Hally Pinaud

VP, Product Marketing, Apollo.io

Content

As a new product marketer I am struggling with messaging. What is the best way to develop this skill?

Hally Pinaud

Apollo.io VP, Product Marketing • February 2

With early career product marketers, I find that messaging struggles are often tied to one or more of the following things: * Not knowing where to start * Issues editing / punching up the language * Developing messaging in a vacuum * Not the messaging itself, but getting stakeholder buy-i......Read More

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When do you stop iterating on messaging? How often should you revisit it?

Hally Pinaud

Apollo.io VP, Product Marketing • February 2

Never stop iterating. But first, let's establish that there are degrees of iteration. To use a home improvement analogy, there's down-to-the-studs rebuild and then there's freshening up the paint. The latter should happen all the time. Basically anytime you have a notable release. The former req......Read More

676 Views

For a highly technical product offering, how much messaging emphasis should be placed on technical value versus overall business value that your solution provides?

Hally Pinaud

Apollo.io VP, Product Marketing • February 2

If you get to know who you're talking to, it's a lot easier to know what to say. That's a core tenet of messaging and being a good conversationalist in general. Your first step with a question like this is to establish buyer personas. Who's involved in the buying committee? Are they the key deci......Read More

495 Views

How do you juggle the different voices wanting to weigh in on messaging, and make sure you're not watering things down with a "messaging by committee" situation?

Hally Pinaud

Apollo.io VP, Product Marketing • February 2

I call this the "seagull phenomenon." It's kind of incredible how many folks can swoop in to make a mess on a messaging project. As a product marketer, your challenge is to find ways to make key stakeholders heard, but also curate their input on your path to messaging that works. Four hard-won t......Read More

460 Views

My CEO is always saying we are selling a commodity. How do you create messaging and positioning around something that is considered undifferentiated?

Hally Pinaud

Apollo.io VP, Product Marketing • February 2

Others have said this but it bears repeating: if you product is truly undifferentiated, then marketing is your path forward. Feature/function is a losing battle in this scenario. Figure out your brand marketing and how to give the buyer a little something extra that makes your product the top-of-......Read More