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AMA: Drift Senior Director of Product Marketing, Aurelia Solomon on Product Marketing Skills
June 15 @ 10:00AM PST
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Drift Senior Director of Product Marketing, Aurelia Solomon on Product Marketing Skills
Top Questions
How important are brand marketing skills for product marketers compared to analytical skills?
There is often a huge emphasis on analytical skills, instead of brand marketing skills, when it comes to product marketing job descriptions.
Aurelia Solomon
Salesforce Senior Director, Product Marketing • June 15
This really depends on the business. I think both skills are incredibly valuable for Product Marketing. If you are new to PMM with a brand marketing background, you'll likely be stronger in the areas of messaging & positioning, campaigns, and TOFU/MOFU content. If you're new to PMM with strong an......Read More
817 Views
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What advice do you have for recent graduates that want to go straight into product marketing?
Typically, these roles require 3-5 years of experience and/or an MBA. Are there roles we should target instead that will help transition into product marketing? What qualities do you want to see in young professionals that want to land in product marketing?
Aurelia Solomon
Salesforce Senior Director, Product Marketing • June 15
It's a hard discipline to enter right out of college but it's absolutely doable. I say that because it's a high visibility function that is extremely cross-functional and requires attention to detail but also the ability to think bigger and strategically. Many of these skills are learned with wor......Read More
615 Views
2 requests
Aurelia Solomon
Salesforce Senior Director, Product Marketing • June 15
I love this question! I always look for the soft skills because smart, hardworking people will learn the hard skills. When I'm hiring, I think about what the business and team needs in its current state through the next year or so. Sometimes that means I have the flexibility to hire someone who ......Read More
415 Views
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Aurelia Solomon
Salesforce Senior Director, Product Marketing • June 15
See my answer above. It depends on the company and what their needs are. My default is hiring for soft skills because they are harder to teach, but that's not always possible to meet business goals. Sometimes the hiring manager needs someone who can come in right away and do the job with minimal ......Read More
476 Views
1 request
Aurelia Solomon
Salesforce Senior Director, Product Marketing • June 15
* Keep it short and simple. Majority of reps (and people) won't read more than a paragraph. * Use bullets to keep it concise and easy to skim * Always include a CTA (what do you want them to do with this) and what's in it for them to read it/take an action/use the content etc. Make sur......Read More
464 Views
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What should I do when I don't think that the feedback from my boss is correct and how do I approach it?
I get a lot of critical feedback from my boss and I don't always know what to do with it or how to improve. Sometimes I don't even agree with the feedback.
Aurelia Solomon
Salesforce Senior Director, Product Marketing • June 15
Great question! And upward feedback is so important. We are all always learning so feedback is critical. * In your next one on one (or schedule time if you don't have it). Think about what your goal for the meeting is. Is it just to give the feedback? Is it for your boss to change their d......Read More
471 Views
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Aurelia Solomon
Salesforce Senior Director, Product Marketing • June 15
* Communication * Leadership * Strategic Thinking (ability to think and see big picture but also dive into the details and problem solve). For example, can this person go deep into researching a competitor, distill their findings, and add the context of their own business, to delive......Read More
604 Views
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Aurelia Solomon
Salesforce Senior Director, Product Marketing • June 15
* Data driven! * You can use intuition (re: what you're hearing from prospects, customers, reps, analysts etc) to create a shortlist of assumptions, but you must validate that with data. If the data doesn't support it, it doesn't mean it's not important, but you need to clearly call o......Read More
473 Views
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Aurelia Solomon
Salesforce Senior Director, Product Marketing • June 15
* Communication and executive presence (and if in a management role, delegation). * As one moves into more senior PMM roles, it becomes more about the softer skills (you already know how to do the core job!) * In a senior role, your success depends a lot on how well you can communicate......Read More
779 Views
2 requests
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