Principle #6
The role of a product marketing manager is very varied, so make sure you know it inside out and backwards. From positioning and messaging, to personas, and segmentation, there are a lot of staple and high priority responsibilities for product marketers to take on.
This ownership applies to the knowledge and understanding you have around your product/solution and industry, too. Ownership of knowledge results in credibility, and credibility equates to value, so make sure you know your stuff and fight your corner.
Take ownership of your strategies, responsibilities, and values and advocate for them.
Your product will never flourish if other departments in your business aren’t using your positioning, messaging and persona work when talking to potential customers, or if product teams aren’t building for your personas. You need to be the one to shed light on these important, strategic pieces of work.
Establishing a better understanding of your role means a better understanding of your value.
Don’t skip the all-important, company-wide education piece that will help everyone understand your role and responsibilities. And, continually reiterate your value by being transparent with OKRs, projects, and results to establish a trusting, more positive relationship with everyone.
Create kick-ass positioning, messaging, persona and segmentation work, and make sure it is adopted.
This sentiment is backed up by Holly Watson, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Amazon Web Services, as she told us:
“Product marketers do add value, but it’s been said before - product marketing has a branding problem. To overcome this hurdle, add value, do work, and be vocal. [...]
“Gracefully use multiple channels to educate, inform, advise and direct teams to the resources being developed. Get on regional team calls, global team calls, use Slack or other chat channels, email, email again to share resources.
“You might feel like it’s redundant. That’s ok. Don’t get fed-up or frustrated. Empathize and help craft a reliable, trusted voice that adds value to your teammates and end users. It’s not about you as a product marketer, it’s about the value you’re providing to your teams - the recognition will come.”