Best 13 Product-Driven Marketing Examples: Learn from Industry Leaders Who Put Their Product First

Imagine you just launched a big-ticket product with great branding around it. Just a few months before your product launch, you partnered with influencers, spoke at marketing events, and kept up your social media profiles. 

However, on the day of your launch, the sales you saw were minimal and significantly below your expectations. You thought you did everything right, so what’s the reason for this disappointment? 

Well, there’s a possibility your target market simply didn’t know enough about your product to be invested in it. You may have put all your money into branding, but if your marketing efforts don’t showcase your product and its capabilities, how does a customer know what good it can do for them?

This is why models like Build in Public are popular and why product-driven marketing works so well. So, for this blog, we’re planning to show you a few product-driven marketing examples by product-driven companies that you can use to boost sales!

Product-Driven Marketing Example #1–Create a live demo challenge like Monitask

To build awareness about their product organically, Monitask, a SaaS company, created a live sales demo challenge wherein it invited prospects and interested parties to use their premium tools for free for 21 days. 

There was only one catch: at the end of the challenge, users had to share their results. Due to the promotion of this challenge on various channels, the company had many people signing up. 

This, in turn, led to three major benefits for Monitask:

• Buzz around their product (which resulted in a lot of sign-ups and engagement on their social media pages). 
• Product trials (this also gets prospects accustomed to the solution before they become a paid customer). 
• Promotion of Monitask’s capabilities. 

Pro-Tip: Use lead scoring models to identify which customers to invite

If you’re planning to copy Monitask’s strategy, you might need to identify which customers to invite and which not to.

So, we recommend creating lead scoring models to understand how ready to convert your prospect is. You can use Copilot to get automated insights from lead-scoring models without manually entering the data.

Product-Driven Marketing Example #2–Use product references in how-to blogs like ClickUp and Adobe

Another way to get customers to start using your product features or to make them aware of your product’s capabilities is to integrate product references in how-to blogs. 

Take platforms like ClickUp and Adobe, for example. If their product has a feature directly related to their target keyword, they won’t hesitate to talk about it. 

For example, if you search How to edit PDF in Windows on Adobe, it tells you how to do it natively (aka on Windows), but also how to do it in Adobe. 

Or, if you look up a “How to be Productive” article on ClickUp, it’ll show you how you can become productive by using ClickUp’s features. 

Product-Driven Marketing Example #3–Leverage freemium models like Canva

Freemium models are an excellent way to give the user a taste of your product so they have a decent idea about the premium features. 

Take Canva, for example. The company’s freemium model is so popular that it essentially drives growth for the premium models through word-of-mouth marketing.

Product-Driven Marketing Example #4–Give out product testers like Costco and Sephora

If you’re not in a service-based business, but rather a product-based business, one of the best product-driven marketing examples you can look at is Costco and Sephora. 

Both companies provide product testers so that their customer knows about the quality of the product.

To replicate this example, you can provide free product testers in your local neighborhood or the farmer’s market if you’re a small business. 

Plus, it’s the perfect way to gather customer feedback. That way, when you go back to the product development process, you can tap into this valuable source of information to make the best possible product. 

Product-Driven Marketing Example #5–Use discounts before launching like Tru Earth

Like every other brand, Tru Earth wanted to raise awareness about its products before the launch of its new product, Eco Strips. 

So, it got potential customers to sign up for their mailing list that had educational content about the product in exchange for early access to discounts. 

Ryan Mckenzie, the co-founder of Tru Earth, said, “These early adopters helped us validate our product and create social proof through their testimonials, which we then utilized in our marketing materials and social media channels.”

Product-Driven Marketing Example #6–Create a performance challenge like Mailmodo

Mailmodo wanted customers to know more about their product without being salesy. So, they created a 21-day performance challenge, and here’s the process they implemented:

• They sent participants one email daily packed with bite-sized action tasks to supercharge their email performance. (Some emails had a strategically curated “How to do it in Mailmodo?” section.)
• They later sent interactive reminder emails and asked customers if they had finished the task. 
• Lastly, they assigned a community member like Samar Owais to help folks facing blockers or feeling lost.

Within a short period, they had 460 participants opt-in, open rates at 39%, click rates at 10%, and 35 product sign-ups. 

Product-Driven Marketing Example #7–Create features around your product like Pitch 

Some brands are so just so different from the industry, they don’t even need product marketing. Case in point: Pitch. 

Pitch, is a video presentation maker. While everyone knows of this product, they’ve also made it highly accessible by providing the following features:

• Providing tons of presentation and deck templates for different use cases. 
• Creating an engaging community on Slack. 
• Having extremely valuable educational material on their website.

Product-Driven Marketing Example #8–Try out virtual filters like Maybelline 

Another way to make your products more accessible is to make your customer understand how it (the product) will look on them. 

For example, to promote its beauty product, Maybelline has a virtual filter that allows customers to try different shades. 

Other beauty brands that also use virtual reality are Loreal, Chanel, Benefit, Bobbi Brown, Sephora, Ulta Beauty, etc. However, this feature isn’t only limited to the beauty industry. Brands can use it for different use cases— for example, Lenskart uses it for glasses. 

Product-Driven Marketing Example #9–Send personalized recommendations like Get2Ai

Personalized product recommendations are one of the pillars of product-driven marketing. 

Large brands like Amazon, Myntra, Nykka, Walmart, etc., leverage customer data to do this, but you don’t need to be a big gun to use this strategy. 

SMBs like Get2AI also send product recommendations to drive growth by noting user preferences, behavior, purchase patterns, and interactions. 

Product-Driven Marketing Example #10–Tap into user-generated content like Starbucks

Another thing you can try is leveraging user-generated content (UGC). You can run contests like “Designed With Canva,” encourage festive content like Starbucks, or exchange discounts in return for UGC.

Not only does UGC help build trust and credibility, but it also provides insights on how the product should be used for more technical products. 

Product-Driven Marketing Example #11–Build hype through newer innovations like Jimmy Johns

When we first heard of the metaverse, it became instant hype, and everyone wanted to try it out—and that’s what Jimmy Johns took advantage of. 

The company built a Jimmy John’s virtual world in the metaverse and allowed customers to create unique orders in this world. In return, every participant got a coupon they could use in the real world, and the most-liked order would get featured on Jimmy Johns’ limited-time menu. 

Through this, Jimmy Johns got UGC, new product ideas, in-store walk-ins, and customer engagement on a new platform. And when they launched their limited-time menu item, the Meta Sandwich, that sold out, too. 

Product-Driven Marketing Example #12–Focus on your loyal customers like SnackMagic 

Companies like SnackMagic rely on organic word-of-mouth marketing through loyal customers. Here’s what Shaunak Amin, CEO of SwagMagic, had to say about the methodology:

“As we’re in corporate gifting, a gift organizer will give curated swag boxes to 100 or even 1000 loyal clients. 

And many of these recipients will turn around and send treats and swag to their customers, who’ll then send gifts to others.

This kind of organic product-led marketing enabled us to scale our sister brand, SnackMagic, from $0 to $20 million in ARR in its first 8 months.”

Product-Driven Marketing Example #13–Use your website to build awareness like Zeda 

Regardless of where a customer discovered you first, they’re bound to come to your website to find out more about your offering or buy products from you. 

Hence, Zeda uses its website to build awareness about its product. Just one look at their website and social pages tells you exactly what Zeda does—and all of this has been achieved through interactive visuals, clear copy, and expert-led webinars.

There are other resources on the website, too, like the blog and Zeda Academy. 

Make an example of your brand!

Now that you have some examples to inspire your product-driven marketing efforts, you can copy a mix of these strategies to make your brand stand out. And hey, maybe one of your product managers will be the next Steve Jobs.

But, before you double down on your business strategies, you might benefit from finding out who your ideal customer profile (ICP) is and which leads you should target to make your campaigns more effective. You can also include social media marketing campaigns like sharing your content and gaining more Facebook post likes as initial steps.

Thankfully, Breadcrumbs has a tool for both. You can use our Reveal tool to find out ICPs for free and our Copilot tool to find out which leads to target.

Get started for free today, or book a demo with our team to see Breadcrumbs in action.