Being able to demonstrate that you are results-oriented is the top characteristic that sets product marketers apart. Whether the candidate has 10 years of experience or is a college student who headed a project with a student group, employers need to hear about their past accomplishments in terms of reaching and working toward goals. When I ask a candidate to describe a notable achievement from a job that I've picked for them based on their CV, many of them tend to be stumped as they don't have concrete results to tell.
Before you head into the interview room, do your homework! Take a deeper look at who the target audience is and how the company is currently positioning their product relative to competitors. While you won't be expected to have all of the answers about a new-to-you product or market, it will help you come into the conversation with better insights so you can have a meaningful discussion about the product positioning.
When applying for product marketing roles, keep in mind that you should come across as an adaptive candidate who can collaborate cross-functionally with the interviewer. The priorities within an organization change rapidly and that is why the product marketer needs to be flexible and adaptive. For instance, if there is a critical change that needs to be made to the product before it is released, you will need to respond quickly and make the right modifications to your marketing plan. Additionally, you should mentally prepare yourself to collaborate with different teams, for which you must exhibit a cross-functional skill set. Ultimately, achieving goals requires collaborating with different people.
Take free or low paying work to build a portfolio. First establish credibility so a company can trust their brand’s messaging in your capable hands. An interview can only tell so much about a candidate’s ability to thrive in the job, so be sure you have evidence to back up your skill set. Take some freelance work offered on LinkedIn or an industry tracking board just to boost your experience and have a diverse portfolio to show off. It’s not like the company you’re interviewing will know how much you were paid or ask to know. They are interested in the quality of your work to have peace of mind they’re making the right decision in hiring you, so provide them that in a strong portfolio.
Why beat around the bush? Go directly to the source. If you want to land a job in product marketing, find product marketers and start developing relationships with them and create your own mentoring program. For instance, sign up for the Product Marketing Alliance and start talking with product marketers who you connect with. Ask them out for coffee, or for a weekly zoom call and see how they did it and what insight they offer. People love helping and they love being reminded that their career is a success and sought after. Create your own mentoring program by finding product marketers you admire and start taking steps forward every day to land a product marketing job.
It can’t hurt to get a leg up with a product marketing certificate. When potential employers see that you’ve invested time and money into earning an education in product marketing, they will sit up and pay attention. They will most likely consider you over other candidates who don’t have a product marketing certificate listed on their resumes. This is particularly helpful if you have limited or no experience working in product marketing.
Understanding the target audience is the single most important thing you can do to land a job in product marketing. It is one thing to have an in-depth knowledge of the product, but having an understanding of the audience, their pain points, and their needs can set you apart from the other candidates throughout the interviewing process.
The ability to show or write in several media is a necessary component of being a great product marketer. Therefore, make yourself a brand. Join product marketing groups in meet-ups or online, provide content, communicate with the Product Marketing Alliance, and engage in these activities. I think the LinkedIn article I wrote, to which I included a link in my cover letter, was the reason I was invited to an interview for my most recent position. I chose a subject to write about that was relevant to the business's offering and the field in which I was seeking employment. Because I shown my subject matter expertise in a work example even before the interview stage, I must have been successful because I eventually obtained a job offer and an interview.
Being connected to the right people makes it easier to land a product marketing job. Joining organizations or bodies that have a lot of people already doing the job makes it easier to get information about job openings. With the friends you'd make in such groups, you'd get insider information on how best to prepare for the interviews, and what to and not to expect. Investing time and other resources to attend seminars, conferences and workshops also put you in a good spot to meet lots more other people and engage with them. This allows you to show your skills and experience as you communicate with others in the product marketing field.
It's important to understand the market. To sell products, you need to know industry trends and where it may be going. With this information, share to the hiring manager what your plans would be to market the product. Maybe you would focus on the packaging to catch the eye of social media followers, or reform products to focus on modern day benefits. Highlight your knowledge and where you intend to go with the product.
In your job search as a product marketer, you will need to have a strong brand identity. Make sure that you are known for doing an excellent job in that marketing niche. You could write blog posts that draw traffic to your professional sites so that they can see your reputation. Have landing pages in the social media and professional networking spaces so that as people interact with your content, they will see a potential product marketer in you through your work in the virtual space.
Product marketing is one of the many roles that the marketing industry has to offer. It is a specialty role within the marketing industry. Therefore, if you want to land a product marketing job, you must study product marketing in addition to general marketing. Fortunately, there are many online courses that teach product marketing specifically. Furthermore, if you are obtaining a marketing degree, you could work with your school to allow for your degree to have an emphasis on product marketing. General marketing knowledge may not be enough, so educate yourself on product marketing.
Personally, I think developing your Coding Skills is the most important factor to consider while looking for a position in product marketing. The term "technical product manager" refers to a product manager with coding skills. They are in short supply and in great demand because of their expertise and experience in leading product development teams. Improving your proficiency in a technical area is a surefire method to boost your employability. You can learn to code and become a tech expert in your field by taking part in coding boot camps and working on personal projects.
Digital Marketing & Asst. HR Manager at Great People Search
Answered 4 years ago
You don't have to focus solely on selling products to demonstrate your writing skills; rather, show that you can use narrative to explain complex ideas to an audience that might otherwise struggle to grasp them. Do not hesitate to highlight your experience with successful storytelling in previous campaigns or pieces of content you've authored. If you're interested in marketing technology but have never worked in product marketing before, this is a great place to start. Spend some time learning about the product and the competition, and then share your thoughts on the relative strengths and weaknesses of each in a blog post.
As a product marketing manager, it’s your role to develop and execute marketing plans to sell your company’s products. Thus, you need to be proficient in various marketing-related technical skills to ease your job search. Familiarize yourself with marketing-related programs and systems, social media management software, and graphic design tools to boost your skills in product marketing. Also, being knowledgeable in various coding languages will help solve technical problems that may arise and give you the confidence to challenge the marketing and team’s prototypes. Tech skills can help you earn the title of technical product manager.
There are several abilities that are key to any marketing job, but one that is central to each of them is writing skills and this is why you should continuously work on them. Whether it is an email, RFP, sales pitch, or social media or blog post, being able to capture your audience’s interest and motivate them to take action through a well-written narrative is critical. Therefore, by collecting your best writing samples on campaigns and improving upon them, honing your craft by researching about products and writing content around them, and studying other professionals’ work, you can improve your skill set and generate the sample base necessary when applying for a position. By constantly working on and honing your writing abilities, you will develop a skill that is needed in almost every facet of a product marketing job and in turn, make yourself a desirable candidate.
Reforge is the best place to learn about product management. The content and live session are created by product and growth leaders who have helped companies go from early stage to decagon. They are the authority when it comes to product marketing and can add a lot of value in getting a product manager role.
Being an effective product marketer requires you to take a stance and then argue on behalf of it with strong supportive evidence. Your ability to be a good storyteller will be essential in crafting a narrative that aligns with your customers. In a sense, your competence in convincing your interviewer of your ability to do the job is a direct representation of your ability to market their product effectively. If you can do the job well, other criteria such as past work experience or education becomes less relevant and you have a great chance of getting hired.
I have been in the marketing industry for over a decade . In said period I have been able to transition into various marketing jobs including product marketing. Landing product marketing jobs is not significantly different from landing a typical marketing job. But there are a couple of factors one must consider in order to effectively compete. Marketing is an art that requires the utmost creativity .And like all art an artist must always show proof of their work. The same applies to landing a job. What worked best for me was building my online presence . I have my own personal website with blog posts that highlight my previous work. The simple process has made it easy for me to create effective resumes .Employees, especially in marketing, want experienced high-value candidates. And the best way to highlight one's work in the modern era is through the available online platforms.
Hi, My name is Donna Josephson, Chief Marketing Officer of Shipley Do-Nuts. At Shipley, we do handcrafted do-nuts and kolaches made fresh daily to send you straight to your happy place. Here's my response to your query. One tip I have for landing a product marketing job is to make sure you're a good fit for the company and the role they want to fill. You should be able to show that you are interested in the work they do, but also that you can bring something different to the table. If you don't have any experience with their product (or if it's not one that you would use), then it may be difficult to show how your skills will apply to their business. I hope this helps.