When was the last time your marketing team talked to an actual customer? It’s time to change that. And Kevin ‘KD’ Dorsey is here to tell you why.

As product marketers and CMOs, we know that pricing is a critical decision that can have a profound impact on a company's success. However, many companies still struggle with how to set prices effectively. In this article, we'll explore some key pricing strategies that can help you maximize your revenue and profitability that Mark Stiving (Impact Pricing) and Kyle Poyar (OpenView) shared on The Marchitect podcast.

Releasing a new product into the market is an exhilarating yet challenging endeavor. It requires careful planning, strategic execution, and effective marketing to ensure a successful launch.

In the world of B2B tech, a well-crafted sales pitch can make all the difference in closing deals and driving revenue. In a recent episode of The Marchitect podcast, renowned product marketing expert, April Dunford shared valuable insights on the eight components of a successful sales pitch. Drawing from her extensive experience, she highlighted the importance of understanding positioning, aligning marketing and sales, and testing the pitch to deliver outstanding results.

Sales, Marketing, and Revenue — this triad is at the crux of every product, brand, or service in the market today. However, there is a very thin line between this relationship building into a powerhouse that fuels growth or becoming the Bermuda Triangle, where an organization's runways disappear.

From a content & sales perspective, what should product marketing do to be a value-add to a company and its revenue team?

Positioning and messaging are critical concepts that can greatly influence the success of a product or service. However, they are often misunderstood.

Whether you’re a CMO, a CRO, or a product marketer, you’ll need revenue intelligence to make decisions. Without content intelligence and buyer intelligence, there is no revenue intelligence.

In our Positioning to W.I.N. blog series, we’ve heard from an all-star lineup of product marketing experts and CMOs at Ada, Vidyard, Salesforce, Marketo, Enverus & Tealium, 6sense, Gong, and Atlassian. Now, we’ll hear from two legendary enterprise marketing executives: Robin Daniels, Executive Leader and 3X CMO (Ex. LinkedIn, WeWork, Salesforce) and Indy Sen, VP Marketing at PopSQL (Ex. Google, Salesforce, Box).  Robin and Indy give us their seasoned take on Product Marketing and share how each of them helps enterprise companies position to W.I.N.

It’s the role of product marketers to act as architects of growth (or “Marchitects”, as we like to call them around here). A product marketer becomes a Marchitect by positioning their company to W.I.N. And in typical product marketing fashion, W.I.N. is indeed an acronym.

If you ask a CMO what a product marketer does, they might say something like “They market the product”, or “They position the product”. While that’s technically true, it doesn’t quite capture the level of thought, strategy, and decision-making a product marketer brings to the table.

Some product marketers lead strong bottom-up motions. They’re quantitative, consumer-oriented, and digital marketing pros. Other product marketers lead strong top-down motions. They’re natural storytellers, sales enablement experts and love working with analysts and the press.

“Messaging is not copy” Right? Wrong? It turns out that the semantics of “messaging” might not be that important. The reality is that “copy” is what most internal audiences want to see when they ask you for messaging. And if you give them something that isn’t copy, they’re either going to use it as copy/ scripts anyway or they’re going to be annoyed that you didn’t give it to them. You might want those internal audiences to internalize the messaging and use their own words, but there are a number of reasons why this is a bad idea.

As a CMO, you’ve got BIG goals to achieve. Unfortunately, CMOs have the briefest tenure among the C-Suite per Harvard Business Review, dropping to an average of approximately 40 months in 2020. You’re under a lot of pressure to win (and to win Big). We all play to win.

Product marketers have a lot of decisions to make when it comes to positioning. Do you lean in on creating a sense of urgency for the buyer? (“Your business will fail without our product’s help!”) Or tell them they’re doing great so far, but can scale faster and easier with your product in place? And those types of decisions are just the tip of the iceberg.‍

If you ask a CMO what a product marketer does, they might say something like “They market the product”, or “They position the product”. While that’s technically true, it doesn’t quite capture the level of thought, strategy, and decision-making a product marketer brings to the table.

If there’s one thing your content team wants you to know it’s that they do a heck of a lot more than just write blog posts. (Not that writing blog posts is easy, speaking from first-hand experience as I wrestle with this one…).

Imagine you’ve built the most innovative, revolutionary product that’s going to pave the way for the future of your industry. Hello, Fortune 500! But before you start practising your press circuit photo-op smile and your radio voice for all the business-savvy podcasts you’re sure to be invited on, ask yourself: How am I going to get this product to market?

Let’s talk about frozen yogurt for a second (bare with me). Frozen yogurt has been around since the flower power days of the 1970s. But the froyo industry recently experienced a major resurgance with the introduction of a self-serve model. Self-serve froyo shops allow customers to fill their bowls with as many flavours and toppings as they desire. The self-serve model now accounts for over two-thirds of frozen yogurt stores worldwide.

If you’ve been in B2B for a while, you’ve likely seen your fair share of fill-in-the-blanks Mad Libs-style positioning statements. “We are a [blank] company that does [blank] for [blank] customers.” Okay, great. Now … what do we do? And, while we’re on the topic, what is positioning anyway??

There’s a reason pricey rhymes with dicey. Price your product right and you’re sitting on top of the world. Price your product wrong and you’re sitting in the CEO’s office pleading for your job.

What does it really take to create a category — and what role does product marketing play in category creation.

If there’s one thing B2B content teams get a lot of that’s requests: “We need a one-sheeter on our new product feature!” “Our widget is live … let’s draft a press release!” “Can you help me write a blog about [my obscure hobby that I think is interesting but that our audience couldn’t care less about]?”

You step into the New Year eager to reflect and set intentions for the year ahead. But then January flies by like the goddamn Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. Before you know it, you’re knee-deep in February initiatives—and ain’t nobody coming to dig you out.

Product Marketing Community’s Founder Rowan Noronha sat down with Terminus co-founder, Peak Community host, and my good friend, Sangram Vajre on his new book launch where he shares a framework that’ll help you become a better go-to-market leader in today’s Modern Selling environment.

Struggling to create a truly unique value proposition that sets you apart from your competition? You’re not alone. In fact, 88 percent of marketers and sellers we surveyed aren’t confident their buyers understand what makes their solution unique or valuable.

I heard someone last week say “Product marketing organizations are like ice cream varieties. Each company has a different flavor.” It was witty, but also resonant.

B2B product marketers are the conductors of their companies' orchestra. We unify product, marketing, sales, and customer success to produce a harmonic story for our target audience.

Transitioning into a new leadership role—be it as a coach, president, ship’s captain, or as a marketing leader—is more often than not a make it or break it moment. Your first 30-60 days sets the stage for how those ranking under and above you view your leadership. It’s where you start steering the organization to a great—or disappointing—future.

If you’re a marketer, you’re responsible for more of the buying journey than ever before. This is a big shift from your traditional role, which was creating awareness and running campaigns at the top of the funnel. Those campaigns generated interest, but at some point, there was always that handoff to Sales, who would ultimately guide the buyer toward a decision.

In today’s digital world, marketing has become much more of a science than an art. In the past, marketers often threw various tactics towards the wall in hopes that one would stick. But today, marketers can measure the performance of campaigns far better than ever. This is all because of marketing analytics which allows you to measure every single aspect of your marketing.

It has never been more important to crack the code for effective sales enablement. That’s because B2B buyer preferences and behaviors have fundamentally changed.

There’s a stat that you’ve probably heard at any tech conference you’ve ever attended. The idea is that by the time a buyer finally requests a demo or reaches out to a sales rep, they’re already 80% through their evaluation. It’s meant to imply that our prospects are more informed than ever.

In a recent B2B industry survey, 88 percent of companies said that their competitors’ solutions offer similar capabilities as they do. It’s no secret that in well-defined categories, many companies can solve the same problems with similar capabilities and pricing. The problem is, most marketers (88 percent) aren’t confident that buyers understand what makes their solution unique and different.

Competitive intelligence isn’t just meant for one team at one point in time – it’s meant for the entire organization. In fact, results from the 2021 Competitive Enablement Report indicate that there are some big misalignments. This article is part of the Klue series, where they share findings from the data in the 2021 Competitive Enablement Report. They spoke with 500+ CI pros, PMMs, execs, and sales leaders.

When it comes to advice on how to get your next big job, and present yourself in a way that gets recruiter and executive attention, who is the best person to ask? A superstar executive recruiter Kate Bullis, co-founder and managing partner at SEBA International.

In his presentation at our 2020 summit, Andy Raskin, who works with CEOs on their companies strategic narratives, finds his Facebook of narrative truth.

The buyer is always the hero.

Understanding the buyer is one of the most important aspects of product marketing. It’s foundational. Everything we do as Product Marketers builds on this understanding.

Uniting marketing orchestration and sales enablement helps brands deliver exceptional buyer experiences.

More than ever, your prospects and customers rely on digital content to learn, form opinions, and decide whether your solution will help them meet their business goals. But if the goal is to create content that persuades buyers to choose your solution, why doesn’t most content drive decisions the way it should?

Competitive intelligence isn’t just meant for one team at one point in time – it’s meant for the entire organization. In fact, results from the 2021 Competitive Enablement Report indicate that there are some big misalignments on WHAT competitive teams should prioritize and WHO they should support.

Priya Doty, VP of Product Marketing for IBM Brands such as IBM Z & LinuxONE discusses, how do you find the ideal product marketer? (Is it better to hire experienced or groom someone into the role?) How should a product marketer be measured? (Are there actual metrics?) Once in the role, how does a product marketer distinguish themselves from product management? (What’s the value of this role, vs classic PM or classic Comms/DG marketing)

Todd Berkowitz from Gartner does a deep dive into three core questions in measuring and optimizing Product Marketing's performance. 1. How should you define the role and responsibility of product marketing? 2. What metrics should you use to evaluate and optimize product marketing's performance? 3. Beyond new logo acquisition, how do you measure product marketing's contribution to customer renewal and expansion.

We often hear about the importance of innovation and culture to organizational health. But what impact do these intangibles have on the product marketing function, and what impact does product marketing have on organizational innovation and culture?

We recently had Meghan Keaney Anderson, Former VP of Marketing at Hubspot, interview Chris Koehler, CMO of BOX, a cloud content management company. At BOX, Chris led record-breaking revenue targets. Before BOX, he made his mark at Adobe by reshaping their customer success function before heading go-to-market and product marketing for Adobe Creative Cloud for Enterprise.

Let’s face it — the perfect sales enablement program is a challenge to build from the ground up. It’s difficult to know where to start, and it’s just as tough to figure out what your team really needs to be successful. There seems to be an endless amount of options and paths that have plenty of advantages and disadvantages. So, what’s a sales enablement leader to do?

Join the Product Marketing Community in this exclusive webinar as we dive into the cross-section of the minds that built a product marketing-driven organization journeys through the different growth stages and what it took to position Gainsight to unicorn status.

The Product Marketing Community’s Megan Heuer sat down with Nick Mehta (CEO of Gainsight) and Stephanie Robotham (CMO of Gainsight) and discussed how to embrace the three levels of customer success at your organization.

The Product Marketing Community’s Meghan Keaney Anderson sat down with Box's CMO Chris Koehler to discuss why customers’ success with your product is key to increasing revenue.

How do you respond to conditions your marketing plan didn't anticipate? Industry changes, global events, and competitive moves materialize without warning and evolve quickly. Your response needs to be equally fast and flexible so you can adapt and stay ahead.

In order to build a competitive enablement program in the new year that wins, it requires enabling the entire organization with competitive insights. But what do all of these stakeholders really want?

With 2020 behind us, you're ready for a fresh start! Your company has to make up a bit of lost ground from 2020 and increasing its win rate is a top priority for your executive team.

Rowan Noronha & Meghan Heuer sat down with Meagen Eisenberg, CMO, TripActions to discuss: Product Marketing’s New Role In Delivering Frictionless Customer Experience

The Product Marketing Community’s Megan Heuer sat down with Legendary SaaS product leader Cheryl Chavez, formerly martech innoovation leaders at Engagio and Marketo, on how to make the most of a market and industry that is ready for change.

When March 2020 hit us like a freight train, we never could have anticipated that we'd be preparing for one of the most challenging years of our lives. 2020 taught us the importance of agility, both in our teams and across our organizations.

Rowan Noronha had the opportunity to sit down virtually with Whitney Sieck, Senior Director of Enablement at Outreach, and discuss her recent presentation about Consultative Enablement.

The Product Marketing Community’s Rowan Noronha sat down with Seismic CMO Michael Londgren and VP, Product Marketing Jam Khan to talk about how technology like interactive content can help you resonate with buyers in a personalized way amidst the “new normal.”

Competitive Intelligence (CI) is one of the most critical methodologies we need to understand our markets fully. Traditionally, CI has been conducted by collecting, analyzing, and sharing single intelligence pieces from a single point in time.

Sheevaun Thatcher, Global Sales Enablement Lead at RingCentral discusses the importance of interlocking product marketing and sales enablement in support of your GTM strategy.

If you’ve been a marketer for even a short time, you know better than anyone that your job has changed in the last few years.

Responding to COVID19: A Playbook for Portfolio Marketing & 5 Key Areas for Product Marketers to Prioritize their Efforts.

Klue’s VP of Product Marketing, Vincent Lo, sat down with different leaders to dive into their experiences with competitive intelligence. This is a portion of Vincent’s discussion with Rob Begg, VP of Product Marketing at Salesforce.

This year has undoubtedly been a unique one, as we have faced some of the most transformative and challenging adjustments to what we thought was our norm. As we understand how the entire world has evolved, we must also change our annual planning approach

Crayon's Product Marketing Spotlight is an interview series where we chat with product marketers to get a glimpse into their careers and gain unique insight into product marketing strategy.

Companies are facing unprecedented disruption. Not only have the lines between personal and professional lives blurred as employees have shifted to remote work environments, but there are now challenges affecting every aspect of their business.

Market and buyer insights are critical in volatile times. Everyone who interacts with buyers directly or indirectly requires enablement. Portfolio marketing must develop leadership behaviors to help the organization stay audience-centric for 2021.

Klue’s VP of Product Marketing, Vincent Lo, spoke to Tracy Berry about how she built out a competitive intelligence program at Service Max.

Product Marketing Community’s Rowan Noronha sat down with David Kincaid, Founder of Level5 Strategy, to hear how companies can harness the power of their brands to transform their businesses and drive growth and why strong brands have never been more valuable.

An effective marketing message should do more than make a good first impression. To influence buying decisions, your message needs to make a lasting impression.

Meghan Keaney Anderson from HubSpot discusses 2021 planning as she explores where the best place to begin, how to set targets, and how best to define your resource and strategies for those targets.

The Product Marketing Community’s Megan Heuer sat down with Gong’s CMO, Udi Ledergor on driving customer engagement in the new normal as we pivot for 2021 planning and reflect back at all of the learnings

The Product Marketing Community’s Megan Heuer sat down with Coupa CMO Chandar Pattabhiram to discuss ways marketers can adjust their approach to traditional marketing to focus on serving the needs of their customers for 2021 and beyond.

Most product marketers know the standard playbook of launches: Events, email, social, teaser pages, and so forth. Following the same playbook will quickly lead to stale launch days. It's time to look for new ways to amplify your product launches.

Planning and executing any product launch is daunting, but planning and executing a global product launch increases the size and scope by an order of magnitude.

Product-Led Growth is a go-to-market strategy that relies on using your product as the main vehicle to acquire, activate, and retain customers. Learn how learning companies are leveraging this approach to help enable growth.

With a product-led G2M strategy, the product leader has more influence and responsibility as the experience the prospective customer has with the product will determine if they choose to buy or not.

In this master class video, Mark Stiving from Pricing Impacts highlights key challenges he's identified over his extensive career in pricing enterprise software.

In this master class video, Lauren Culbertson from LoopVOC highlights how PMM leaders are looking to their customers and key market insights to better inform their GTM strategies and more.

In this master class video, April Dunford from Ambient Strategy discusses the differences between positioning and messaging, branding, and storytelling.

In this master class video, Janice Le from Helpshift discusses what does it product-market fit mean and how do you assess whether you have it?

In this master class video, Sridhar from Aventi Group discusses "firmographics" and how do they differ when you're identifying a target market.

In this master class video, Ryan Sorley from DoubleCheck Research highlights how PMM leaders can leverage win/loss intelligence to inform your overall product marketing strategy.

I don’t know your company’s story, but I’m guessing this is how it happened: Jane heard about this tool called Slack from a friend, so she signed up and started using it with her team. Pretty soon the whole company was on Slack.

“Today, software just shows up in the workplace unannounced. End users are finding products on their own and telling their bosses which ones to buy. And it’s all happening at lightning speed.”

David Daniels from BranKraft introduces a simple tool to help you articulate that uncomfortable feeling you have about the progress of product launch planning, while ensuring the right level of risk is managed and mitgated.

Figuring out how to price and package a new product – or improve that of a current product – can be one of the biggest, most complex and most business-critical challenges marketers have to tackle today. But – when done right – pricing and packaging can have a dramatic impact on a company’s growth.  

In a matter of weeks, we’ve begun to realize the magnitude not just of the COVID energized by the opportunity to turn disruption into opportunity and come out of this crisis even stronger than before.

Product Marketing is a strategic function in the marketing ecosystem. It is intentionally positioned upstream next to the CMO/marketing leadership.  

Product marketing is a critical strategic function. It centers around a keen understanding of the product’s target audiences, strategically positioning and messaging your offerings to boost demand.

Strong fences may make for good neighbors if you’re in the business of pastoral farming, but in developing technology products, they are ruinous.  

Product Management and Product Marketing, the differences, the similarities, and the inevitable conflict between these two archetypal roles have been documented since time immemorial.

Buyers aren’t having trouble buying because your team isn’t marketing hard enough. They’re having trouble because they’re passing through a hailstorm of messages. They are getting so much content from so many companies on so many channels that it makes it exceedingly difficult to hear, well, anything.