Getting started with product marketing
Some tactical tips for introducing a new function to your organisation
Hey! 👋 How are ya?
Later this week, I’ll be speaking at the Product Marketing Summit in London about How To Start Product Marketing.
If you’re the first product marketer at your company, or looking to introduce product marketing as a function into your business, it could be useful to come along.
We’ll be covering…
- Advice for any company's first PMM hire
- Setting up a product marketing team from scratch
- Influencing the product roadmap and working with Product
- Bringing product marketing into the sales process
And, as I may have mentioned once or twice already… I’m growing the team at Pleo (🚨 a new Product Marketing Lead job just went live 🚨) so I’ll also be very keen to meet any product marketers who are looking to make their next move. So please get in touch if you’d like to grab a ☕️.
Getting started with product marketing
But I thought I’d share a few tips ahead of the event for anyone trying to introduce product marketing as a new function at their company.
1. Definite what product marketing is
If you’re a PMM, you’re probably very familiar with the question ‘What even is product marketing?’
That’s why one of the best things to do straight away is set about defining this for your company. It differs for every organisation, as every business has its own unique set of challenges, as well as a different combination of teams to integrate with.
Sometimes product marketing owns pricing, sometimes it doesn’t. Or maybe there’s ambiguity about who does what in the sales process. Whatever the situation, try to form an opinion about what you think product marketing at your company should mean as quickly as possible.
2. Build consensus
Once you’ve established a clear answer for what you think product marketing is, go out and meet with the key stakeholders that will have opinions about this.
Product Marketing is still a relatively nascent discipline so there’ll be debate about its remit, but you’ll want all of the other teams on board with your plan before you go about implementing a product marketing strategy.
3. Take the show on the road
Next, you should go into campaign mode. Meet with teams, join weekly syncs, grab a slot at the next company all hands - all with the aim of spreading the word. You’ll need to beat the drum for what product marketing is, why it’s important for the overall business, and how other teams can work with you going forwards.
4. Dive in at the deep end
Product marketing is at its best when a PMM is working with all of the key Product and GTM teams across the business, keeping projects aligned and ensuring everyone is working towards the same goal.
That’s why sometimes it’s best to simply jump straight in with a few product squads, learn what everyone is working on, and set about getting all of your GTM teams up to speed on the roadmap ahead.
5. Show impact
To keep up the buzz around product marketing as a new function, you’ll want to show results early on.
Tie Product Marketing’s initiatives to the company’s top priorities. Make sure the work you’re doing is contributing to revenue growth, feature adoption and customer advocacy. And regularly update the wider company on results and how you’re tracking on projects.
Of course, there’s a lot more to it than the above. But hopefully these tactical tips will help get you thinking about how to introduce product marketing at your company. If you ever need advice on a specific area, just hit reply to this email. 👇
Laters! 👋