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Candace Marshall

AMA: Zendesk Senior Director, Product Marketing, Candace Marshall on Messaging

November 21, 2024 @ 9:00AM PT

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  1. How do you validate your messaging and positioning once you've already finalized them?

    Candace Marshall
    Candace Marshall

    Zendesk Vice President, Product Marketing, AI and Automation | Formerly LinkedIn • 1y

    A mentor once told me messaging and positioning if never done :) That's because the market changes, trends come and go, and your audience is never static. I strongly recommend testing and validating your messaging and positioning, even if you think it's finalized and great. You may learn something to make it even more effective. Even in my own experience, we'll test and validate messaging rigorously leading up to launch, and then we get feedback a month after launch...I don't get disappointed... ...Read More

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  2. What is a good way to organize internal messaging docs for a product with many vertical use cases?

    Candace Marshall
    Candace Marshall

    Zendesk Vice President, Product Marketing, AI and Automation | Formerly LinkedIn • 1y

    First, when it comes to verticalization, focus is good. Has your company aligned on the top verticals? Even at the XX-billion dollar companies I've served, we've prioritized max typically 6 verticals (of course aligned to GTM & marketing). Secondly, to help with organization, create a messaging hierarchy and also one central doc linking to all relevant MSDs.

    2,896 Views
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  3. What are the steps to tell a compelling platform story while focusing on individual products?

    Candace Marshall
    Candace Marshall

    Zendesk Vice President, Product Marketing, AI and Automation | Formerly LinkedIn • 1y

    Thank you for your question - it's an excellent one. In my experience, the platform story is distinct yet deeply complementary to product messaging. While product messaging focuses on the unique value and use cases of individual applications, the platform story highlights the horizontal elements that support and connect them—such as workflows, analytics, and integrations.

    2,113 Views
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  4. How do you handle disagreements about who is the ICP for your product?

    You feel the need to message on point for an ICP type "A", but you're getting pushback from the team that the ICP is "G". Should you follow you gut or do some form of A/B to please everyone?

    Candace Marshall
    Candace Marshall

    Zendesk Vice President, Product Marketing, AI and Automation | Formerly LinkedIn • 1y

    Before developing messaging, it's crucial to align on your ICP. It seems your team may have differing hypotheses about the ICP, so I recommend testing and reaching alignment. The ICP is so foundational - it influences everything.... from your messaging, to the product your PMs build using the VOC you provide as a PMM partner, and of course your sales and go-to-market strategies.

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  5. For products that serve both B2B and B2C, how do you bring about a differentiation between their B2B and B2C Product Marketing since there might be a lot of overlap of Personas and JTBD (Jobs to Be Done) across both?

    As a product marketer how would they tell the story to both sides of the coin, where it's the same user but their JTBD has changed.

    Candace Marshall
    Candace Marshall

    Zendesk Vice President, Product Marketing, AI and Automation | Formerly LinkedIn • 1y

    Great question, and it's common! Many of the products my team own today serve both B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to-consumer) use cases. Generally, we develop our product messaging and positioning broadly enough to speak to both. It's critical to anchor to the pain point and value. If needed, you can also consider verticalizing your product messaging to speak more directly to b2b and b2c use cases. It doesn't have to be either/or. My last tip is just consider where in the funnel i ...Read More

    2,218 Views
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  6. Can you validate product messaging via website testing on a small percentage of traffic?

    Candace Marshall
    Candace Marshall

    Zendesk Vice President, Product Marketing, AI and Automation | Formerly LinkedIn • 1y

    Any testing and validation is great. Even if you have a small percentage of traffic, testing will give you signals. I know some may have limited levers for testing and if that's your situation, that's okay! You can get creative. Consider setting up calls with existing customers to get feedback. There are also some cost-effective platforms out there where you can set up A/B testing. Love your data-driven mindset - you got this.

    1,753 Views
    2 requests