Product Marketing Manager: A Complete Guide in 7 Points (2021)

Introduction

The role of a product marketing manager is diverse. They tell stories, design products, carry out data analysis, and conduct sale advisory. They are the key players that get products into the market.

The product marketing managers understand the ways to sell a product in the market. This could be physical or digital. They understand the ways to convince people to purchase the product. They follow a traditional approach to figure out who the customers are what they desire from the product. They understand the value of the product to the customer and why they would invest in it.

Product marketing managers need to ensure that the product is captivating and should be able to communicate an appealing story. They craft stories that are adequately presented and framed to excite the customers and to improve loyalty in them. They may also aim to stimulate the clients to keep them loyal and to convince others to purchase the product too.

The product marketing managers or PMMs tend to oversee all the elements and the employees who are a part of the product marketing. Here is what they do:

• They collaborate with the product designers and product managers for the launch.
• They conduct a lot of research to ensure that their assumptions about the client’s needs are correct.
• They shape a narrative that ultimately determines how the consumer will perceive the product.

Many companies are investing in the PMM role. The PMM needs to have experience in business and marketing and have a keen understanding of the value of the marketing product.

A product marketing manager is a lucrative career option, and here are its benefits:

• It offers competitive pay. Competent product managers are in demand and thus can demand good salaries.
• The product marketing manager jobs offer career stability. Organizations have to market services and products such that the market can differentiate the product from the competitors. This makes product marketing managers valuable. 

• PMM’s get a lot of flexibility in their work timings through they usually have a busy schedule
• Many different roles encompass a product manager’s JD. If you love challenging roles and are an all-rounder, then a PMM job may be the best suited for you.

In this article let us look at:

1. What does a Product Marketing Manager do?
2. How does PMM differ from Product Manager?
3. Skills
4. Educational Background
5. Certifications
6. Average Salary
7. Job Description

1. What does a Product Marketing Manager do?

Product marketing managers are experts at narrating a product. They determine the value of a product and create a narrative around its value. The responsibilities of a PMM include:

• Analyzing the competitor
• Undertaking market research
• Developing a product launch strategy
• Creating a marketing campaign digitally.
• Redefining design when working along with the product team
• Offering a consistent vision of the market
• Seeing through the outbound marketing
• Optimizing and refining the marketing strategies
• Offering messaging strategies to attract sales
• Training salesmen on the product
• Identifying who the influencers for marketing the product are
• Creating promotions and advertising
• Assessing the value proposition of the product
• Supervising the product marketing team

An individual PPM will work as per the employers’ needs and his area of expertise. While some PPM may be representing the customers and they would be supporting the product management team. They would develop and then validate the product design and launch a product strategy based on what input they gathered from the marketing manager.

The PPMs may also not be involved with the product strategy. They may be responsible for developing and communicating the narrative of the product. In either case, PPM’s work with engineers, markets, experienced designers, data analysts, and salespeople because they all benefit from the customers’ insights as per the market and user research.

2. How does PMM differ from Product Manager?

There is usually a lot of confusion between the roles of a PMM and a product manager. They are not very different because companies could define these two roles in several ways. Product managers are called PMs, and they are responsible for seeing through the success of a product. They have a complete understanding of the full development cycle of the product.

The product manager is responsible for managing the designers, brand specialists, engineers, marketers, and the product team involved in launching, creating, and selling the product. Under their guidance, it determines what gets built, how it gets built, and what will be next in line of production.

The product marketing managers are hyper-focused on customer needs, which will fit into the product development cycle. They research and make sure that the company provides what the customers want, and the product is designed to meet the clients’ needs. They also ensure that the external messages of the product communicate its value clearly to its target customers.

3. Skills

Here are the requirements to be a marketing manager. These are crucial traits that let you be a successful PMM.

• You should be empathetic and have the ability to compete with clients on varied levels. You need to have empathy not just when facing customers but also when working on stuff that will get released later.

• Problem solving and creativity is another skill that is a must in the PMMs. You need to face issues with various difficulty and scope. You may have to read through various microscopies or work on a one to one user testing. A PMM needs to be flexible in his work as he needs to take care of diverse opportunities. A PMM should work with a growth mindset and the ability to look at things broadly. Product marketing is an evolving process, and they influence each other, so as a product manager, you need to bring real value to your user.

• Good analytics and research skills are other prerequisites for a PMM. Live sessions with consumers let you know how they make use of the product. You need to organize them efficiently, and for that, you need to work on varied analytics and research tools. You do not just need to know how to use the analytics tool but also know how to interpret the results. You need to analyze patterns and roadblocks. You are the one who understands what is going on in the product and also what your competitors are up to. You thus play a key role in shaping the position of your product in the market.

• A PMM also has good marketing skills. You need to be well versed with the copyrighting techniques and know-how to explain the technical process and terms so that the non-tech user can understand it. The user should be able to understand the product and also fall in love with it. Your work will let the customers understand how the product will add value to them.

• Business and strategic planning skills are also something that a PMM should possess. This is highly crucial if you want to enter the field of PMM. A PMM should know how to prioritize work based on the business viewpoint. You are your customer’s advocate, and at times, you may have to drop features to please customers. This is again where you may use the analytics tool that lets you make better business decisions.

4. Educational Background

Here is the education that you need to have to apply to the job of a PMM.

You will need:

• Four years degree in business, marketing, or similar
• A Bachelors degree in marketing or any business-related field
• Graduate or Bachelors’ degree in business, marketing, technology, or any related field
• Degree in advertising, marketing, or related field

You thus need to have a bachelor’s degree in a subject related to marketing to apply for the PMM job. There are no specific degrees in PMM. There is also no bachelor’s program for the PMM role. You may want to do Business Studies In Product Marketing Programs or a Product Management And Brand Management Program. You may want to do an internship in companies that run a product marketing department.

After you earn your degree, you may start to work or opt for a master’s degree. You can also do an MBA after some years of work experience. There are not a lot of schools offering master’s degrees in PMM. Here are some of them that you can pursue.

• Master of Science in marketing
• Ms in marketing management
• MS in product marketing
• MS in marketing with a product management track

The degree that you choose to pursue should be based on your interest. You may want to get into the management side of product marketing or deeper into product marketing itself.

5. Certifications

There are not many PMM certifications, but the most relevant ones to this job profile that you can pursue are the Certified Product Marketing Manager or CPMM offered by the Association of International Product Marketing and Management (AIPMM. You can get this certification, and there is no prerequisite for it. There is a 120 question exam, and you get access to all the study materials. However, as per AIPMM, this course’s maximum value is when you do an MBA or have at least three years of experience in the PMM field.

6. Average Salary

The product marketing manager salary is much more than a marketing professional. The average salary of a PMM is $116000. Your salary is usually dependent on your role and your experience in this work. If you work in a small startup, you will earn less than when you work in a large global company.

7. Job Description

A PMM is responsible for developing an effective marketing strategy. They plan ways to communicate the product features and their benefits to the new customers. They also take over the market research on the currently trending products, establish a timescale for the products that are yet to launch and influence the product packaging and pricing. The guide the sales team and develop marketing and messaging position around the product. They also take part in various events and presentations.

The PMM is responsible for getting the voice of the customer into the company. They research consumer needs and their processes. While the product marketing manager job description will differ from one role to the next and from one company to another, here are some of the common roles of the PMMs.

• Build on the messaging of the product that states how the new product is different from the rest of the market
• Communicate the vision and the value of the new product
• Plan as well as participate in the new product launch 
• Brief the PR and the press on the new product
• Carry out presentations
• Get insights on the customers’ usage of the product and understand the untapped opportunities.
• Analyze the level of inventory
• Alter the timeline and the deadlines for the development of any new product
• Use market research to establish the pricing of the product.
• Create content for videos, case studies, and website copy
• Speak and present the product to the internal and external audience
• Test any new product or goods
• Prepare and keep the production within the budget.
• Research what the competitor is offering
• Recruit a team and develop them to work as product marketing executives

Conclusion

Do you think you have what it takes to be a successful PMM? How determined you are to work in this role has a key role in deciding how successful you will be as a PMM. The role is challenging but demanding, and you have to collaborate with varied departments and be involved in the complete development lifecycle of the product.

 As a PMM, you are the jack of all trades, which is not the same as a typical marketing role. You are the market researcher, the data scientist, the marketing strategist, a design consultant, a business analyst, a copywriter, and a brand stagiest all clubbed into one. As a PMM, you have a hand in every facet of the development cycle of the product, its refinement, and its launch. If all this sounds great to you, then PMM may be the best career option for you.

Interested to learn all about Product Management from the best minds in the industry? Check out our Product Management Course. This 6-month-long program takes place online through live instructor-led sessions. It is the only program in India that offers the ‘Bring Your Own Product (BYOP)’ feature so that learners can build their product idea into a full-blown product, and go through an entire Product Development lifecycle. Not only this, but this is the only program in India with a curriculum that conforms to the 5i Framework. Post completion, learners receive a joint certification from the Indian Institute of Management, Indore, and Jigsaw Academy.

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