Loved: How to Rethink Marketing for Tech Products (Silicon Valley Product Group)

Most tech companies get marketing wrong because they don't know how to do product marketing right. The next in the bestselling SVPG series, LOVED shows what leaders like Apple, Netflix, Microsoft, and Salesforce do well and how to apply it to transform product marketing at your company. The best products can still lose in the marketplace. Why? They are beaten by products with stronger product marketing. Good product marketing is the difference between “also-ran” products versus products that lead. And yet, product marketing is widely misunderstood. Although it includes segmenting customers, positioning your product, creating product collateral, and supporting sales teams, great product marketing achieves much more. It directs the best way to bring your product to market. It shapes what the world thinks about your product and category. It inspires others to tell your product’s story. Part of the bestselling series including INSPIRED and EMPOWERED, LOVED explains the fundamentals of best-in-class product marketing for product teams, marketers, founders and any leader with a product and a vision. Sharing her personal stories as a former product and marketing leader at Microsoft and Netscape, and as an advisor to Silicon Valley startups, venture capitalist, and UC Berkeley engineering graduate school lecturer, Martina Lauchengco distills decades of lessons gleaned from working with hundreds of companies to make LOVED the definitive guide to modern product marketing. With dozens of stories from the trenches of market leaders as well as newer startups with products just beginning their journey, the book shows you: the centrality of product marketing to any product’s success the key skills and actions required to do it well the four fundamentals of product marketing and how to apply them how to hire, lead, and organize product marketing how product marketers optimize crucial collaboration with other functions one-sheet frameworks, tools and agile marketing practices that help simplify and elevate product marketing LOVED is an invitation to rethink tired notions of product marketing and practice a more dynamic, customer and market-centric version that creates raving fans and helps products achieve their full market potential. Cover Title Page Copyright Page Contents Foreword Introduction: My Story Part One The Foundation: Understanding Product Marketing's Fundamentals Chapter 1: When David Beats Goliath What Is Product Marketing? Why Product Marketing Matters Now Where Product Marketing Fits Chapter 2: The Fundamentals of Product Marketing Fundamental 1. Ambassador: Connect Customer and Market Insights Fundamental 2. Strategist: Direct Your Product's Go‐to‐Market Fundamental 3. Storyteller: Shape How the World Thinks About Your Product Fundamental 4. Evangelist: Enable Others to Tell the Story Chapter 3: Ambassador Market Sensing Third‐Party Insights The Competition Ambassador of Insights Chapter 4: Strategist Key Terms The Role of Marketing Strategies in Product Go‐to‐Market How Company Maturity Evolves Product Go‐to‐Market Chapter 5: Storyteller Use Formulas as Input, Not Output A Better Process The Tendency to Be Overly Precise Search Engine Optimization Positioning = Your Actions + Others' The Long Game Chapter 6: Evangelist Enabling Others Evangelism vs. Promotion Tailor Evangelism Tools to Your Product's GTM Evangelism Is a Team Sport Part Two How to Do the Role: Who Should Do Product Marketing and How to Do It Well Chapter 7: Strong Product Marketing Key Skills of Strong Product Marketers Key Responsibilities Product Marketing Anti‐Patterns Chapter 8: How to Partner with Product Management Beyond the Core Product Team Set It Up for Success Anti‐Patterns, What Better Looks Like Chapter 9: How to Partner with Marketing Using the Right Marketing Mix Set It Up for Success Anti‐Patterns, What Better Looks Like Chapter 10: How to Partner with Sales Balancing Urgent and Important Set It Up for Success Anti‐Patterns, What Better Looks Like Chapter 11: Discovering and Rediscovering Market Fit The Market Side of Product/Market Fit Probe Early, Probe Often Additional Techniques to Understand Market Fit for Existing Products Active Listening Chapter 12: Product Marketing in the Age of Agile Create a Release Scale Agile Marketing Chapter 13: The Metrics That Matter Product Marketing Objectives Metrics for Product Marketing Practice Patience and Persistence Part Three Strategist: Guardrails and Levers: The Tools to Guide Product Go‐to‐Market Strategy Chapter 14: When Strategy Guides Product Go‐to‐Market Chapter 15: What the iPhone Shows Us About Adoption Life Cycles Let's Talk Technology Adoption Life Cycle Applying Life‐Cycle Dynamics to Product Go‐to‐Market Actions Be Thoughtful and Patient Chapter 16: The Brand Lever Brand in Tech Product Scope Expands; Market Perception of Current Product Is Narrow Brand Strategy Informs Product Go‐to‐Market Strategy Leverage Existing Product‐Brand Loyalty to Acquire New Audiences Improve Ability to Penetrate a Market with a New Brand Product Naming Is Brand Strategy Chapter 17: The Pricing Lever Pricing Basics Make Pricing Easy for Customers and Good for Business What Drives Your Business? Use Packaging for Customer Segments or Use Cases Trends Shift Expectations of Value Chapter 18: Marketing When It's Not About Product Campaigns Beyond Product Invest in the Emotionality of Your Brand Improve Collaboration Between Marketing and Sales Examine the Customer Journey Enable Evangelism from Customers Activate Your Community Chapter 19: The One‐Sheet Product Go‐to‐Market Canvas Product Go‐to‐Market Canvas: Think Puzzle PGTM Canvas in Action Chapter 20: Understanding in Action Early Stage Scaling Stage Mature Stage Part Four Storyteller: Clarity and Authenticity: The Process and Tools to Rethink Messaging Chapter 21: Discover Your Position Positioning Takes Time Good Messaging Is Harder Than It Looks Chapter 22: How to Listen and Connect Listen and Learn Choose Credibility and Clarity CAST: A Simple Guide Chapter 23: Understanding in Action Netflix's DVD Days As the Game Changed Brand Leads the Message Zendesk Anticipates What Customers Want to Know Customer Outcomes Lead Chapter 24: The Balancing Act Right Category: Create New or Redefine Existing? Leveraging Product Managers Leveraging Sales Leveraging Search Trends and Techniques It's a Balancing Act Chapter 25: The One‐Sheet Messaging Canvas How It Works The Messaging Canvas in Action Part Five Advanced Product Marketing and Leadership: How to Do and Lead It Better at Any Stage Company Chapter 26: Leading and Transforming Product Marketing Where Should Product Marketing Report? Defining the Scope of the Role The Importance of Inclusive Team Norms Chapter 27: How to Hire Strong Product Marketing Talent Assessing the Skill Set How to Assess Raw Ability versus Experience Let Every Candidate Shine Chapter 28: How to Guide a Product Marketing Career Early Career: One to Five‐ish Years Mid‐Level: Five to Twelve‐ish Years Senior: 10+ years Chapter 29: Product Marketing by Stage Early Stage: Ignition Growth Stage: Rapid Rise Mature Companies: Peak Burn Adjust Scope to Stage Chapter 30: Mature Company Inflection Points “Traditional” Company Becomes a Tech‐First Company A Single‐Product Company Becomes a Multi‐Product Company Moving from Product to Solution, Service, or Customer‐Centric International Expansion Chapter 31: Conclusion What You Can Do Right Now Appendix: Marketing Terms Explained Acknowledgments About the Author Index EULA Most tech companies get marketing wrong because they don't know how to do product marketing right. The next in the bestselling SVPG series, LOVED shows what leaders like Apple, Netflix, Microsoft, and Salesforce do well and how to apply it to transoform product marketing at your company. The best products can still lose in the marketplace. Why? They are beaten by products with stronger product marketing. Good product marketing is the difference between “also-ran” products versus products that lead. And yet, product marketing is widely misunderstood. Although it includes segmenting customers, positioning your product, creating product collateral, and supporting sales teams, great product marketing achieves much more. It directs the best way to bring your product to market. It shapes what the world thinks about your product and category. It inspires others to tell your product’s story. Part of the bestselling series including INSPIRED and EMPOWERED, LOVED explains the fundamentals of best-in-class product marketing for product teams, marketers, founders and any leader with a product and a vision. Sharing her personal stories as a former product and marketing leader at Microsoft and Netscape, and as an advisor to Silicon Valley startups, venture capitalist, and UC Berkeley engineering graduate school lecturer, Martina Lauchengco distills decades of lessons gleaned from working with hundreds of companies to make LOVED the definitive guide to modern product marketing. With dozens of stories from the trenches of market leaders as well as newer startups with products just beginning their journey, the book shows you: the centrality of product marketing to any product’s success the key skills and actions required to do it well the four fundamentals of product marketing and how to apply them how to hire, lead, and organize product marketing how product marketers optimize crucial collaboration with other functions one-sheet frameworks, tools and agile marketing practices that help simplify and elevate product marketing LOVED is an invitation to rethink tired notions of product marketing and practice a more dynamic, customer and market-centric version that creates raving fans and helps products achieve their full market potential. "In today's hyper-competitive market, how a product is taken to market is at least as important as the product itself. It is no longer enough for marketers and product teams to just announce their product is superior. Even if what a product does is unique, others claim they do the same things, leaving customers very confused. As a result, product marketing for tech products has never been harder...or more important. This book explains what it really takes to bring a technology product successfully to market. The frameworks are simple but powerful and easy to deploy. They address how to adapt product marketing to more agile development cycles, how to stand out when other products do similar things, and how to position products and companies with thoughtful execution of strategy versus simply 'doing marketing.' It takes the best of 'classic' positioning, messaging and product marketing and applies these practices to modern realities of the tech and customer landscape."-- Provided by publisher