Any tips on how to prioritize product marketing resources in a company that is launch-heavy? Have you found bundling smaller releases together helpful to have a more compelling narrative and increase product marketing efficiency?

Excellent question. To answer your first question, as product marketers, we get requests for all types of content. One tip is to align on a bill of materials, segmented by launch tier. That way, every time you launch a new product, you know exactly what resources you will develop. Ensure you align and set expectations on this bill of materials with your cross-functional partners, like sales, enablement, and marketing. This will help streamline your launch efforts because any time there’s a launch, everyone is on the same page about what to expect and by when.

Also, yes - you should absolutely consider bundling smaller releases together. It not only helps streamline launch efforts, but it’s better for your customers! By weaving these smaller releases into a larger narrative and use cases, you can tell a more compelling story versus doing feature marketing.  

In a launch-heavy tech landscape, where every competitor clamors for attention, effective product marketing hinges on strategic resource allocation. The key lies in a tiered launch strategy that maximizes the return on your most impactful releases while driving efficient, scaled campaigns for thematic launches. Scattering your resources across many launches often leads to underwhelming campaigns that struggle to gain traction in a crowded marketplace.

Here are some key questions to guide your resource prioritization across product launches:

Business Impact:

• Strategic Alignment: How does this launch align with your overall business strategy and goals? Will it drive concrete results to achieve those objectives?

• Business Metrics: Which key business metrics will this launch impact (e.g., revenue, new customer acquisition, retention)?

Market Opportunity:

• Growth Potential: Does this launch address a new market segment, expand your reach, or deliver incremental value to your existing customer base?

Competitive Edge:

• Differentiation Factor: Does this product meaningfully set you apart from your competitors in the market?

Performance Benchmarks:

• Lessons Learned: Which past launches have had the most significant impact on your company or the broader category?

In collaboration with your cross-functional partners (product, marketing, and sales), leverage these questions to create a scoring system. This will help you identify the most critical product launches deserving of Tier 1 support, characterized by an outsized investment (e.g., PR support, dedicated landing page, announcement video, etc.) compared to smaller releases.

For all other launches, consider grouping them based on shared themes, narratives, or value propositions. This allows you to craft compelling stories for prospects and existing customers, ensuring optimal resource allocation and reserving valuable resources for your largest launches.

Moving to a shared view of priorities starts and ends with creating space for open dialogue. And, increasingly I've found myself learning how the job of a product marketer is often to create and nurture the right dialogues across an organization.

There are a few things product marketers need to learn to do this successfully:

1. First, lead from in front by "stepping out" to bring together the right group of organizational leaders.

2. Next, be willing to take a point-of-view around where people across disciplines 'agree' and where they 'do not agree' - approaching this with objectivity and openness to foster dialogue around what is 'optimal,' not what is 'right.'

3. Lastly and ongoing, position yourself as an orchestrator of dialogue who can move the group to objectively weigh the merits, pros, and cons of each investment or opportunity. When done well, the group embraces the upside and downside of all opportunities as one - instead of one discipline versus another.

I've observed in my own teams that when product marketers embrace dialogue around prioritization with this method and mindset, we earn trust and help groups see for themselves how/where/why shifting resources between launch x growth x future learning can benefits customers and the portfolio at large.