What this book covers
Chapter 1, Introducing Product Marketing, provides an introduction to product marketing roles, covering outbound and inbound functions.
Chapter 2, Inbound Product Marketing – Driving Innovation, explains the concept of inbound product marketing and provides practical examples of how product marketers use inbound strategies to shape the product roadmap, guide product development, and foster innovation. It offers insights into the key components of inbound marketing, explores the importance of product innovation, and highlights the reasons for choosing an inbound approach, all while clarifying its impact on the organization of the overall product.
Chapter 3, Outbound Product Marketing – Driving Product Adoption and Growth, provides a general overview of outbound product marketing. It explains how outbound activities are used to drive product adoption and expedite growth across the various stages of the buying funnel – awareness, interest, consideration, adoption, and advocacy. Additionally, it shares examples of companies that prioritize outbound strategies, particularly those with a sales-led focus.
Chapter 4, Market Research and Competitive Analysis – Strategies to Enhance Innovation, provides essential strategies involving market research and competitive intelligence (CI). It walks you through diverse market research approaches and analyses, including SWOT analysis, Win/Loss analysis, and Porter's Five Forces analysis. Moreover, it illustrates how these analyses can effectively inform the product roadmap, and validate the right markets to outreach the right segments and audiences. It encompasses primary and secondary market research types, delving extensively into the nuances of both categories.
Chapter 5, Customer Research – Creating Effective Voice of Customer Programs, emphasizes customer research and the skill of crafting an effective Voice of Customer (VoC) initiative within your organization. It also provides steps on how to identify customer needs, categorize them into product needs, service needs, and so on, and finally, how to meet those needs.
Chapter 6, Influencing the Product Roadmap, provides an in-depth exploration of the concept of a product roadmap. It encompasses a comprehensive overview of the precise involvement of the product marketer within the roadmap, illustrating its application across the various phases of a product launch. Additionally, it delves into the significance and advantages of sharing the roadmap with customers, coupled with strategies to effectively convey the product roadmap and its overarching vision.
Chapter 7, Customer Segmentation and Personas, comprehensively details customer segmentation, outlining its essence and significance. It presents a spectrum of customer segmentation types, accompanied by tactics to effectively chart out high-performing segments. Following this, the subsequent section delves into various persona variations. It furnishes a meticulous, step-by-step guide on persona construction and their proficient integration throughout the entirety of the product launch process. Furthermore, the concept of the "jobs to be done" principle is elucidated, unveiling its role in addressing the query of why our personas choose your product.
Chapter 8, Competitive Positioning and Messaging for Growth, delves into the concept of positioning, offering a comprehensive understanding. It presents a step-by-step guide to crafting precise positioning, exploring various positioning frameworks, and illustrating how positioning strategies can be harnessed to foster growth. The second part focuses entirely on messaging, detailing how to chart your messaging strategy, which includes a step-by-step walkthrough of the messaging framework. It then delves into the emerging trend of automated messaging and how utilizing tools can simplify and enhance your messaging management, offering greater ease and control.
Chapter 9, GTM Strategies for Exponential Growth, provides a comprehensive understanding of a GTM strategy, encompassing its core definition and the methodical approach to constructing your GTM plan. This chapter delves into the multifaceted components that make up an effective GTM strategy, along with insightful tactics customized for each facet. Additionally, it explores the pivotal concept of "product-market fit," explaining both its significance and how to measure it. The last part focuses on the product launch and how it connects with the GTM strategy. It looks at different aspects of coordinating the launch, such as working with stakeholders, setting goals, planning launch tiers, and tracking metrics.
Chapter 10, Enable Your Sales Team and Maximize Effectiveness, clarifies the concept of sales enablement and outlines the necessary components for a successful program. It provides an overview of a framework designed to build and scale an enablement program. It then explains how to create a hub for sales collateral, highlighting the need to adjust these resources for different buyer stages – awareness, interest, consideration, and adoption. Finally, the focus shifts to evaluating the effectiveness of your enablement program using significant metrics.
Chapter 11, Ensure Internal Stakeholders Buy-In, covers several essential aspects of relationship-building within the product marketing realm. It addresses the dynamics of fostering healthy relationships with internal stakeholders, while ensuring alignment and minimizing friction with other teams to prevent conflicts. The discussion delves into the daily routine of a product manager, outlining the distinct responsibilities of Product Marketing Managers (PMMs) and Product Managers (PMs). It elucidates the points of overlap between these roles and emphasizes the potential for collaboration. The chapter also examines collaboration with adjacent teams, such as sales and marketing, outlining methods to secure their buy-in and maintain harmonious relationships to avert friction and disputes. Lastly, this chapter emphasizes the crucial role of connecting with the C-suite and provides guidance on key focus areas when engaging with these high-level executives.
Chapter 12, Analyst Relations (AR), highlights the pivotal role analysts play as influential figures in guiding various decisions for potential customers and investors. It illustrates how analysts can aid product marketers in boosting product adoption. The chapter then provides a comprehensive guide on creating an analyst relations plan, including a killing analyst deck. Lastly, the discussion delves into measurement and the essential metrics that are vital to monitor and ensure the success of your analyst plan.