portfolio Marketing?
Portfolio marketing, on the other hand, concentrates on showcasing the value of an entire portfolio to specific industry segments like retail, healthcare, and manufacturing. The objective is to show how the portfolio strengthens organizations within those industries. For example, marketing an “enterprise financial management” portfolio to hospitals can emphasize how it provides a financial advantage, enabling them to offer better patient care and execute strategic priorities.
Product marketing is a subset of portfolio marketing that addresses particular needs within departments like accounts payable, accounts receivable, and asset management. In portfolio marketing, each product’s positioning is tied to a common industry value theme, creating a unified and relevant value story for each market segment, such as healthcare. This holistic approach means the collective value delivered across multiple customer functions can provide a competitive advantage, making the organization a top-tier provider.
Portfolio marketing ensures the salesforce can tell a more strategic and differentiating value story for each market segment throughout the sales process, supported by appropriate sales tools. In B2B, marketing the value of your portfolio often proves more advantageous, even if customers purchase products individually. This is because the industry-specific relevance factor is higher, and it aligns your vision with that of your target customers.
The ultimate goal of portfolio marketing is to drive revenue and market penetration in specific segments, rather than focusing solely on product revenue and market share. This approach promotes industry revenue and market share, which means targeting specific vertical markets can offer substantial benefits through industry-relevant messaging.
Which Approach is Best for You?
Here are some general guidelines to consider:
– If Your Products Are a Commodity: In a highly competitive and crowded market, portfolio marketing provides an easier way to differentiate by making your marketing and sales messages more relevant to buyers within each segment. This relevance often translates to the perception that your products are better because you understand the industry better.
– If Your Product Category is Relatively New: In a new product category aiming to capture market share, product marketing with a generic approach can still be effective by emphasizing educational content. However, as competition increases, shifting towards portfolio marketing will become essential to sustain growth.
Making the Transition to Portfolio Marketing
To transition from product marketing to portfolio marketing, identify market segments with notable success and rapid adoption of your products. Develop industry-specific messaging and integrate product messaging within this context. Deploy this strategy across your salesforce and marketing channels, supported by sales tools and programs.
Product Marketing vs. Portfolio Marketing: The Big Picture
Your approach to marketing products is largely an extension of your go-to-market strategy. Most B2B companies hesitate to target specific industries, fearing they might miss opportunities in other segments. However, focusing on the top revenue-contributing segments can significantly improve competitive positioning.
Product marketing can easily adapt to a vertical strategy, but it requires support from product management to incorporate some industry-specific features into a predominantly horizontal platform. When product teams adopt a holistic market view, they can deliver greater value.
Deciding between product marketing and portfolio marketing depends on what aligns best with your organization’s success. Whether aiming to lead in specific industry segments or offering a more generic solution to all, choosing the right strategy can significantly impact your market position and growth.