Sam Melnick’s Post

"What's product marketing life like?" A juggling act of pain 🐙 "Make it look pretty" "The product sells itself" "We're launching tomorrow" "Where's the help center article?" "Can you make a one-pager real quick?" "We already have this feature on the roadmap?" "Why don't we have this feature our competitor does?" "We need to add this feature, our biggest customer is churning." IYKYK 😂 👋 P.S. How do you annoy a PMM in 1 sentence? Go!

Product Marketing life: IYKYK 😎 “Make it look pretty” "The product sells itself" “We’re launching tomorrow” “Where’s the help center article?” “Can you make a one-pager real quick?” “We already have this feature on the roadmap?” “Why don’t we have this feature our competitor does?” “We need to add this feature, our biggest customer is churning.” h/t Rebecca Shaddix for the hilarious 1-liners P.S. How do you annoy a PMM in 1 sentence? Go! -- 👋 Follow Product Marketing Alliance for more Felt this? ♻️ Repost to share ;)

Out of all these points, I’m kinda “allergy” to this point in fact - The Product Sells Itself. Then why at the first place you need marketers? Secondly, have you thought of the presence of your competitors and if this is something related to consumers and feeding their needs? -Open Answer Question-

Friends in product/product marketing - I'm trying to Google and find an old Pragmatic Marketing framework for 'types of product launch' and cannot. So instead, do any of you have simple frameworks for the different types of product launches (e.g. table stakes vs share of wallet vs differentiator etc) that you find useful for categorization and internal alignment?

Some exciting developments this week! Kicked off a new Sembrar customer AND this was our first project with a Product Marketing Partner. Really excited to talk more about it in the coming weeks! We have really been focused on Product Management the past year and half, and it has been fun to start to expand into Design and Product Marketing. We are encompassing more of all the primary product functions. So if you know any Fractional Product Marketers, I am starting to build my network there and happy to take any intros. Makes sense? Doesn't Make sense? #Productmarketing

One of the reasons I transitioned from a global Product management role to a regional product marketing role was to understand the different processes in the Product's "Go-to-Market" journey. And while the transition wasn't easy as I was changing both the role and the country (in the middle of the pandemic) - it has helped me immensely to understand the other 3Ps - Pricing, Promotion and Placement. While it can be extremely overwhelming as you juggle between - pricing, promotion, cost, supply, demand forecasting, market trends, campaigns, Ad spends, traffic and whatnot - it is also important to take time to reflect on the processes and the priorities (2 more Ps for you!). And that is where you make your actual contribution. You start by - critically examining every requirement (vis-a-vis your goals) - reducing or deleting any process that you can (at least for now) - simplifying and optimising the remaining processes (Automate) So that you free up your time and energy to do what matters the most! And what I love to say - to do what moves the needle for my business! #Reflection #ProductMarketing

Pushing back is a way of a life for a product marketing manager. BUT there’s a way to do it without being a nightmare to work with. 1️⃣ START WITH WHY: Understand what the *actual* ask is. Is it increasing user acquisition? Is it raising brand awareness? Could it be FOMO? (That last one is always fun, right? 😅) 2️⃣ TAKE A DIFFERENT ROUTE: Now that you’ve got an idea of why this person is bringing this to you, help them find a different, more scope-friendly way to get there. 3️⃣ SAY NO (NOT RIGHT NOW): So, you found an alternative. The resources aren’t gonna let it happen at the moment. Say no, explain your reasoning, and *keep the idea in the backlog for a later date.* Actually bring it back full circle; trust is everything as a PMM!

Product marketing, especially when you're in a player/coach role, can feel like a never ending series of side quests, all distracting you from the bigger mission. It's so easy to let 1-pager and other collateral requests take over your life at the expense of doing "big picture" pmm activities like: -revisiting internal messaging and positioning docs -checking in with x-functional partners to make sure they're getting what they need from you and vice versa Last week, we brought Maxio's GTM teams together onsite in our ATL office and I had the opportunity to present on our global positioning framework, but also ladder down and show how all the new product enhancements we released in 1H support the "big picture" positioning, and most importantly, how to tell that story. It feels so basic to the DNA of what product marketing is, but truthfully it had been a while since I presented something like that. So this is a friendly reminder (to myself and all the other PMMs out there), make sure you're balancing the tactical with the big picture. It helps if there's a deadline, so think about how to create self-imposed deadlines so this stuff doesn't slip a full calendar year without getting your attention ❤️

Honestly these days, ANYONE can make a great video but is that video really solving your problems? I'm sharing a great post that talks about the difference between good and bad marketing and something that should be in the back of all of our minds when creating content. "Bad marketing talks about the product" "Good marketing talks about your customers problems" Why is this true? 🤔 • If your message solely focuses on talking about why your product is great, then you're not targeting anyone. • If you want customers to buy your product or services, then you need to be reaching out to customers that NEED your services. So focus on the problems your customers are facing. Find out what they NEED. What their beliefs are, what keeps them up at night and where do they want to go. Once you've figured that out, only then is it a good time to start investing in content creation. Or else you're just wasting time and resources!

Good marketing involves strategically applying effective marketing practices to achieve business goals and to solve customer problems 😉