How to Become a Product Marketing Manager [+Tools and Resources]

What is a product marketing manager?

A product marketing manager is a professional responsible for promoting and selling their company’s products.

They focus on learning market trends, defining the audience, developing positioning strategies, and differentiating the product. They collaborate with cross-functional teams like product development, sales, and marketing to ensure a product’s success.

Product marketing manager’s main responsibilities

While different companies may have varying responsibilities for this role depending on their product and market status, every product marketing manager is responsible for leading teams that bring the product to the market.

Here are their main responsibilities:

• Drive customer engagement and advocacy through customer-focused marketing initiatives such as user communities, customer testimonials, and referral programs. They promote the right features of the product to the right users at the right time.
• Responsible for pre-launch and post-launch activities of the product. They develop product positioning, messaging, and value propositions tailored to different target audiences in the market.
• Collaborate with product teams to understand product features, benefits, and competitive advantages, translating them into effective marketing strategies.
• Plan and execute go-to-market strategies for new product launches, including developing launch plans, pricing strategies, and promotional campaigns.
• Create and maintain marketing collateral such as product guides, whitepapers, case studies, and demo videos to support sales and marketing efforts.
• Conduct market research, competitive analysis, and customer surveys to gather insights and inform product roadmap decisions.
• Work closely with sales teams to develop sales enablement materials, training programs, and competitive battle cards.
• Analyze key metrics such as customer acquisition cost (CAC), customer lifetime value (CLV), and churn rate to optimize marketing strategies and drive customer retention.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including sales, product management, and customer success, to ensure alignment on product positioning and messaging.
• Stay updated on industry trends, market dynamics, and competitive landscape to identify opportunities for product differentiation and innovation.

Product marketing manager career path

Here is what the career path of a product manager looks like:

1. Product marketing manager intern: This is the entry-level where you gain hands-on experience through internships in marketing or related fields. You can assist with market research, competitive analysis, and marketing campaigns, and learn about the company’s products/services and target audience.
2. Product marketing manager: This role allows one to develop and execute product marketing strategies. They also create marketing collateral, messaging, and sales tools, collaborate with cross-functional teams for product launches and promotions, and gain experience in market segmentation, customer personas, and competitive positioning.
3. Lead product marketing manager: Here, one can lead a team of product marketers or coordinate marketing efforts across multiple products, take ownership of larger product launches and marketing campaigns, mentor junior team members, and contribute to strategic planning.
4. Associate director of product marketing: This task allows you to oversee product marketing strategies for a specific product line or business unit, collaborate with senior management on marketing budgets, goals, and strategies, and analyze market trends, customer feedback, and competitive landscape to drive business decisions.
5. Director of product marketing manager and beyond: At this position, you can manage complex product portfolios or key strategic initiatives, lead cross-functional teams in product positioning, messaging, and go-to-market strategies, act as a strategic advisor on product marketing strategies and market opportunities, and grow into other executive positions.

How to become a product marketing manager?

The following are the main steps to becoming a product marketing manager:

• Get a degree: The first step to becoming a product marketing manager is to acquire a bachelor’s degree in marketing, business administration, communication, or a related field. An MBA could be preferred for senior-level positions, although is not always required.
• Gain experience: Building experience in various aspects of marketing is another crucial step. It helps one to build a portfolio that can help them highlight the best skills that employers want. You can get this through internships and participating in related tasks. Starting as a Marketing Coordinator will lead you to a senior or managerial position.
• Certification: You will then need to get certified as a product marketing manager. The main certificates include the Meta Marketing Professional Certificate, Certified Digital Marketing Professional (CDMP), and others.
• Gain essential skills: Skills such as market research and analysis, marketing, technical knowledge in CRM systems, marketing automation, and related technologies are crucial for this position.

What skills should a product marketing manager have?

A product marketing manager is in charge of the product’s success throughout its lifecycle. It’s a task that calls for a specific set of skills to manage cross-functional teams, communicate product value, and ensure growth.

Below is a list of essential skills this individual should possess.

• Strong leadership: Product marketing managers lead teams, even without direct authority. They rally and encourage a cohesive working atmosphere within internal teams, offering their technical expertise and explaining the product’s value.
• Presentation, empathy, and clear communication: It’s the PMM who understands the needs and pains of customers deeply. They may have to organize product demos, interview customers, and follow online reviews. Empathetic thinking allows them to respond more thoughtfully and deliver impactful messages.
• Marketing knowledge: A good product marketing manager must understand the ins and outs of their discipline. They must have great insights into content, demand generation, social media, digital marketing, and project management.
• Excellent organizational skills and project management: One must have effective planning skills to ensure products meet updates and every team has the materials they need.
• Product expertise: One cannot market a product they do not understand. Therefore, a good PMM must know everything about the product better than everyone else.
• Research and data analysis: A great product marketing manager should know key marketing metrics. This helps in measuring marketing effectiveness, optimizing campaigns, and making data-driven decisions.
• Technical understanding: The world of software development keeps expanding, putting more pressure on related fields. Thus, the more one understands the technology behind the product, the better one can explain its value and lead in the market.

Best certifications for product marketing manager

Based on general product management discussions and trends, here are some certification options you can look into:

• Pragmatic Marketing Certified Product Manager (PCMP) (Pragmatic Institute): This certification gets positive mentions for its focus on practical, customer-centric product strategy. It emphasizes market analysis and product differentiation – crucial skills for strategists.
• Strategic Product Management Course (Mind the Product): This course is part of a well-regarded product management community. It covers advanced strategy topics like product visioning and roadmaps. It caters to experienced professionals seeking to refine their strategic thinking.
• Product School Certifications (Product Management Certification (PMC) & Product Leadership Certification (PLC)): The PMC provides a solid foundation, while the PLC focuses on leadership skills for strategists. You can consider these based on your experience level.
• Design Thinking (Various providers): While not a product strategy certification specifically, design thinking is a framework highly valued by product strategists. You can consider courses from IDEO U or Stanford d.school.

Best resources for product marketing managers

Product marketing plays a crucial role in the success of a product, which is why one needs the right product marketing resources to understand it deeply. Here we will share the best books, webinars, podcasts, and blogs for such a role:

Best books for product marketing managers

Here are five books every product marketing manager should read:

• Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout: This book highlights new techniques for reaching and connecting with customers and creating a strong positioning in the minds of customers.
• The Launch: A Product Marketer’s Guide by Yasmeen Turayhi: Go to Amazon to get this book, which exposes you to 50 thoughtful questions that will help you avoid common pitfalls. This book is quite useful, especially for starters.
• Product Marketing, Simplified by Srini Sekaran: This comprehensive guide to product marketing helps you through the steps to becoming an influential product marketer and delivering value to customers. You can get it on Amazon.
• Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products by Nir Eyal: This book explores the Hook Model for creating products that form user habits and drive engagement. You can get in on Amazon.
• Hacking Growth by Sean Ellis and Morgan Brown: This book discusses strategies for driving rapid and sustainable business growth through growth hacking techniques. You can get it on Amazon.

Best webinars for product marketing managers

As a product marketing manager (PMM), staying informed is key. Webinars offer a fantastic way to learn from industry experts and refine your skills. Here’s a curated list of helpful webinar sources for you:

• Userpilot Events delves into user onboarding and product growth, crucial aspects of successful product marketing. Their webinars offer valuable insights on optimizing user experience, feature adoption strategies, and engagement tactics – all directly impacting your product marketing efforts.
• Services like Product School and Mind the Product offer premium subscriptions that provide access to a wider range of exclusive webinars and learning resources.
• Gartner for Marketing Leaders hosts webinars on emerging trends and technologies impacting marketing strategies. These insights can inform your product marketing approach to resonate with your target audience.
• Akaneo’s webinar on designing product experiences that drive commercial goals: This webinar highlights the importance of product experience in driving commercial success by aligning product presentation with customer preferences and sales channels.

Best blogs for product marketing managers

Blogs are another excellent way of accessing ideas to improve your marketing strategies. The following blogs are worth a read:

• Userpilot Blog: This platform offers a compilation of well-researched guides and resources for product marketing managers. From marketing tactics to tool listicles, there is something in store for everyone.
• Richard King PMA Blog: The Product Marketing Alliance blog by Richard King delivers a wide variety of content exclusively for marketing managers. You will learn how to run a marketing team effectively.
• Olivine: B2B software companies can use this blog to get the best tips for effective product launching. The team has great experience in building big tech brands, and they help marketers succeed in their fields.
• Casey Winters: This mix of personal experience and topic-led discussions offers practical information for product marketing managers. You can also get links to other related articles for specific subjects.
• The Product Marketer: Rory Woodbridge’s Substack blog offers engaging insights on topics like public roadmaps and product differentiation, blending professional expertise from roles at Google, YouTube, and Amazon with personal reflections, making it a valuable read for app and B2B platform marketers.

Best podcasts for product marketing managers

• Product Heroes by Userpilot: This series of interviews with product entrepreneurs and leaders provides the best insights for product marketers.
• Product Marketing Life: This is a biweekly podcast by Product Marketing Alliance that is perfect for product marketing managers who don’t want to miss out on market trends.
• The Product Marketing Experts: Marcus Andrew and Alex Lopes host this show every week where they chat with product experts from the largest SaaS companies across the globe. It’s a place every SaaS product marketing manager wants to be.
• This is Product Marketing by PMM Hive: Founded by Louise Liu and Crispin Read, this podcast has notable episodes on messaging, positioning, and global product marketing priorities.
• Getting to Market with Cody Bernard: The episodes delve deeply into various aspects of product launches and also examine different types, ranging from new product introductions to major repositioning launches and minor recurring releases.

Best tools for product marketing managers

There is an abundance of tools for product marketing managers. Below is a list of our top picks:

• Best tool for collecting user insights – Userpilot: To know about customer preferences and opinions, Userpilot lets you trigger in-app surveys for various segments and distinct stages in the customer experience.
• Best tool for managing tasks – Asana: Asana is the best tool for keeping team conversations and tasks in one place. You can easily find them in-app instead of searching through email.
• Best tool to enhance collaboration and productivity – Confluence: With Confluence, you can create documents as a team, provide feedback, and collaborate on whiteboards.
• Best tool for managing the customer experience – ZohoDesk: Use this tool for easy management of the pipeline, analyze sales performance, and stay in touch with customers.
• Best tool for marketing automation – HubSpot: This tool helps users to grow traffic, convert more visitors, and create an efficient inbound marketing campaign.

Product marketing manager FAQs

• What questions should I ask a product marketing manager? If you are looking to hire a product marketing manager, it’s important to ask them the right questions. Ask them to describe their methods, what defines a successful product onboarding, and if they are familiar with your product.
• What does a product marketing manager need to know? The primary skills of a product marketing manager are communication, asset development, leadership, product knowledge, and project management. They must know these things to offer the best services.
• What does a product marketing manager do in marketing? They are responsible for the positioning, messaging, and branding of a product. They are also responsible for effective communication with the cross-departmental teams and collecting customer feedback.
• What are the key responsibilities of a product marketing manager? Understanding user needs and presenting them effectively, monitoring and developing competitive analysis, defining the product’s future, and promoting the product on different channels.

Conclusion

Becoming a successful product marketing manager requires dedication, continuous learning, and a proactive approach to developing relevant skills.

By following the outlined steps and leveraging the resources available, you can effectively navigate your career path and achieve your professional goals.

We hope this guide has provided you with valuable insights and practical advice to help you on your journey to becoming a proficient and impactful product marketing manager!

Looking into tools for product marketing managers? Userpilot is an all-in-one product platform with engagement features and powerful analytics capabilities. Book a demo to see it in action!