Marketing’s Role in Building Digital Products and What it Means for Rethinking Brand Experiences

Join Martina at the University of Wisconsin-Madison E-Business Consortium (UWEBC) 2022 Conference. With unique, role-based learning tracks, The UWEBC Conference allows e-business professionals to learn about topics relevant to them, with both in-person and virtual access available. Martina will be speaking as part of the Marketing Track on marketing’s role in building digital products and what it means for rethinking brand experiences.

So many companies are in the midst of digital transformation, working hard to become “product-led” despite much of the rest of the company–in particular marketing–operating the same way. Why is it important for marketing to have a seat at the table as decisions about what gets built are made? Where can marketing add value so digital products extend the brand experience and don’t just add yet another app to customers’ lives?

Key session takeaways:

• The importance of marketing thinking in developing digital products

• What being “product-led” really means and the gotchas marketers should watch for

• How to partner better with agile, digital product teams

How to Lead an Inspired Career

Martina joined Voices of Product Marketing hosts Brian Lee and Yi Lin Pei to share how her background as a multiracial woman shaped her and how we can all lead a career that is fulfilling and courageous, no matter where we are in our career journey.

How to Navigate Early Stage Startup Marketing

Startup success is about building a great product, right? Martina joins Main Sequence to decode some common myths about product and the go-to-market truths so essential for startup success. Don't assume the market gets why you matter or that it's clear why your product is valuable. Are you saying a catchy tagline or is what you're saying clear to who you're trying to reach?

Relating stories from real companies and her own experience as a marketing and product leader, Martina will cover the key fundamentals every startup needs to get right to build a strong marketing foundation. The event will end with an open Q&A, and is a great opportunity to ask your marketing questions directly to an expert.

How to Improve Product Marketing

Martina led a private product marketing workshop for the 2022 cohort of the Blue Startups Accelerator Program. To learn more about Martina’s public workshops on product marketing, click the button below.

Designing Products that are LOVED

Martina joined Language of Leadership host Mike Hauge to discuss leadership on product marketing teams.

The Voice of the Customer in Discovering Markets, Developing Products

Martina teamed up with Ascendo AI CEO Karpagam Narayanan for an exclusive discussion on the voice of the customer in discovering markets and developing products.

Product teams are always looking for ways to get the emerging trends and the top-of-mind issues affecting customer satisfaction.

• How important is this customer behavior?

• What are the ways to learn about customer behavior?

To know the answers, watch recording of this Ascendo AI Experience Dialogue on the voice of the customer in discovering markets and developing products. You will gain insight into how Martina utilizes customer behavior in the creation and marketing of products customers love.

Getting Customers to LOVE your Product with Great Product Marketing 

Martina joined host Jason Knight of the One Knight in Product podcast for a discussion about:

• Why she wanted to write a book to help early stage founders and product managers understand how to market their products to make sure they make a difference

• How most tech companies are getting their marketing wrong, what it looks like when they do, and what they should be doing instead

• The problems companies can have using traditional marketing approaches led by traditional market folks, and how any initial successes inevitably fade out

• Whether you need to go all in and drink the Product Marketing Kool Aid or can iterate your way to product marketing success

• Some of the traits of a good product marketer, how they are similar to product managers, whether you need specialised product marketers or it's just a mindset issue

• How soon you need product marketers and whether there's value in fractional roles helping you out when you're early

• Top tips for product managers who want to work effectively with their product marketing team, and treat them as equal partners in their product success

Product Marketing’s Essential Purpose

In today’s world, building a great product isn’t enough. You have to master your go-to-market strategy by telling a story that will leave a lasting impression on your audience. Martina discusses the essential purpose of product marketing as part of Better Product’s Unlock Product Marketing series.

Speaking with guest hosts Tina Hafer and Leanna Adeola, she explores how her career start as a product manager equipped her with the product curiosity and technical competence needed to thrive when marketing digital products. She shows us today how to think about product marketing as the discipline it is and how companies should be leveraging it if they want their product to be recognized and adopted.

Takeaways:

• Product marketing tells the world why your product matters and why it’s distinct from something similar.

• Product marketers must be genuinely interested in what products do and why the product exists to make it meaningful for the market.

Rethink Marketing Tech Products: A Coffee Chat

Martina sat down with Product Coffee for a conversation about how she sees the world's top technology companies approaching product marketing in ways that deliver value and create passion among their customers.

They talked about:

• How Product Managers, Product Marketers and Sales Teams partner at best in class companies to connect their customers to their products

• What types of people excel as Product Marketers, and who should think about taking on this role?

• Discovering and rediscovering "Product/Market Fit"

Rethinking Marketing for Tech Products

Zach LaGreca and Kevin Gentry of the Product Coffee Podcast talked to Martina about Product Marketing and how Product Managers can leverage its power to build amazing tech products.

Strategic Marketing of Tech Products

Building a great product is only half the battle. Strong product marketing helps direct how the product gets to market and tells a compelling story about why people need it now. It’s a unique discipline that sits at the intersection of pure marketing and product, and it’s helping break down silos between the two. Martina joins People of Product hosts George Brooks and Dan Linhart to talk the fundamentals of product marketing and how to apply them.

3 Myths of Product

Gone are the days of “build it, and they will come.” Every product builder must be more market-forward from day one; it’s simply the reality of how crowded every software category is. Learn the three biggest myths of product, their go-to-market realities, and what you can do about them.

Martina’s closing keynote from the Mind the Product SF+Americas 2022 Conference can be accessed in the conference video library with a Mind the Product membership using the button below.

Rethink marketing for tech products

Great tech products don’t always win. Why? They get beaten by great product marketing. Martina joins Red-id’s Orit Zetouni Sade to discuss the four fundamentals of product marketing and how to do each better.

In this video we will cover:

• The centrality of product marketing to any product’s success

• The key skills and actions required to do it well

• The four fundamentals of product marketing and how to apply them

• How to hire, lead, and organize product marketing

• How product marketers optimize crucial collaboration with other functions

• One-sheet frameworks, tools, and agile marketing practices that help simplify and elevate product marketing

Martina explains how companies like Apple, Netflix, Microsoft, and Salesforce win using product marketing and how to apply it to transform product marketing at your company.

From Functional to Strategic

If you are a functional or technical specialist who is wondering what it takes to get promoted to the next level, this is the episode for you. What keeps you from getting the roles you think you deserve? How do you become more strategic? How do you think about collaborating across boundaries? Martina joined Out of the Comfort Zone host Wanda Wallace to discuss how she did it.

Martina spoke at the RELX Virtual Product Meetup on “The Marriage of Product & Product Marketing: Getting the Best from Both.”

LOVED, Lessons, Modern Marketing Leadership

Martina joined host Jeff Frick at Turn the Lens for a far ranging discussion where she shared her insight on some core marketing concepts like framing, story telling, product market fit, pricing, packaging, and bundling.

What Product Marketing Really Is & How to Do It Better

Product marketing is the difference maker in companies that surpass their peers, yet most people don't really know what it is or how to do it well. Martina joined host Dan Olsen via Zoom as the featured guest at Lean Product Meetup to share advice from her new book LOVED about what product marketing really is.

During the event, Martina taught the four fundamental principles that guide strong product marketing and also shared essential tips on how to do them better. She described how to work productively with any product marketing counterpart and what you can do better right now.

After Martina's talk, she and Dan had a fireside chat, followed by audience Q&A.

Good to great product marketing: The four essentials that get you there

Martina joined Notion Capital host Claire Walker to discuss the critical function of product marketing for any high growth SaaS business.

Podcast Episode Highlights:

• Product marketing is all about strategy, delivering what the company needs to connect their market with their product.

• 2021 is the year to double down on positioning.

• Listen to your customers and how they talk about you.

• How product marketing evolves at every stage of the company lifecycle: startup, grow up and scale up.