Looking to drive demand in the B2B world? You’ll need a strong Product Marketer.

Product-led growth is a major business strategy across the B2B world today. Instead of requiring potential customers to chat with a sales rep, a lot of teams are letting their software do the talking. 

If you’ve ever signed up for a freemium version of Calendly, Slack, or Dropbox, you’re familiar with this growth tool. But to do product-led marketing and growth well, a software startup needs a strong product marketing team, says Atlanta-based Judson Phillips.

Not to be confused with product management or marketing roles, product marketing is best thought of as the “connective tissue” bringing together sales, marketing, and product to build out a strong go-to-market strategy. The role can be easily overlooked at small or scaling startups, since teams might erroneously believe that role can be filled by a product team or marketing managers. But not having a strong product marketing strategy in place can create missed opportunities for businesses, says Phillips. 

“[Product-led growth teams] don’t necessarily require a ton of sales resources, but the product marketing behind them has to be on point. There’s so many avenues that a buyer can look at to find resources now and get information about a product. So [a B2B team’s] positioning and messaging about the product has to be consistent,” Phillips told Hypepotamus. In fact, B2B buyers conduct an average of 12 searches before ever jumping on a specific brand’s site, making consistent product messaging crucial for any software company to stand out.

 

A Focus on Product Marketing

Finding talent in the product marketing space is tricky. It requires someone who can work with executives on company-wide goals and metrics, work with product teams to understand technical requirements, and also work with customers and sales teams. 

That’s why Arketi, a B2B PR and digital marketing firm in Atlanta, recently expanded its offerings to include product marketing. Phillips, who has more than 20 years of B2B marketing experience, will lead the charge. 

Before joining Arketi, Phillips served as the VP of Marketing for BioIQ, an Atlanta-based HealthTech startup acquired by LetsGetChecked in May 2022. He decided to move to the agency side after working with the Arketi team on multiple projects over the years and recognizing how valuable product marketing is for scaling startups. 

Phillips said Arketi helps clients with their product marketing needs from “strategy to execution.” That means helping clients execute go-to-market programs, strengthen product positioning, quantify a products’ ROI, and engage brand champions to advocate for the product.

For those looking to better understand product marketing as a whole, Arketi has published some good links on their site. You’ll want to check out why Arketi believes product marketing is a big trend for 2023 and also a recent Q&A series all about common product marketing challenges businesses face.