Best Resources for Product Marketing Managers

Resources for product marketing managers – quick summary

• A product marketing manager is a professional responsible for promoting and selling their company’s products.
• 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:
  • Books: Gain foundational knowledge with “Positioning” and “The Launch” to establish customer perception and avoid launch pitfalls. Dive deeper with “Product Marketing, Simplified” for overall strategy, “Hooked” for user engagement, and “Hacking Growth” for business growth techniques.
  • Webinars: Deepen your knowledge with Userpilot’s user experience and engagement webinars, explore premium resources from Product School and Mind the Product, learn emerging marketing trends with Gartner, and discover how product experience drives sales with Akaneo’s webinars.
  • Blogs & Podcasts: Stay informed with industry insights from Userpilot, Richard King PMA, Olivine, Casey Winters, and The Product Marketer blogs. Gain practical advice and inspiring stories from podcasts like Product Heroes by Userpilot, Product Marketing Life, The Product Marketing Experts, This is Product Marketing, and Getting to Market with Cody Bernard.
• 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.
• 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!

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.

What does a product marketing manager do?

A product marketing manager works as the link between product development, marketing, and sales teams.

Their broad tasks are to develop and implement a marketing plan and give direction regarding a specific product. They work with other teams across departments (UX designers, engineers, and stakeholders) in the entire life cycle of a product, ensuring the achievement of its goals.

In short, this profession focuses mainly on marketing by coordinating with strategists across different marketing fields, like digital, social media, brand, and research. They are crucial in the onboarding process.

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.

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.

Conclusion

Professional growth is a continuous journey, and investing in your development is key to staying competitive in the field.

We hope this guide has equipped you with the tools and knowledge needed to excel in your role.

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!