Marisa Currie-Rose

Growth Product Marketing focuses on driving feature adoption, activation and retention while Product Marketing is focused on the initial product launch and go-to-market moment. The primary goal of Growth Product Marketing is to help customers achieve the "realized value" of the product and maintain "ongoing value" to prevent customers from churning. This is accomplished through ongoing tactics such as implementing growth experiments, executing adoption campaigns through channels like SEO, SEM, email marketing and in-product adoption, creating viral loops (like a referral program) and using data and analytics to optimize their efforts. While a Product Marketing Manager is responsible for leading the development of the go-to-market strategy for a product, which includes establishing product-market fit, creating positioning and messaging, competitive analysis, content creation, sales enablement, pricing and packaging, and basic product adoption measurement.

I think about Go-To-Market plans being comprised of the following work: * Understanding the product and its value proposition * Gather feedback from current and potential customers * Understanding the competitive landscape * Identifying the total addressable market (TAM) * Setting objectives and the goals of the GTM plan * Developing a pricing and sales strategy * Crafting a messaging strategy by including the value propositions * Choosing marketing channels * Creating a launch timeline

Some of the things I think about for boosting product adoption include: 1. In-product notifications and promotions, starting first with onboarding and milestone-related campaigns 2. Product and feature Cross-Sell and Upsell 3. Co-marketing and partnership opportunities 4. Email drip campaigns, including those that celebrate customer milestones 5. Push notifications 6. Organic social media outreach, namely featuring customer stories to ground in social proof 7. Influencer marketing promotions with expiration dates 8. Running A/B tests to determine the most effective marketing messaging and calls to action.

When working on a product, the goal is that we are focusing on a problem that our merchants want us to solve. If we are doing that, there is already a natural interest in the product, which leads to acquisition. The audience that is organically interested in our product is likely to be the most highly qualified for the product or feature we’ve launched. Therefore, my priority is to ensure that we retain our existing customers and meet their expectations. If we are not doing this, then focusing on acquisition is not relevant. Once we have achieved product-market fit, it makes sense to move up the growth funnel. Overall, the following framework can help you think about Growth Marketing and how to invest in each area. There are four key focus areas: 1. Acquisition 2. Activation 3. Adoption 4. Retention Each of these focus areas has a desired outcome: perceived value, realized value, and ongoing value. To achieve these outcomes, there are primary tactics that can be used, such as paid media, SEM, email, direct mail, social media, and influencer marketing. Key metrics to focus on may include conversion rate, CPA, ROAS, new accounts, and revenue, with the ultimate goal of increasing Monthly Active Users. How much of the Growth work is focused on acquisition vs retention depends on the business needs. For example, if you have a hard time keeping users engaged and retained, you may want to focus more on retention tactics. By determining where the challenges lie, you can focus on the right areas of growth.

Both Product Marketing and Growth Product Marketing should focus on quantitative impact. Both roles should focus on and track revenue, customer acquisition, and retention, including both lapsed customers (those who are still technically using the platform or service but haven't engaged in a certain period) and churn (customers who have left the platform or product). The key performance indicators (KPIs) used will vary based on business goals and objectives. To fully understand the effectiveness of growth and product marketing efforts, it is often necessary to use a combination of quantitative and qualitative metrics. However, many qualitative metrics can be converted into quantitative metrics for easier analysis at scale, such as Net Promoter Score, social sentiment analysis, etc.

Product Marketing teams need Growth Product Marketing Managers. This close relationship is especially important when the initial product launch and go-to-market moment is done and the focus shifts to growing usage of and engagement with the product. Product Marketing Managers often refocus on the next feature/product launch, instead of having the time to prioritize growth work. The Product Marketing Manager is responsible for understanding product-market fit and building messaging and positioning, while the Growth Product Marketer takes that messaging and implements various tactics to drive growth through feature adoption, activation and retention.

Before we start working on a Go-To-Market strategy, we work with cross-functional teams to align on the value props and priority level of the launch. For example, a P0 launch gets a different strategy than a P2 launch. To communicate this clearly and concisely, you can do the following: * Create a GTM document that outlines your strategy in detail. Share this document with all team members and update it regularly as your strategy evolves. * Hold regular team meetings to discuss the GTM strategy and review progress. These meetings should be a forum for team members to ask questions and provide feedback on the strategy. * Empower team members to make decisions about how to execute the GTM strategy. This will help to ensure that everyone feels invested in the success of the strategy. * Celebrate successes and learn from failures. Celebrating successes and learning from failures can create a culture of continuous improvement for your GTM strategy. In short, communicate clearly, collaborate often, and empower your team.

In order to identify ideal customer profiles as part of your GTM strategy you should do the following in the early stages of the GTM planning: 1. Conduct market research. You can do this through surveys, interviews, focus groups, and other methods. 2. Dig into your existing customer base. This will help you understand who your current customers are and how they use your product. 3. Create customer personas. They help you understand the needs and wants of your ideal customer so you know how to speak to them. 4. Validate and reiterate on your personas. Once you've developed your customer personas, you need to validate them by testing them with real customers. These steps will help you identify ideal customer profiles.

Core documents will vary at each company, but I think there are some common ones to consider: * Market research/Competitive analysis: Helps you understand your total addressable market, competition, and whether your product fits the market. * Positioning document: Define your total addressable market, value proposition, and competitive landscape. * Messaging document: Outline the key messages you'll use to communicate with your audience. * Marketing measurement: Enables you to track the impact of your GTM campaign * Sales collateral: This will give your sales team the information and tools they need to sell your product. * Marketing plan: Outline your marketing strategy for launching and promoting your product. It covers your target audience, marketing channels, and budget.

The most important thing you can do before you prepare your Go-To-Market materials is to rate your launch as a P0, P1, or P2. Not all launches are created equal, and the materials will contain different information depending on the priority level. * A P0 launch is a new product launch that is critical to the company's success. The materials for a P0 launch should be comprehensive and include all of the information that potential customers need to make a decision. * A P1 launch is a new product launch or product update that is important to the company's success, but not as critical as a P0 launch. The materials for a P1 launch should be detailed, but they may not include all of the information that potential customers need to make a decision and you will not include as many marketing activations. * A P2 launch is a small product launch or product update that is not critical to the company's success. The materials for a P2 launch should be brief and to the point. This will be the lowest lift from a marketing moment and you should not feel like you need to do all of the activations available to you. Always start with a high-level overview, which should include your target market, value proposition, and overall GTM strategy.