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What Does a Product Marketing Manager Do and How Much Do They Earn?

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After spending months or maybe years developing a new product, you’re now ready to offer it to the market. 

However, even if you have an amazing product, you need a good product marketing manager who will make sure that people know about it. 

Most importantly, you need someone who can help you get more sales. You may be wondering what is a product marketing manager and how important are they to your product launch? Let’s find out. 

What Is a Product Marketing Manager? 

A product marketing manager is responsible for developing effective marketing strategies and plans, and communicating the key product features and benefits to your target customers. 

Essentially, a product marketing manager’s role is to find customers and lead them all through the way of the sales funnel stages, such as: 

Product Awareness 

A product marketing manager promotes awareness by leveraging different platforms your target audience use, including social media platforms. They also determine the type of content to be done and create a budget for your company’s marketing endeavors. 

Engagement 

A product manager is also dedicated to building trust and creating conversations with potential customers through events, special offers, and campaigns. Once people learn about your brand, they are likely to take an interest in it. 

At this point, a product marketing manager utilizes different types of content to capture the interest of your target audience. Initiatives include: 

  • Special offers 
  • Bundled packages 
  • Follow-up email campaigns 
  • Insider or customer success stories 

Purchase or Conversion 

A product marketing manager is also tasked with increasing sales and conversions and keeping customers motivated to come back. This involves key initiatives like upselling campaigns, referral programs, and re-engagement email campaigns. 

Product Marketing Manager vs. Product Manager 

Throughout the process of developing a new product and launching it to the market, you will work with both a product manager and a marketing manager. 

Product managers are responsible for activities leading to the creation of a product. For example, they set the product vision and product roadmap and the features. They also identify pain points to target when developing a product and determine its business value. 

Meanwhile, product marketing managers are focused on leading the go-to-market for that product. This includes creating a coherent marketing strategy for the product launch, explaining the features and benefits of the product to the customers, and setting up marketing campaigns for demand generation. 

Another major difference between a product manager and a product marketing manager is who they work with. 

Product managers work with your company’s internal teams. They work with your product team and engineering team from a customer’s point of view so that they can create a highly functioning product that solves the problem it intends to solve. 

On the other hand, product marketing managers work with your external customers. They are focused on developing strategies on how people will know that your product will solve their problems. 

They also work with a PR team, development team, social media team, and sales team to ensure a successful product launch. 

Product Marketing Manager Job Description 

Below are the key roles and responsibilities of a product marketing manager. 

1. Develop Positioning of the Product 

Creating a market positioning strategy is one of the first important steps to a successful product launch. It involves positioning your brand and solidifying its identity so you can set yourself apart from your competitors. 

Product positioning involves: 

  • outlining the basis of your brand’s identity, 
  • critiquing your identity against competitors, 
  • outlining your existing market position, 
  • and understanding the conditions of the marketplace. 

2. Identify Target Audience 

A target audience is a group of individuals who can be your potential customers. They share similar demographic traits, such as age, gender, location, and interests. 

A product marketer creates targeted, personalized experiences for your potential customers. However, to do this, they need to have a comprehensive understanding of your ideal buyer. 

To do this, a product marketer creates buyer personas or user personas which is a research-based profile that depicts your target customer. They describe your ideal customers, the challenges they face, and how they make decisions. 

All this information helps your product marketing team create a plan and strategy to execute. 

3. Identify Direct Competitors 

Another role stated in a product marketing manager’s job description is identifying the key selling points of your product and what makes it stand out among its competitors. 

This is done by conducting market research, soliciting customer feedback, checking social media or community forums, and more. 

4. Develop a Market Strategy 

Product marketers devise a marketing strategy through positioning, messaging, and customer research. A good marketing strategy is based on insights, product life cycle, location, price, and other metrics. 

5. Create a Product Launch Plan 

Before a product launch, product marketing managers focus on interpreting market research and applying relevant findings to the implementation of marketing strategies. Their insights may also impact other aspects of product development, such as features, user experience, name, and packaging. 

During a product launch, product marketing managers ensure that the product is accurate and presented in a way that potential customers will care about. They also oversee marketing content creation, including videos, blog posts, newsletters, and email campaigns. 

After a product launch, product marketing managers conduct evaluations to see if customers are satisfied. Also included in a product marketing manager job description is conducting growth campaigns and experimenting with or suggesting potential improvements in the product. 

what does a product marketing manager do

What Makes a Good Product Marketing Manager? 

When looking for a product marketing manager for your business or wanting to apply for product marketing manager jobs, you need to know about the basic qualifications. Generally, a product marketing manager should have: 

1. A Bachelor Level Degree in Business and Experience 

A product marketing management role may require three to ten years of relevant experience. They also typically have at least a bachelor’s degree in marketing management or business administration. 

Product marketing managers often begin their careers working in an entry-level position, such as a product marketing specialist or associate product marketing manager. Then, they move up to management, senior management, or director of product marketing. 

The experience level is a major determining factor when hiring a product marketing manager. 

2. Marketing Expertise 

As mentioned in the product marketing manager job description, their goal is to convince customers to purchase your product. Thus, they need to have a deep understanding of marketing principles and techniques to create an effective marketing plan that will generate more leads for your business. 

They should also be well-versed in the latest marketing strategies, particularly digital marketing. 

3. Creativity and Problem-Solving Skills 

Problem-solving is among the key product marketing skills that help a person establish unique ideas that can spark an effective marketing plan. 

An effective marketing manager notices issues and makes decisions to solve them. 

Creativity is vital when it comes to creating unique marketing content. According to statistics, 72% of marketers find content creation the most effective marketing strategy.  

A good marketer should be able to produce engaging content on social media platforms to attract more customers. 

Additionally, product marketers need to have good communication skills. Great products can’t stand on their own, so a marketer needs to be able to communicate the benefits of your product to the consumers. 

4. Research Skills 

A big part of marketing is conducting research. It’s one of the key skills that make a product marketer successful. 

To make effective decisions that will make your product launch successful, your marketing manager needs to have in-depth market and marketing research skills. 

Market research involves target audience analysis. It helps narrow your audience to understand their behavior and motivation. 

Market research helps your brand communicate better with your target audience by determining where you can reach your customers and what language is most effective in capturing their attention. 

Furthermore, market research helps your business identify opportunities for reaching and converting new customers. 

Meanwhile, marketing research is important for evaluating what’s not working on your strategy. It looks into the four Ps of marketing: price, product, place, and promotion. 

By conducting marketing research, you understand what your customers truly want and whether or not your business is successful in connecting with them. 

How Much Does a Product Marketing Manager Earn? 

Since a product marketing manager is one of the most important people in a marketing team, it’s considered a high-paying job. 

When you look at product marketing jobs in the US, the national annual average salary is $137,873. A director of product marketing has an average yearly income of $199,590, while an associate product marketing manager earns an average of $82,526 a year

Additional pay could include bonuses, commissions, tips, and profit-sharing. 

Why Hire a Product Marketing Marketing Manager? 

Working with a product marketing manager is a great way to ensure your success before, during, and after a product launch. They have the skills necessary to create the right product strategy and messaging for your potential buyers. 

They also use their understanding of the product and knowledge of the market, customers, and competitors to determine the unique value your product brings. 

FAQs About Product Marketing 

1. How is product marketing different from marketing? 

Product marketing involves creating the message and story to convey, while marketing is turning that knowledge into ad copy, press releases, blog posts, and other marketing programs. 

While product marketers and marketers have distinct roles, they work alongside each other. For example, product marketers identify the perfect market for a specific product and map the product’s solution to meet the audience’s needs. 

2. What’s the difference between product marketers and marketers? 

Product marketers are experts in the who, what, and where of marketing. Meanwhile, when you look at a marketing job description, you’ll find that marketers are experts at translating those elements into a context. 

Together, product marketers and marketers create successful campaigns that bring more customers to your business. 

3. Is product marketing the same as digital marketing? 

Product marketing focuses on product feature adoption, while digital marketing focuses on the lead generation of that product. Digital marketing also involves selling products through digital channels like social media, SEO, email, and mobile apps. 

4. What is the role of a product marketing team? 

Product marketing involves developing positioning, product messaging, and competitive differentiation. It also involves enabling the sales and marketing teams to ensure that they are aligned and are working efficiently to generate close opportunities. 

The manager needs a team of skilled professionals to handle several aspects of the marketing process to have a successful campaign.

Uday Tank is a serial entrepreneur and content marketing leader. He has a wide variety of interests and enjoys writing, including marketing, productivity, business, health, diversity, and management.