Looking to build out product marketing but wondering which level of product marketing candidate would be best suited? We’ve got you covered:
First Product Marketing Manager
This persona of Product Marketing Manager is an individual and a ‘generalist’ of the function. They thrive in bringing order to the chaos of product launches.
Often early in their marketing career, their career trajectory comes from earlier roles in other marketing functions like Content Marketing.
This persona of Product Marketing Manager typically reports to a Head of Marketing. They are often the first people to bring together product, marketing, and sales and are tasked with creating GTM plans. They deliver value by creating product launches that are better organized and aligned to corporate objectives.
Scale-up or Senior Product Marketing Manager
This persona of Product Marketing Manager has experience delivering GTM value to complex product businesses. They are confident and competent to work with outside partners to achieve campaigns that deliver scale and have exposure to international market launches.
They are more strategic in nature, often considered a “Lead” within their org; sometimes, they may even have a couple of direct reports in localized markets.
Whether the business is a multi-product company or a large sales-led enterprise, this Product Marketer delivers value by being able to run multiple strategies for multiple ICPs in parallel.
The Leader
A Product Marketing leader has a broader GTM scope and engages with analysts, large customers, and partners. They typically lead direct reports and cross-functional teams, while also working closely with the CEO on product-related value messaging and any speaking events the CEO attends.
Product Marketing leaders, whether a Director or VP, are not common to most tech startups or scale-ups; however, some tech companies choose to have a defined Product Marketing leader reporting to a CPO. If this leader is hired at a VP level, this role should be considered a peer to their VP Product counterpart.
This leader is typically focused on ensuring a value narrative is applied to any market-facing messaging concerning the product or their customers.