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How To Start A Career In Product Marketing

How To Start A Career In Product Marketing

Michael Dosunmu

[speaker]

What is Product Marketing?

Product marketing is among the most progressive emerging careers in the 21st century and there is a great demand for experts in this new field.

But then, product marketing is still an emerging career field yet to acquire clearly defined roles, responsibilities, and skills like other well-established career fields like Finance, engineering, or medicine.

Product marketing involves the process of introducing a product to the market, developing strategies to promote it, and ways to sell it to customers. Product marketing requires an understanding of the product’s target market and deploying strategic messaging to boost a company’s revenue and a product’s demand.

A Product Manager focuses on the strategic ways in which products become adopted and gain relevance among existing customers. Their job responsibilities also involve understanding the buyers’ journey and then tailor marketing campaigns that would be relevant to potential buyers.

In summary, product marketing involves active participation from the beginning of a product’s life to the final point where it gets to the buyer; therefore, a product marketer holds a central place in a company’s business’s sales, product, and marketing team.

A product marketer studies and understands the market and its needs and also understands the persona and sentiments of the typical buyer of a company’s product or services.

A product marketer is therefore important in the creation and production of a product as they influence product creation and use their insight from market trend to recommend to the product team how to produce or improve a product.

Product Markers responsibilities and roles vary according to the sector where they are engaged. In some sectors like tech, they are more of an engineer, while in some other sector they might be a salesperson or a member of the company’s marketing team.

In the Tech world, aside from holding a central position in creating or finding a market for a product, Product Marketers also work in sync with engineers and developers in advising them on the products to build, the features, and other important considerations.

What A Product Marketer Does

Product marketers carry out research to identify and understand potential customers and competitors
Help to identify the unmet needs that the product would fulfil
coordinate product positioning and messaging
Create marketing campaigns that would generate sales leads
Conduct product price research among competitors.
Develop product promotion strategies
Help understand and target buyers persona
Sustain product relevancy in the market
Product marketers help the product team understand the needs and sentiments of prospective customers.
Create a balance between product value and the market.

Skills Required Of A Product Marketer

A product marketer needs to have a good understanding of the fundamentals of marketing, content development strategy, and understand the product development lifecycle.

Product marketing also requires that you possess excellent communication skills alongside other qualities that would help you perform the duties listed above.

Here are some of the traits that make for a great Product marketer:

Storytelling: a product marketer should have the ability to craft compelling stories about the product. You must be able to tell buyers why a product is useful to them and create a story around the product which the buyer or company can resonate with.

A typical product story captures the problems the potential buyer is facing and how the product will satisfy that need and solve that problem in the long run. The works of a product marketer may, in another sense, capture the new trend of things and the current state of things in the broader world and how the product could add value to the customer.

Product stories help drive product positioning which helps the product acquire its own space in the market and how it is uniquely differentiated.

Understand the product’s value, sentiments of potential buyers, and the market: As a product marketer, it is important to understand your own product, the sentiments of your prospective buyer and the makeup of the overall market.

Be proactive and develop the ability to adapt to changes: Abrupt changes might occur within the organization which might even affect the product or service you are marketing, it is, therefore, important to be adaptable to changes and modification and also be proactive in proffering better strategies while making the required changes.

Other traits also expected of a product marketer are:

Ability to develop and execute creative campaign ideas
Experience with data analytical software
Leadership abilities.

Average Salary For a Product Marketer

Product marketing managers are now beginning to earn more than other professionals in the marketing profession. According to Indeed.com, the average product marketing manager salary is about $116,000.

However, in most cases, how much you would make depends on the company and the sector where you are employed.

Educational Requirements for a Product Manager

Successful Product Manager often has at least a bachelors degree in marketing, business or communications. You shouldn’t bother looking for an undergraduate degree in Product Marketing as they do bot yet exist. Often, a bachelor’s degree in Marketing, business administration, communications, advertising, or media is often enough to set you up for a career in product management.

Also, you could consider doing an internship at a product marketing agency or the product marketing department of a company.

Below is some University Marketing degree you can apply to:

BA (Hons) Marketing, University of Hertfordshire

You’ll gain valuable digital skills in content creation alongside practical industry experience through live projects, industry speakers, events and employability modules. You’ll benefit from our strong links with the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM); the Business School is a CIM Strategic Partner and hosts the regional CIM Club. Learning for professional qualifications is embedded into the curriculum, with the chance to gain a professional CIM qualification within the first year and additional CIM qualifications during the second and final years.

This programme will give you the knowledge and understanding necessary for a career in marketing management, product management, service delivery, or marketing insight. Plus, you’ll gain the practical skills essential for an increasingly digital landscape.

BA (HONS) Nottingham Trent University

You will take specialist modules in key areas such as buyer behaviours, communications, digital, strategy and innovation, and implement the theory you learn in modules and assessments and through industry placement opportunities, business competitions or enterprise projects.

This course gives you the chance to graduate with more than just a degree, through our recognition with the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) and the Market Research Society (MRS). Depending on the modules you take you could graduate with a Certificate in Marketing and Social Research, a CIM Certificate in Professional Marketing or a CIM Diploma in Professional Marketing in addition to up to four Google Academy qualifications.

Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing at the University of Nevada, Reno

Marketing students will acquire the knowledge and skillsets to identify and satisfy customer needs to help organizations achieve their marketing goals. The specific topics are broadly categorized into those of product, pricing, promotion and distribution strategies, evolving around the understanding of consumers. Students will also learn how to conduct marketing research and apply modern marketing tools and strategies. We also offer several elective courses that fulfil the more specific needs of our students.

If you have any queries regarding education abroad or if you need any assistance with processing your admissions, our study abroad counsellors are always willing to guide you.

Certification In Product Marketing

For product marketers, the most relevant certification you can pursue is probably the Certified Product Marketing Manager (CPMM) designation offered by the Association of International Product Marketing and Management (AIPMM). This certification is recognised worldwide among product marketing professionals.

Post-graduate Options for Product Marketers

Master’s Degree in Communication, Media, and Marketing at Gordon Brown University

Our diverse postgraduate courses embrace collaborative and multi-disciplinary projects giving you valuable opportunities to acquire a transferrable business, marketing and management skills along with your chosen course specialism. Our focus is to produce a confident graduate who can embrace change and contribute to a wide variety of competitive business specialisms.

Advertising and Marketing MA, Coventry University

Marketing – and advertising within it – comprise a vital and huge sector of the economy, requiring you to develop specialist skills and knowledge. By studying this course, you have the chance to learn the theories, strategies and practices needed to prepare you for a career harnessing the power of marketing and advertising to drive business growth, or positively change behaviours.