Product Marketing: A beginners guide

Introduction

Product marketing is an understated yet critical marketing role in most product organizations. Be it a consumer product, technology, or software product.

While it can be defined in several ways, I like to look at it as “Market your product to the right customer.” This seems straightforward, yet there is a lot in it to understand.What does a product marketing manager do?

Let’s revisit the statement “Market your product to the right customer.”

Here I see three key focus areas, product, market, and the right customer. Add GTM, and the role of the product marketing manager is defined.

A product marketing manager possesses a deep understanding of their product, market, and customers. They can harmonize these crucial components to develop a persuasive marketing strategy to engage their target customers.

This comprehensive approach refers to a product marketing strategy and should resonate with the target audience.

Now the target audience is another crucial factor that needs to be understood properly.

Audiences are not just the external target audiences which may include decision-makers and users but also internal stakeholders like sales, customer success, digital marketing, product managers, engineers etc.

Identifying your internal audience, engaging with them and socialising your product before launch for feedback, insights into customers and honing into the best way to market are some of the benefits a product marketing can have.

This also enables a process of prioritising and understanding the product market fit which will allow the product marketing manager to develop another key aspect of their role, framework for messaging, and positioning ( Will talk about this in detail in another article)

Now that we have defined what a PMM does. Let’s explore each element of product marketing in more detail.

Understanding customer requirements: User-Centricity

Product marketing managers are the voice of the customers. They need to be customer-obsessed and user-centric.

User-centricity is critical for product adoption and growth. So, what is user-centricity? Why is this so important for a product marketing manager?

Product marketing managers must present the case of the customer, their problems & requirements, and what impact or change they desire. Being user-centric, a product marketing manager can better understand the day in a life of a customer.

These are valuable insights to help build a much more efficient roadmap to develop a product which solves a critical user problem. Support marketing and sales with their campaign planning and identifying the right marketing channel to engage and also help in defining the messaging and positioning of the products.

User-centricity is an approach focused on the user. It involves designing and promoting products based on the target user’s needs, preferences, and behaviour.

To achieve user-centricity, the product marketing manager must conduct thorough user research, gather feedback, and prioritize user needs and preferences.

Product marketing managers should concentrate their focus on their users. This approach can help ensure the product resonates with the target audience. It can also increase engagement, deliver customer satisfaction, builds customer loyalty and drive business success.

To understand user-centricity better let us look at a hypothetical example.

Imagine you are a real estate agent. You have an inventory of single-family homes to sell. You are meeting with a potential buyer. What would you do when you meet them?

You would like to know more about the buyer’s requirements. These include the type of house they want, the number of rooms, family member requirements and budget.

You would like to understand the decision-makers and key hooks that will help you close the sale.

Understand the buyers’ requirements. Show them the house which meets their criteria. If there are multiple options in the market, present your property in a way that makes it stand out. Ensure that it best meets the need of the buyer.

The role of a product marketing manager is no different. They need to be the voice of the customer and understand user needs effectively. To do this they need to develop a mindset of user-centricity.

User-centricity is essential for product marketing. It ensures customers' needs are prioritised through the product development process. This increases customer satisfaction, differentiation, adoption, and long-term success.

Relationship of product marketing with the product

A critical responsibility of a product marketing manager is to understand the product and its feature set.

This is true irrespective of the type of product or the category in which they operate.

Let’s look at some of the questions to ask are:

• What is the product all about? What are its key features?

• How does it solve, or fulfil a specific need of the target customer?

• How does it differ from the other competing products?

How to get answers to these questions?

Effective product marketing management requires close collaboration with product development teams. Unfortunately, this crucial partnership is often overlooked, leading to a suboptimal product launch. Product Marketing Managers (PMMs) must take the initiative to be part of the product development process. They should engage with stakeholders, such as product managers, engineering managers, and sales teams.

PMMs can better understand the product’s features and value proposition by doing so. They can also use this understanding to communicate the information to potential customers.

Ultimately, embedding PMMs within the product development process can lead to more successful product launches.

The product marketing manager has an important responsibility: liaising with internal stakeholders who work closely with the product. Engagement is key.

The product marketing manager must collaborate with internal stakeholders. They must also work closely together. This will help the manager answer key questions, allowing them to successfully do their job. (Questions mentioned above)

Understanding the market

Let’s define a market. “A market is a collective of potential customers or users. They have a requirement for your product and are prepared to pay for it.”

The market can include stakeholders such as distributors, resellers, and partners. They are involved in the distribution and promotion of the product.

It is essential for a product marketing manager to understand the target market. This understanding should include the characteristics and dynamics of the market. By effectively marketing and selling their product, the product’s success can be ensured through adoption, sales, or retention.

So, what is about the market that a product marketing manager should know, explore, or research?

First, understand your business model, mission statement, long-term vision and short-term vision to answer this question.

What steps are needed to succeed and achieve these goals?

Finally, what is the product all about? What problem is being solved and for whom?

It is essential to define a market. To do this, it is necessary to identify the target audience and comprehend their needs, preferences, and behaviours. Additionally, factors such as demographics, purchasing habits, and competition should be considered.

Some of the key elements are:

Go-to-market.

The go-to-market strategy is a high-exposure responsibility of a product marketing manager. Many product success matrices revolve around how a G-T-M strategy is planned and executed.

While GTM is about taking the product to market, there is a lot of work behind a successful GTM,

A few of these we have talked about earlier (product, market, and right customers.)

I like to look at GTM in two parts, internal launch/release and external launch.

While external GTM gets a lot of focus, I feel the success of an internal GTM is equally important.

So, what is this internal GTM?

Internal GTM is about informing and exciting your internal stakeholders about the product. It also means getting feedback and recommendations.

This help in crafting the messaging and positioning structure as well as refining the launch/release strategy and also in selecting the right channel to engage. Internal GTM success has a great influence on external GTM.

Will discuss GTM in detail in another article.

Conclusion

Product marketing is an exciting role to pursue. It is essential for product success that a product marketer is involved. They bring a user-centric approach and marketing insight. This is crucial for product success.

This is a high-exposure role. It requires the individual to assume many responsibilities including research, collaboration, marketing, and analysis.

To be successful as a product marketing manager, you need to have curiosity, attention to detail, and a willingness to learn adapt and innovate