AMA: DigitalOcean Vice President, Product Marketing, Raman Sharma on Brand Strategy

In my opinion, a big part of Product Marketing is storytelling - connecting the customers' and prospects' desires and pain points to the capabilities of your products and solutions. Brand Marketing is not dissimilar. Just that brand is not limited to a single product; in this case, the entire company is the "product." Understanding your company's " story, "your reason for existence (or point of view), and your unique differentiation in the market are essential elements of the brand. These are important things for all PMMs to understand so they are not just building product collateral in a vacuum.

A brand is not a logo. It is not a catchy tagline. It is not a color or font scheme. It is not the visual imagery. It is not the writing style guideline. It is the sum total of all the experiences an organization provides to its customers and prospects. I have worked in organizations where the company's most prominent "brand surface area" is its educational content (even though it is not in the education business). I have also worked on product teams where the product is the users' most significant brand interaction point. Similarly, website, email communications, support experiences, events (both in-person and virtual), etc., are all opportunities to create positive brand impressions with the target audience. Since Product Marketers care about all of these for their products, they should also care about the overall brand impression left behind by these interactions.

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.

[Warning] Extremely Opinionated Zone starts now :) * Value Proposition answers the question of whether buying your product is a good value exchange for the customer/prospect. The pain you are reducing or the delight you are introducing - is it worth the commercial exchange and a good deal for the prospect? * Messaging is the act of clearly articulating the value proposition through words that resonate with the target audience. * Pitch is a succinct and impactful delivery of the messaging, frequently customized (with examples) relevant to the person being pitched, done with an intent to create urgency of action. * Story is your unique point of view about why your company/product exists, and your position in the market/industry.

I am a big fan of writing examples. * Writing crisp customer-facing content (blog posts, data sheets, whitepapers, product pages, etc.) is essential for any Product Marketer. * I must also add that the cross-functional nature of a PMM's job makes internal writing also very important. Clear, concise writing (GTM plans, memos, messages, 1-pagers, etc.) to get the point across succinctly to multiple stakeholders, drives alignment, and reduces duplicated efforts. Besides, I firmly believe that writing is the exercise of organizing your thoughts, answering your own questions, and articulating a straightforward story to the audience. In other words, writing is thinking. So, as much as possible, I ask people for their writing examples in interviews, etc., and I also try to write publicly, something that has benefitted me through connections.