When or why should a product marketing function carve out an industry marketing role vs just have traditional product marketing run this?

I answered the "when to introduce industry marketing" question here: https://sharebird.com/h/product-marketing/q/when-does-it-make-sense-to-lean-into-a-dedicated-vertical-or-industry-marketing-function-and-once-you-decide-how-do-you-get-it-off-the-ground?answer=EVjqUpy0nk&utm_source=questionanswer&utm_medium=share But let's focus on when it should be its own full-time role vs embedded in existing PMM responsibilities. Early on, it is probably fine to have product marketing do a little in ...Read More

Industry Marketing is useful when a company has a wide portfolio of products or solutions that create value for a number of industry segments. The Industry (or Audience) Marketing team tells an integrated story about the outcomes that a set of solutions can deliver for that set of customers. When the sales organization is organized around customer segments, having Industry Marketing counterparts can be an effective way to make sure they get the right messaging for their prospective customers thr ...Read More

A company that has multiple products, different buyers, and leans towards vertical SaaS needs solution oriented messaging in order to speak to the aspiration of the buyer. In this case, industry marketing is a priority to build. When you speak to value and pain of the buyer vs product centricity per industry, you're message not only becomes authentic, but you're speaking to a critical path for the buyer to succeed, their aspirations, their problems, and you paint a vision which shows how they ca ...Read More

I've tackled this question a bit in other answers already, and I encourage you to check those out as well, but in essence -- industry marketing is one specialization in a mature product marketing organization, focused on key value propositions and message by industry. It's required when your ideal customer profile's needs, challenges, and the value that you can bring to their problems varies enough by industry that it's difficult to have "universal" positioning apply to each of your target indus ...Read More