How do you position your product? Develop messaging? Go-to-market? Manage product release cycles and communications? One of the most critical, yet often misunderstood growth levers is product marketing. This cross-functional role sits at the intersection of product, marketing, sales and customer success. It involves a lot of moving parts and the ability to quickly accumulate the knowledge and context needed to iterate better, faster. In this session, we’ll deconstruct the role of product marketing and how startups should think about it early on and as they scale. This includes: What product marketing is (and what it isn’t) Strategies, tactics and frameworks to execute on key product marketing activities How to structure and integrate product marketing at different stages of growth

1. Product Marketing Crash Course:
What it is, why it matters and
how to do it
HANA ABAZA - HEAD OF MARKETING, SHOPIFY PLUS

2. @Kissmetrics
#Kisswebinar
@thuelmadsen

3. Thue is the Kissmetrics Webinar Wizard and Marketing
Ops Manager. Before joining forces with Kissmetrics, he
was a Lyft driver in SF, which is also how he ended up as
a Kissmetrics marketer. Whenever Thue is not trying to
automate everything around him, you can find him hiking
in the Sierras.
THUE MADSEN
Marketing Operations Manager, Kissmetrics
@ThueLMadsen
Hana Abaza is the Head of Marketing at Shopify Plus, a
commerce platform designed for high-growth, high-
volume merchants. Her expertise lies in product and
content marketing, growth and acquisition. She loves
sunny days, good puns, and is a self-proclaimed
podcast-junkie.
HANA ABAZA
Head of Marketing, Shopify Plus
@HanaAbaza

4. @ShopifyPlus
#Kisswebinar
@HanaAbaza

5. 1 What is Product Marketing?
When to do it yourself vs. hiring a product marketer
How to structure the product marketing function
Signs you need to hire product marketing
2 How & When to Invest in Product Marketing
3 The Job: Things Product Marketers Do
TABLE OF CONTENTS
#Kisswebinar
Strategic vs. Tactics
Ongoing vs. Launch
Building the foundation
Fuelling growth

6. WATCH WEBINAR RECORDING NOW

7. What is it?

9. “Product marketing is the process of promoting and
selling a product to an audience. It includes assessing
customer needs, customer type, and geographic area.”
- Wikipedia

10. “7 P’s of marketing: Product, Pricing, People, Place
Promotion, Process, Physical environment.”
- A Marketing Professor

11. Huh?

12. HOW IS PRODUCT MARKETING
DIFFERENT FROM MARKETING-
MARKETING?
You’re not the only one who is
confused!

13. “Product marketing, at its heart, is about understanding what
you’re building, why you invested in it, and how it will benefit the
user — and then messaging that understanding to your customer.”
- Joanna Lord, CMO of Classpass

14. Okay, but what is it really?

15. CLOSE
CONVERT
ATTRACT

16. lead generation, content marketing, SEO,
paid campaigns, email marketing
CLOSE
CONVERT
ATTRACT

17. conversion optimization, landing pages,
marketing automation, lead scoring
lead generation, content marketing, SEO,
paid campaigns, email marketing
CLOSE
CONVERT
ATTRACT

18. conversion optimization, landing pages,
marketing automation, lead scoring
lead generation, content marketing, SEO,
paid campaigns, email marketing
positioning, personas, messaging, sales
enablement, collateral, case studies, customer
feedback, market insights
CLOSE
CONVERT
ATTRACT

19. positioning, personas, messaging, sales
enablement, collateral, case studies, customer
feedback, market insights
CLOSE
PRODUCT MARKETING!

20. conversion optimization, landing pages,
marketing automation, lead scoring
lead generation, content marketing, SEO,
paid campaigns, email marketing
positioning, personas, messaging, sales
enablement, collateral, case studies, customer
feedback, market insights
CLOSE
CONVERT
ATTRACT

21. Drift Blog: https://blog.drift.com

22. PRODUCT MARKETING IS CROSS-
FUNCTIONAL BY NATURE
They need to answer four key
questions.

23. Who are we
building it for?
What are we
building?
How to we “go-
to-market”?
How do we
talk about it?
Product
Engineering
+ Product Marketing
Sales/Biz Dev
Pricing
+ Product Marketing
Sales
Success
+ Product Marketing
Product
UX
+ Product Marketing

24. GREAT PRODUCT MARKETING MEANS
UNDERSTANDING THE CUSTOMER

25. BAD PRODUCT MARKETING CAN
KILLYOUR COMPANY

26. BAD PRODUCT MARKETING CAN
KILLYOUR COMPANY
1. people don’t understand what you do
2. your employees don’t know how to explain it
3. none of the marketing stuff is working

27. FROM STARTUP TO SCALE
HOW AND WHEN TO INVEST IN PRODUCT
MARKETING

28. First Round Capital

29. Oh Sh*t! Moments
(a.k.a. signs it’s time to hire a product marketer)

30. When you’re about to launch
and you don’t know how
much it should cost…

31. When you’re re-writing the
“value prop” in an email that
should have been sent…

32. Your sales team is like
“Oh sh*t…”
value prop
training
demos

33. Your success team is like
“Oh sh*t…”
support docs
comms
training

34. THE JOB
Strategy vs. Tactics
Ongoing vs. Launches

35. STRATEGIC vs. TACTICAL

36. ONGOING vs. LAUNCHES

37. ONGOING PRODUCT
MARKETING STUFF
Market intelligence
Competitive research
Positioning
Personas
Value prop
Messaging
Customer feedback
Win/Loss analysis
Market segmentation

38. PRODUCT/FEATURE
LAUNCHES
Pre-Launch
Launch
Post-Launch

39. PRODUCT/FEATURE
LAUNCHES
Pre-Launch
Launch
Post-Launch
Spec sheet / brief
Product positioning
Figure out messaging
Market insights
Train internal teams
Create marketing assets
Create sales collateral

40. PRODUCT/FEATURE
LAUNCHES
Pre-Launch
Launch
Post-Launch
Campaigns
Landing pages
Email marketing
Channels
Website update
Content marketing
Press release
Re-engage lost deals

41. PRODUCT/FEATURE
LAUNCHES
Pre-Launch
Launch
Post-Launch
Success metrics
Product adoption
Product usage
Customer feedback
Qualitative feedback
Quantitative feedback

42. #Kisswebinar
Product Management
Product reaches a
certain phase of
ideation/completion,
triggers marketing.

43. #Kisswebinar
Brief / Spec Sheet
- name
- value prop (problem/
solution)
- who is it for?
- product description
- plans/pricing
- market insights
- customer examples
- testimonials
- links to resources,
content etc.
Product Management
Product reaches a
certain phase of
ideation/completion,
triggers marketing.

44. #Kisswebinar
Brief / Spec Sheet
- name
- value prop (problem/
solution)
- who is it for?
- product description
- plans/pricing
- market insights
- customer examples
- testimonials
- links to resources,
content etc.
Product Management
Product reaches a
certain phase of
ideation/completion,
triggers marketing.
What kind of launch is this? (go-to-market)

45. #Kisswebinar
Brief / Spec Sheet
- name
- value prop (problem/
solution)
- who is it for?
- product description
- plans/pricing
- market insights
- customer examples
- testimonials
- links to resources,
content etc.
Product Management
Product reaches a
certain phase of
ideation/completion,
triggers marketing.
What kind of launch is this? (go-to-market)
Tier 1 - Tell the world!
Tier 2 - Tell customers/prospects
Tier 3 - Support docs

46. #Kisswebinar
Brief / Spec Sheet
- name
- value prop (problem/
solution)
- who is it for?
- product description
- plans/pricing
- market insights
- customer examples
- testimonials
- links to resources,
content etc.
Product Management
Product reaches a
certain phase of
ideation/completion,
triggers marketing.
What kind of launch is this? (go-to-market)
Internal Comms
- Sales team
- Success team
- Support team
- Marketing (content,
email, PR etc.)
- Partners
Tier 1 - Tell the world!
Tier 2 - Tell customers/prospects
Tier 3 - Support docs

47. #Kisswebinar
Brief / Spec Sheet
- name
- value prop (problem/
solution)
- who is it for?
- product description
- plans/pricing
- market insights
- customer examples
- testimonials
- links to resources,
content etc.
Product Management
Product reaches a
certain phase of
ideation/completion,
triggers marketing.
What kind of launch is this? (go-to-market)
Tier 1 - Tell the world!
Tier 2 - Tell customers/prospects
Tier 3 - Support docs
Internal Comms
- Sales team
- Success team
- Support team
- Marketing (content,
email, PR etc.)
- Partners
MARKETERS BEST
FRIEND

48. #Kisswebinar
It doesn’t have to be fancy,
but it does have to exist.
Here’s a template.
:)

49. That’s a lot of process.

50. That’s a lot of process.
Process = Bad

51. That’s a lot of process.
Process = Bad Rhythm

52. That’s a lot of process.
Process = Bad Rhythm
Rhythm = Less Stress

53. a word about process
keep it simple
a good process is one that people will follow
break it when necessary

54. POSITIONING, PERSONAS &
MESSAGING ARE THE
FOUNDATION
Start Here

55. POSITIONING

56. David Packard
Co-founder, Hewlett-Packard
Marketing is too important to
be left to the marketing
department.
“

57. April Dunford
CEO, Sprintly
Marketing is about making it easy for people to
find, evaluate and buy your products.
Positioning is figuring out what your product is
in the first place.
“

58. April Dunford
CEO, Sprintly
Marketing can polish a turd.
Positioning can turn turds into
fertilizer.
“

59. HOW DO PEOPLE THINK ABOUT
YOUR PRODUCT?
Are you a turd or are you fertilizer?

60. CONTEXT
#Kisswebinar
What do you think I searched to find this image?

61. CONTEXT IS EVERYTHING
#Kisswebinar

62. WHAT’S THE CONTEXT IN WHICH
PEOPLE THINKABOUTYOUR
PRODUCT?
Price, customers, competition, brand,
channels, message

63. WHAT LANGUAGE DO PEOPLE USE
TO TALKABOUTABOUTYOUR
PRODUCT?
How do your customers explain your
product to their colleagues? What do
they search on Google?

65. PERSONAS
Personas > Markets > Segments

66. Brian Halligan
CEO, Hubspot
By not deciding on one of these
personas, we paid a gigantic,
invisible ‘optionality’ tax.
“

67. PEOPLE (AND PERSONAS)ARE
MULTI-FACETED
Personas & Positioning, Content/
Market Fit, Optimization

68. DEMOGRAPHIC
Age
Gender
Income
Marital Status
Education
Location
(this is easy)
PERSONAS & SEGMENTS

69. BEHAVIORALDEMOGRAPHIC
Age
Gender
Income
Marital Status
Education
Location
(this is easy)
Search
Social
Website
Content
Email
Product
(this is harder)
PERSONAS & SEGMENTS

70. BEHAVIORALDEMOGRAPHIC “OTHER”
Age
Gender
Income
Marital Status
Education
Location
(this is easy)
Search
Social
Website
Content
Email
Product
(this is harder)
Account-based
Tech usage
Interests
Opinions
Industry
Use Case
(this depends)
PERSONAS & SEGMENTS

71. Audience Segment
Company profile, industry,
technology stack, etc.
Persona
Intent, Behaviour,
User traits etc.
PERSONAS & SEGMENTS

72. HOW DO YOU GET
THIS DATA?
Basic Stuff
- Analytics tools
- Form fills
- Database (closed/lost reasons etc.)
Fancier Stuff
- Data enrichment tools (Clearbit,
Datanyze etc.)
- Predictive analytics

73. HOW MANY PERSONAS? DECISION
MAKER VS. INFLUENCER
Personas & Positioning, Content/
Market Fit, Optimization

74. THE BETTER YOUR DATATHE BETTER
YOUR SEGMENTATION
Better segmentation means more
targeted and relevant marketing

75. THERE’SADIFFERENCE BETWEEN
BUYER PERSONAS AND USER
PERSONAS
Your buyer process and business
model need to inform person
development

77. WHEREARE THEY IN THE
“INNOVATION CYCLE”?
Your buyer process and business
model need to inform person
development

78. #Kisswebinar

79. #Kisswebinar
These people self-educate.
They’ll put up with bugs and
blunders because they believe in
what you’re doing.

80. #Kisswebinar
Content, tactics and channels
change. These people different
messaging, case studies, proof,
validation.

81. MESSAGING
What do you say to people?
How do you say it?

82. #Kisswebinar
This is the “why” — what’s the guiding narrative?
Secondary Message Secondary Message Secondary Message Secondary Message Secondary Message
Expand upon key
messaging. Why does
this matter?
Expand upon key
messaging. Why does
this matter?
Expand upon key
messaging. Why does
this matter?
Expand upon key
messaging. Why does
this matter?
Expand upon key
messaging. Why does
this matter?

83. For example, Netflix might look
something like this…

84. #Kisswebinar
The best entertainment, straight to your device. We know what you’ll love before you do.
Great Content Straight to Your Device Recommendations Convenience Low Cost
Expand upon key
messaging. Why does
this matter?
Expand upon key
messaging. Why does
this matter?
Expand upon key
messaging. Why does
this matter?
Expand upon key
messaging. Why does
this matter?
Expand upon key
messaging. Why does
this matter?

85. #Kisswebinar
The best entertainment, straight to your device. We know what you’ll love before you do.
Great Content Straight to Your Device Recommendations Convenience Low Cost
Expand upon key
messaging. Why does
this matter?
Expand upon key
messaging. Why does
this matter?
Expand upon key
messaging. Why does
this matter?
Expand upon key
messaging. Why does
this matter?
Expand upon key
messaging. Why does
this matter?

86. #Kisswebinar
The best entertainment, straight to your device. We know what you’ll love before you do.
Great Content Straight to Your Device Recommendations Convenience Low Cost
Expand upon key
messaging. Why does
this matter?
Expand upon key
messaging. Why does
this matter?
Expand upon key
messaging. Why does
this matter?
Expand upon key
messaging. Why does
this matter?
Expand upon key
messaging. Why does
this matter?
Proof Points:
• Point #1
• Point #2
Proof Points:
• Point #1
• Point #2
Proof Points:
• Point #1
• Point #2
Proof Points:
• Point #1
• Point #2
Proof Points:
• Point #1
• Point #2

87. #Kisswebinar
The best entertainment, straight to your device. We know what you’ll love before you do.
Great Content Straight to Your Device Recommendations Convenience Low Cost
Expand upon key
messaging. Why does
this matter?
Expand upon key
messaging. Why does
this matter?
Expand upon key
messaging. Why does
this matter?
Expand upon key
messaging. Why does
this matter?
Expand upon key
messaging. Why does
this matter?
Proof Points:
• Point #1
• Point #2
Proof Points:
• Point #1
• Point #2
Proof Points:
• Point #1
• Point #2
Proof Points:
• Point #1
• Point #2
Proof Points:
• Point #1
• Point #2
Product Story:
• Point #1
• Point #2
Product Story:
• Point #1
• Point #2
Product Story:
• Point #1
• Point #2
Product Story:
• Point #1
• Point #2
Product Story:
• Point #1
• Point #2

88. #Kisswebinar
The best entertainment, straight to your device. We know what you’ll love before you do.
Great Content Straight to Your Device Recommendations Convenience Low Cost
Expand upon key
messaging. Why does
this matter?
Expand upon key
messaging. Why does
this matter?
Expand upon key
messaging. Why does
this matter?
Expand upon key
messaging. Why does
this matter?
Expand upon key
messaging. Why does
this matter?
Proof Points:
• Point #1
• Point #2
Proof Points:
• Point #1
• Point #2
Proof Points:
• Point #1
• Point #2
Proof Points:
• Point #1
• Point #2
Proof Points:
• Point #1
• Point #2
Product Story:
• Point #1
• Point #2
Product Story:
• Point #1
• Point #2
Product Story:
• Point #1
• Point #2
Product Story:
• Point #1
• Point #2
Product Story:
• Point #1
• Point #2
Content
• Search
• Owned
• Contributed
Content
• Search
• Owned
• Contributed
Content
• Search
• Owned
• Contributed
Content
• Search
• Owned
• Contributed
Content
• Search
• Owned
• Contributed

89. For a startup it might look something
like this…

90. #Kisswebinar
The big compelling why. It should be obviously awesome/important/compelling.
Why people will care.
Expand upon key
messaging. Why does
this matter?
Proof Points:
• give them confidence that it
works
Product Story:
• Explain, specifically, how
the product will help (in their
terms
Content
• content marketing and
marketing content

91. #Kisswebinar
The big compelling why. It should be obviously awesome/important/compelling.
Why people will care.
Expand upon key
messaging. Why does
this matter?
Proof Points:
• give them confidence that it
works
Product Story:
• Explain, specifically, how
the product will help (in their
terms
Content
• content marketing and
marketing content
Third party data, social
proof, case studies,
testimonials, reviews etc.

92. THE RIGHT MESSAGE FOR THE
MARKET VS THE RIGHT MESSAGE
FOR EACH PERSON
Personas & Positioning, Content/
Market Fit, Optimization

93. #Kisswebinar
The big compelling why. It should be obviously awesome/important/compelling.
Why people will care.
Expand upon key
messaging. Why does
this matter? What's the value?
Proof Point:
• give them confidence that it
works
Product Story:
• Explain, specifically, how
the product will help (in their
terms
Content
• content marketing and
marketing content
Create derivatives of
your key messaging
based on data to fuel/
test campaigns, landing
pages, email nurture, on
boarding etc.

94. driving growth and insights
targeted messaging (email, live chat etc)
personalize landing pages with dynamic text
targeted onboarding & nurture emails based on data
etc. etc. etc.
(ideas are plentiful, prioritize by impact:effort ratio)

95. HOW PRODUCT MARKETING FUELS
GROWTH
Insights, targeted messaging and
feedback loops

96. INSIGHTS AND LEARNINGS GO
BOTH WAYS
Insights and feedback loops

97. conversion optimization, landing pages,
marketing automation, lead scoring
lead generation, content marketing, SEO,
paid campaigns, email marketing
positioning, personas, messaging, sales
enablement, collateral, case studies, customer
feedback, market insights
CLOSE
CONVERT
ATTRACT

98. 2010

99. 2017

100. 2010

101. 2014

102. 2017

103. REMEMBERTHESECORE
PRINCIPLES

104. Cross-functional collaboration
Find your rhythm
Keep it simple and break things when needed
Build the foundation, and keep it strong

105. ANDTHEMOSTIMPORTANT
QUESTION OF ALL...

106. vs.
Are you fertilizer or a turd?

107. LEARN MORE NOW
Get, keep and grow more customers with
Kissmetrics Customer Engagement Automation

109. THUE MADSEN
Marketing Operations Manager, Kissmetrics
@ThueLMadsen
tmadsen@kissmetrics.com
Questions?
HANA ABAZA
Head of Marketing, Shopify Plus
@HanaAbaza
hana.abaza@shopify.com