🚀Entering Tech #21: How to become a product marketer

Q. What do product marketers do?

Essentially, product marketers engage in various marketing activities in order to push a product. Oftentimes, especially in the African tech industry where we can’t afford to hire multiple people to market a suite of products, you find product marketers working across markets or a range of products.

In their day-to-day, product marketers work with the sales, product, engineering and customer success teams to create marketing strategies. They come up with a bunch of ideas to push products online and offline. They engage in email marketing, social content, writing and media production, offline strategy, and distribution strategies for their audience.

Q: So is it different from marketing, sales or even business development?

I would say it’s cross-functional with these other roles.

Sometimes, it depends on the kind of products that you’re working on. If it’s B2B, oftentimes you find that the marketing and sales team are separated. The sales team will usually work on the actual pitches to clients while the marketing team works to build brand equity, recognition and awareness.

Q. Ah, got it. So how difficult is it to market products?

I wouldn’t say that product marketing is very difficult. 

You do have to be intentional as a product marketer. It helps if you have a psychology background or are interested in psychology; you’ll better understand why people buy the things they buy, why they shop where they shop, and why they choose the services they use.

You also have to be ready to unlearn everything that you know about marketing. I have a communications background and in university, I learnt how critical the four Ps of marketing—product, price, place and promotion—are. But things don’t always go that way. There are so many times when we see viral products with high price points or features that don’t make sense, but people still buy them. You have to tap into people’s feelings of FOMO, their sense of achievement etc.

So I wouldn’t say it’s difficult; there’s just a lot of learning and unlearning to do, even if you have a marketing education background.

Q. Sounds intense. How did you get into product marketing then?

Honestly, I thought that I would end up working in PR. As I said, I have a comms background and my major was in public relations and advertising so I’m not far off from what I started.

My first job was an internship for an entertainment PR company and what I did there was majorly media relations. Then I worked at a fashion label before moving to an advertising agency where I was an account manager for a while. I’d say that’s really when my product marketing journey really began. My day-to-day job was to create content for social media. And then I was a digital account manager for some interesting brands. I did it for a year and a half.

From there, I had to take courses and get certifications to fully prepare me for product marketing jobs. 

Q. Looks like you’ve done well for yourself so far. What skills would you say have been critical to your success?

For hard skills, I’d say content marketing is one of the things you should have in your marketing skill stack. Everything is content. People don’t want salesy stuff. People just want to experience your product through the content you publish. Then there’s writing because you’ll do a lot of that in writing copy, product releases or even newsletters. Finally, media production, email marketing, social media management and analytics have been critical to my growth. You’ll also need to learn SEO, and develop a love for analytics, tracking metrics and social listening. 

For soft skills, I’d say maintaining interpersonal relationships is first. You can’t work in isolation, you’ll need your team—from product to engineering to customer success. You need to work closely with your PM—ask to listen in on user interviews and read their surveys so you can borrow the words and phrases customers use in your marketing copy. You need to work with customer success – ask them what their FAQs are so you can include them in your content strategy. You also need to be able to take feedback and criticism. Also, adaptability and fast thinking have helped me keep up with the demands of the job. 

I also took a lot of courses and certifications to grow in my roles. 

Courses are at the bottom of this edition.

Q. But for newbies who want to get into product marketing and don’t already have jobs, how can they find jobs?

Personally, one thing I’ve seen that works with my friends is just cold pitching new founders to offer your skills set. I’ve seen people send their portfolios and get hired.

I’d also advise them to join communities like Tech Marketers Hub, Non-Tech in Tech and Tech Marketers Support Initiative where they’ll find job openings, and mentorship opportunities and just grow with like-minded people.

Q. What misconceptions do people have about product marketing?

People think we’re all fun guys that don’t get any work done. They think we’re just TikToks and glamour. They don’t see the Monday morning trackers when your metrics have dipped or the little (and big) failures.

People don’t see the marketing campaigns you spend a lot of time on because you’re so sure it’ll go viral, and then you end up getting only 16 views or the low open rates we struggle with. So yeah, I’d say that’s a pretty big misconception.

Have more questions for Tofunmi? You can reach out to her on Twitter at @oluwatofunmii_ or email her at oluwatofunmialo@gmail.com.