Get answers from product marketing leaders
Quinn Hubbard
Matterport Head of Global Brand & Product Marketing, Director • May 4
As much as I would love to share a one-size-fits-all KPIs, I’ve found that no two launches are the same. Even if you’re launching a product again in a new market, you’ve probably learned something from the first launch that will lead you to optimize your approach the next time. Instead, I break it down into these four categories and choose the most important metric from each category: * Business metrics: How will this launch help the business to meet its goals? Is it revenue, subscriptions, marketplace balance, users? * Product metrics: What action(s) do we want our target audience to take? For example, trial, adoption, retention, increased usage. * Channel metrics: Based on the way that the campaign is set up, what’s the most important way that our audience can engage with the marketing campaign? Do we want them to watch the video, click on the push notification, read the blog, ask a question or something else entirely? * Top of funnel metrics: What do you want your audience to know, think or feel based on the launch? These are your awareness, perception and sentiment metrics. It takes a lot of discipline to pick only the most important metrics and stay laser-focused on those. But I’ve found that when I’m able to do it, it gives the team a clearer mission and strengthens the impact.
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Marisa Currie-Rose
Shopify Director of Product Marketing • October 13
I think about Go-To-Market plans being comprised of the following work: * Understanding the product and its value proposition * Gather feedback from current and potential customers * Understanding the competitive landscape * Identifying the total addressable market (TAM) * Setting objectives and the goals of the GTM plan * Developing a pricing and sales strategy * Crafting a messaging strategy by including the value propositions * Choosing marketing channels * Creating a launch timeline
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Jodi Innerfield
Salesforce Senior Director, Product Marketing Launch Strategy & Emerging Products • January 13
The channels you use depend upon the audience you're reaching. Where does your audience spend time? What channels have historically worked best for your organization or similar products? You can usually get a good sense of channels to activate based on persona research. Even if you're launching a first-of-its-kind product, your audience has preferred publications, sites, and places where they spend time. Prioritize those channels based on budget and funnel stage (and work with your demand gen team to hone in on the plan!)
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Alex Wagner Lavian
Origin VP of Marketing | Formerly Uber • December 21
As a first PMM hire it's important to prioritize needs and deliverables based on the overall goals and objectives of the company. Do “discovery” similar to how you would approach a product launch – get up to speed on the business, the competitive landscape, the customer, and the product. This will help you understand the biggest opportunity areas and align your efforts with the company’s goals to maximize impact. In addition to listening & learning from your stakeholders its also important to educate your partners on the role of PMM, PMM’s superpowers, and the metrics you are accountable for. This will provide your peers with context on how to partner with you and give you a chance to share back the projects you’ll be prioritizing and gather feedback on that plan to ensure you are working on the most impactful things.
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Adrienne Joselow
HubSpot Director of Product Marketing • December 7
My favorite example is Adidas video which shoes that yes, a runner can sprint through the desert in Nike shoes -- but a camera man with 50 additional pounds of equipment and wearing Adidas can keep up with him. It strikes the balance between saying, we respect your product and - ours is as good or better. Really clear value, clever approach, not so dimishing as to take away from the credibility or respect associated with Adidas' brand. Companies can absolutely straddle the line. It's about solving a new problem, solving a problem differently, and disrupting the status quo. The way to do this is focus on the benefit / new value you are delivering rather than simply tearing down a competitor. We offer extended value (strong) vs. they're not as good as you think they are (weak). There's a new way to think about this (stronger) vs. they're thinking about it wrong (weaker). The Bounty ad in the above blog also does a great job of this - no specific paper towel brand is the problem, any brand that isn't using Bounty technology is. Compelling stuff!
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Apurva Davé
Aembit CMO • May 26
I think PMM orgs go through phases. When I started in this role we were strictly by product, but our portfolio quickly became too complicated. We moved to more of a segment or sub-portfolio model. At the same time, the rest of the organizations' PMM teams were sub-dividing by objective. In order to match with the rest of that org we had 'ambassadors' to the objective-based teams. Given that PMM stakeholders are typically PM and Sales, I think the best approach is to best align your PMMs with the stakeholder objectives. In most organizations that's by product line or segment.
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What are some of the best resources for Product Marketers to refer to as they grow in their careers?
Tiffany Tooley
Workday Vice President Product Marketing | Formerly Salesforce, IBM, Silverpop, Blackboard • March 9
Great question! I'd recommend 4 things: 1. Stay up on current trends in the industry. This seems like a no-brainer, but it's one of the things that I see folks deprioritize as they're working to get things done early in their careers. Whether it's AdWeek, Forbes, you name it! Stay up on the recent trends and technologies on a weekly basis. 2. If your organization has a sales team, get to know them and your customers. They're your primary "customers", so spend time listening - understanding their challenges, the opportunities they have, and identifying valuable ways to help them. 3. Mentorship matters! If you don't have a mentor, reach out to the senior leaders and individuals within your company that you admire, so you can learn from them 4. I highly recommend programs like The Marketing Academy, which are cohort-based and meant to help support both your personal and professional growth. Best of luck to you!
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Raman Sharma
Sourcegraph Chief Marketing Officer • February 7
I have seen this done differently in different organizations. There is no right or wrong way. However, I firmly believe that the Product Marketer should own the narrative for their product. * If it is a customer story - what value prop are we trying to highlight? * If it is an ad campaign, what audience are we going after and what is the right messaging and CTA? * If it is an email campaign to existing customers, what outcome are we trying to drive, and what messaging are we using? PMM, as the person closest to product and audience knowledge, needs to own these pieces. If that is in place, then whether PMM is directly working on the campaign or simply enabling an integrated marketing team is just a matter of logistics.
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Diego Lomanto
Writer Chief Marketing Officer • May 12
Hi - yes - I definitely recommend sharebird's resources. I also love a few books on positioning. First the classic book here is from Al Ries and Jack Trout and it's called "Positioning: The Battle for your Mind." I also recommend "Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It" by April Dunford
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Jason Lyman
Customer.io Chief Marketing Officer • May 30
I have seen product marketers move into various roles as their careers evolve. The PMM skill set is very applicable in most marketing roles. For example, a successful PMM should be able to translate insights into strategy, build power narratives that engage customers, and drive cross-functional alignment/execution. Therefore, you can apply those skills in a more data-driven way on the demand gen side, or you could use those abilities to have more ownership over product decision-making as a PM, or you could help sell more of a given product in a GTM role. I loved being a PMM because it offers you a lot of flexibility for the future.
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