United States

Today, PR teams aren’t just tracking media coverage and share of voice. They’re also measuring how their brand shows up in AI-generated answers, search summaries, and large language models (LLMs). This new LLM visibility layer is quickly becoming a critical part of PR performance.

15 Must-Have PR KPIs and How to Track Them

Influencer marketing is evolving, and so is the way brands measure success. That’s why Meltwater is proud to announce a new partnership with YouTube, integrating YouTube’s Creator Partnerships API directly into our Influencer Marketing platform.

Introducing Verified YouTube Data in Meltwater Influencer Marketing

See how one platform can power every decision across PR, communications, and marketing.

The Meltwater Blog

Blog Topics: Generative Engine Optimization, Media Intelligence, Media Relations, Social Listening, Consumer Intelligence, Influencer Marketing

Find out how you can leverage Facebook to boost your brand's online presence and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

Facebook Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage Instagram to boost your brand's visual appeal and gain a competitive edge. Explore our category page today!

Instagram Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage LinkedIN to grow your professional network and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

LinkedIn Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage TikTok to elevate your brand with creative content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

TikTok Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage X / Twitter to engage your audience effectively and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

X / Twitter Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage YouTube to create engaging video content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

YouTube Blog | Meltwater

Every day billions of conversations take place on social media: tweets, posts, comments, blogs, reviews, podcasts, and much more.
Learn how to use social listening to make sense of all of that data.

On our social listening category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around social listening and social media monitoring. Read more.

Social Listening Blogs | Category

Business Reputation Management: What does it take to add reputation management to your marketing strategy? More importantly, how do you keep your reputation sparkly and shiny? Here’s your all-access guide to online reputation management for the long term.

On our reputation management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around business reputation management. Read more.

Reputation Management Blogs | Category

From your brand's logo to your website, your social media presence to your customer support—these elements combined are what constitutes a brand in the minds of customers. But, there are thousands of other businesses that have a logo, website, social media presence, and website. So, how can you position your business on the market and make it stand out from the competition?
The key to success is branding & brand management!

On our brand management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around brand management. Build your strategy and reach your goals!

Brand Management Blogs | Category

Competitive intelligence and the act of collecting competitive data can be seen as growth drivers for a company. Our guide will help you understand the concept of competitive intelligence (CI) by answering questions such as: What is the definition of competitive intelligence? How is competitive intelligence useful to organizations? What is the goal of competitive intelligence? And more.

On our competitive intelligence category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around competitive intelligence. Learn how to stay ahead.

Competitive Intelligence Blogs | Category

Let’s dive into the customer journey framework and how to optimize the process by creating a customer journey map and using metrics that matter when analyzing the customer journey.

On our customer journey category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Customer Journey Blogs | Category

What Is Data Analytics? [Beginner’s Guide 2023]
How can I grow my business? 
How do customers interact with my newly launched product?
How do I increase the productivity of my employees?
How do I know if my marketing efforts are working?
We have just two words for you...Data analytics!

On our data analytics category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around AI and data analytics. Technical and still easy to understand.

AI & Data Analytics Blogs | Category

Public relations and media relations can add impact to any marketing strategy. It’s an opportunity for brands to grow their reach beyond traditional sales messages. PR helps to shape the image you want people to have of your brand.
So, what is PR and how do you use it? This guide shows you everything you need to know to build a strong public relations foundation.

On our public relations (PR) category page, you find all our blogs covering public relations and communications topics. Step up your PR game.

Public Relations (PR) Blogs | Category

We all know exactly what the roles of sales or accounting are in a company, right? We might even have a slight idea of what the IT guys are doing.
But there is another business discipline, that plays a crucial role in organizations, even more so during the pandemic – internal communications!
But what exactly do we mean by that, what purpose does it serve and what steps can you take to ensure you and your employees will communicate effectively?

On our internal communications category page, you find all our blogs about internal comms topics. Learn about the intranet, internal newsletters, and more.

Internal Communications Blogs | Category

As the internet has taken root in more areas of our lives — everything from entertainment to shopping to paying bills and more — traditional marketing is becoming less impactful. As any marketer knows, you need to focus on where your audience is if you want to reach them. Since the average person spends about seven hours a day online, it’s no surprise that content has maintained its hold on marketers.

Here's a closer look at what content marketing is and why it matters more than ever in our digital-first economy.

On our content marketing category page, you find blogs about content marketing topics. Learn about strategies, KPIs, tips, and more. Make your content king!

Content Marketing Blogs | Category

The rise of the influencer marketing space – today a $10 billion industry, growing 50% per year – is one of the clearest examples of how social media is transforming traditional marketing. These days having a business website, presence on social, PR coverage, and your own content isn’t enough to compete.
We'll dive into the intricacies of influencer marketing to help ensure that you're equipped with the insights needed to be successful in this space.

On our influencer marketing category page, you find blogs about influencer marketing topics. Build your strategy, find influencers, and measure results.

Influencer Marketing Blogs | Category

Have you just launched a new product or service that you want to get the word out about? Maybe you want to share with consumers why it is awesome and how it is so much better than the one your competitors offer.

Well, then, there is one thing you can't do without...Marketing!

On our marketing category page, you find blogs about marketing topics. Learn about all the different angles and types of marketing and improve your results.

Marketing Blogs | Category

In this guide, we want to give you a peek into the definition of social media management, the daily schedule of a social media manager, social media platforms to promote your business, and the do’s & don’ts of social media management.
Are you ready to begin the journey of becoming a social media superstar?

On our social media management category page, you find blogs about social media management topics. Build and manage your online community.

Social Media Management Blogs | Category

Building a following and using social media platforms to reach a wider audience requires a well-planned social media marketing strategy. In this guide, we’ll be looking at why social media marketing is so essential and how you can make it work for your business.

On our social media marketing category page, you find blogs about social media marketing topics. Learn how to get the highest paid social ROI!

Social Media Marketing Blogs | Category

In the fast-evolving realm of digital marketing and public relations, utilizing the right tools is crucial for success. Our interdisciplinary category showcases all the pertinent tools for digital marketing & PR. These tools help in enhancing your online presence and effectively reaching target groups, whether through reputation management, influencer marketing, or social media management.

On our digital marketing and PR tools category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Digital Marketing & PR Tools Blogs | Category

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is transforming how brands show up in AI-powered search. Explore insights, strategies, and best practices to help your content rank and resonate across conversational engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot.

Explore insights and strategies for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) to help your brand stay visible and discoverable in AI-powered search.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Blog Collection | Meltwater

Digital advance continues, with 5½ billion people now online

2024 has been a year packed with impressive digital milestones, and that trend shows no signs of slowing as we enter the final quarter of the year.

As we’ll explore in detail in this extensive analysis, our new Digital 2024 October Global Statshot Report – published in partnership between We Are Social and Meltwater – has big new numbers for overall digital adoption, for some of the world’s top social media platforms, and for various connected behaviours.

Top stories in this quarter’s update to our Global Digital Reports series include:

Internet users have passed the 5½ billion mark

ChatGPT is delivering a variety of impressive numbers

Social media time dips, but adoption accelerates

Rivalries between Instagram and TikTok reach new levels

A host of impressive numbers for Threads, Telegram, and Snapchat

A closer look at what’s been happening at X

The rise of social search when researching brands

QR codes finally have something to celebrate

That’s only a teaser of what that you’ll find in this quarter’s full report though, and this latest edition of our Global Digital Reports series is packed with loads more data, insights, and surprises.

This quarter’s reports feature an exceptional wealth of data and insight, thanks to the support and generosity of our wonderful data partners:

All of this analysis was written by a human, without the use of generative AI [click here to learn why this matters]. Let’s connect on LinkedIn.

Please note the following before you dive into this latest round of data:

The United Nations published a comprehensive update to its World Population Prospects data in recent weeks, and this update included some important revisions to population numbers around the world. In addition to impacting the figures that we report for population, these revisions may also affect any data point where we show digital adoption or activity as a percentage of the total population (e.g. internet and social media adoption), or as a percentage of a specific age group within the broader population (e.g. people aged 18 and above). As a consequence, any comparisons with equivalent data points published in the Global Digital Reports series prior to the current October 2024 report may result in unexpected trends, including apparent decreases in user figures or activity. However, any such change may be solely the result of changes in (and revisions to) underlying population data, and may not necessarily indicate any change in actual digital adoption or behaviour. As a result, we advise significant caution when interpreting any changes in values that show digital adoption or activity as a percentage of the population. For more details, please see our comprehensive notes on data.

The growth in X’s published ad reach between July 2024 and October 2024 is surprisingly similar across almost all countries, with 222 out of 231 included territories seeing a growth rate of between +0.7% and +0.8%. Our analysis of third-party data suggests that these changes in X’s own ad reach figures may not accurately represent changes in X use over time, so we advise significant caution when interpreting X’s latest ad reach data.

The complete Digital 2024 October Global Statshot Report

You’ll find this quarter’s main report in the embed below (click here if that’s not working for you), but read on past that to explore my in-depth analysis of what all these numbers actually mean for you and your work.

The global state of digital in October 2024

Let’s start by exploring the latest headlines for digital adoption and use around the world:

The United Nations’ latest population data points to a total of 8.18 billion humans living on Earth today. That figure has grown by 70 million people (+0.9 percent) since October 2023, and 58 percent of the total population now lives in urban areas.

5.75 billion people now use a mobile phone, equating to 70.3 percent of the world’s total population. The global user total has grown by 119 million over the past 12 months, delivering year-on-year growth of 2.1 percent. Meanwhile, data shows that smartphones now account for more than 85 percent of the mobile handsets in use around the world.

A total of 5.52 billion people were using the internet at the start of October 2024, equating to 67.5 percent global internet penetration. Internet users have increased by 151 million (+2.8 percent) over the past 12 months, but a total of 2.66 billion people remain offline as we enter the last three months of 2024.

Kepios’s latest analysis puts global social media user identities at 5.22 billion, with that figure equating to 63.8 percent of all the people on Earth. The global total has increased by more than 5 percent over the past year, thanks to the addition of 256 million new user identities [but note that “user identities” may not represent unique individuals].

Internet use reaches another big milestone

Kepios analysis indicates that more than 5½ billion people around the world are using the internet in October 2024.

This figure reflects the latest data from a number of reputable sources, including internet adoption figures from the ITU and local regulatory authorities, mobile internet subscriber data from GSMA Intelligence, survey data from Eurostat, and user data from a variety of digital platforms.

Trends in this data indicate that digital adoption continues to grow too, albeit at a somewhat slower pace than we’ve seen in recent reports.

The current user total has increased by 2.8 percent since this time last year, although it’s worth noting that recent revisions to the United Nations’ world population data (as detailed above) may have impacted this growth figure.

For perspective, data indicate that internet users grew slightly faster – by 2.9 percent – between October 2022 and October 2023, while the figure for the previous year (2021 to 2022) was almost double the current figure, at 5.5 percent.

Nonetheless, these latest numbers indicate that more than 151 million people came online for the first time over the past 12 months, at an average rate of 4.8 new users every second.

Moreover, the complexities of collecting internet user data mean that the most recent figures often under-represent actual internet adoption, so we expect to see an upward “correction” in these latest growth figures as more data becomes available over the coming months.

Meanwhile, internet penetration (i.e. internet users as a percentage of total population) has increased by a relative 1.9 percent over the past year.

That growth is encouraging, but – similar to the trends we saw above – this latest increase is slightly below the 2.0 percent figure that we saw for growth between October 2022 and October 2023.

Note that growth in the user total is partly fuelled by an increase in total population (i.e. there are more people in the world today than there were this time last year), which explains why the user total appears to be growing at a faster rate than the penetration figure.

Please also be aware that we regularly revise our historical internet user data, so the figures you see on these charts likely won’t match or correlate with figures that we published in previous updates to the Global Digital Reports series. 

Turning our attention to internet behaviours, the latest research from GWI reveals that the typical internet user now spends 6 hours and 36 minutes per day online.

This “connected time” includes a variety of activities – from watching Netflix and listening to Spotify, to online shopping and work-related activities – but this diversity doesn’t detract from the gravity of this finding.

Indeed, this daily average means that we now spend a total of more than 46 hours using the internet each week, which is 15 percent more than more than a “typical” working week of 40 hours.

For perspective, the latest research from YouGov indicates that most people sleep for between 7 and 8 hours a day, so GWI’s latest figures for daily internet activity suggest that people spend roughly 40 percent of their waking lives online.

In other words, for many people, connected activities account for the greatest “share of life” after sleep.

Despite already being our most-used devices, mobile phones continue to play an ever more important role in our connected lives.

The latest data from Statcounter shows that mobiles now account for more than 60 percent of global web traffic, after a somewhat unexpected dip in share towards the end of last year.

Mobile’s share of global web traffic has remained above 60 percent since May of this year, and even surpassed 62 percent in August 2024, before flipping back slightly in September.

It’s not unusual to see meaningful fluctuations in these share figures over time, but the overall trends point to mobile’s steadily increasing dominance.

Nevertheless, Statcounter’s data shows that some countries are still heavily reliant on computers when it comes to web activity.

For example, mobile devices account for less than 30 percent of web traffic in Denmark, and mobiles are also a clear second choice in Switzerland, Japan, and Sweden.

Reassuringly, this Statcounter data echoes trends we see in GWI’s research, which finds that people in Japan and Denmark are amongst the least likely to use mobile devices to go online, together with people in Canada and the UK.

Similarly, GWI’s data shows that mobiles account for less than half of connected time across all four of these countries.

The case for mobile internet is increasingly compelling however, especially with the latest Speedtest data from Ookla showing that the median speed of mobile internet connections continues to increase.

For clarity, these figures refer to the speed of cellular data networks, and do not include WiFi access on mobile devices.

At a worldwide level, the typical mobile user now enjoys download speeds of 55.8 Mbps, with that figure jumping by almost 30 percent since this time last year.

Impressively, users in a total of 17 countries now enjoy median mobile download speeds in excess of 100 Mbps, while figures in the UAE and Qatar look set to break the 400 Mbps mark in the next few months.

However, users in various countries still struggle with “laggy” connections, with Ookla reporting that median download speeds remain below 10 Mbps in both Yemen and Afghanistan.

Users in Latin America often contend with slow connections too, with median cellular bandwidth still stuck below 20 Mbps in Bolivia, Venezuela, Colombia, and Paraguay.

Mobile isn’t necessarily an “inferior” choice though, and mobile connections now outpace fixed internet speeds in a total of 34 countries around the world, with users in Suriname experiencing the greatest gap in favour of cellular data connections.

The latest intelligence from data.ai reveals that use of the ChatGPT mobile app has surged over recent weeks, with the app ranking amongst the top ten “breakout” apps by monthly active users between June and August 2024.

“Breakout apps” are those that delivered the largest absolute increases in the relevant metric during the analysis period, so this data provides clear evidence that ChatGPT continues to gain solid momentum, nearly two years after its public launch.

It’s worth highlighting that TikTok and Instagram both added more active users during this same three-month period, but the fact that ChatGPT ranks alongside apps of that size will be particularly encouraging for the OpenAI team.

ChatGPT also placed tenth in data.ai’s ranking of the biggest gainers by download volume, so there’s every chance that we’ll see those active user figures continue to grow over the coming months too.

But it’s not just data.ai’s figures that point to sustained ChatGPT growth.

Similarweb’s data shows that more than a quarter of a billion unique visitors went to ChatGPT.com each month between June and August, resulting in an average of 2.5 billion total site visits per month.

Trends over time look encouraging too, with Similarweb reporting that worldwide site traffic increased by 8 percent between July and August 2024.

Meanwhile, Semrush reports even higher figures, with unique visitor numbers at 392 million for August 2024, and total site visits at 3.1 billion.

Semrush’s growth figures for ChatGPT.com are more modest though, with the traffic analysts reporting an increase of just over 3 percent between July and August 2024.

Digital 2024 October Global Statshot Report

Spend a day running errands and you’re likely to run into a bay of self-checkout machines at your local discount or grocery store chain. First introduced at a Kroger store in Georgia in 1986, self-checkouts became more popular in the early 2000s. They have since become a controversial topic among shoppers, with some praising the technology for streamlining the retail experience and others trying to avoid it at all costs. Ask your coworker, neighbor, or friend and chances are you will find someone with a strong opinion about self-checkout, but a consensus is a bit harder to come by. We used our social listening and analytics solution to get closer to the truth about how consumers view self-checkout.

Want to connect with retail customers? Check out our retail industry report. 

The self-checkout digital conversation overall

From October 1, 2023, to September 30, 2024, there were about 168,000 social media, blog, product reviews, comments, and podcast mentions expressing an opinion about self-checkout. There were about 458 mentions of the technology daily, with higher mentions on average from October through mid-March.


Walmart was the most-mentioned organization, followed by Target. This is likely because both stores introduced new self-checkout policies this year. 

When it comes to how people feel about self-checkout, sentiment is much more negative than positive. 


As our AI-powered insight feature summarizes, many positive posts mention loving the convenience (as well as the ability to steal easily), while many negative posts mention technical, social, and economic frustrations with the systems.

Learn more about why AI-powered insights are important for marketers.

Our analysis found that X — followed by Reddit — was the top source for self-checkout opinions. Let’s dive into the conversation on each of these platforms to drill down on the emerging narratives.

Self-checkout opinions on X: A multitude of frustrations

Mentions on X, where nearly half of all mentions came from, spiked highest on March 15, 2024, thanks to rising discussion of self-checkout frustrations, including accessibility for people with disabilities, item limits, and potential subscription services for use. The second-highest spike was on November 18, 2023, when a discussion full of mixed opinions arose on their convenience, accuracy, and efficiency. 

This was the second most-engaged post about self-checkout on X.

4 discussed whether (and how) self-checkouts facilitate or encourage theft

3 discussed a viral video that allegedly shows a store’s employee calling the police on a customer struggling with self-checkout

2 mentioned the loss of jobs and shift of labor from paid workers to the consumer

1 mentioned John Mulaney’s recent appearance at a tech conference at which he made fun of attendees for looking like they believe in the future of self-checkout 

Overall, praise for self-checkout on X is few and far between. However, of the 15% of positive mentions, many highlight convenience and efficiency.

Self-checkout opinions on Reddit: Generational divides

On Reddit, which had the second-highest volume of self-checkout opinions at over 7,400 mentions, generational differences emerged as a leading talking point. For example, the biggest day of self-checkout discussion on the platform was on January 21, 2024, sparked by a post in r/science sharing a then-recent Drexel University blog about research into self-checkout’s effect on customer loyalty at grocery stores. The brief link-sharing post generated about 3,300 comments, with discussion touching on the forum’s focus on science while veering outside of personal shopping experiences. 

The most upvoted comment, and its top response, on a r/science post about scientific research into self-checkouts and customer loyalty.

The post’s top response critiqued the study for not controlling for age, the assumption being that the loyalty of older customers would be impacted more than that of younger ones.

Other top subreddits for self-checkout discussions included r/retailhell, a forum for retail workers to vent, r/Millennials, and r/GenZ. Redditors in these discussions expressed a wide range of opinions about using self-checkout themselves; however, the popular perception in some of the most engaged posts is that hating, refusing to use, or struggling to use self-checkout is associated with the Baby Boomer generation. Meanwhile, though many members of these non-Boomer communities perceive themselves as more welcoming of the technology than older generations, they still have their complaints, with members of r/Millennials having only slightly more positive opinions (12.7%) than members of r/GenZ (12.3%). 

So, what do shoppers like about self-checkout?

These upvoted comments from a Reddit post about self-checkout at Aldi stores summarize what some consumers love about the technology.

While self-checkout has its haters, many people love the technology. According to our analysis, some of the top qualities shoppers love about self-checkout are:

Efficiency: Many positive opinions mention using self-checkout to get in and out of stores fast, especially if consumers are buying just a few items during busy shopping times. 

Setting your own pace: On the flip side, some people like that they can take their time with self-checkouts.

Avoiding social interaction: Whether they regularly dislike face-to-face interaction or are just having an introverted day, a lot of love for self-checkout comes from people who appreciate not having to make small talk while shopping.

Having options: Sometimes shoppers want to use self-checkout. Other times, they don’t. However, many consumers appreciate having the choice.

Retail marketers have endless insights to gain from how consumers talk about self-checkout, but here are three of the biggest ones revealed by our analysis:

News articles about self-checkout are surefire sparks for discussion about the technology online, highlighting just how eager consumers are to share their opinions and experiences about the topic. Marketers and retailers alike can meet this eagerness by giving consumers more arenas and opportunities for expressing their self-checkout likes and dislikes.

Hating or struggling with self-checkout is commonly associated with older people. Whether or not this perception is rooted in reality, accessibility and usability are real concerns around the technology. At the same time, some prominent content associates younger generations with using self-checkout for theft. Both assumptions paint these generations in a negative light that retailers can combat with on-the-floor changes and marketers can combat with messaging.

Self-checkout is a hot talking point as more stores adopt or adjust their approach to the technology. Marketers and retailers need to stay on top of these conversations to see what is and isn’t working as consumers’ perceptions of self-checkout continue to evolve.

Looking for more data on the retail sector? Learn more about how consumers discover and research their favorite products and brands in our retail industry report. 

What Consumers Think About Self-Checkout

 What exactly is product marketing? How does it create the kind of content that will get customers excited about the products you sell or the service that you provide? Why should you even begin to consider having a product marketing strategy? What is the impact of product marketing on sales? This blog post will unpack just that. 

5 Elements of Successful Product Promotion

7 Steps to Create a Product Marketing Strategy

In essence, product marketing is the process of: 

A dedicated product marketing team exists to execute this process, and product marketers and product marketing managers are there to understand the product's target audience and use strategic brand messaging that will increase demand for the product and boost revenue for the business. 

Consider the Apple example. Ranked as the most valuable brand in the world, Apple is in a league of its own when it comes to marketing its products to customers. From product launches to advertising, Apple manages to consistently create excitement and interest around its products through an effective product marketing strategy.

In general, a product is a good can be a physical object that instantly becomes yours to own once purchased (like an Apple iPhone) or it can be a service that results in a measurable change of state for the purchaser from the service provider (like getting your cracked iPhone screen fixed). 

One thing to remember about products is that they can be tangible or intangible. A tangible product is generally a physical object that you can touch and perceive directly (a house, a car, a computer, etc.), but there are intangible products that you can perceive indirectly, such as an insurance policy.

Regardless of how big or small a company is, the responsibilities of a product marketing team or product marketing manager is fairly similar across industries and verticals. 

Both the product marketer and product marketing manager need to be able to identify the buyer personas and target audience of a particular product and ensure that the product actually meets the needs of the target audience. 

From there, product marketers not only need to determine a product's positioning in the market, but also need to make sure that they successfully build and implement a marketing strategy. This comes from working alongside the sales team to reach the right customers for the product that is being promoted. 

Depending on the size of the company, the product marketing manager may sit in either the marketing team or R&D.

There are many facets that make a product marketing campaign successful. Consider these as you plan the promotion of your next product!

Advertising is any paid form of promotion for a good or service by a business or individual, and is usually a form of one-way communication or messaging. Advertising is one of the more popular methods of product promotion as there are a number of news and social media channels that one can use (such as television, radio, magazines, social media or billboards) in order to sell what is being advertised.

Personal selling is a marketing activity that involves personal, face-to-face communication with your prospects or existing customers, and the goal is to promote your product or service and help increase revenue. 

Personal selling uses two-way conversations and often involves a presentation to prospects or clients. Although it is traditionally one of the more costly methods of product promotion, personal selling can be one of the more effective ways of promoting your product. 

Publicity is a form of public relations that aims to increase brand or product awareness. To create interest in a product, person or brand, either a PR person or publicist will usually issue a press release, pitch media outlets that could be interested in covering the story or organizing appearances at conferences and trade-shows. 

The purpose of a sales promotion is to get customers to purchase your product or service immediately. Sales promotions are usually short term incentives and include activities such as trade shows, seasonal discounts, coupons or contests. Oftentimes, sales promotions are carried out at the point-of-sale or in-store. 

Public relations is a form of promotion and its activities are meant to build and maintain a favorable image for a business, as well as a favorable relationship between the business and the public. 

Much like how publicity can be carried out in traditional media channels, public relations can be carried out through these channels too, alongside digital and social media, in an effort to manage the release and spread of information between a person or business and the public. 

Product marketing forms a critical part of any business's overall marketing strategy, especially if you want to ensure that your products receive the best opportunity to reach your target audience. But surely there's more to this than meets the eye.

Product promotion is important for a customer buy-in

The importance of product marketing and promotion lies in what it can do for your business. For one, it helps you understand your customers better in terms of what products they like to buy from your business. Product marketing also helps you target your buyer personas more effectively. 

Consider this scenario: You are part of the Product Marketing team and together with the R&D team, have dedicated time, resources and effort into creating a new tech device that has everyone in your company excited. 

On the day of the launch, however, this excitement isn't shared among customers and there is little to no interest in your new tech device. 

Well for one, your audience could not have a need for the product. This is why conducting customer research is a critical part of a product marketing manager's role.

The product could also have flopped because there wasn't a strong enough promotional plan prior to launch. 

Product marketers are there to manage the process of how a product is communicated to new audiences and existing customers. Without audience insights, it can be hard to know if you are targeting the correct audience or your messaging will resonate with the audience. 

How is product marketing different from traditional marketing?

Traditional marketing aims to promote a business's entire product offering and elevate the brand. While product marketing does work with marketing teams to execute product releases and craft go-to-market messaging, a product marketer's focus is narrower than a marketing manager's. 

A product marketer is focused on selling or creating interest around one specific product, whereas marketing teams often promote a company's entire suite of product offerings. 

You'll also often find that it is the product management team that is responsible for truly understanding their buyers, and the roles they play within the buying process. 

The Meltwater Blog

Digital 2024 October Global Statshot Report

What Consumers Think About Self-Checkout

The What, Why and How of Product Marketing

The WNBA’s News Coverage Has Surged in 2024

21 Top Sales Software to Boost Your Business

What Is Trendjacking and How Can You Use It For Your Brand?

The CEO Echo | September 2024 Rankings | Categories: Communication, Social, Responsibility & Investor Excellence

How to Build a Social Media Marketing Strategy

Big Data: A Beginners Guide for Marketers

Transforming Election Season: How Government Agencies Are Innovating on Social Media

What Is Contextual Analysis?

The Top 10 Female Influencers in South Africa