Grace Kuo

I love telling a good story...: Background: For internal stakeholders, you really have to set context/background. We are in the weeds with planning day to day for a specific launch or initiative, but you can't expect internal stakeholders to be the same. To help drive messaging home, set the right context. What's the problem? Paint the problem that you're trying to solve, but sometimes what works best isn't just a statement of "We are trying to improve the checkout process..." but tell them a story of common problems that users encounter with this issue. i.e. "Pete is in a rush to get this gift to his Mom for Mother's Day, but because he had issues navigating the checkout page, didn't check the right shipping time. Mom didn't receive the gift on time = sad Mom, angry Pete". Solution: Clear and concise value based messaging helps drive messaging home. Avoid marketing-speak ... that always helps!

The key thing for messaging frameworks that are shared with your org is know your audience. As PMMs, we are often creating different messages for different audiences. When you share your framework, be clear on how to use the messaging, and for whom the messaging is created for. i.e. Whenever I prepare a launch, I always label the messaging the SALES team should use in talking to prospects, messaging Customer Success should be using for customers, key value props for Marketing, etc. For Leadership, it's really important to give them Executive Summaries..again just to show that your team is on top of the launch and that they get visibility on what's happening with the GTM/product, etc. A quick summary of key elements: - Audience - Key Value Props - Launch Timeline - Pricing/Packaging (if applicable) - Outcomes desired - Competitive advantages/comparison, etc.

This is by far one of my favorite questions (and most important). As PMMs, we have to go beyond talking about the feature functionality but orient on what the benefit is for the customer. A practice I take is by asking a series of questions that will help you narrow in and articulate the customer value. An easy framework is to follow: * What is the feature? * How does it work? * How will this benefit the customer? * What will it solve/what were the challenges before this feature was built? * How do I now combine its benefit to how it works? A really simple example of this: * What is the feature? * A corporate development content marketplace can now directly share videos and content to Slack. * How does it work? * Press the "Share to Slack" button under the video. * How will this benefit the customer? * Create internal dialogue and momentum for the specific content shared that otherwise wouldn't happen when individual employees are viewing the content on their own. * What will it solve? * Buyers of this product often sees low engagement with their company, as their employees are competing with long to-do lists. However, when content is shared by colleagues via their main communication tool (Slack), it creates conversation around the content which results in a groundswell support for the content provider - resulting in more engagement, usage, and validation of the product. * How do I message this? * We make it easy to activate engaging conversations around content that encourages continuous learning and usage of [EXAMPLE COMPANY NAME] within your organization through Share to Slack.

Have a plan...and SHARE IT. 1. Stakeholder Management Milestone Meetings: I often share roadmap/GTM plans at key meetings like Sales Management meetings, CS team meetings etc. So that it shows you have a plan and are top of the launch. This should happen during development, beta, pre-launch, and at launch! 2. Weekly Updates: Here at Udemy I send out a weekly status update on key areas of the business. This again brings visibility and pro-active communication on status. 3. Weekly PM meetings: Have a weekly sync with your PM. Make sure you are on top of what's happening with development and equally let your PM know what's going on with GTM. 4. Get Feedback: Don't plan in silos. Get feedback on messaging strategy, key value props etc to see if they resonate. This helps get perspective from all areas of the business, while showing other teams that you are incorporating their feedback. 

My favorite blogs / podcasts aren't necessary focused on Product Marketing, but business & product in general. I think it's important to have a holistic approach to Product Marketing, so that means listening/reading about Product, Demand Gen, Marketing, Business, etc. Podcasts: Masters of Scale OV Build This is Product Management Blogs/Content: Harvard Business Review Hubspot Blog CMO.com 

Generally my approach to this is to build a plan on how to socialize and get feedback. Ensuring that key stakeholders have time to review, provide input, edits, etc. will help refine and reinforce whether or not you're communicating the value prop. XFN teams that are critical: * Sales: is the messaging clear and concise? Do they understand the unique selling points of the product/service/software they're trying to sell? * Subject matter experts: is there authenticity to the messaging? Is it hitting on the right pain points/challenges they're experiencing? * Product team: to ensure that that's what they're building/accurately depicting what its solving for Obviously you want to set guardrails on the type of feedback you're looking - so as you engage with these teams, be explicit with what you're looking for and set expectations on what feedback will/can be integrated. For example, to avoid too many opinions, suggestions, etc., you can let them know beforehand that you're not looking for wordsmitting but rather feedback on whether the message effectively communicates what your product is trying to solve.

Yes! As we know, personalization is key in reaching your target audience, driving sales, and increasing customer loyalty. A few segmentation options I've tried in the past that have been successful: 1. Based on pain points: You can create more resonance between the customer and your company by anchoring your messaging on the specific areas that your product/software solves. 2. Based on customer journey: Although this is a similar to a "customer group", centering messaging on where the customer is in the customer journey can also be effective. For example, messaging on an ad can be high level that hits on a customer need. When they go to the website, messaging can be more specific to what the product is and how it solves for their challenge. However, when they speak to a sales rep, the messaging is more strategic and personalized. 3. Based on personas: Personalizing messaging based on roles/personas can also reach your target audience in a meaningful way. By creating messaging centered on roles, you can speak directly to what they're looking for. For example, a functional buyer might want to hear more about how the product is used, whereas the economic buyer might want to hear about how cost effective your solution is, and then the technical buyer wants to understand more about integrations, interoperability, etc.

Oh yes - startup mode often requires you to flex the skills of speed and scrappiness. When it comes to testing messaging, there are a few tools out there that are cheaper alternatives to give you signal on messaging effectiveness. 1. Subject matter experts: One of the best results I've gotten when testing out messaging is by working with SMEs (internal from the company or friends+fam). It not only produces fast results, but can give you deeper insights into what works and what doesn't. This can be done through conducting a quick interview with them, having them react to a doc with potential messaging, or a quick survey. I find that SMEs will generally give you feedback that will give your messaging more authenticity, less fluff (ah, the woes of marketing), and the directness you need to target your personas. 2. Sales teams: (if you're B2B) leveraging your sales team can give you insights on the effectiveness of your messaging. Since they're are on the front lines with prospects, they can give you a direct line into understanding what message works and what doesn't. Work with them closely on what to track/look out for when talking to potential customers, i.e provide them with talk tracks and have them gauge the appeal/resonance. 3. Setting up A/B tests: Whether you're B2C or B2B, you can get quick signal by setting up landing page tests on your website. Track what message gets more clicks to whatever CTA you're measuring.

Great question. Because your resources are limited, you have to focus on the high priority items and bring visibility into what you do! 1. Classify your launches: We use the classification of A, B, C, and X. A's and B's require PMM attention 100%! Work on high priority launches 2. Evangelize PMM: Do a roadshow of what Product Marketing does and its impact for key teams within your organization (i.e. product meetings, sales meetings, CS, leadership etc.) This presentation should include: - GTM strategy - Objectives/Goals - Outcomes you acheive when you bring PMM into the picture 3. Focus: Because we work so cross-functionally, we are inundated with a lot of requests and have to focus on quite a few initiatives. It's important to focus on the things you can get to, set stakeholder expectations in terms of what you will accomplish, get it done (show results) and then move on to the next. This way you are making impact one step at a time and not trying to do everything (because you wont get to it and if that happens, ppl will lose trust in the team.)

Great question! In my experience, we work with SE to help them understand what's coming down the roadmap (big initiatives, product launches etc.) so they can plan and schedule training accordingly. Having a really tight relationship is critical so both sides have visibility into the needs of the GTM. Product Marketing should provide the core content but leverage the strengths and reach of SE to help deliver the training and structure it strategically. For example, SE can take a look at the training and reflect on how to bring it to the GTM teams in a thoughtful and effective way.