Building and marketing a product is a pipedream for many. For most people, it remains a pipedream because they either do not know how to go about it, or they are unwilling to put in the work, or both. If you are here, chances are you have been frantically reading and are on the lookout for answers. There are a few things you ought to know as you develop and release a product. One of those things is a product roadmap.
What is a Product Roadmap?
A product roadmap is a term used to describe a high-level visual summary that explains the overall direction and vision of the given product in the long run. It clearly puts forth the how, what, and why of the product that you are developing. It serves as a strategy and a plan to execute as per the devised strategy. A roadmap lays out several goals. Here are those goals:
- Lay out the overarching vision and long-term strategy
- Draw up a document for strategic guidance to help execute as per the strategy
- Bring in internal stakeholders
- Hold discussions to plan for different scenarios
- Facilitate communication with external stakeholders and customers
Why do you need a Product Roadmap?
A product roadmap can help you define the areas of focus and the plan for the short-term and the long-term.
It is an excellent tool that you can use to convey the vision and mission of the product as clearly as possible. As a product owner, you will find product roadmaps to be invaluable. You can adjust the features that your product has based on the feedback that you get from the stakeholders.
The roadmap acts as only as a guideline and does not include the release date of the product. The schedule for release is controlled by the release manager or the product team.
How do you start building your first Product Roadmap?
Building your first product roadmap can be nerve-racking. You might be tempted to start with your product’s most intriguing features and work your way around those but, you should ideally focus on a top-down approach. Start by explaining why your product exists in the first place. Here are the questions you ought to ask yourself and answer:
- Why build this product?
- What are you looking to achieve and accomplish?
- How will this bring value to the target audience or customers?
The Importance of Digital Marketing Tools
The importance of digital marketing tools cannot be emphasized enough in the digital age. Here are some key benefits of digital marketing:
Boost in Conversion
Ultimately, you gauge and evaluate the progress your marketing campaign has made by looking at the numbers. You would have to consider the number of leads, deals, sales, or subscribers you managed to amass to see how much progress you’ve made. Digital marketing campaigns are carried out to increase your Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO).
You have many forms of digital marketing at your disposal, including email marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), social media optimization, and many more.
Helps you Engage your Target Audience better
Digital marketing help drive organic traffic to your website and help convert prospects into customers. However, you need to make sure you are effective in engaging your target audience in order to turn them into returning customers. Digital marketing enables you to reach out to multiple leads and address their concerns and keep them updated on your company-related information.
Allows you to compete with big companies
Large organizations primarily have the edge over small and medium-sized businesses in terms of budget. They tend to set aside massive budgets for their marketing endeavors and dominate the competition. However, in this day and age, digital marketing has managed to level the playing field, thereby allowing small and medium-sized businesses to compete with their big sharks.
Which Digital Marketing Tools should I start with?
Here are indispensable tools you ought to start with:
Ahrefs
Ahrefs has cemented itself as an excellent digital marketing tool, owing to its incredibly large database that has data on close to 150 million keywords. This SEO tool can help you drive a substantial amount of traffic to your website. Aside from this, it allows you to analyze and evaluate your competitors and their top pages. Unlike the vast majority of SEO tools, Ahrefs offers insightful backlink analyses and a backlink analysis report of your competitors’ websites. Given its incredibly useful features, Ahrefs deserves to be on your list of digital marketing tools you are interested in.
Slack
Slack is a digital marketing tool that facilitates crystal clear and quick communication between different team members and members of various departments. Slack allows you to create as many channels as you want and assign different team members to different channels. You may create, join, and leave as many channels as you wish. Additionally, you have the option to communicate with anyone privately if you decide that you do not want to use the channels you have created. If that wasn’t enough, Slack is integrated with a wide variety of other tools, making it a force to be reckoned with.
Contrary to what you might think, Slack does not cost an arm and a leg. You may use Slack for free if you happen to be a small or medium-sized organization. If you are an enterprise, you may avail the custom pricing on their website.
