Editorial
The Gist
- Balance execution and strategy. Product marketing managers must balance tactical execution with strategic input to ensure product success and drive company growth.
- Cross-functional collaboration. Effective product marketing strategy relies on strong collaboration across teams, aligning efforts to meet customer needs and influence the product roadmap.
- Customer-centric insights. Staying connected to customer insights is crucial for PMMs, helping guide product decisions and refine go-to-market strategies.
It is often said that product marketing is responsible for everything, yet owns very little. The role sits at the nexus of a product's entire lifecycle — from ideation and development to the release and go-to-market phase.
While it’s exciting to influence so many critical areas, having a clear product marketing strategy is crucial to effectively manage the wide breadth of responsibilities. Filling gaps observed across the company becomes inevitable, whether it’s training the sales team, creating marketing assets, conducting market research or collaborating with engineering to refine product features.
It’s a classic "chicken and egg" dilemma, and execution can consume so much time that it becomes difficult to step back and view the bigger picture. This dilemma can delay critical input on what should be built next or which market segment to target — decisions that impact the company's bottom line.
This is a quandary that every product marketer must navigate. It’s critical to strike a balance between being an operator and bringing a strategic perspective to the larger business. Repeatedly missing opportunities to provide strategic guidance can lead to products that fall short of market demands.
Balance Tactics, Execution and Strategy in Product Marketing Strategy
Tactics, execution and strategy each play a critical role in the success of any business. The more you engage in execution, the more experience you gain across different parts of the business, and you develop a deeper understanding of how your work impacts the customer. A product marketing manager (PMM) should not shy away from diving into details when necessary. It is crucial to stay grounded in your expertise, ensuring that you do not become so focused on high-level strategy that you lose touch with the day-to-day operations and evolving customer needs.
At its core, the work of a PMM involves significant project management. Their role is to ensure that deliverables are met, that cross-functional teams understand their timelines and that assets are created to effectively communicate a product's value to customers. This requires distinguishing between high-impact and low-impact activities. By prioritizing high-impact work, PMMs can stay aligned with the big picture while also ensuring the groundwork is completed.
Continuous learning is also vital to finding the right balance between execution and strategy in a product marketing strategy. With other teams depending on PMMs’ expertise, gathering knowledge should be a priority. For example, throughout the week, I build a reading list and set aside time every Friday to study these resources.
Why Voice of the Customer Matters in Product Marketing
Learning for PMMs also involves staying closely connected to the voice of the customer. This can be done by joining calls with the sales and customer success teams, attending industry events or setting up direct conversations with customers. PMMs should never stray too far from customer insights, as these are invaluable for aligning internal teams and guiding strategic decisions in their product marketing strategy. They should make it a habit to learn from both customers and industry peers, while continuously upskilling to ensure they maintain the necessary industry context. This will position them as an invaluable asset to everyone in the organization.
Leveraging tools that are regularly reviewed and aligned with organizational goals is another key to maintaining focus. For example, if your objective is to identify a new market segment by the end of the quarter, are you using key metrics and OKRs to measure market acceptance of your products?
In a previous role, I noticed a gap where we didn't fully understand why the company was winning or losing deals, and the sales team could not articulate this either. By conducting a win-and-loss analysis, I was able to define the reasons behind our successes and failures, which then informed our product decisions. Similarly, are you analyzing which features resonate most with your customers, so you can provide meaningful feedback to design and engineering teams during product reviews?
Related Article: Are Your Brand Marketing Strategies Outdated?
How Collaboration Helps to Maintain Strategic Focus as a PMM
The saying, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together,” is especially relevant in product marketing. Effective collaboration across teams is vital for any product marketing strategy.
The success of a PMM in any organization hinges on building a cross-functional network across the business. Like a conductor in an orchestra, they see the big picture and have the influence to bring in the right teams at the right time. Their role is to ensure that core teams — leadership, engineering, design and product — work in harmony, aligning their efforts to achieve a common goal.
Both sales and marketing success teams also contribute valuable data points, but PMMs should be their spokesperson for the go-to-market strategy. Their job is to provide feedback and make adjustments to ensure the final product meets customer needs.
For this collaborative approach to work, a PMM’s goals and the outcomes must be clearly shared across all teams. They need to ask the right questions and translate the answers into actionable results. They’re doing their job well when engineering and design teams know when to call them in for strategic input.
One key trait of a successful PMM is the ability to stay informed. Regularly checking in with the teams they work with will keep them up to date on their challenges and priorities. Building relationships is essential because PMMs thrive on collaboration, not isolation.
Related Article: Expert Advice on Avoiding Product Feature Flops
The Impact of Product Marketing Strategy on Business Success
The ultimate goal for any product marketer is to influence the product roadmap. Innovative companies are also recognizing the need to involve PMMs early in product vision sessions, where their customer insights and market intelligence can influence strategic decisions. This is often more achievable in startups and growth-stage companies, where silos are less common and cross-functional collaboration is the norm.
From my experience, demonstrating your ability to identify gaps and offer solutions — whether in operations or the product itself — will solidify your role as a trusted PMM. With your deep understanding of the market and customer needs, you should be positioned as a reliable source of intelligence, delivering insights in a structured, programmatic manner.
Webinar
Sep
25
CMS Briefing: A Live Look at What’s Next in AI-Driven Platforms
Learn how leading organizations are using AI‑driven tools to publish faster, personalize smarter and stay secure.
Register
Webinar
Sep
25
Call Spoofing Trends Financial Institutions Can't Afford to Ignore
Don't let robocalls sabotage your customer relationships. Learn how to secure your voice channel.
Register
Webinar
Oct
16
Agentic AI Playbook: Real-World Customer Service Use Cases You Can Deploy Now
Boost self-service by 30% and slash call volume by 63% with agentic AI.
Register
Webinar
On demand
Ready or Not: How Data-First Organizations Are Unlocking Agentforce Potential
Learn how to cut through the noise, activate Agentforce and build a Salesforce AI strategy that actually delivers.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
CX Reality Check: What Your Customers Are Really Thinking
Register now and get the insights you need to not just meet rising expectations, but exceed them.
Watch Now
Webinar
On demand
Content Leaders Collective: What a Good CCMS Actually Looks Like
Discover how content leaders transform clunky systems into growth engines — and why your competitors are ahead.
Watch Now
Keep in mind that a strategic mindset will naturally lead to more execution work. In a well-functioning company, the expectation is that you will bridge gaps. However, rather than getting lost in the details, leverage your superpower as a quarterback — document the tasks that need to be done, assign roles and hold people accountable.
These operational responsibilities are the lifeblood of any effective campaign, and they ensure your consistent contribution to the company’s success. Ultimately, a well-defined product marketing strategy will enhance your company's ability to meet customer needs and drive growth.
Learn how you can join our contributor community.
