How do you establish an ideal SaaS Product Marketing Team structure? There isn’t a “one-size-fits-all” solution. Depending on the size of your company or stage and your goals in marketing, there are many methods to achieve them.
Let’s look at some suggestions and tricks to build your ideal team.
What is a product marketing organization structure take on?
The structure of a product’s marketing organization is different from one organization to the next. If you’re part of a small marketing team, typically the head of the department’s department oversees two or three product marketers.
If there are a lot of product marketers in this team, they may be assigned more general duties instead of being specialized in a particular area.
The benefits of having a marketing team
Imagine trying to manage every marketing task in a random manner. It’s chaos, like herding cats. The work could be duplicated, and goals might not be achieved.
Here are a few benefits of having a structured product marketing team
1. Teams are aligned with the #1
For an enjoyable plan experience when you launch a new product or feature that is new, everyone from marketing to sales needs to be aware of the latest developments. This includes:
- Product marketers need to be aware of what they can include in their messaging and positioning.
- Sales representatives need up-to-date information to promote the latest product or feature.
- Customer service must be able to respond to any questions that customers may ask.
If everyone is on the same page and in the same place, you’ll have a successful product launch or new feature launch.
2. Effective strategy
A solid product marketing team can work together to devise and implement a sound plan for the launch of a new product or feature. This requires working in tandem with sales, customer service, and the team to design product materials, training materials, and other resources that showcase your product in the best possible image.
The responsibilities of the team responsible for marketing products
Marketing for products bridges the divide between the development of products and sales & Marketing, mostly to launch, position, and advertise products to the desired public. Here are 10 essential responsibilities of a marketing team:
1. Market Research and Customer Insights:
- Conduct market research to find risks and opportunities.
- Create buyer personas based on psychographic, demographic, as well as insight into behavior.
- Conduct competitor analysis to determine areas of opportunity and gaps.
2. Product positioning and messaging:
- Create compelling content that distinguishes the product from the competition.
- Design the product’s unique position and value proposition.
3. Go-to-Market (GTM) Strategy:
- Create and implement the launch of your product.
- Collaborate with marketing, sales, and product teams to come up with an integrated GTM strategy.
- Determine the target segments you want to target and then develop strategies to get these segments into your business.
4. Content Development:
- Create collateral such as brochures, white papers, data sheets, case studies, and many more.
- Collaborate with the Content team to develop blog posts, as well as videos and other educational content.
5 Sales Enablement:
- Give sales representatives the education and tools they require to market the product efficiently.
- Create sales scripts, presentation decks, and objection-handling strategies.
6 Cross-functional Collaboration:
- In collaboration with the development team, we need to agree on the benefits and features of the product.
- Work with the customer success teams to collect feedback from customers and solve their issues.
7 Packaging and Pricing:
Research pricing and establish pricing strategies.
- Create bundles or product packages to increase revenue.
8 Product Adoption
- Monitor product adoption rates.
- Create strategies to increase the number of people who are enrolled and decrease the rate of churn.
9 Feedback Loop:
- Create channels to collect feedback from support staff, sales, and customers.
- Feedback from this survey should be passed on to the team working on product development for improvements to the product.
10. Performance Metrics:
- Analyze and track metrics related to sales, usage, or market share.
- Modify strategies based on performance data to maximize outcomes.
Roles of the Product Marketing Team and Structure
This structure of teams is just an illustration. In actuality, the SaaS firm’s marketing department could have more specific roles or roles that could be combined, based on the needs of the company and resources.
Director of Product Marketing: The Director of Product Marketing sets the direction for the team responsible for product marketing and interacts with the other divisions (like sales, e-sourcing, as well as product management and customer satisfaction) and ensures that the departments are on track with the overall objectives of the company.
PMM: Product Marketing Manager (PMM) The job of the PMM is to know the product’s market, potential customers, as well as the competition landscape. The PMM creates the product’s message and positioning, and collaborates with other teams to develop the go-to-market strategy.
The Product Marketing Operations: Manager manages the tools, technologies, as well as processes the marketing team employs. They aid in data analysis reports, data analysis, and other needs of operational needs.
Researcher: Conducts interviews with customer surveys, interviews, and other types of research to collect information on market trends or pain points, as well as opinions.
Content Strategist: Develops and manages content that reflects the positioning of the product, product posts, emails, vivideosand social media posts. They make sure that the content is relevant to the audience they are targeting and conveys the company’s message effectively.
The Go-to-Market (GTM) specialist: Concentrates on developing campaigns to promote and launch the product’s benefits to the targeted market. They collaborate with customers, sales, along other groups to guarantee a smooth launch and continued expansion.
Product Analyst: Examines information in relation to the use of products and adoption, as well as market trends. Their analysis can help guide product development, marketing strategies, product development, and even content creation. They may also collaborate with the product researcher.
How do you create the ideal product marketing team
When you are deciding on your team’s dimensions and organization, the following 2 factors should guide your decision:
Growth Stage
The early-stage startups that do not have the money to pay for big salaries can hire an all-purpose product marketer who wears a variety of different hats. They are usually members of the product team and assist in their development with their observations.
If you are looking to hire immediately, consider hiring internally. Think about candidates who have an excellent understanding of your product as well as its clients. This includes sales or customer satisfaction, or even marketing will be a great fit right from the beginning.
If you can earn $5 million ARR or more, it is possible to establish a 5 to 6-man product marketing team. The $20m ARR companies typically comprise 12 or more.
Sales Approach
If you opt for an approach that is sales-led, the chances are that your sales team will be around two times the size of the product marketing team. However, if you decide to go with the PLG method, ensure a substantial product marketing team to allow each position to be specialized in a particular field to achieve the best performance.
Now, you can arrange your marketing team for your product according to one of the following factors:
1. Integration
Some businesses divide the marketing departments into positioning and messaging, the launch of products, as well as sales enablement. However, you shouldn’t segregate these vital aspects and limit your growth.
A Pro-tip: The ideal method of getting the most value from your group is to bring the four departments. So, you’re operating as a unit and not only according to the function.
2. Segment
If you plan your organization according to segmentation, you can divide the team according to different kinds of people or types of customers. This allows the product marketing team to work together with sales. However, it can get difficult when we have information that applies to all segments. It’s hard to decide who’s responsible for the issue when it falls under various segments.
3. Objective
Instead of everyone adhering to the same concept or goal, consider changing the order of things based on what you are trying to achieve.
For instance, if you’re looking to improve brand recognition, you can bring together a group of people to focus on this. If you’re planning to launch a product, you can form the right team.
Remember, this is a serious task that requires coordination. It is essential to ensure that everyone understands what’s happening and who’s involved. It’s a bit of a challenge, however, getting the most effective results is worth it.
Wrap Up
A well-organized marketing and product team can not only help you save money, but also precious time that can be used to increase the expansion of your business. It’s not necessary to ask what you should do to establish your team, no matter if you’re starting from scratch or growing.
This guide has everything that you require to be aware of about the various roles and sizes required to reach your goals, even if they’re in the future.
