What are your go-to tools as a Product Marketing Manager?

Question

Robin Pam · Accepted Answer

Your list seems like a solid place to start. I'd categorize tools into a few areas:

* Collaboration and communication: Writing and presenting is a huge part of the PMM role, so Google Drive and Powerpoint are key
 * Collaboration/planning: JIRA, Trello, Airtable, Asana, or any other tool (even Google Sheets!) for sharing priorities is the backbone of planning
 * Design collaboration: InvisionApp (for revving on design feedback), LucidPress (for creating scalable collateral systems), Creative Suite (for creating your own creative) -- whatever it is, make sure you are adequately equipped to collaborate with design
 * Reporting: Get good at using other teams' tools for reporting. Whether it's Salesforce, Marketo, Looker, Chartio, Brightfunnel -- know where your company's data lives and how to get at it.
 * Analytics: Ensure you are covered on both marketing and product analytics -- Google Analytics, Heap, Mixpanel, Amplitude, KissMetrics are some of the big tools in that space.
 * Sales enablement/knowledge management: I love Guru for storing our sales enablement knowledge. Way easier than the wiki we used to use. Larger sales teams may also have an email productivity tool that it can be helpful to understand to provide templates.
 * Experimentation: Coming from Optimizely, I have to advocate for building Testing into your core compentencies, both for your marketing and product team ;) Beyond optimizing conversion rates, you should be testing things like pricing and packaging, in-product onboarding, email nurtures, etc.

As a PMM, we are rarely purchasers of software, but more likely to be influencers or end users.

Christy Roach · Answer

* Planning & execution: Asana (I'm an ex-Asana so I'm biased but I think this is the best tool to actually create project plans, keep stakeholders up to date, and make sure you hit your deadlines)
 * Team communication: Slack 
 * Messaging/presentations/anything that get's reviews: Google Docs (I never want to review or edit copy/messaging outside of a Google doc), Google Sheets, Google Slides 
 * Reporting: Looker is my favorite of the tools I've used though Tableau is another great option 
 * Email: Marketo for main Lifecycle and demandgen emails. I also like Iterable for product/behavior triggered emails 
 * Surveys: SurveyMonkey
 * Testing: Optimizely or Google Optimize
 * Sales Enablement: Guru is great
 * Design team collaboration: InVision or Figma

James Winter · Answer

For surveys I'd highly recommend getfeedback mostly due to the salesforce integration. For internal trainings and especially if channel is a big part of your revenue generation I like Brainshark. I'm evaluating Showpad and Knowledgetree right now as a sales enablement tool to help scale our sales org for video hosting I'm switching from Wistia to Vidyard due to the better marketo integration. If anybody has any input on the sales enablement tools please let me know and it would be greatly appreciated.

Jordan Sher · Answer

I have experimented with Consensus - it's a video sales enablement tool that allows you to create a family of use-case or feature videos and let prospects self-select which videos they're interested in. The backend provides detailed analytics on which videos have been viewed and how long. Pretty functional.

Ross Overline · Answer

Not trying to deflect this, but this depends on your role, organization size, team structure, budget, target customer, and goals. That list sounds solid to me if you're a midsize company with some startup bend still. Some other tools to consider:

* Leadpages or Unbounce are solid tools for building lead generating landing pages fast.
 * Mixpanel for instrumentation.
 * Marketo for scaled lifecycle communications (SFDC integration is helpful)
 * Mailchimp for scrappy email work.
 * Redash.io is a solid SQL interface.
 * Get Adobe suite if you can. Makes content collaboration easier since many designers use it.

Hope that's helpful!

Related Ask Me Anything Sessions

Adobe Head of Lightroom Product Marketing, Mary (Shirley) Sheehan on Product Marketing Career Path

Eightfold Sr. Director, Product Marketing, Ryan Smith on Product Marketing Career Path

Microsoft Head of Marketing for Viva Goals and Viva Learning, Alina Fuon Developing Your Product Marketing Career

Related Questions