Product Marketing Job Description: A Sample of Responsibilities and Requirements

Product marketing manager job description

The Role of a Product Marketing Manager

As a product marketing manager, you are responsible for making your products “fly-off the shelf.”

This role is not about doing demos or presenting product features (although these may sometimes occur). Rather, this role is the glue that binds our product strategy to the tactics we need to drive success in sales and marketing and to achieve results. You will be the product evangelist and will play an integral role in organizing product launches.

You know our competitors like the back of your hand: what they do today and what they plan to do in the future. You also know our buyers better than they know themselves, including how they make their buying decisions. This isn’t guesswork. You back up strategic insights with market evidence and then use that knowledge to drive the development of positioning and messaging that resonates with buyers and empowers our sales channels to be successful.

You will collaborate with our marketing team to develop innovative programs that drive demand. An attention to detail and eye for quality are critical to your success, along with an ability to grasp and present our product’s value proposition in a way that resonates and clearly articulates how we solve our buyers’ problems. You are obsessed with tracking performance, and have the data to prove what’s working and what isn’t.

In addition to the marketing team, you will regularly collaborate with product managers and sales channels; it’s a balancing act that requires strong diplomatic skills, including knowing when to push back and when to dive in.

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Product Marketing Manager Key Responsibilities

  • Market intelligence—be the expert on our buyers, who are they, how they buy and their key buying criteria.
  • Understand the competitive landscape—be an expert on our competition and how they are positioned.
  • Collaborate with product management and marketing communications to develop product positioning and messaging that resonate with our target buyer personas.
  • Understand and document our buyer’s process, including where they get information, and the who, what, when and why behind the decisions they make. Then drive changes to our sales and marketing processes based on what you learn.
  • Develop a marketing plan for the products you support in conjunction with our marketing team, including key activities and budgets to support the retention of existing customers and the acquisition of new customers.
  • Assess the effectiveness of the marketing programs that support your products on an ongoing basis, and report back to the business on required changes.
  • Plan the launches of net-new products and releases of existing products, and manage the cross-functional implementation of the plan.
  • Act as the primary thought leader for the products you support externally, including speaking engagements and written works.
  • Understand and support our sales channels; train them on the problems we solve for our buyers and users; develop internal tools and external collateral and teach them how and when to use it.

Product Marketing Manager Requirements

  • 5+ years of product marketing experience with at least 2 years of experience in a market-facing role (e.g. delivering presentations to customers and prospects, conducting competitor analysis and market research)
  • Proficient in productivity applications such as Microsoft Office, Project or Basecamp.
  • Comfortable using collaboration and CRM tools such as Slack and Salesforce.
  • Familiar with marketing automation tools such as Marketo, Pardot and Omniture, and Google Analytics.
  • Power user of networking tools such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
  • Exceptional ROI-tracking skills, able to prove what is –or isn’t—working
  • Must be a strong public speaker, comfortable in front of large, senior groups, and a solid writer.
  • Excellent people and management skills to interact with staff, colleagues, cross-functional teams and third parties. Team player!
  • Must be a strong public speaker, comfortable in front of large, senior groups, and a solid writer.
  • Bachelor’s degree in business or marketing; MBA preferred.
  • Pragmatic Institute Certified (PMC) III or higher preferred.
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Author

  • Dave Daniels

    Dave Daniels is the VP of customer success at Pragmatic Institute. His mission is to ensure that each Pragmatic Institute customer has what they need to successfully implement the Pragmatic Institute Framework. For over two decades Dave has helped technology companies succeed as a software developer, sales engineer, product manager, product marketing manager, executive, leader and entrepreneur. Dave enjoys snowboarding, CrossFit and barbecue. He's a dad of three amazing kids and the product of a military family. Dave has a BS in computer science with a minor in mathematics from Columbus State University. Contact him at [email protected].

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