Product Marketing Manager: Career & Job Description

Product Marketing Managers (PMMs) straddle the boundary between product, marketing, and sales, emphasizing the importance of messaging, go-to-market strategies, and product launches within the world of product management. 

In this article, we'll cover the Product Marketing Manager's job description, how they differ from regular PMs, their most important skills, salary, and how to break into the field with stories from successful Product Marketers.

Product Launch Checklist

Launch is a critical time that can make the difference between product success and failure. Use this checklist to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.

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What does a Product Marketing Manager do?

Product Marketing, much like digital and traditional marketing, involves getting the product to market and making sure it reaches the right customers.

When we hear the word ‘marketing’, it’s usually preceded by things like ‘social media’, ’email campaigns, and ‘blogging,’ but Product Marketing is so much more than that!

Marketing tells the story of a product and helps communicate what the brand stands for. If you have a competitor with a similar product to yours, it’s your storytelling—your why—that will set you apart and help you find your customers. 

A Product Marketing Manager owns the positioning, messaging, and branding of a product. They also gather and process customer feedback, and manage some aspects of customer relations after launch. Essentially, they work on moving customers through a funnel that converts them from a general audience, into loyal fans.

A common misconception of Product Marketing is that it focuses mainly on acquisition. However, there’s no point attracting new customers if you can’t keep them! Marketing works to nurture customers throughout their journey with a product in order to keep churn rates down.

A Product Marketing Manager will constantly be working on different tasks for customers at these three levels of the funnel.

• Acquisition: Getting the customer's attention, making people aware that your product exists, and piquing their interest, for instance, on social media.

• Engagement: Getting people involved in your community of fans, such as by attending events.

• Retention/Conversion: Keeping customers coming back either through subscription models or recurring purchases.

Product Marketing Manager vs. Product Manager

Given that the roles share 2 out of 3 words, you might expect there to be some overlap between PMMs and PMs, and you'd be right. There are also important differences between Product Managers and Product Marketing Managers.

“Product management and product marketing are really just two sides of the same coin. We both aim to find solutions to customer problems and ensure that we're delivering intuitive product-market fit. However, we often approach this from different angles—product managers focus on solving the problem itself, while product marketers think about market penetration and how well we're connecting with our target audience.”

— Jameelah Calhoun, VP of Product and Customer Marketing at Eventbrite, in Hack the Product-Product Marketing Relationship

While Product Marketing Managers are externally focused on messaging, launch strategy, the user, and the marketplace, traditional PMs are responsible for internal concerns like the Product Vision and tying it into the company's overall objectives, alongside development requirements, product specifications, and roadmapping.

Imagine Sarah, a PM at Google. Her day starts with syncing up with her engineering team, iterating on the product roadmap, and occasionally stepping into user testing sessions. Sarah is immersed in ensuring the product aligns perfectly with user needs and the company's strategic vision.

On the other hand, we have Raj, a PMM at Spotify. Raj’s mornings are typically consumed by market research, crafting compelling narratives for upcoming product launches, and collaborating with sales teams to equip them with the tools they need to succeed.

Product Marketing Manager Responsibilities

Product Marketing is difficult to define because it varies from company to company, and it can even vary between different products! Take a look at these different examples of Product Marketing roles at different Google and Fitbit.

Product Marketing Management responsibilities at Google

• Partner with consumer researchers to design, implement, and then synthesize insights from primary consumer research and competitive analyses.

• Work closely with Product Managers and User Experience Designers in the early stages of development to shape the direction of individual products.

• Manage the development of product positioning, naming, and messaging strategy for your product(s).

• Work cross-portfolio to develop experiences within your product area that solve known consumer needs.

• Write briefs and review creative assets to make sure your positioning and messaging strategy comes to life consistently in the real world.

Product Marketing Management responsibilities at Fitbit

• Inform new product requirements with data that represents key market analysis, consumer insights, and business rationale that supports our company strategy

• Develop in-depth knowledge of consumer needs, key category trends, and competitive landscape to influence product roadmap recommendations & decisions

• Influence key marketing & product decisions (e.g. naming, positioning, packaging, creative strategy, form factor, feature prioritization, etc.)

• Define global go-to-market strategy and execute product launches from beginning to end. Work with marketing, product, sales, finance & international teams to develop marketing campaigns that drive demand for Fitbit products. Establish processes that facilitate cross-functional collaboration & communication

• Partner with the research team on quantitative and qualitative research to deliver actionable insights that drive sustained growth to core products, help us understand our target consumers, and inform product positioning & messaging

• Work with the creative team and external agencies to develop marketing assets to support product launches, including writing briefs, packaging, naming, and web assets

• Be an expert on competitive products, trends, and technologies and share insights across the company

• Optimize product performance & experiences by having a comprehensive understanding of products in market, keeping a pulse on KPls, and provide recommendations (e.g., channel, product, marketing).

• Develop robust business cases for new devices & software experiences and pitch to senior executives. This includes product definition, volume build, high-level revenue targets, margin recommendations, go-to-market plans, and crafting the consumer story.

Product Launch Checklist

Launch is a critical time that can make the difference between product success and failure. Use this checklist to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.

DOWNLOAD CHECKLIST

5 Must-Have Product Marketing Skills

What exactly do you need to know how to do to succeed as a Product Marketer? Let’s dive deeper into the skills every PMM needs to do their job.

Communication and storytelling

The 'why' behind your brand is as important as the 'what', i.e., the product. The why reflects the company's core values and, at its essence, reflects back to the customer who they want to be. 

A clear why that resonates is what has people waiting in line in the cold for hours when a new iPhone comes out. They don’t need to have it that day. They don’t even need a new phone! But having it says something about who they are. 

Product marketing managers leverage the why into Unique Value Propositions that meet their target audience where it is.

In order to communicate the USPs, it’s important to have a clear and compelling messaging framework. Based on competitor research, A/B testing, and input from key stakeholders, Product Marketing Managers messaging that aligns with the product and connects with the target audience. It’s also the PMM’s responsibility to communicate the messaging to stakeholders to align everyone around the framework.

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Strategic thinking

The Product Marketer takes a unique approach to product release and promotion, known as the Go-to-Market (GTM) strategy. It's not just about launching a new product or updating an existing one; it's about understanding and communicating its value to the market. 

Key elements of a GTM strategy: 

• Set clear objectives

• Select channels

• Design key events

• Identify spokespersons

• Craft your product naming and branding

• Roll out social media campaigns

• Leverage PR & media

• Collaborate with sales & support

When it’s time to launch a new product or feature, Product Marketing Managers are in their element. They are on top of communication and coordinating with stakeholders to make sure that the news gets out. After all, there’s not much point in creating a new feature if no one knows about it. 

PMMs rely on their messaging frameworks and GTM strategies to ensure discovery and smooth adoption, tracking product launch metrics like number of sign-ups and email campaign open and click-through rates.

Creativity and resourcefulness

Creativity and resourcefulness are vital for product marketers because they enable the development of compelling campaigns that resonate with target audiences. Creativity allows marketers to craft unique messaging and branding that differentiates products in a crowded market, while resourcefulness helps them to effectively utilize limited resources, adapt to challenges, and find innovative solutions.

Together, these skills ensure that marketers can deliver impactful strategies that drive engagement, capture customer interest, and achieve business goals even in dynamic or constrained environments.

Understanding the Voice of the Customer

Understanding the Voice of the Customer (VoC) is essential for product marketers as it provides direct insights into customer needs, preferences, and pain points. By actively listening to and analyzing customer feedback, marketers can tailor products, messaging, and strategies to align with what customers truly value. This leads to more effective marketing, higher customer satisfaction, and increased loyalty. VoC ensures that marketing efforts are customer-centric, reducing the risk of misalignment between product offerings and market demand and ultimately driving better business outcomes.

Cross-functional collaboration

Cross-functional collaboration is crucial for product marketers because it fosters alignment between different teams, ensuring a cohesive strategy from product development to customer outreach. By working closely with sales, engineering, and customer support, marketers can better understand product capabilities, customer needs, and market dynamics, leading to more effective campaigns.

For example, input from sales can refine messaging to resonate with potential buyers, ensuring that marketing efforts drive sales and meet business objectives.

“Most product marketers aren’t in control of the channels they rely on to drive product adoption. You need to convince teams like social, CRM, and PR to help tell the stories and build the narratives that make customers aware of your products and understand how to use them. It’s a unique blend of skills across different functional areas that makes product marketing both exciting and challenging to master.”

— Jacob Schulman, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Netflix, in Breaking Into Product Marketing

What Tools Do Product Marketing Managers Use?

Product Marketing professionals rely on a diverse set of tools to streamline their work and maximize their impact. Here are some tools to consider:

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot). CRM tools help in managing customer interactions, tracking leads, sales, and customer feedback. For product marketing managers, this information is invaluable for understanding customer needs, segmenting the market, and tailoring communication strategies.

• Analytics and Data Visualization Tools (e.g., Google Analytics, Tableau). These tools provide insights into customer behaviors, product performance, and the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. 

• Project Management Tools (e.g., Asana, Trello). Product marketing involves coordinating with various teams including sales, marketing, product development, and customer support. 

• Content Management Systems (CMS) (e.g WordPress, Contentful). Content marketing is a key strategy for product marketing managers. CMS and blogging platforms enable them to publish, manage, and track the performance of content across different channels. This is crucial for building brand awareness, educating customers, and driving engagement.

• Email Marketing Tools (e.g., Mailchimp, Constant Contact). Email remains a highly effective channel for personalized communication and nurturing leads through the marketing funnel. 

How to Become a Product Marketing Manager

How did you break into Product Marketing?

Many roads lead to Product Marketing, as these experienced PMMs can attest. When asked how they got started in Product Marketing, the three Product Marketing Managers gave three different answers. You can learn more from Lori, Miguel, and Mohit in the panel discussion Breaking into Product Marketing, hosted by Product School.

Lori Yurika Riser

Senior Product Marketing Manager, Meta

"The beauty of product marketing is that there’s really no one way to get into it—there are so many different sets of skills that come into play as a product marketer. My first job answering customer support phone calls heightened my ability to empathize with customers, which is a key skill needed when improving products."

Miguel Pincerno

Product Marketing Manager, Google

"I studied public relations and started my career in advertising. Later, I transitioned to a business development role for a tech company. I didn't initially know I would end up working as a PMM, but I wanted to work in the tech industry, so I looked for general marketing roles and realized I had transferable skills that could be applied to product marketing. That's when I applied for a marketing role at Google, which I was accepted for. Initially, it was a general marketing role focused on brand and other topics, but as product projects were prioritized, I was gradually pushed into product marketing, and that’s where I am now."

Mohit Jain

B2B Global Product Marketing Manager, Revolut

"I started as an engineer and then transitioned into marketing after gaining interest in how the business and marketing side of things actually works. I did tech consulting for a couple of years before doing another marketing degree and really moving into the marketing space. This blend of interest in tech and marketing, coupled with education in both areas, led me to find a perfect fit in product marketing."

Build Your Product Marketing Portfolio

To excel in Product Marketing, you need a robust portfolio that showcases your skills and accomplishments. Here are five excellent ways to create your own Product Marketing portfolio:

• Case Studies: Document successful product launches and their impact on revenue or user engagement.

• Content Creation: Write blog posts, whitepapers, or eBooks that demonstrate your thought leadership.

• Market Research: Conduct competitive

  analysis and market research reports to showcase your strategic thinking.

• Campaigns: Highlight the marketing campaigns you've spearheaded and their results.

• Customer Testimonials: Showcase endorsements and testimonials from satisfied customers.

Get certified in Product Marketing Management

When you’re ready to fully commit to a career in Product Marketing, a certification course is a great investment that will set you up for success throughout your career. Whether you’re transitioning from product, marketing, or another field, honing the craft of product marketing with the guidance of an industry professional will help you find a job and excel in the role.

Dip a toe in with Product School's free Product Launches Micro-Certification (PRLC)™️ to get a taste for Go-to-Market strategy and the 'why' behind successful product launches.

Transition to Product Marketing from Product Management

If you’re currently a Product Manager but would like a job with more creative flair, Product Marketing might be for you.

The best way to transition from Product to Product Marketing is within your own company. Start by asking a current Product Marketing Manager to grab a coffee and talk shop. Some larger companies organize rotational shadowing schemes, which would allow you some exposure to the role.

When applying, try to highlight any experiences you’ve had that correlate with Product Marketing Manager responsibilities. Have you had any previous experiences working closely with a marketing team?

Product Marketing is also a brilliant stepping stone for marketing professionals to break into Product. Working on a go-to-market and launch strategy will put you in a great position to make the move.

Product Marketing Manager Salary

The average base salary for a Product Marketing Manager in the US is approximately $117,000 per year. Salaries vary significantly by location—within the US PMM salaries are highest in San Francisco, CA.

Other factors that affect Product salaries include industry, experience, and scope of the role.

Product Marketing Career Path

Product Marketing Managers have a plethora of strategic skills that can launch them into various fulfilling careers. One obvious career path for product marketers is through marketing, the other is through product. There are also opportunities for PMMs to move into Growth and Sales. 

• Product Marketing Associate/Coordinator: Entry-level role focused on supporting campaigns, conducting research, and assisting with product launches.

• Product Marketing Manager (PMM): Manages marketing strategy for specific products, including go-to-market plans, messaging, and cross-functional work with product and sales teams.

• Senior Product Marketing Manager (Sr. PMM): Handles more strategic responsibilities, managing larger product lines and mentoring junior PMMs.

• Product Marketing Lead/Group Product Marketing Manager: Oversees a team of PMMs, guiding the marketing strategy for a group of products, with significant leadership and cross-functional collaboration.

• Product Marketing Director: Sets the strategic vision for the product marketing function, ensuring alignment with company goals and reporting to senior executives.

• Head of Product Marketing/VP of Product Marketing: Senior executive role overseeing the entire product marketing organization, shaping long-term strategy and influencing company-wide decisions.

Why Choose Between Product and Marketing? Have it all!

Product Marketing is the secret sauce that blends creativity, strategy, and customer empathy into one exciting career. We've journeyed through the ins and outs of what it takes to become a PMM, from navigating various career paths to mastering the art of cross-functional collaboration. If you're someone who loves solving problems, connecting dots, and making an impact, Product Marketing could be your ultimate playground. So, clip on your thinking cap, dive into this dynamic field, and start shaping the future of products—one brilliant GTM strategy at a time!

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