As you’ll know by now, we’re a pretty stubborn bunch here at PMA - we don’t settle for second best and wanna take you guys to the top.
To infinity, and beyond.
After all, why settle for a take out, when you can enjoy a Michelin star experience?
Product marketing is like life itself - the more you live it, the more you learn, and the better equipped you become to pass on invaluable lessons to others.
Enter our PMA ambassadors, global PMMs with a whole host of experience across a range of industries.
The great news? They’re itching to share their embarrassment of PMM riches with you, right here, right now.
Grab a coffee, a lot of biscuits, and brace yourself. They’ve been very generous.
1-10
1) Show empathy
“Empathy is the name of the game, understand your user better than they understand themselves. Pay close attention to what they actually want vs what they are saying, they are often two different things.”
Aaron Brennan, Director of Product Marketing at airSlate
2) Prioritize, accordingly
“Working on the most urgent thing is not always the right thing to do as the product marketing team.
"We are the voice of the future, and we need to find the right balance with our day-to-day actions to support the present needs and allocate time to envision and execute towards the future aspirations of our customers and partners.”
Div Manickham, Director of Portfolio Messaging at Boomi
3) Think about that ‘99%’
“Think about that 99%. What I mean by that is you most likely won’t reach 99% of your users in person for any product. Even when you have big events and conferences, a lot of the time, people aren’t actually there that are using your product, so how do you curate for those folks?
“One example I always give is during our launch event last year, when we launched the full product, we actually had a pre and post-show where we’d take questions from online and we also set-up viewing parties around the world so that people all over could actually participate and not just the lucky 250 developers who were invited to the event itself. So really thinking about the global impact and ways to scale out your existing content as a marketer is a really good skill to have.”
Martin Aguinis, Head of Global Marketing at Google
4) Know your sales partners
“When you start at a new company or in a new role, spend most of your time getting to know your sales partners and joining calls or attending in-person visits with clients.
“In my opinion, that’s the best way for you to learn your market, your clients or prospective clients, their challenges, and their current perceptions of your product(s). Without that baseline, it’s nearly impossible to make progress.”
Elizabeth Brigham, Head of Product Marketing at Morningstar
5) Enter the lion’s den
“All best-laid product marketing plans get a brutal reality check when put in practice by your sales teams.
“Get out, talk to customers, and create relationships with those in the field. It will boost your credibility and give you insights you would not have gained otherwise.”
Daniel Kuperman, Director of Product Marketing at Snowflake
6) Nobody’s perfect
“Never forget that you don’t know everything.
"When you go into a new product launch, pricing updates, customer migrations, win-loss calls, always come from a place of humility and curiosity, no matter how many times you’ve done it before.
"Only then can you truly impact your business, help your team, and grow as a person. I know it’s generic, but this is as good advice I can give to a seasoned PMM veteran as to someone who is starting on their very first day.”
Phill Brougham, Product Marketing Manager at Trint
7) Understand your customers
“The power and impact of your product marketing efforts is dependent upon you building a deep understanding of your customers. Get curious, and never stop asking questions.”
Tamara Grominsky, Director of Product Marketing at Unbounce
8) Value experience
“A product marketer’s capabilities function extremely well into startup tech businesses.
“Your experience can go farther, and be more valuable to business growth than you (and most execs today) currently imagine – it’s only a matter of convincing the skeptics, staying super agile in the startup, and rolling your sleeves up while backing up strategic direction, growth and success with proper numbers.”
Dave de Courcelle, CMO of LABER
9) Treat everyone as a customer
“Influencing internal stakeholders is key for any PMM. To do that, treat everyone you work with and collaborate with internally as your customer.
“Think about their needs and what value you can bring by working with them. Then, translate that message to get them on board with your projects.”
Sapphire Reels, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Pluralsight
10) Connect the dots
“Connect the dots: consider industry trends, your customer’s pain, your product’s differentiator, and specific examples whereby you help real-life customers.”
Elan Freedburg, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Appsflyer
11-20
11) Teach and learn, in equal measure
“As a product marketer, you cross paths with experts in various departments, internally and externally.
"Sometimes you’re the teacher, sometimes you’re the student. Be willing and happy to be both!”
Gwendolyn Smith, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Litera
12) Nail empathy and storytelling
“The two most important traits of great PMMs are empathy and storytelling.
“Empathy comes through deep listening and spending as much time as possible with customers and sales teams - listen for the customer's pain points, listen to the sales leader's positioning needs, listen to the user's feedback on your product.
“Storytelling is what sets PMMs apart from any other role - spend more time than you think you need to on preparing that compelling story about your customer, your market, your brand, your product. It will get you far.”
Tom Smith, Director of Product Marketing at EMEA at Salesforce
13) Ask “why?”
“Always ask ‘why?’. When a company says ‘This is our target buyer’, ask ‘why?’, when someone says “This messaging should work,” ask ‘why?’
“The reason is everything should be connected back to your core product and the problem you are solving with it and asking why it will help you identify if this is the case.”
Shirin Shahin, Product Marketing Consultant and Founder of Shirin Shahin
14) Always consider the market
“The popular analogy that product managers put the product on the shelf and product marketers get it off the shelf is fundamentally wrong.
“The best products are built with the market in mind–and product marketing should contribute long before anything gets put on a shelf.
“Our real impact comes in helping to shape what is built in order to announce a product that truly connects with our customers by crafting the product story at the beginning of the product development process before anything gets scoped.”
Raechel Lambert, Managing Partner at Olivine Marketing
15) Fine-tune your personas
“Don’t forget your customer personas when running product adoption programs, and make sure your personas aren’t too generic.
“Your users are not all equal. They have distinct needs, pain points, beliefs, and circumstances, so proper segmentation is key to convey the unique value your product provides.
“Your users mean different things for your company, too - their willingness to pay and lifetime value are not the same. What has worked for me? Segmenting users based on customer interviews, acquisition cohorts, behavioral data (e.g. product activity, feature usage), and commercial metrics (e.g. lifetime value, average contract value in B2B).”
Virginia Diego, Senior Product Marketing Manager at CARTO
16) Grab the bull by the horns
“If your company doesn’t have a product marketing division (and let’s be real - it’s likely they don’t), try out product marketing tactics to get them to pilot the concept - with you at the helm!”
Meg Scheding, Strategic Consultant for Startups
17) Prioritize customer needs
“Embrace ambiguity and prioritize based on customer needs, relentlessly.
“Product marketing R&Rs are constantly in flux and there is inherently a wide purview.
Successful product marketers are able to cut through the BS and identify what initiatives will move the needle based on their knowledge of both the product and customer needs; using their expertise to tell compelling stories that drive product demand and adoption.”
Devon O’Rourke, Founder and Managing Partner at Fluvio
18) Envisage your ideal customer
“When launching a product, always have your ideal customer in mind.
“Think about how they discover news, use products, evaluate technology, and every other touchpoint they may have with your product. Then work backward from there.
“Ensure you have a blog post where they can read relevant news, an ad within the social media channels they engage in, and a table at the industry fairs they attend.
“This will drive acquisition and adoption by decreasing the sales cycle significantly and positioning your product more effectively.”
Louis Guerrero, Product Marketing Manager at TikTok
19) Understand your customers
“Be insatiable in your curiosity and passion to understand and advocate for your target customers.
“Ask questions to keep that customer at the centre of everything. Be open to learning from everyone you work with, and allow your own assumptions to be challenged without ego.
“When it comes to the ‘how’, ‘what’, and ‘why’ of your product or service, PMM is the ‘why’, and understanding the voice of your customer should be your North Star.”
Gabriele Boland, Product Marketing Manager at Criteo
20) Seek clarity
“Summed up in a German proverb: ‘What is the use of running when we are not on the right path?’
“In other words, slow down (just enough) to go fast… effectively fast. Take the time to ensure you’re clear about your ideal customer and to figure out how to clearly communicate the problems you solve, the jobs you help them do, and the business value you deliver. Everything flows from that.”
Lin Shearer, Founder and Principal Consultant of Spark Consulting
21-30
21) Be closest to the Product team
“As Product Marketing is at the intersection of all the functions in your company, be close to all the commercial functions, but be closest to the Product team.
“Understand the relationship, roles, and responsibilities between the Product Team and Product Marketing team, critically, understand the overlap and negotiate that overlap and mutually agree where you add the best value.”
Harvey Lee, Head of Product Marketing at Epson Europe
22) Be proactive
“Don’t wait for someone to define a need for PMM in your company - regardless of where you sit/what stage your company is at, lookout for opportunities to contribute to a PMM function such as better messaging/positioning, customer segmentation, or helping with product-market fit/product adoption. Once people see your impact, it will become clear how much this function is needed.”
Farhan Manjiyani, Product Marketing Specialist at Qu POS
23) Be the voice of your customer
“Be the voice of your customer, whoever that is.
“Customer feedback doesn't only mean what your sales team brings back to the table. When it comes to the voice of the customer, you, as a product marketer, are the most eligible person in a company to manage it, centralize, recommend and communicate about it internally and externally. This is the magic recipe to align product, marketing, and sales around 1 goal.
“How do you do that? Pool feedback, quantify, qualify, show multiple sides of the story, formalize a program, and draw connections with what matters to the business. This will get your stakeholders on board, and drive actions. Lastly, don't forget to let your customers regularly know you are doing something about it.”
Karim Zuhri, Global Head of Product Marketing and Research at SafetyCulture
24) Be curious
“Learn how to ask, and never assume anything.
There’s a leadership gap waiting for you to fill it and turn your product into a success story. Product marketing is at the confluence of feeling and reason - use both when you do your job.”
Sebastian Ungureanu, Lead Product Marketing Manager at Bitdefender
25) Don’t neglect ‘soft skills’
“Soft skills are as much, if not more, important as hard skills when it comes to product marketing.
“We are the bookends of the product development process. We are the group that helps translate market/customer requirements into product features and at the time of the launch, translate those features into messaging and positioning.
“As product marketers, we work with cross-functional teams, with people who may or may not understand our role or your objectives. High emotional intelligence, deep empathy, and good listening skills go a long way.”
Priyanka Tiwari, Director of Product Marketing at Interactions
26) Be your customer’s advocate
“Be passionately curious about your customers so you can be their constant advocate.
“To help ensure this, develop a solid template for interviewing so you’re always asking the right questions without influence or bias. Never make assumptions!”
Daniella Latham, Product Marketing Manager at Kahoot!
Plus, consider these short but sweet pieces of advice from Duong Tran, Marketing Manager at RBC Ventures and Sean Broderick, Product Marketing Lead at Upland Altify, with the former urging PMMs to be the “glue that brings it all together”, while the latter says “brevity is beauty.”
27) Work hard!
“Hustle and slog, there is no alternative in the world of product marketing.”
Siddhartha Kathpalia, Product Marketer at VWO
28) Customers are your responsibility
“Be the voice of your customers and don’t expect others to care about them.”
Geva Telem, Product Marketing Manager at Ripples
29) Understand your product and customer
“The key thing for me in product marketing is to understand your product inside out and do the same for your customers.
“If you have these two pieces in your tool kit the others will fall into place!”
Sunny Dhami, Senior Director, EMEA Product Marketing & GTM at RingCentral
30) Be inquisitive
“Be curious and iterate. Be curious about your buyer, your target audience, your sales cycle, your development cycle, and of course your customers.
“Make an effort to always be learning about these key areas of the business by simply asking questions. Then put your findings to work by producing tangible assets by the audience, but don’t hesitate to publish even if it's not perfect.”
Holly Watson, Director of Product Marketing at Sprinklr
31-40
You’ve been spoilt rotten by Alex Virden, Senior Product Marketing Manager at EVERFI, who shared not one, not two, but three pieces of advice for PMMs:
31/32/33) There’s no PMM ‘background’, as such
“Don’t think you don’t have the “right” background for product marketing.
“A lot of product marketers I know have very different backgrounds - marketing, journalism, history, science, the list goes on. Product marketing requires a wide range of competencies, so no single background or skill set alone is a must.”
34) Showcase your skills
“Look for opportunities to showcase and develop key skills that product marketers need - research, analysis, storytelling, teaching, and planning.
“Product Marketing sits at the intersection of so many parts of an organization, so take any chance you can to play “quarterback” or bring something from concept to reality.”
35) Embrace your inner bookworm
“Read! I think great product marketers understand business fundamentals as well as the market landscape.
“I recommend reading everything from HBR to industry trades. I have a few Google Alerts turned on for key topics as well.”
Alex Virden, Senior Product Marketing Manager at EVERFI
36) Be inquisitive
“Be curious and iterate. Be curious about your buyer, your target audience, your sales cycle, your development cycle, and of course your customers.
“Make an effort to always be learning about these key areas of the business by simply asking questions. Then put your findings to work by producing tangible assets by the audience, but don’t hesitate to publish even if it's not perfect.”
Holly Watson, Director of Product Marketing at Sprinklr
37) Ditch the desk
“Never sit at your desk. Sit with product managers, sit with sales, sit with designers, sit with customers but never sit at your own desk!”
Sanjeev NC, Product Evangelist at Freshworks
38) You’ll never be ‘finished’
“There is always more to do, and a better job that can be done.
“As attractive as it seems, never try to boil the ocean. Pick your battles and choose what most moves the needle first - prioritization is your ally.
“Show value quickly to gain the trust and respect of your colleagues, then you’ll be empowered to tackle more.”
Andrew Hatfield, Director of Product Marketing at Portworx
39) “The perfect is the enemy of good.” - Voltaire
“The ‘ready is better than perfect’ rule is a good product marketing principle.
“It’s better to have a timely and relevant brief than aim for perfection and miss a great opportunity to make a difference.”
Thaise Skogstad, Director of Product Marketing at Anaconda Inc.
40) Connections count
“Create strong connections with your customers, and build good relations with your team.
“The Product Marketer role involves many cross-functional projects where you’ll have to represent the voice of your customer internally.”
Sebastian Cevallos, Product Marketing Specialist at Merrithew™
41-50
41) Three quick snapshots…
“I’ve 3 quick tips for PMMs:
“Simplify your message. Over-communicate. No question is a dumb question.”
Kelly Masters, Senior Product Marketing Manager at VMware
42) Experience matters
“Experience matters. A customer’s experience with your product should feel like a new normal— a helpful, relieving, reliable one that makes them feel connected to your product.
“Yes, it’s hard to quantify in dollars, but a great user experience sells your product better than your sales team, better than your marketing programs, and better than your messaging.”
Kim Pfluger, Director of Product Marketing at The Predictive Index
43) Products change lives
“Don’t just communicate what the product does and the value but speak to how a customer will feel, how their average day will change, and how their status will elevate.”
David Lim, Director of Product Marketing at Confiant Inc.
44) Collaboration is key
“Collaboration is key to being a successful Product Marketer, and building relationships is essential in effective collaboration.
“Spend time with leadership, product managers, marketing teams, sales teams, sales operations, customer success, and customers to learn about their challenges and needs. Put yourself in their shoes as they are your audience and customer."
David Hoeller, Director of Product Marketing at Riskonnect
45) Live. Breathe. Repeat.
“Repeat yourself. Repeat yourself. Repeat yourself. Succinctly.”
Kristen Ditsch, Product Marketing Manager at Conga
46) Identify your value deliverables
“My tip is for Product Marketers at companies new to Product Marketing.
“There are a lot of activities that are under the Product Marketing scope but every company there's a specific need that is easy to start delivering value. In my experience, there were two main activities companies need more help to accomplish: establishing a product or feature launch plan and unifying their messaging across teams and channels.
“Understanding where you can deliver value fast helps to build trust with other teams that might not understand what a Product Marketing Manager does.
“Another tip for all PMMs is you must set as priority understand your customer and the market your Product is in and this is a recurring work.”
Felipe Cardoso Barbosa, Product Marketing Specialist at Vindi
Yannick Kpodar, Global Product Marketing Director at PayFit, was kind enough to give several golden nuggets of information when we asked for his PMM tip:
47) Think customer first
“Think ‘customer first’. If they win, your company wins too.”
48) Don’t major on minors
“The role of product marketing is to enable product-market fit and accelerate growth across all markets.
"Have clarity on top revenue-generating activities as well as top churn-reducing activities. Everything else is procrastinating.”
49) You can’t improve what you can’t measure
“If you fail to set up proper metrics and reporting, you fail to effectively guide launch performance and growth long term.”
Wise words from Yannick - let’s dive into some more pearls of PMM wisdom.
50) Build relationships and communicate
“Building strong relationships and regular communication with cross-functional partners is essential to being a successful PMM – especially in companies where product marketing is relatively new.
“Taking the time to understand and demonstrate how PMM can support the goals of your partners in product, sales and marketing goes a long way in developing respect and getting PMM a ‘seat at the table’.”
Jasmine Jaume, Group PMM for Core and Platform at Intercom
51-60
51) Develop a rapport with every department
“Product marketing is the liaison between all departments in an organization. It is key for any PMM to develop relationships and rapport with all corners of the business including product management, sales. customer success, enablement, solution engineering, professional services, marketing, etc.”
Julie Brown, Product Marketing Director at Apttus
52) Understand each situation
“Always have a 360° understanding of a situation in order to get all the information needed to get your job well done.”
Jessica Jaumeau, Senior Product Marketing Manager at SimpliField
53) Devote time to your customer
“Spend time with as many customers as possible. Derive your marketing message, content, positioning based on what your customers say about you.”
Yaagneshwaran Ganesh, Product Marketer at Reve Marketing
54) Communicate with your customer
“Go talk to your customers. As much as possible. Most marketing problems can be solved by picking up the phone and asking if you can pick their brain a bit.”
Spencer Grover, Senior Product Marketing Manager at LevelJump
55) Partner with sales and product
“Make sure to take the time to get to know your customers by partnering closely with Sales and Product.
“Be insatiably curious about all things related to your market - subscribe to top newsletters in your industry, attend events, sit in on calls with customers, and devour any content related to your company and industry.
“This will help you understand the ecosystem you play in, what your customers value, and it will help you find additional advocates for your products.”
Asya Bashina, Senior Marketing Manager at Humatics
56) Ditch the jargon
“Plain language gets your point across more quickly and builds credibility. It’s also extremely difficult to do, and worth the effort.”
Maureen West, Director of Product Marketing at 6sense
57) Scrub up your storytelling
“Get good at storytelling. It sounds easy but it’s not!
“The product marketers I admire are those that can take a complex, technical feature and describe it in a way that gets everyone in a room hooked.”
Phill Agnew, Director of Product Marketing at Brandwatch
58) Clarity is key
“Like a good brand, when communicating with customers a good product marketer needs to be clear (easy to understand), meaningful (resonate on an emotional or personal level), different (stand out against the noise of the market, and competitors), authentic (genuine and real, not forced or faked), and believable (rooted in truth).
“If your pitch, position, or message fails in any of these areas, customers will ignore it.”
Mark Assini, Product Marketing Manager at Voices.com
59) Consider the “contribution model”
“When defining the go-to-market strategy for your product or company, carefully document your target industries, market segments, and personas before assigning revenue targets and developing other goals.
“This type of “contribution model” can help align not only marketing, but every other team, such as product management, sales, and customer success. This will prevent random acts of marketing and help everyone, company-wide, to march in unison.”
Marc Stitt, VP of Marketing at FMX
60) Balance IQ and EQ
“As product marketers, we need to remember we are the ones that are tasked to do the heavy lifting to ensure our company’s product lines are promoted effectively.
“Because of this, in order to be an effective product marketer, you can’t simply be “data-driven” or “customer-centric” – you need to have the right blend of IQ and EQ to be successful.”
Jeff Schaffzin, Managing Director at Genysys Group
61-70
61) Nurture customer relationships
“Talk to your customers! By nurturing a relationship where feedback is appreciated, and acted upon, with the time you’ll increase the number of interactions and quality of the customer talks, as they’ll see the value of taking the time to give you feedback.”
Igor Kranjčec, Product Marketing Lead at Lemax
62) Nail product-market fit - the rest will follow
“Product-market fit is the king that we all bow down to and it’s the difference between success and failure.
“Once you’ve nailed your product-market fit, the rest falls in place a lot more organically. Fail to get your product-market fit right and you will have a hard time to scale your revenue growth.
“You want your product to be “water in the desert” and not “coca-cola in the dessert” - so being an essential in the life of your customers should be your core aim.”
Wiehan Britz, Senior SEO Specialist at Powered by Search
63) Breakthrough the "noise"
“Breakthrough the noise.
“There’s a whole ton of data sources out there, but falling into the trap of learning on too many contributes to the noise that sway your focus from the best source of data of all: your customers, the people who love your products (they’re also the most willing to tell you what they don’t like).
“Spend more time connecting with them, analyzing won/loss notes, and listening to discovery and demo calls than you think you might need to. They will help you validate any assumptions you have into action – that is key to maintaining the internal buy-in you need to showcase just how integral the Product Marketing function is to any business.”
Matt Powell, Product Marketing Manager at Docebo
64) Understand key messaging
“When researching claims, it’s important to develop a strong understanding of your key messages.
“Ultimately, claims provide a front line of support for your messaging. Know them well and know your product even better. This will help you conduct better ‘discovery’ up and down the stack, user journey, buyer journey, etc. so you can zero-in on the insights that will bear your message.”
Jona Youdeem, Global Product Marketing at Indeed Resume
65) Forget formality
“Use weekend language.”
Dylan Hoeffler, Director, Global Product Marketing at Bazaarvoice
66) Look at the have nots
“Focus on what you don't want to get to what you do want.”
Edgar Rodriguez, Marketing Consultant for Software and Technology companies
67) Those who learn, teach
“The most reliable way to learn something is by teaching. If you are limited in time or get used to your new job try to be similar to a teacher gaining new knowledge.
“Learn as if you have to teach that stuff to your audience the next day. This way turns the right mindset on, helps to find a quick way of learning, and saves your time getting only significant details.”
Alexander Gladkiy, Product Marketing Manager at Konica Minolta
68) Be human
“Be Human. Sometimes we spend so much time with the data, the financials, and so on that the human side of why we do what we do gets lost.
“Take a moment, step away, clear the board, and look back at the purpose. Products are about people, their wants, needs, and situations constantly change. Listen to them to learn, test everything, move fast, and above all, help first and sell later.”
J.R. Hernandez, Product Marketing Manager at DentalPlans.com
69) Focus on strategic narratives
“Writing about what you do doesn’t cut it anymore. Poor messaging reaches far, and the consequences are real.
“Instead focus on strategic narratives and storytelling to inspire change, resonate with audiences, and align cross-functional align teams. Words still matter more than ever.”
JD Prater, Head of Product Marketing at Quora
70) Create the right business case
“Product marketing is all about creating the right business case for the right stakeholder.
“The best business cases are built on two things: Breaking down the “buying barriers” (behavior change & switching costs) and doing so by triggering the “buying emotions” (fear & greed).”
Daniel Palay, Product Marketing Consultant & B2B Customer Segmentation Expert
71-80
71) Understand customer pain points
“Always keep in touch with your users, understand their pain points, build a compelling story around it, and communicate it both internally and externally.”
Shreya Kothari Sawala, Product Marketing Lead at Finturi
72) Play translator
“As product marketers, we are unusually comfortable thinking about markets in abstract terms.
“Our colleagues, maybe not so much. When in doubt, it is better to play translator between sales, product, and marketing rather than overwhelm folks with PMM geek-speak (something I grapple with to this day).
“This requires us to focus on cultivating real empathy for our teammates.”
Jim Milton, Head of Product Strategy at Portfolium
73) Push the envelope
“Don’t be satisfied. Continue to push the envelope to ensure that your leadership team understands what Product Marketing is and the value you bring to the organization.
“You are the GTM leader and will decide whether products or solutions are successfully launched into the market or ultimately fail. Your initiatives will drive company success and profitability, which is why Product Marketing needs a seat at the leadership table.”
Brandon Most, Director of Product Marketing at BoostUp.ai
74) KPIs rule
“There’s no substitute for documented KPI-driven impact.
“So, secure those customer case studies and testimonials to better position your B2B product versus competition!”
Pradyut Hande, Senior Growth Marketer & Product Evangelist at Netcore SolutionsMumbai, India
75) Differentiate yourself
“As product marketers, it’s our job to make our solutions stand out from the competition. That same logic holds true for yourself as an interview candidate as well.
“So when you go into that interview, think about what unique value propositions differentiate you from other candidates. (And if you struggle with it, happy the help you think about them).”
Abdul Rastagar, Director of Product Marketing at Veeva Systems
76) Walk in your customer’s shoes
“Find a way to walk in your customer's shoes and enhance your marketing efforts using empathy.
“Always find a way to prioritize your work to ensure you are working in the "value zone". This is that sweet spot of alignment between your customer's needs and your company needs.
“I recommend checking out The 12 Powers of a Marketing Leader for a more in-depth look into this concept.”
Megan Liken, Product Marketing Specialist at cPanel
81-90
Islam Gouda, Head of Marketing at Massar Solutions raised our total of PMM tips to 81 with his quintet of wisdom.
"1. Understand your product first to understand your customers.
2. Tell a story about your product.
3. Market to your existing customers.
4. Make small promises but deliver big.
5. Never underestimate the power of social media selling."
82) Manage your stakeholders
“The most difficult task of a product marketer is not product marketing itself. It is stakeholder management.
“There are so many areas of the business that we can contribute to that in many organizations there is more work than time. It helps to have roles and responsibilities as well as clear objectives.
“Roles and responsibilities provide clarity and objectives allow us to prioritize to stay on top of the most important deliverables.”
Sandra Schroeter, Head of Product Marketing at IMImobile
83) Know your personas
“As a product marketer, you should have a goal to know and intimately understand your target personas better than anyone else at the company.
“That level of understanding will be the lens you will always look through as you develop and execute on all your product marketing activities and deliverables.”
Scott Bamford, Senior Product Marketing Manager at HotSchedules
84) Collect data
“I believe in data-driven product marketing. The best product marketers out there are data collectors.
“In today’s always-on, digital world, there are thousands of touch points that can define a customer’s journey in discovering and using your product. The amount of data collected can, in turn, be presented to bolster better product marketing and product fit decisions. The best part of this is, to use this data to enhance creativity and risk-taking. Because, after all, this is a creative job. So, crunch those numbers to your benefit!”
Anusuya Kannabiran, Product Marketing Manager at Squadcast
85) Rethink your messaging
“Rethink your messaging. The "14-day onboarding" cadence is no longer fit for purpose.
“Do you send the same messages to all new users expecting high trial-to-paid conversion rates? Instead, opt to only send messages to users based on what they have or haven't done within your product.
“By sending messages to users when it contextually makes sense; product adoption skyrockets as users are "receiving the right message - at the right time."
David Oragui, Lead Growth Engineer at Grow Hack Scale
86) Be guided by the customer
“When you don’t know where to turn, turn to the customer.”
Madison Moyd, Product Marketing Manager at Dropbox
87) Create alignment
“As product marketers, we are lucky enough to interact with all parts of an organization. Because of this, I believe we have a duty to create alignment and break down silos.
“Being able to align an organization around your messaging or vision can be transformational for an organization. Especially early-stage companies that are still searching for product-market fit.”
Ryan Montano, Director of Product Marketing at Mavenlink
88) There are no ‘dumb’ questions
“Be curious! Ask every question (there is no dumb question) and understand the ins and outs of your product.
“Talk to everyone - be best friends with sales and product and talk to your customer to truly understand their needs.”
Melanie Grefsheim, Product Marketing Manager at RainFocus
89) True perfection has to be imperfect
“Don’t go for perfection with your content: customer references, sales training decks, white papers, blog posts, and anything else.
“Try your best to understand your customers, sales teams, and partners, then deliver a great asset quickly so they can run with it!”
Akshai Parthasarathy, Product Marketing Director at Oracle Cloud
90) Educate yourself
"I would say to continuously educate yourself. So if that's through an association like PMA, going through the resources, the certifications, the training, that's table stakes number one."
Sonduren Fanarredha, Director of Product Marketing at Airbase
So, there you have it - your definitive list of product marketing insights from our fleet of connoisseurs.
Do you have indispensable tips you’d like to share with the world of product marketing? Get in touch via our Slack community, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook - it’d be great to hear from you.
In the meantime, put your newfound tools to the test, go forth, and conquer the world of PMM!
