In this post, we will share how to master the complexities of product marketing.
Michael Gemmati is all in on product marketing. As Head of Marketing and Portfolio Strategy at Health Recovery Solutions, he is shaping the company’s product marketing strategy along with all of his marketing responsibilities.
He joined me for the Healthtech Marketing Show to share best practices that will help any marketer improve their product marketing.
Michael shared his unusual journey of becoming a product marketing expert in the episode. He explained why product marketing is a critical function in any health tech organization and how it serves as the bridge between technical development and customer communication. He also emphasized the importance of being deeply customer-centric.
Listen to the Episode
Q1. What is product marketing?
“It’s all about communication and customer adoption of products that your organization is releasing.” Michael Gemmati
As a product marketer, job#1 is to be the bridge between technical development and communication. You will act as a liaison between the technical team developing the product and those responsible for communicating its value to customers.
This role ensures that technical features are translated into benefits that customers can understand and appreciate.
Note: In some organizations, these responsibilities are associated with product development, whereas in others, they are associated with marketing. In my view, they should be associated with marketing.
As a marketer you are responsible for customer adoption. You will need to ensure that customers not only purchase the product but that it is utilized actively by the customers’ users.
In this regard, you will need to partner with customer success to create a great onboarding experience, and marketing has developed tactics that encourage usage. You will also need the tools to measure adoption and usage.
At a strategic level, as a product marketer, you will be involved in or lead go-to-market strategy, positioning, and channel strategy. You will need to develop comprehensive plans for launching products, determine how to position products in the market relative to competitors and decide which channels (e.g., direct sales, partners, online) are best for selling the product.
Q2. What skills will make you a successful product marketer?
“To be a superstar, first and foremost, you need to be extremely customer centric.” Michael Gemmati
Customer-centricity is the ability to understand customers’ needs, pain points, and desires. Great product marketers spend a lot of time with customers and their users. Their feedback should inform product development and marketing strategies.
While not necessarily needing to be an engineer, product marketers should have enough technical understanding to grasp product features and translate them into customer benefits.
The best product marketers are great strategic thinkers. You are responsible for the quality and scope of the plans for product launches, market positioning, and long-term product success. This includes understanding market trends, competitive landscapes, and potential future developments.
Lastly you need to excel at collaboration as you will need to work effectively with various teams including product development, other marketers, sales, customer support, and executive leadership. As a leader, you will need to gain alignment on addressing all aspects of bringing a product to market, from pricing strategy to sales training to customer onboarding processes.
Q3. Why does customer insight matter in product marketing?
Deep customer insight allows product marketers to understand how customers use products in their day-to-day operations truly, what challenges they face, and what improvements could make their lives easier. This is essential for creating effective messaging that resonates with their target audience, addressing their specific pain points and desires.
It also helps in the product development by guiding future features and improvements based on real user needs and experiences.
Watch the Episode
Q4. How can product marketers gather customer insights?
“If you’re a product marketer and you’ve never met a customer if you’re not spending regular time with customers, you’re not going to be great at what you do.” Michael Gemmati
You should frequently visit customer locations to observe how they use products in their natural environment. You will see things that might not come out in interviews or surveys. Capture video of customers using the product if you are allowed to.
Master customer journey mapping. This involves visualizing the customer’s experience with your product from initial awareness through purchase and ongoing use. This helps pinpoint pain points and surface opportunities for improvement.
You may also want to consider creating mock-ups of customer environments (like the MRI suite example mentioned). This can make it easier to test product usage and gather feedback in a controlled setting.
Q5. How is product marketing evolving?
“AI is the new beast that marketing has to wrestle with from a communication standpoint.” Michael Gemmati
More products are becoming software-based, and AI is becoming either a foundation of the new offerings or an important feature. As product marketers, you will need to communicate the value of these less tangible offerings and address concerns about these technologies. This might include customer concerns about data privacy, job displacement, and other issues that AI surfaces.
One of the more nuanced changes is a shift towards continuous releases rather than one-time launches. With software products often updating regularly, product marketers need to shift from big, one-time launch events to ongoing communication about new features and improvements.
Q6. What advice would you give to aspiring product marketers?
“Don’t overlook the emotional needs of your customers in that communication. I think we are great at communicating around the functional needs of solutions, but what’s going to connect first with anybody you’re trying to talk about the value proposition for property is going to be the emotional need.”
Never forget that you need to balance the customer’s functional and emotional needs. While it’s important to communicate what a product does (functional needs), it’s equally important to address how it makes customers feel or how it improves their lives (emotional needs).
Be careful when using AI. While it can be helpful, it may miss nuances in customer emotions and needs. There is no substitute for human insight and creativity in crafting effective marketing messages.
Strive to make product marketing a standalone, full-time role in the organization. Product marketing is a complex function that deserves dedicated attention and resources to do well.