Loren Elia

Senior Director of Marketing, Shippo

Content

Do you have a messaging template/worksheet/framework that you like to use?

Loren Elia

Shippo Senior Director of Marketing • January 23

I like to use a 5 question messaging framework: Who am I? What am? Who am I for? Why am I good for you? Why should you buy me here and now? I start by answering these questions. I do user research to really get the insights to answer to "who am I for" and "why am I good for you", and I do......Read More

1960 Views

What is the role of Product Marketing compared to other parts of the business in driving product adoption?

Loren Elia

Shippo Senior Director of Marketing • January 23

PMM ultimately shares adoption goals with Product. There's two sides to adoption though: awareness and usage. PMMs focus is primarily in driving awareness and education (how and why you should use the feature), and Product's focus is usabilty (building a feature that solves a real problem). Becau......Read More

1838 Views

How is the PMM team structured by product line, segment, function or by objective (ie. revenue retention, product engagement, etc)?

Loren Elia

Shippo Senior Director of Marketing • January 23

I think that depends on your company goals. At HoneyBook we've identified a specific segment that has the best product-market fit, so we're solely focusing on that segment. Therefore it makes more sense for us to split the work by feature (product line) and by user lifecycle stage. But I think th......Read More

1367 Views

What are the most important product marketing skills or perspectives that others inside an organization could benefit from that would improve their day to day? Running a "Think Like a Product Marketer" course next month and would love to hear others' thoughts!

Loren Elia

Shippo Senior Director of Marketing • January 23

1. User research. Know what questions need to be answered and either work with a research partner or do the research yourself. 2. Leadership. PMM is the glue that brings multiple functions together and you need to be able to motivate and inspire everyone. You also need to be able to keep people ......Read More

1324 Views

What is the best partnership process between product marketing and marketing when it comes to a product launch?

Loren Elia

Shippo Senior Director of Marketing • January 23

Product Marketing should be hub and glue that brings all teams together. I usually create a brief for each product launch (see messaging framework question below to see what goes into the brief) and I think through what channels should push the feature. I use another framework for this, which cla......Read More

1308 Views

How do we approach the launch plan that was pre-decided and what changes in approaches would you recommend?

Loren Elia

Shippo Senior Director of Marketing • January 23

This is challenging indeed and something I've had to deal with at every company I've worked for. What I've fund helps keep me and the business teams sain is to plan to launch features 14 days after the official planned released date. This makes product nervous most of the time, but most of the ti......Read More

966 Views

How do you prioritize your product marketing projects and still make time for ad-hoc requests?

Loren Elia

Shippo Senior Director of Marketing • January 23

Ah, that's the million dollar question. At the beginning of each half we align with the leadership team which features and projects we're going to work on. This helps set expectations. Then I socialize with PMs what PMM is working on, which usually includes other projects besides feature launches......Read More

926 Views

How can marketers be in the driver seat of product launches while managing eager product and sales stakeholders?

Loren Elia

Shippo Senior Director of Marketing • January 23

I have found that what works really well is looping in both product and sales throughout the whole go-to-market planning process. I keep both teams (and customer success) updated with what we're learning from users and what we're thinking in terms of channel execution and get their input often. T......Read More

901 Views

What are some effective strategies to inevitably influence the product roadmap rather than simply bringing that roadmap to market?

Loren Elia

Shippo Senior Director of Marketing • January 23

At HoneyBook we have established a product feedback process between Sales/CS/Product. We meet every 6 weeks and share customer feedback. We prioritize feedback based on number of requests, which we track in Salesforce and with an internal system. But what has really made a difference is that inst......Read More

869 Views

Do you feel it is necessary to dip your toe in these other orgs/roles (ex. Demand Gen, Product) being a product marketer to fully comprehend your work and excel?

Loren Elia

Shippo Senior Director of Marketing • January 23

You need to truly understand your partner's motivations and processes. I don't think you need to have been an AE or a PM to be able to do great PMM work but you do need to have very open and very frequent communication with your cross-functional partners. Don't be affraid to ask detailed question......Read More

709 Views

Credentials & Highlights

Senior Director of Marketing at Shippo