The job of marketers is to try to capture the right words in describing the motivations of people who need their company’s product.
Our podcast guest Seth Goldhammer, the VP of Marketing at Spyderbat, believes that this places product marketers at the most strategic position of the organization.
Done right: piggybacking on product marketing
As product marketers place themselves in the shoes of their potential customers, they answer crucial questions that will set the tone for the marketing team as a whole.
Seth cites some questions that product marketers need to answer succinctly:
- Who gets the value of the product?
- Who has the pain point that we solve?
- What is the persona who embodies that problem?
With these questions answered, Seth believes that the digital, content, and the other aspects of marketing get to “piggyback” on what the product marketers have laid out.
When product marketing is done incorrectly
Product marketers should avoid falling into a mentality that is too sales-focused and tactical just to meet the numbers. Seth describes these kinds of product marketers as the extension of engineering and support.
Also, when product marketers are more reactive to the needs of the sales team, rather than proactively voicing customer needs, they simply become sales enablement.
How to get proactive product marketing right
To be proactive, Seth poses the following questions that product marketers can act on:
- Am I building a message matrix?
- Am I communicating with product management to understand what is happening next?
With these questions answered, product marketers will know how to act on these new capabilities, just in time for the launch process.
Role clarity for the product team
Seth emphasizes the need for a degree of alignment between product marketing, product management, and product ownership. To achieve that alignment, role clarity is crucial to avoid differing motivations and strategies.
Seth recommends doing role clarity exercises such as RAPID and RACI because multiple people shouldn’t own a decision.
To work smoothly, Seth recommends the following roles and responsibilities
- Product Manager owns decision
- Product Owner figures how to execute the decision
- Product Marketer executes how does the feature gets presented
Conclusion
To implement the strategic marketing plan effectively, alignment between the members of the product team—marketer, owner, and manager—is necessary. This can be achieved through role clarity. As product marketers act on their role, they become the most strategic position of the organization.
Listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Hacker Valley Media, or wherever you get your podcasts!
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