Products are the backbone of a business. Products bring customers, and customers bring revenue.
The role of the Product Marketing Manager has become more technical and creative than earlier. With business becoming more competitive and resource-intensive, Product Marketing Managers are playing the most crucial role in the growth of a company.
With an ever-increasing demand for innovative product and customer-centric campaigns, product jobs have shot through the roof.
And, in the post-COVID era, if there is one field where the number of available jobs far exceeds the number of qualified candidates, it’s Product Marketing.
On its face, product marketing seems easy. But, a Product Marketing Manager does more than what meets the eye, things you can rarely find in the public domain.
So, if you want to discover the unknown sides of a Product Marketing Manager, continue scrolling.
Product Later, Customers First
Everyone knows that a Product Marketing Manager is an expert on products. They understand a product from start to finish. But, what is even more critical for a manager is to know their customers.
The primary task of a Product Marketing Manager is to wear the customer’s shoes and understand what appeals to them. If a product does not add value to the customer, it is not going to survive.
Hence, as a manager, you need to understand the buyer’s persona and their requirements and create a marketing strategy that targets their pain point and promises to heal it.
If you are looking for more cues, see how AirBnB started from scratch and became a force to reckon. They became so successful because they spent more time understanding their customer’s needs and launched a blistering campaign that landed them in the right spot.
Customer Means Both New and Old
Quite often, a product marketing strategy hovers around new customers. But, as a successful Product Marketing Manager, you have to realize that your product can be a success only when it appeals to the masses.
Hence, keeping loyal customers happy should be a prominent part of your customer-first strategy.
Developing the customer-first approach is a two-step process.
In the first step, you have to ensure that your product is impacting their lives and adding value. In the second step, you have to educate them to enhance the product’s efficiency by adding a few more products from your catalog.
Typically, existing customers are captive customers. They know your products well. If they feel your products deliver what it promises, then they will not only buy more products but also promote your brand for free.
Collaborate With Partners Who Can Be Your Clone
Any Product Marketing Manager worth their mettle knows that it is not physically possible for them to target many customers.
The knowledge prompts them to partner with experts, such as brand gurus or social media influencers, who would clone their marketing efforts and reach a wider audience.
Taking out your marketing efforts can also help you to cut the extra flab from your team. Sometimes, unnecessary human resource additions lead to revenue loss.
As a manager, you have to identify such areas and deploy effective and cost-saving strategies.
Make Your Customers Run After the USP, Not the Product
Each product in the market is unique, not because they offer something which no other product offers, but because they promote it that way. The better your acceptability among the audience, the higher will be the demand for your products.
As a Product Marketing Manager, you need to create the right noise around the USP of your product, not the product itself.
Think about ads which rope in the best actors from Hollywood to promote their products. Doing so enables them to associate their product with the actor’s persona and make the actor’s style their USP.
Alternatively, some innovative brands adopt the freemium model to let their customers try out the product before they shell out money. However, before deploying the freemium strategy, you need to run the cost-benefit analysis and see the risk to reward ratio.
So, being a Product Marketing Manager, you are entitled to do things that others may think foolish. But, it’s ultimately the results that will show whether your strategies are best-in-class or worth avoiding.
Ensure All Stakeholders are on the Same Page
Congratulations! You have designed a world-class campaign that can take your product to places unexplored. But is your team as confident as you are?
A good Product Marketing Manager’s primary duty is to take the stakeholders into confidence. They must align with your goals and the product’s vision.
As a starter, coach each person with the answer to the following four questions. You may resort to the storytelling method to make the session appealing and engaging.
- What is the purpose of creating the product?
- Who is the target audience?
- Which pain points do the product solve, and how?
- What is the USP of the product?
Hence, as a manager, you are not only responsible for devising the marketing strategy but also train your team members and funding partners about the efficacy of the product and its position in the market.
React and Adapt Quickly to Change
Industry changes are faster than imagination. For example, what was a perfectly working business model in 2019 is not the best model now, thanks to the disruptions caused by the pandemic.
As a Product Marketing Manager, you have to be hawk-eyed on changes and realign your strategy as early as you spot something disruptive. The idea is to stay relevant in the market.
To adapt your product to a new market, you have to look into its positioning, target audience, pricing, and think of the best promotional strategy.
Conclusion
We are living in an era where businesses are turning to Automation, Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things, Robotics, Machine Learning, and Predictive Data Modelling to scale up their business.
The task of a Product Marketing Manager is crucial as they oversee all aspects of a product, map out its road to success, and change strategy as soon as early as they find something disruptive. Being a manager, you have to determine the goal and evaluate whether everyone is on the same track or not. Additionally, you have to take the onus to launch the product and ensure its overall success.
If the secrets that we talked about so far excites you, then Product Marketing Manager jobs are what you need to look at next.