Podcast Interview: Why Marketing Podcast

A few months ago Rusty Pepper asked if I'd join the Why Marketing Podcast to talk about how I became a marketer, what I'm working on and much more. It was a fun experience. You can listen to the whole thing below on YouTube.

3 Easy Steps to Keep Your Marketing from becoming Fake News

As a marketer, I love a good stat. I think a lot of us do. That moment when you find a stat that perfectly aligns or gives credibility to some thought leadership you're creating is a magical moment.

Sadly, a lot of those magical moments quickly turn into disappointment. In an effort to find the source of many great stats, I'm led down a rabbit hole that ends in me realizing the stat is likely fake.

Below is a response I've gotten back recently from someone who wrote a great blog post with a stat that I would have liked to leverage, if it were legit. I've blurred out some details to protect this marketer's identity.

This probably happens ~75% of the time I reach out to someone trying to find the stat in their "great" piece of content marketing when the source is not clearly marked. I've even tracked down stats included an HBR article that were widely cited in our industry only to find out it was bogus.

Marketers, this can be easily prevented. If we want consumers to trust us, we need to step it up. As an industry we are a little too fast and loose when it comes to what we willingly spread. Here are a few simple steps you can take to not be the source, or even part of the problem.

1. Always link to the source
2. Don't have your source be another article with the stat, but with no source (most common issue)
3. Don't spread bad stats

Resist the urge, even if it makes a slam dunk case for your point or product. In the end it comes down to trust, while there is a large portion of the world that will blindly trust any stat out there, if we want to build trust with potential customers make sure anything you reference has a source.

How Product Marketers Can Make NPS Their Secret Weapon

Quick post here.

I recently spoke at the Product Marketing Summit on how product marketers can make NPS their secret weapon. It was published today, so I thought I'd share it on my blog.

You can see the presentation here.

How Product Marketers can Build a Competitive Intelligence Program

A big part of my job at Zoom has to build out a formal competitive intelligence program. I had done competitive work before, but this was my first time building a whole program from scratch. As I usually do, I consulted a few experts. Here are the three experts I spoke to that shared some great ideas that I was able to implement into my program. 

Ken Porter Director Competitive Intelligence at Adaptive Insights
Jason Smith CEO of Klue
Peter Mertens Product Marketing at Sprout Social

Below are a few tips for anyone else getting a program off the ground that I picked up for the people mentioned above and through my own experience.  

1. Have a one stop shop. This could be a wiki or google site, really does not matter, but what matters is consistency. Your company needs to know where to find the latest competitive information. I built a simple google site for our team at Zoom. This saves me a ton of time. Everything I create is on the wiki and everyone knows to look there first before asking me a competitive question.

2. Select your main competitors. Even if your industry is not large or competitive, it helps to focus in on the main competitors. In our industry there are literally 100's of different competitors, but only a handful really matter. It'll be hard to do a good job if you don't focus. Select main competitors you'll be up to speed on and let the team know that they'll be on their own for the rest. As you get more time and resources you can always expand your list, but it will be hard to build a good program if you're stretched to thin from the start.

3. No competitor bashing or feature wars. While a Product Marketer likely won't do this, assets you create can be used to do both. It's important that there is a training/sales enablement element to help the sales team deal with competitors. Otherwise, especially for new reps, it's too easy to go down those paths which will not help your company sell more. 

4. Automate how you stay on top of your competitors. As much as possible, try to make sure relevant information gets pushed to you about your competitors. Here is a list of my favorite methods. 

Google news alerts
Page monitor chrome extension
Klue
Feedly
Wayback machine

5. Other tools that help. Here is another list or tools/products that can help you with your competitive efforts. 

Glassdoor- When checking out the glassdoor of your competitors you might find some nuggets of good intel or at least some FUD. 

3rd Party Review Sites- Sites like G2crowd, TrustRadius and Gartner Peer Insights provide a ton of information on the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors. New reviews are posted all the time. 

PointDrives- If you have LinkedIn Sales Navigator, use PointDrives to create public facing competitive assets. It will let you know who is looking at it and sending a customization web page will help prevent it from getting into the wrong hands. 

Salesforce- A few simple fields asking about which competitors were in the deal will help you do win/loss analysis and figure out where you might be able to help out your company from a competitive perspective. 

6. Tap into your company. Any Product Marketer that thinks they need to know more than anyone else about every competitor is in for a real challenge, but if you leverage the expertise in your company you're much more likely to have a successful program. Find the competitive experts on your sales, support or sales engineering team and build relationships with them. A lot of people like talking shop. Find ways to highlight their expertise to the rest of the company and they'll always be eager to work with you.
 
This is a work in progress, but hopefully give you a few ideas on how to build a competitive intelligence program as a Product Marketer.

Key Skills for Successful Product Marketers

What are the key skills someone needs to be good a Product Marketer? I first asked that question when I was about 18 months into my first job out of college and was ready to figure out what my next role should be. I had started in a web analyst role, but figured out it was not for me. I was drawn to Product Marketing for a variety of reasons and started trying to figure out what it would take. I had the chance to sit down with a dozen or so Product Marketers I had worked with at my company and ask them that question. Fast forward a few years and I've now spent a number of years in Product Marketing and at a few different reputable tech companies. This is my personal take on....what it takes.

1. Strong communicator. This means you must be able to easily communicate in varied situations. You can easily switch your communication style to handle diverse groups like executives, engineers, marketers, designers etc. This includes the ability to be very diplomatic and very persuasive if the situation requires it.

2. Very collaborative. Product Marketers are often the liaison between product and the sales team, support team and maybe other groups. It's your job to make sure everyone is up to speed and the right people are involved. A collaborative mindset is a must!

3. Quick learner. One quarter you may be doing a in-depth research study, the next you might be training the sales team. Few product marketers do the same thing each quarter you must evolve as the business evolves. It's impossible to be a deep expert on all you will be asked to do, so you must learn fast.

4. See what others don't see. This could apply to seeing a feature that needs to be built, that others will need some convincing to make it happen. It might be a gap in the industry you can get your product to fill. It could be an emerging trend that you can use in your marketing. No matter what it is, you must always be looking and willing to make some bets. This includes having decent analytical chops for a marketer.

5. Presentation skills. When I first tried to get into Product Marketing through an internal transfer, I got rejected. The feedback I got was to boost my presentation skills. Product Marketers needs to be able to present in a compelling way. They are master storytellers that can get their ideas across to an executive, on stage in a keynote or to the sales team. If you dread or are a terrible presenter, it might no be the job for you.

I hope this helps, this is very slanted towards B2B software companies in the bay area, but hopefully you've found this helpful.

How to Get a Entry Level Marketing Job

In 2009, I got my first job out of college in marketing for a great tech company in the bay area. Up until the day I started, I thought it could all be some cruel joke. That's how lucky I felt to get a job in a field I was interested in, in that economy. I remember my future manager saying to me, "You'll have to do some menial excel work for the first six months, but I'll teach you a lot." That sounded great to me.

In hindsight, there was some luck involved that got me there, but I also was prepared. Now that I'm further along in the marketing profession, I've seen some patterns in the kinds of candidates who get entry level marketing jobs.

How To Get a Marketing Job from Derek Pando

1. They brand yourself for success. If you want to be a marketer, but you are not representing yourself well online, no one is going to trust you to do it for their company. That means a great LinkedIn profile (of course), privacy settings locked down on your social media accounts and when someone googles your name there is relevant professional content ready.

2. They are more than entry level. Do you know what's better than training someone from scratch....training someone with a head start. Get Google adwords certified, read some books on marketing, learn how to use key marketing software or manage a friend's small business social media account for free. If you're still in school, get a marketing internship. Any relevant experience will make you a more attractive entry level marketing candidate. Make it sure it's on your resume.

3. They focus on specific types of marketing jobs. Can you answer the question, "What kind of marketing jobs are you interested in?". If not, get to work. Research the kind of entry level marketing jobs that are out there. Tailor your resume to the jobs you like the best.

4. They are willing to start from the bottom. Your first marketing job may not be your dream job, but if it's a step in the right direction, that's progress. Lower you expectations and be willing to do a job even if some of it may seem menial, as long as it's pointing you in the right direction.

Best of luck in your job search! If you have any other questions about how to get an entry level marketing job, please feel free to reach out, or comment below!

Book Summary: Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout (Through a technology marketing perspective)

One of my favorite books is The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. In the book, the main character goes on a journey and multiple times along the journey he stops and gets pretty comfortable in a certain location or job, but each time he gets comfortable he eventually proactively abandons the comfort and continues on his journey to achieve bigger and better things.

I really enjoy Product Marketing a lot. I think it’s great fit for my skill set, but I just changed roles to the LinkedIn Sales Solutions Marketing Communications team. I’m following the principles from the Alchemist, abandoning what’s comfortable in an effort to grow and challenge myself. As part of that process, I asked my new manager if she recommend any books to help me in my new role. She recommended the marketing classic Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout. 

Here is a summary, notes and thoughts reading the book. My thoughts from a tech marketing perspective are in italics.

The authors make the point the society is over communicated. It’s harder than ever to change people’s mind, especially through a weak medium like advertising. The book was clearly written before the internet age, so it struck me that if it was a big problem when it was written, it’s a HUGE problem now.

Often, we look to the product for positioning, but in reality we should be thinking about what is already inside the prospect's mind. To succeed in positioning it’s got to be simple and related to what’s already in the customer’s mind or what they believe.

In positioning, there is huge first-mover advantage. In my opinion in technology, it’s not who is first, but the first to critical mass. Apple did not create the smartphone, but were the first to get critical mass. Facebook was not the first social network. Though, you might argue that MySpace had critical mass…..

It’s really hard to displace the leader who holds the number one position in the mind of the consumer. I think this is just as true in technology, it takes a long time or massively disruptive tech. Look at Microsoft. It is still the leader in so many categories, even with often inferior products.

If you’re going to do it, you must relate to the leader. The famous example is from Avis.

Typically, it’s a mistake to challenge the leader head on. Even Google with its almost infinite amount of money and brainpower could not take on Facebook head on with Google+.

Advice for market leaders
-Market leaders should not boast. This makes me think all of the chest pounding that happens after a Gartner Magic Quadrant or Forrester Wave comes out.

-Use a multi-brand strategy for new products. This is easier in a CPG company where the products are not related. At LinkedIn for example, we have products for recruiters, marketers and salespeople all built off the same social network, so it’s much harder to have a completely separate brand because they are all part of the same foundational network.
-Embrace new technologies. Duh.

Advice for followers
-Narrow your appeal. The first company that came to mind was Instagram, they only did pictures and that enabled them to not only compete, but eventually get bought by Facebook.

-Find a hole where you can be first. (Volkswagen “Think small” campaign”

Repositioning the competition
-Make people see the competitor in a different light. Salesforce did this effectively with the no-software campaign. It helped position Oracle as old and slow.

Naming
-Descriptive name is best. Zendesk is an interesting example. Alluding to a happy helpdesk.

-Names that will not limit expansion. The challenges of this I experienced first hand at Salesforce when I was marketing the Service Cloud. Company would say, I don’t need a sales product because of the name Salesforce. In hindsight we should have leaned exclusively on the product name instead of trying to leverage the company’s name.

-For non-product, names hard to oppose. “Clean Air Act”

-Don’t use initials for a name.

-Better to make a new name, then get a free ride on another brand. A brand can only occupy one position. This is challenge for us at LinkedIn.

Lastly, here are a few questions you should think about long and hard if you’re thinking of creating some new positioning.

What to our prospects already believe?

Am I a leader or follower? Be honest…

Where are the positioning gaps in our industry, what could we own?

Enjoy!

Here are two other summaries I found very helpful. One from QuickMBA and the other from Professor Mathur on Slideshare.

What Makes a Great Tech Product Marketer

A few months ago I was working on a product keynote for one of our events. I shared some of my ideas with my manager and the first thing she asked me was "What's the story?". This is not the first time she has asked me that question. In fact, I've noticed a pattern. Whether it's a product launch, an internal business case or a blog post, she pushes me and the rest of our team to incorporate a story into whatever we are doing. In my opinion, the ability to tell a compelling story is something that can make a tech Product Marketer great. This got me thinking about what else makes a great tech Product Marketer. I reached out to some leaders in tech Product Marketing to hear what they think and wanted to share their expertise with all of you. Whether you're a student considering Product Marketing as a career or a Product Marketer right now, I think you'll be inspired by what they have to say.

"A great product marketer is someone who can create a genuine “movement” around their product. Internally, they act as the product’s champion and work tirelessly to understand their market, and nail the product’s messaging, value prop and all other modalities to get stakeholder teams (product, sales, 

leadership) stoked up about going to market. 

Externally, they are the product’s ambassador—helping prospects envision a world where the product can truly make them a better version of themselves, and authentically channeling that success via the customer’s voice." 

Indy Sen, Google

“Product marketers adapt quickly and drive for results amidst ever changing tech organizations and industries. They empathize with the unique needs of their customers and address those needs throughout every stage of the customer journey.”

Kari Ann Sewell- Symantec

"A great product marketer stays close to the customer. Understanding how your customers use your product, learning their pain points, and what more they want from your offering informs great product strategy and marketing."

Corinne Roberts, Campaign Monitor

"A great product marketer is a skilled translator, synthesizer, and story-teller. Her goal in every activity - whether it's working with customers, writing content, or improving sales effectiveness - is to find the point where her product uniquely satisfies a potential customers' specific need. To do that, you must understand your product, your market, and your customers from multiple points of view.

Grant Shirk, Vera

"Great tech product marketers understand how technology can enhance the customer's life. Engineers often fall in love with their "babies" but great tech product marketers have the vision of what features will ultimately matter to the customer. They create the emotional connection between the product and the customer."

Gabriel Jaquier, Dell

"I don't know if I qualify as a great product marketer, but I do have one quality in abundance that I think any great one (tech or otherwise) should possess: Empathy. It's a product marketer's job to practice empathy, and then strategically and continually insert it into the development and GTM processes. This is equally important in cultivating a deep, nuanced understanding of customers and in applying to internal dynamics with eng, design, and product counterparts. Empathy is a key soft skill that will never let a product marketer down. (Word of caution, though: It must often be paired with data!)"

Omar Garriott, Salesforce.org

"We product marketers used to dub ourselves 'mini CEOs' of our products. While lifecycle ownership is indeed pertinent, the best product marketers position themselves as hubs, conduits and conductors. This is the only way to achieve velocity and quality at the same time. Conductors produce beautiful symphonies because they empower each section of the orchestra, not because they try and play every instrument themselves."

Justin Topliff, Infusionsoft

This post was originally published on LinkedIn

How to Make a Great Software Product Keynote

A few months ago I was tasked with putting together our product keynote for LinkedIn's Sales Connect 2015. We had a new head of product we wanted to introduce as well as highlight some brand new functionality. 

Now I must admit, as a marketer, I really like putting together keynote presentations. It's always a challenge, but very rewarding to see your work on stage. Our presentation went well, except for a potentially keynote destroying technical glitch that was overcome by supreme presentation skills by our head of product. If you want the full story on how a knock knock jokes saved the keynote check out this article.

I wish this post was a step by step guide to making a great product keynote, but that would probably be impossible. Instead, you're going to get a list of resources, a few ideas and some inspiring examples to get you going.

Here is what I recommend…. 

First find some inspiration. I searched the internet for keynotes that were awesome. Also, asked our head of product and designer to share keynotes they thought were great. Here are a few we liked. 

F8 2011 Keynote

Tesla Battery Announcement 

Why not Apple keynotes? I think at this point there has been enough talk about Apple keynotes, so I did not spend much time looking at them. 

Think about what you have to work with.  A few questions you should ask yourself.

1. What's the message I want to get across?

2. How much time can I work on this?

3. What resources do I have? (i.e. designer)

4. Who is the audience?

5. What time is it at? What state of mind will the audience be in?

Tell a story. In general, I think you should tell a story right out of the gate as well as make sure there is a strong story line through the entire presentation. The first story could help set up the pain your product is trying to solve. Then another good option is to have a story about the user of your product. Don't show a list of features, but tell a story that shows the features while highlighting what they are trying to accomplish. We attempted this in our keynote that inspired this post. It's by no means a perfect example, but you can see how we tried to weave story into it. 

Make it engaging. 

There are a lot of tricks of the trade, but if your presentation is more than a few minutes, you'll need to make an extra effort to keep the audience engaged. Half way through our presentation we presented some awards to our audience members to keep the energy high. I recommend reading "Your Perfect Presentation" by Bill Hoogterp for more ideas.  Also the own the room training by Blue Planet Training was very helpful in putting together the whole presentation. 

Practice. Practice. Practice. 

If you want it to be perfect, you need to practice it many times. In our keynote after the technical glitch our head of product picked up where he left off without skipping a beat. It was because he had done the entire presentation at least 20 times. 18 of those times was in-front of me, so I was able to provide feedback each time. Nothing gives you confidence like experience. 

I hope this posts gives you a few ideas. If you feel like I missed anything, add it in the comments!

What Does a B2B Technology Product Marketer do?

It depends.

OK, I’m going to help you out a little bit more than that, but I must clarify before you read on that every company does Product Marketing a little bit differently. In fact, within a team or group at LinkedIn Product Marketers can have drastically different responsibilities or priorities than other parts of the company. The best I can do is give you some of the key areas that Product Marketers tend to work on and some of the key tasks. Any of the areas below could be a small or large part of your job, so I recommend clarifying in your interview process. 

Product development.

• Determining if there is a market for a feature or product
• Outlining the product requirements
• Defining the messaging and positioning

Random Strategic Projects

• In my experience random important projects get thrown on the lap of Product Marketers because they are typically strategically minding and work very well cross functionally. 

Segmentation

• Work to understand your audience and customer, then implementing what you learned to improve your sales, marketing and product efforts. 

Market research

• Regular customer satisfaction surveys, like a quarterly NPS study
• One off research for new products, competitive analysis or segmentation of other strategic initiatives. 

Product/features launches

• Play quarterback to organize sales, PR, marketing, product and support for smooth and effective feature or product launches. 

Sales enablement.

• Product training at new hire orientation. 
• Answer the sales team’s product questions on going
• Training the sales team on new products or features as they come out
• Gathering product feedback from the sales team
• Communicating changes or updates to the product to the sales team

Competitive

• Understanding your competitors strengths, weaknesses and how to talk about them. 

Events

• Running or participating in customer events
• Participating in external events as a thought leader for your company or product

Thought leadership

• This could be writing all sorts of content, participating in webinars or being brought in during customer calls. 

From my anecdotal experience, Product Marketers have high job satisfaction. No day is the same. You get to be strategic, creative and analytical. If you think I missed anything, please add it to the comments.

How to Transition into Product Marketing

My first job out of college I was a online marketing web analyst. It was a great first job but after a year and a half I was ready to look for something else. At the company I worked for, internal transfers were encouraged. Naturally, I looked first at the different functions I interacted with every day. After working with Product Marketers, I always thought it seemed like a cool role. The role seemed strategic, analytical and creative. I liked the kinds of people that were in Product Marketing. Eventually, I was able to transition into a Product Marketing role, but it was no easy task. Below are a few tips I learned during my transition and from helping others make the move into Product marketing.

Make the transition at your current company. In my experience, companies are much more willing to bet on an internal employee transitioning into a new role, than an outside hire. It's no secret that recruiters are not incentivized to read between the lines. If you apply for a Product Marketing job at another company, you probably won't make it past the screeners, especially if you have no prior explicit Product Marketing experience.

Get to know every Product Marketer at your company that you can, at all levels. You want to have as many "lines in the water" as possible. Especially in large companies, the more Product Marketers you talk to, the more your name will come up when they are looking for new team members. While I do encourage you to talk to PMM hiring managers, lower level Product Marketer will often have a say in hiring decisions and even more importantly can have the ability to put in a good word that can mean the difference between getting an interview or not.

Succeed at your current job. A hiring manager I know was considering hiring an internal transfer, but after asking around about this person she learned that this person had a reputation of being hard to work with. If your reputation is not stellar or you're underperforming, you will be unsuccessful making the transition into a strategic, in demand role, because the hiring manager will always ask around.

Get your current manager to be your advocate.  This advice will help for trying to transition into any role, but it will go a long way if your manager and further up the chain think you're great and are willing to put in a good word for you.

Connect the dots on your relevant skills. In your resume, interviews, and casual chats with PMM's help them connect the dots on how your experience will help you succeed as a Product Marketer. This might mean highlighting transferable skills, spending more time talking about your work at a previous job or talking about a side project. I helped hire a Product Marketer from our sales team, that connected the dots by wisely positioning her popular food blog as an example of her marketing abilities.

Develop relevant skills. Pick up a side project at work. Help a friend's start up, or launch a blog. If you don't have any of the skills on a Product Marketing job description. Get busy!

Become a product expert. Product Marketers need to understand the product and the needs of the customers. Your position will be much stronger to make the transition if you are an expert in the product.

Be patient. The first time I tried to transition into a Product Marketing role, the hiring manager was a good friend and I was the company's expert on the product. I thought I was a shoo-in, but ended up getting beat out by someone with an MBA and more marketing experience. I was devastated. I almost quit. I called up a mentor and he told me to be patient. Sure enough, a few months later another role opened up and I got the job. Keep at it!

Hope this helps. If you are interested in other ways to get into Product Marketing other than transitioning within your company, check out my other post How to Get a Job in Product Marketing.

How to Get a Job in Product Marketing

My first job out of college was a entry level web analytics role in the online marketing group of Salesforce.com. My coworkers were amazing and the company was growing like crazy, but after a year or so I realized the role was not a great fit for me. I spent a few months shopping different roles all over the company. Through conversations with product marketers, and my own observations, it seemed that product marketing was where I wanted to be. I was drawn to it because you get to be strategic, creative, analytical and work on a variety of projects. After a few failed attempts, I was able to transfer into my dream role in product marketing.

Since I made the switch, I often get asked, "how do you get a job in product marketing?". To those of you that are thinking this might be a good fit for you in the future, I've mapped out a few of the common paths to a career in product marketing that I've observed in Silicon Valley.

Transferring within the company- It's not uncommon to get into product marketing from a different role within the company, just as I did. Most commonly this happens from within the marketing department, but I know several people that have come from roles as diverse as sales and PR.

Here is how David James, Director of Product Marketing at Lithium Technologies did it.

"My career started in the agency world of public relations and advertising. A technology client hired me to come "in-house" as a marketing generalist. Overnight, I traded working alongside creatives, account services and traffic to collaborating with engineers, product managers and database admins. And I loved it. Slowly, I discovered there was a huge need in marketing to tell a compelling story -- but still know the product inside and out. It was the perfect marriage of marketing creativity and technology know-how. 

Bottomline: If you're in product marketing (or want to get there), know your product/service inside and out. Meet with product managers. Become their friends. Have a seat at the PM table and be the voice of the customer." 

Going to business school- Product marketing is a popular post MBA job. Companies like HP, Intel, Adobe, LinkedIn and Google will take product marketing MBA interns for the summer. This can be a great way to get your foot in the door to a career in product marketing. Many of those same companies will often hire product marketing Managers right out of business school, even if they did not intern there.

Here is how Neal Armstrong, Sr. Product Marketing Manager at Symantec did it.

"I came into B-School from the finance industry with almost no marketing experience. To learn more about product marketing I found a class that allowed students to complete projects for local companies to earn class credits. There was a project focused on marketing with Adobe. My credits were already maxed, but I joined the project anyways. Throughout the project I found out more about how vital product marketing was to an organization. I expressed my interest in continuing my work as a summer intern. The Adobe employees I worked with on the project knew I was excited about working with Adobe and they personally recommended me. I had received other internship offers from large tech companies outside of product marketing for the summer. After our final project was presented, the team manager and I sat down and talked. At the end of our discussion, and with other offers in hand, I secured my dream internship and was able to continue my project as MBA Product Marketing intern." 

After some time in consulting- Lots of former consultants end up as Product Marketers, more often than not they had been consulting in a similar industry where they end of working. It's easier to get a product marketing job if you've established some domain expertise your future employer values.

Here is how Elizabeth Maples a Product Marketing Manager at LinkedIn did it.

"I went back to get my MBA a few years ago, but I was one of those “nontraditional” applicants: I’d been working on the editorial side of book publishing, where I spent my time searching for new authors to put under contract, and then working with them to turn an early idea into a physical book (ah, the days of physical books!). Coming out of business school, I knew I eventually wanted to get into (non-physical!) media or technology, but still felt like I needed to build on the strategic and analytical skills I’d learned in school. Consulting was a phenomenal training ground—and gave me the chance to work at a number of big companies in the industry. With that experience, I was much better positioned for PMM positions (and I’m loving it now!).

Pro-tips: If you’re taking the consulting route, try to get on product strategy or marketing-related projects in your desired industry. Also look for places that have a history of hiring consultants into PMM roles; they’re most likely to see the parallels in the skill-set."

These are some of the well worn paths, but there is always the road less traveled by. I would love to hear in the comments some of the other ways people have found their way into Product Marketing.

How To Transition Into A Career In Marketing

A few months ago, a friend introduced me to one of his friends to talk about marketing. He was thinking about transitioning into marketing after working in the public sector on a political campaign. We had a great chat. A couple of days ago he reached back out to let me know he had 4 job offers, two of which were in marketing. I was really curious how he did it, since it's usually pretty tough to transition into marketing, let alone from the public sector. We talked again and I got the details. I then reached out to a few other people I know that have made successful transitions and thought I'd compile the key takeaways from those conversations below. Enjoy! (Disclaimer, this will be heavily slanted towards tech marketing companies and roles)

1. Develop hard marketing skills. My friend with the job offers got Google Analytics certified. He said it was usually the first thing he was asked about in marketing job interviews. Another friend recommended learning how to drive traffic to a site or how to do A/B tests. Check out this blog post or watch the video below from my good friend Wendy Greco to learn how you could team up with a mentor to learn hard analytical skills by helping non-profits.

2. Get out there. Consistently those that successfully transitioned had talked to 15 plus people in marketing to learn about their jobs and get advice. My friend's job offers all came from friends of friends. Leverage the power of your 2nd degree connections on LinkedIn. If you are currently working, talk to as many people in your marketing department as possible. If you can attend, industry conferences are a great way to meet tons of people.

3. Practice marketing on yourself. Great marketers can market themselves. If the 1st page of search results for your name is mostly your 5k run times from 10 years ago, change it. Start a blog to practice your content marketing skills. Don't let any of your social profiles be lame. Here are a bunch of tips on how you can brand yourself online.

4. Do projects on the side to get experience. See if you can do some side projects with the marketing department of your current company. Ask your friend that owns a small business if you can manager their social media presence. Getting any experience will make the world of difference.

5. Focus. Have specific job roles in mind that you are tailoring your experience and resume to fit. Just saying I want a "marketing job" is too vague for other people to really be able to help you.

6. Connect the dots. You need to get a good story down so it makes sense to people why you want to get into marketing. My classmate Luke Ray recommends something like "During my job at X, I realized I cared a lot about the customer and the messaging we were using...."

The most common theme was just start marketing. Good luck in your transition! Please share any other tips that you have found useful in the comments.