S:CRAFT Plantation Shutters’ Post

I sat in on a few sessions at the Product Marketing Alliance here in Seattle this week. I enjoyed the discussions about AI (lots of them), positioning, storytelling, GTM. While I took away some useful topical insights, I also came away with a personal insight. I realized that throughout my career, I’ve done much of the work called “product marketing” without consistently calling it that. - Spearheading customer interviews to discover pain points  - Uncovering the customer’s “truth”   - Blending data + intuition to make decisions  - Coming up with a hypothesis and proposing solutions to test/address problems in the customer journey  - Working with the product team before the product is fully built, informing the downstream roadmap  - GTM planning - Conducting competitive analysis  - Championing the user/buyer - Facilitating naming  And I love this stuff (except for the naming if I’m being honest). Why is Product Marketing a more common job description in B2B tech or just big tech vs B2C, e-commerce, CPG and DTC? Thanks to Dani Kellogg 🧪, Caitlin Snaring, Stuart Pitts, Jamie Gier, Sanjay Kidambi and many others for stirring up insightful conversions. 

🌟 My 3 Favorite Things About Product Marketing 🌟 Having been at AffiniPay for one month now, I've had the incredible opportunity to dive deep into our organization's various products and collaborate with some truly talented teams. This experience has only reinforced my passion for product marketing and the unique impact we bring. Here are some of my favorite things about the team: 1️⃣ Influencing Product Strategy Our deep understanding of the market and customer needs allows us to play a critical role in shaping product strategy. By analyzing market trends, customer feedback, and competitive landscapes, we collaborate with the Product team to ensure our roadmap aligns with market demands and business objectives. This strategic alignment drives innovation and growth, ensuring our products not only meet but exceed customer expectations. Furthermore, the continuous loop of feedback from our customers enables us to refine and enhance our offerings, keeping our products competitive and relevant in a dynamic market. 2️⃣ Organizational Synergy Product marketing serves as the connective tissue that unites all departments. We proactively identify and address internal gaps, creating cross-departmental workflows that promote seamless collaboration. Our pivotal role involves integrating the goals of various teams and ensuring they are aligned and accomplished together. Whether it's equipping Sales with competitive intelligence or partnering with Customer Success to drive the activation of key product features, our efforts ensure that every team is working towards a common objective, fostering a culture of mutual support and collective success. 3️⃣ Messaging and Positioning Crafting a compelling value proposition and clear positioning is at the heart of what we do. We ensure that our messaging resonates with our target audience and distinctly stands out in the market. By deeply understanding our customers' pain points and needs, we create messaging that speaks directly to them, building a strong and differentiated brand identity. This strategic approach not only helps in attracting new customers but also strengthens loyalty among existing ones, setting us apart from competitors. 🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹 Being a PMM is about making a tangible difference, working collaboratively, and driving innovation. This is why I love product marketing—it’s the perfect blend of strategy, creativity, and impact. 💥 I’m grateful for the opportunity to work with such dedicated and talented teams who make every success possible. ✨ #ProductMarketing

Perfection only exists in hindsight. I was Head of Product Marketing at a company where we launched a product in a new market. I spent several months doing research to determine the features and go-to-market strategy. The launch date was set, but I didn't feel we were ready. Looking back at all of the work I had done, I realized that it was sufficient. With more time to research and analyze, very little would have been gained. The product was launched and we had interest from several customers. When it comes to launching new products, you may never have enough… ✔ Subject matter expertise ✔ Development resources ✔ Customer feedback ✔ Market research ✔ Budget ✔ Time ➡ It’s about having enough confidence from knowing you’ve done your best.

Since becoming a Product Manager, I discovered Product Marketing and wanted to learn more about it all... Product marketers are the bridge between product, marketing, and sales. They ensure the right message reaches the right audience at the right time. Here's a quick breakdown of what a Product Marketer actually does: ⭐ Creates strategic plans ⭐ Writes great product stories ⭐ Defines buyer personas ⭐ Conducts product research ⭐ Develops marketing content ⭐ Plans and executes product launches ⭐ Engages with the community ⭐ Enables sales teams So what is the difference between a Product Manager and a Product Marketing Manager? 💡Product Managers are responsible for helping create and define a product, while Product Marketing Managers are responsible for leading the product’s go-to-market strategy. I'm reading more and more about it and can recommend 3 good resources as an intro to Product Marketing if anyone is interested: https://lnkd.in/dUCBFDf2 https://lnkd.in/dZZQ_EVV https://lnkd.in/dda3VXJ4

Turning customers into advocates isn’t just a marketing win—it’s a financial advantage. Tesla’s referral program cut acquisition costs by converting happy customers into cost-effective sales drivers. GoPro created a community of users who amplify the brand through user-generated content, significantly reducing marketing spend. These examples highlight how advocacy strategies can optimize budgets, enhance ROI, and support sustainable financial growth. For finance teams, this is a reminder that brand advocacy isn’t just about engagement—it’s a smart, scalable investment. This article by The Drum shows yet again how B2B can learn plenty from B2C brands. Here’s the link to check it out: https://okt.to/P0Wwlf

Hey PMMs - Product Marketing Managers! This post is for you! I’ve been thinking a lot lately on how my products can compete against more established brands and here are a few things I do to capture attention and capture that precious resource of market share. • Hyper-focused targeting – Don’t try to be everything to everyone. Zero in on niche markets or underserved segments where established brands may have blind spots. This gives you room to own a space where your competition isn't active. • Build authentic brand stories – Customers are craving authenticity and love a good story. Your story, values, and mission are powerful tools to connect on a deeper emotional level. Brands that have a purpose and show it to their customers create loyalty. When you have loyalty, they will be willing to pay a little more. • Utilize personalization – Flexibility and personalization are areas where brands can shine. Create tailored solutions or experiences that larger brands struggle to replicate due to scale. • Align with sales – In B2B, you are relying on your sales team and aligning with them and collaborating with the team brings out hidden gems of where to focus efforts for quick wins. Marketers need to work with sales to capture more market share. Winning against more established brands is challenging, but utilizing strategic differentiation and outmaneuvering the established giants can position your products to capture some much needed market share. If you read to the end, NICE! What tips do YOU have for capturing market share against the top brands?

When people ask me what I do, I usually keep it simple and say, "I work in marketing." (Sometimes, I might add, "with a focus on health tech.") It’s easier than dealing with the blank stare I often get if I say "product marketing," especially since the role can vary so much across companies. So, what is product marketing? And how is it different from general marketing? Some of the awesome people I follow on LinkedIn, like Richard King and Frank Sayles, have done some great posts around what the role means. Here’s my take: At Healthee, I’m lucky to sit at the intersection of marketing and product (hence the name "product marketing"). While I’m officially part of the marketing team, I’m also an honorary member of the product team. This unique position lets me dive deep into what we’re building and ensure it aligns with the experience we want our users to have. Product marketing isn’t just about go-to-market strategies or messaging—it’s about truly understanding both the product and the people who use it. What prompted me to say all this? Today, I attended my first-ever product conference—ProductX. One of my favorite talks was from Ayelet Gvirsman about the importance of user testing, even at the earliest stages, before you have users or a fully developed product. I also loved the cross-functional perspectives, like hearing from a VP of Sales (former VP Product) and a CTO-turned-VP Product. And, I learned a new term - spaghetti code (yes, that's a real thing). If you’re a product marketer (or have no idea what that is), I’d love to hear your thoughts: What does product marketing mean to you?

What are the biggest mistakes I made in my product marketing career? LinkedIn is a place to highlight success, but more can be learned from failures. Everyone makes mistakes, and sharing these stories can prevent others from repeating. So, here are my top product marketing missteps: ❌ Allowing messaging by committee Entering a company as a new product marketer, it can be difficult to go against the precedence of multiple messaging approvals. For my first launch, I allowed too many stakeholders to influence our messaging. The result was a diluted and convoluted value proposition that was a headscratcher for customers. ✅ Lesson: Trust your expertise. Learn alignment tactics to carve out autonomy and help push through your ideas. Collaborate, but be prepared to make tough decisions. ❌Neglecting post-launch activities After a major product release, I prematurely shifted focus to the next project. Six months later, adoption rates were disappointingly low. The launch was successful but failed to drive sustained engagement. ✅Lesson: The launch is just the beginning. While the initial launch commands the most attention, adoption is a slog and takes consistent effort. ❌Overreacting to customer feedback To be customer-centric, I once pushed for feature changes based on a small but vocal group of users. These changes just confused our core customer base and didn’t solve key pain points. ✅ Lesson: Listen to customers, but learn to distinguish between trends and outlier opinions. Not all feedback should translate into action. Failures are never fun, but it’s what helped shape me into a better product marketer. Would love to hear anyone else’s stories!

GREAT point by Yi Lin Pei: ❌ GTM ≠ Product Launch ≠ Product Marketing "Too often, the lines between them get blurred. But understanding how they fit together is key to driving real impact. Here is how I define them: ✔️ A GTM strategy is the broad, company-wide plan for reaching customers and driving revenue. It’s what’s a company operates on.  ✔️ A Product Launch is a subset of GTM, focused on introducing something new to the market.. ✔️ Product Marketing (PMM) is the FUNCTION that bridges insights, positioning, messaging, and enablement—playing a role in both GTM and launches. Think of it this way: 🏈 GTM Strategy = The full game plan. (Expanding into a new market, pricing shifts, sales motions, etc.) 🎯 Product Launch = A play within the game. (New feature release, app launch.) 💪 PMM = The strategist on the field. (Positioning, storytelling, enablement.) A lot of PMMs think we are quarterbacks in driving the GTM, but other functions are also crucial because you cannot win in the long run with just a strong quarterback and a disconnected team. This is why it’s SO important for PMMs to influence and build cross-functional relationships with other teams, and why the role is ultimately a connector role." -- 👋 P.S. What's your take PMMs? Make sure you give Yi Lin Pei a follow btw!

"oh yeah you're that product marketing girl!" 1. I haven't been a girl for over 20 years so thanks? for calling me that 2. Many of y'all are new in my little bubble, so this is a good opportunity for an intro post! Here's the rundown from least to most interesting (so y'all read until the end): - Yes, I'm a product marketer. I do competitive positioning consulting that’s based on competitive research, mostly for ent b2b companies - What I'm trying to change: Thinking about competition only in the context of battle cards but ignoring it anywhere else. I think that's a miss - My career started in project management -> product -> product marketing. I've been doing the latter the longest and haven't looked back since. - Industrial engineer and I also have an mba - Unlike this pic, I rarely wear all black - Worked at 30-ppl startups and hp (so, the opposite). I liked both - Dirty Dancing is probably my favorite movie. Still relevant - I'm a decent cook but I'm not into baking. Always down to try something new, I don't care if it's a food truck or a Michelin star joint - I'm a self-proclaimed pinterest fail extraordinaire - Some of my happy places include the organization dept at ikea, the coffee truck/flower shop in my neighborhood, my favorite yoga studio, and my bedroom. - The meaning of my name is Aries - I have two daughters, Libby (10) & Alma (5). One reminds me of myself when I was a kid; the other reminds me of myself now. I love our conversations so much, and nothing will make me happier than having them around talking my ear off even after they have grown and moved out - I have super solid two truths and a lie that I hold on to in case of an emergency (i.e. an icebreaker situation) - A proud immigrant, TLV -> ATX about 8 years ago - Since moving to Austin I accumulated 7 pairs of cowboy boots, a truck, and an inflatable outdoor hot tub (it’s called (trashy?) southern living 🪭)