It depends on why you are asking.

If you want to make more money, product marketing is a great career path. Global statistics show that an associate product marketer (a junior role) makes around $85,000 to $87,000 yearly.

Using the parallel market rate of ₦745 at the time of writing, an associate product marketer makes around ₦38 million yearly. That’s a monthly salary of ₦3.2 million.

I can see you drooling already. But this is not precisely obtainable in Nigeria.

However, you could be earning a yearly salary of ₦3.2 million on average as an associate (junior) product marketer in Nigeria. That is a big jump from what many other roles offer junior staff in the country.

And if passion for whatever you do is your motivation and you can work in a very dynamic environment, product marketing is a great career path.

Read on to find out why.

What is Product Marketing?

The simplest definition of product marketing is the process of taking a product to its intended market.

We have written a comprehensive piece on this topic which you can find here. But if the dynamism of product marketing is still lost on you after that definition, the next couple of lines should set you straight.

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For this example, let’s look at the FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) market.

For the longest time, Coca-Cola and Pepsi were the go-to soda brands in Nigeria. But as time went on (and the economy worsened), people stopped buying as much as they used to.

Bigi Cola with its affordable option and a taste similar to the two big brands stepped in to provide an alternative. This forced the hand of Coca-Cola and Pepsi to introduce more pocket-friendly packaging for their sodas to reclaim their market share.

The war of the soda brands is still raging, but it tells you how the market can LOVE your product and CHOOSE an alternative instead.

The reason for the shift in brand loyalty in the above example is economical, but other reasons may include a lack of social/peer reviews, availability/accessibility of product and product branding.

A product marketer is someone who studies all these factors, the trends and the data behind them to craft a winning strategy for a product.

The reason your product may not be doing well in the market is not that you have a bad product. It could be because of a lack of peer reviews, availability and accessibility of the product, and poor branding.#EZProductTips Click To Tweet

Is it stressful?

The implication of this is that a product marketer’s role is tasking.

But what are these tasks that a product marketer undertakes?

Before we go on to list them for you, we must reiterate that the dynamic nature of the market determines what a product marketer will be doing at any given time.

The tasks or the data that a product marketer will be working with or working on in 2022 will be different from what they will be working on in 2023.

A good example of this is how the Covid-19 pandemic forced businesses to put digital marketing first before traditional or conventional marketing. The pandemic also gave rise to more digital products. Product marketers had to adapt or be swept away by the tide.

Now, let us take a look at the tasks.

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Market survey

A product marketer is one who can feel and interpret the pulse of the customer.

Their research leads to building a product that fits the market, which they then position as a unique solution to the customer’s needs.

They are also responsible for providing updates to the product development team to ensure the product remains on the market.

Go-To-Market strategies and marketing plans

A product marketer creates the Go-To-Market strategies that will deliver the product to its end user.

A product marketer also has to keep up with marketing efforts by creating marketing campaigns to attract new customers and remind old ones about why they chose said product in the first place.

The data from the success or failure of these concerted efforts between the product marketer and the sales team who carries out their strategies based on the product marketer’s framework leads to updates to the product or a revamp of the product.

Product positioning and messaging

As the product gains traction, expansion into new markets becomes necessary.

This means crafting a new message and positioning that speaks to both the existing customers and the new ones being targeted.

All of this is the result of already laid down and constantly updated marketing strategies that the product marketer has created for the product.

Customer acquisition plans

This is basically a sales framework that the sales team builds upon to capture a market.

A customer acquisition plan could involve launch strategies, Go-To-Market strategies for a feature within the product and even customer training on how to use the product.

This is probably the most important of the product marketer’s tasks because it is recurring. It is also where a lot of the data needed for repositioning and product updates is pooled from.

If you can perform all of these tasks effectively, then you are on your way to becoming a product marketing manager.

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Who is a product marketing manager?

The Product Marketing Manager is the one who has a good grasp of all those tasks and is the person responsible for making sure that all marketing efforts align with the company or brand’s goals.

It is a mid-level role in an organisation. It is also a sign that a marketer has mastered his audience and knows how to connect to them.

The PMM role is a cross-functional role as has already been implied. They work with the sales team, the customer support team, the product development team and the traditional marketing team.

Here’s your chance!

If the delicious sums at the beginning of this post have motivated you and nothing you have read thus far has scared you away, you have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to start your Product Marketing journey today!

Our Product Marketing Crash Course is designed to give you industry insight while arming you with the knowledge needed to make inroads into this on-demand career path.

Click here now to sign up and get a 50% discount on the course!

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The truth is that you cannot entirely understand Product Marketing. You can only attempt to make it make sense for you.

Those first two lines render the title of this post moot. So what is the reason for this post and why are you still reading?

Illustrated: The importance of Product Marketing

The simple answer is that you and I know how important it is to have an inkling of an understanding of what it entails to market a product.

Let me tell you a story.

A young man, casually strolling through the streets of Twitter during his break from work, stumbles upon an interesting tweet. In that tweet, there is a picture of a broken savings box, referred to as kolo in our local parlance.

The contents of the box are displayed accompanying caption details how long it took to fill that box and the fulfillment that came with it. Then he thinks about an idea to build a digital product that could serve as this said kolo for people.

It will be less expensive because there will be no breaking involved. But the problem is convincing people that his digital product is something that works.

You probably already know the story of how Piggyvest started. But if you do not, you’ll be wondering how he and his team were able to get people interested enough to start using his product.

The answer is simple: Product Marketing.

They scoped their market to understand them, then positioned their product as a better alternative to kolo and helped people get comfortable with using it.

If you’ve been paying attention, you will notice that there are three core elements involved in marketing the product. They are product development, marketing, and sales.

All three are very distinct roles with lots of technicalities involved. Product marketing is the intersection between them. And this is why you cannot entirely understand it.

But you can get a hang of it enough to become an authority.

Scope of Product Marketing

According to HubSpot, Product marketing is the process of bringing a product to market.

That is the simplest way anybody can put it.

But as in the case of Piggyvest, you just do not create a product and take it to the market with hopes that people see it and patronise. If your aim is to drive demand and usage, then how you go to the market is important.

Your messaging, your launch process and a solid sales framework for your sales team to build upon is key in marketing your product.

The customer, too, plays a role because if they do not understand the product, then it is dead on arrival. They are the ones who will determine the life cycle of that product in the market.

We will now look at each of these in detail.

Product Messaging

So you have a great product after scoping the market for what they need. Your ideas have been brought to life by your developers. It is time to go to the market.

But what will you tell them?

This is where product messaging comes in.

Your product message are the words you say in text or with your voice that will help to convince your customers to take a look at your product as a solution to their problem.

If you have a competitor already in that market, then it becomes even trickier. Good messaging is what will make your potential customer choose you and not them.

This is why you have to be deliberate about what you say in your messaging. It has to speak to the customer’s problem first while offering the solution, all in one breath or phrase.

Investing time in crafting this message is never a waste because statistics from Investopedia have shown that 59 percent of paying customers need to build trust with a business first. Those same statistics also show that 21 percent of paying customers choose a brand that they “like”.

If your messaging does not speak to your market’s problems and is not helping you be likeable, you need to go back to the drawing board.

Product launch process

You have now crafted a message so warm and fuzzy that it could melt the glaciers in Antarctica. It is time to tell people what you and your brand does.

Another problem has arisen. How do you launch?

Let us take you back a few paces.

You identified your market’s problems – also referred to as pain points – to create a product that fits. You have crafted a message that carefully encompasses the solution you are offering while empathising with the problem.

All of this was created after scoping your market and creating a buyer persona – a fictional representation of the person or people whose problems you are looking to solve with your product.

Therein lies your solution.

Within that buyer persona, you will see where your customer spends his time. That is where your product launch should hold.

If your customer spends his time on Instagram, launch there even if you intend to have an offline launch event. If your customer is a constant commuter, launch using billboards and posters. Anywhere your customers are is where you should launch.

Product sales framework

Now everybody knows about your product. But they are still wondering if they should sign up for it or pay for it.

It is easy to leave this to your sales team and go pamper yourself for a job well done. But if nobody signs up to use your product, your head, rather than the salesperson’s, will be on the plate.

Luckily, this is a joint effort. A meeting between the sales and marketing teams is needed to craft a sales framework that does not do away with the product messaging.

When this is done, the sales team can craft their strategies to get customers to sign up and eventually pay to use the product.

And finally…

Product marketing is more about who you are building for than why you are building. You cannot entirely understand it because the market is dynamic and this dynamism must influence the direction of your marketing.

But to help you get a grasp on how to market a product in a way that can earn you a good share of the market, we have created this Product Marketing crash course. Click to find out more.