Emi Hofmeister

Love this question. There's no single research formula that works across every product launch or big idea. And the type of research I choose depends on what I need to learn, and also the realities of time, resources, and budget. With that in mind, here are a few ways I approach research to help spark innovation: Start by deeply understanding the customer's problem: This is usually a mix of quantitative (surveys) and qualitative (interviews). I'm trying to get a clear picture of customer needs, m ...Read More

A common mistake I see when shaping a new narrative is failing to involve sales or other customer-facing teams in the process. The best narratives I've developed across my career have been directly influenced by top sellers and account managers within the company. And while deep customer insight is core to product marketing, there's simply no way we can replicate the experience of our colleagues that talk -- and pitch -- to buyers daily. The risk of not including sales is that you will spend a t ...Read More

The outputs from a great story or narrative can take many forms, including a pitch deck (probably the most classic form), a keynote, customer story or use case, even web pages! My recommendation is not to fixate on the number or even the style of value propositions, but rather the resonance of the story or statement for your target audience. For example: If you're launching a new or category defining product to the market, help your audience by defining clear and specific use cases for when and ...Read More

Interesting that your company is making a “switch.” In my experience, product and solutions marketing are complementary disciplines and you don’t necessarily want to abandon one in favor of the other. My advice for doing either well is to start with, and get alignment on, the goals you want to achieve, then build from there. If you’re leaning into Solutions Marketing, that suggests you’re aiming to better align your products with customer outcomes. This can be tricky, but highly rewarding. A few ...Read More

If you have 15 seconds, then I have to assume you're referring to creating differentiated messaging for a video ad. In this case, I would consider the medium and the channels you're using to promote. If the medium is video and channels are third-party, then this is most likely an awareness play. You don't necessarily need to differentiate, you need people to know that you exist and what you do. If the medium is video and the channel is owned (e.g. your website or social channels), then you can a ...Read More

To measure the effectiveness of a story, start with clear objectives. Below are a few common scenarios that require storytelling and associated objectives and metrics. Messaging Alignment Objective: Ensure consistency in messaging across sales, marketing, and the executive team. Metrics: Rep adoption (% certified on narrative, # of deck downloads), company adoption. Product Launch Objective: Accelerate sales of a product or package. Metrics: Total pipeline, win rate, # of deals closed Reposition ...Read More

Let's start with definitions for platform marketing and solutions marketing. Platform marketing: Platform marketing showcases the depth & breadth of your technology. Often in SaaS, the "platform" is the foundation that ties your products together and makes them stronger as a whole (i.e. better together). It typically includes shared capabilities like data management analytics, security, and extensibility through APIs or native integrations. Platform marketing tends to align more closely with ...Read More

Customer stories are an effective mode of storytelling, and help prospects imagine the type of success they might experience with your product or platform. If you can't use customer names or logos, here are a few tips to build trust and resonance with your audience: Contextualize the story: Provide sufficient detail to help your prospect relate to the story. Offer the industry, company size, and relevant details about the customer. You may also want to share who you worked with. For example, "We ...Read More

To craft any messaging, I recommend always starting with the customer and defining specific value your product delivers. Depending on how technical your customer is, you can either lean into the specifics of what makes your product special or zoom out to focus on expected results. For example, a more technical audience may get excited about some of the specific inputs into your algorithm, or critical milestones achieved across the past decade. Whereas a less technical audience will want to ensur ...Read More

Driving change within a sales organization is one of the most challenging parts of the job. Before doing anything else, I recommend partnering with sales leadership to identify a sales champion for the project. This person can advise on what will resonate, communicate updates back to the field, and ultimately stand behind the “new way” of engaging prospects and customers. Together with your champion, identify how to best motivate and incentivize solution selling within the team. A few effective ...Read More