What Great Product Marketing Looks Like
You might not always notice great product marketing, but you'll definitely feel it when it's missing.
I was asked recently what great product marketing looks like.
It’s a tough question. Because in my slightly purist view, great product marketing doesn’t produce anything the customer actually sees. We provide the insights, the distribution recommendations, the positioning statements, the messaging frameworks. But it’s the channel-owning teams, like Content, Brand, and CRM, that bring it all to life and make it look brilliant.
So how do you distinguish great product marketing from great marketing?
For me, it comes down to one word: Clarity.
Clarity across the entire business about the value your product brings to customers' lives.
Clarity on your product distribution strategy - and ensuring everyone shares it.
Clarity that aligns product strategy and marketing strategy (not having two separate versions).
Clarity about who your target audience is, and what your positioning truly is.
And most importantly: Clarity for your customers, so they can quickly understand, decide, and benefit from the simplicity and coherence of your message. That you know who they are. That you can add value to their lives. That you offer something distinct compared to other products or brands they might consider.
When you don't have this clarity, you absolutely know about it.
Sales tells one story. Product builds for another. Customers read one thing on your homepage, and a completely different narrative in onboarding. You ask any two employees who your target audience is and get wildly different answers.
You can feel it in the building (or in the Slack channels if you’re remote/hybrid…) The tension. The noise. The lack of direction.
This is what it feels like when great product marketing is absent. Perhaps it’s easier to define it that way?
That’s why talk about KPIs and chasing metrics can be a distraction.
If you want product marketing to truly make an impact, give them your business’s hardest problems - and the space to create clarity across your entire company.
PS: The survey results for ‘What is Product Marketing in 2025?’ are in! Subscribe now to get the full insights in the next post.