We tell you about the profession of product marketing manager – product marketer: what the specialist does, how much he earns and what knowledge and skills are needed to become one.
Who is a product marketer?
Product Marketer Responsibilities
How PMM differs from a product manager and a marketer
What a product marketer should know and be able to do
How much does a PMM earn?
How to Become a Product Marketer
Expert advice
Who is a product marketer?
Table of Contents
A product marketer (from the English Product Marketing Manager, RMM) is engaged in team search, development, promotion and growth of the product. This is a profession at the intersection of three areas: product, marketing and sales. Product marketers are especially in demand in the IT, media, education and manufacturing sectors.
Previously, RMM tasks were performed by a marketer, product manager, and sales manager. Specialists could manage several projects simultaneously: because of this, they did not delve deeply enough into the projects, the workload was high, and the areas of responsibility were blurred.
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Product Marketer Responsibilities
Such a specialist is engaged in attracting customers’ attention to the product. Let’s take the AARRR framework as an example, which includes five stages of the sales funnel:
1. Acquisition,
2. Activation,
3. Retention,
4. Referral,
5. Revenue.
In this funnel, the Product Marketing Manager typically focuses on the first three stages: acquisition, activation, and retention.
Typically, the PMM’s responsibilities include:
1. Market and audience research
Necessary for competent positioning and development of the product. For research, a product marketer can use, for example, Customer Development – in-depth interviews with users or Jobs-to-be-done – an analysis of customer tasks that the product should solve. The data obtained complements the marketing strategy .
2. Developing a positioning strategy
It describes how to clearly convey the value of the product to the target audience, attract customers and differentiate from competitors. The PMM can be fully responsible for developing the strategy or participate in the process together with the marketing director.
3. Interaction with developers
The product marketer does not do development themselves, but actively collaborates with the team.
4. Promotion analytics
The task of a product marketing manager is to collect and evaluate the results of advertising campaigns, analyze sales dynamics and suggest ways to increase them.
5. Collecting feedback
Based on user experience research, the specialist forms hypotheses for improving the product and presents them to the product department.
A product marketer may be more involved in some areas than others, depending on the processes in a particular business. For example, in one company, a product marketing manager may be primarily involved in market research and target audience needs, while in another, they may be involved in product positioning.
You can learn how to research the market, audience, and consumer feedback, as well as build a positioning strategy and analyze its results on the course “Product Marketer”. In five months, students master a new profession and collect a portfolio of projects that will be useful when looking for a job.
How PMM differs from a product manager and a marketer
The product manager is directly responsible for the product and manages it within the company. He or she works on defining the functional requirements for the product, planning its development, coordinating the work of the development and testing team.
A marketer promotes a project on the market and is responsible for the financial result. He or she creates a brand image, creates a strategy and monitors its implementation: selects online and offline promotion channels, creates creatives, launches and analyzes advertising campaigns.
A product marketer accompanies the product throughout its entire journey, and is also responsible for product positioning, developing marketing strategies, analyzing competitors and target audiences, participating in product development and offering ideas for its improvement based on market and consumer research. They can also influence the profitability of the product by analyzing sales dynamics.
What a product marketer should know and be able to do
For the profession of product marketing manager, both professional skills (hard skills) and personal qualities (soft skills) are important, since the specialist works a lot with the team and stakeholders .
Hard skills
Soft skills
Marketing and product metrics analytics
Ability to identify key metrics that will allow you to monitor product implementation. For example, CAC — Customer Acquisition Cost, the cost of attracting a customer, and LTV — Lifetime Value, the lifetime value of a customer, CR — conversion rate, conversion within the product, Retention — retention, or Churn rate — customer churn rate.
Working with research
Ability to assess how profitable it is for a company to conduct a particular study. For example, UX testing is an assessment of user experience, BHT (Brand health tracking) is an analysis of a brand’s position on the market, and NPS (Net Promoter Score) is an assessment of customers’ desire to recommend a product. Marketing tools. For example, Google Analytics and Yandex Metrics, Yandex Direct, Google Ads , and others.
Product tools
For example: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for the frontend, Python for the backend, Swift and Objective-C for mobile development for iOS, and Java and Kotlin for Android. You don’t need to understand the code, but a product marketer should understand how these technologies are used in development and how they affect the product.
Systematic work with hypotheses
For example, knowledge of the ICE Scoring methodology, where hypotheses are assessed in three directions: impact on the goal, belief in the result, and ease of implementation. Or the Kano model, in which hypotheses are divided into three categories: mandatory, new functions, and performance functions.
Understanding of business metrics
Ability to calculate project economics, know what marginality is and how it differs from profit. Skill in drawing up a PNL (Profit and Loss) report.
Project and team management
Organization, analysis and improvement of team work. Knowledge of development methodologies, such as Agile and Waterfall . Knowledge of services for teamwork: Trello, Asana and others.
Independence
Necessary for immersion in the product and analytics. Systematic approach. Necessary when working with research and when developing a positioning strategy.
Leadership
A quality required to promote ideas for improving a product.
Interaction with stakeholders
Ability to negotiate with management and defend one’s point of view.
Responsibility for the result
One of the frequent requirements of employers is to work not on the process, but on the result.
Communication skills
RMM has to communicate a lot and find a common language with different people: from a developer to a business owner.
Striving for development
Studying new technologies of development, marketing and sales in order to keep up with the market and competitors.
How much does a PMM earn?
According to DREAM JOB, the median salary of product marketers in the first half of 2024 was 120 thousand rubles per month, and the maximum salary can reach 277 thousand rubles per month.
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How to Become a Product Marketer
There are three main paths you can take into the profession:
1. Get a higher education
For example, you can complete a master’s degree in Product Marketing and Analytics at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation or a master’s degree in Digital Product Management at the National Research University Higher School of Economics .
2. Take online training
Suitable for those who already have some experience in marketing or product management. Marketers, traffic managers, product managers, and even developers master the profession in the Practical Course “Product Marketer”
. 3. Self-education
Theoretical knowledge can be gleaned from articles – for example, from the Practical Course blog on marketing , product development strategy , sales – and books, for example: “Product Marketing for Love. How to Create and Promote Best-Selling Products” by Martina Lauchenkko, “How to Create a Product That Will Be Loved” by Scott Herf.
