How to Hire a Product Marketing Manager?

‍Are you planning to hire a new product marketing manager for your team to take the marketing initiative a step ahead? Do you wish to take the load off your product manager and share the workload of product marketing? 

A product marketing manager is a prevalent role in tech companies, whose primary job is to act as the enabler between marketing, sales, and product development teams. They aim to attract and retain new customers by optimizing the marketing strategy and product onboarding experience. 

But how are they any different from a product manager?  

Product Manager vs. Product Marketing Manager

A product manager handles the entire product life cycle from development, marketing, and sales to expanding the features/ offerings. They prepare a dedicated roadmap to achieve product success.

Contrarily, a product marketing manager handles the marketing aspect by planning and collaborating on marketing strategies for product marketing success. They research and curate a marketing campaign to convey the brand's message to customers. 

A company must create a distinct line between the two to ensure a manageable workload and improved decision-making. Additionally, both managers will be able to invest themselves without any burnout and collaborate effectively. 

But what exactly does a product marketing manager do?

Role Of A Product Marketing Manager 

Product marketing managers focus on business marketing efforts, unlike product managers, who have a broader scope of work. PMM focuses primarily on customer attraction and retention via marketing channels.

What do product marketing managers do? Here are the key responsibilities of a product marketing manager, which will help you define the job role for your company. 

• Understanding the business inside out, including the products/ services, target customers, user personas, bottlenecks, etc. 

• Analyzing the current product strategy to implement a new complimenting product marketing strategy.

• Conducting deep-level research on the industry and competitors. It involves understanding competitor products, how they market their products, what are customer pain points, etc. The aim is to understand the product's position in the market. 

• Developing tools and campaigns for launching and sales enablement. This includes creating strategy and picking marketing channels such as webinars, advertising, PR campaigns, trade shows, etc. 

• Setting OKRs to measure the effectiveness of the marketing and sales efforts. This involves metrics aligned to business goals, such as: 

• MQL/ PQL
• Conversation rate
• Feature adoption 
• Trial to paid user conversation
• New user activation rate 
• Expansion revenue 

• Product positioning and messaging for customers, industry analysts, media, and the public. This involves creating engaging copy for cross-channel digital marketing, marketing brand materials, bottom-of-the-funnel content, and other relevant product-related content. 

• Planning and training the sales and support team by preparing a dedicated curriculum and gathering resources. 

• Onboarding customers through product demos and presentations. This could include optimizing the onboarding experience by A/B testing and leading interactive walkthroughs.

So, a product marketing manager can flip over the entire customer journey and business marketing efforts. They are pivotal to product and marketing teams by being the joining bridge between the two. But how can you get your hands on the perfect product marketing manager for your business?

How To Hire A Product Marketing Manager For Your Company? 

Now, that we have clarity over the role and responsibilities of the product, we have clear expectations from this job role. Recruiters can start the hiring process: sourcing, engaging (interview + networking), and hiring. Here is a 3-step guide to hiring your next product marketing manager. 

Step 1: Sourcing Candidates 

Recruiters spend time curating the perfect JDs or job post ads for job boards. But is that enough? 

The first step in hiring is to source qualified candidates for the role. Instead of relying on traditional methods, such as job boards and referrals, opt for a strategic multi-channel sourcing approach. But what does it mean? 

The multi-channel sourcing approach combines inbound and outbound recruitment strategies to tap and build a larger candidate funnel. Recruiters must expand their sourcing channels to social media, communities, slack job boards, etc. This will give them an edge and strengthen their chances of reaching their desired candidate. 

Does it seem overwhelming to use so many sources with the hassle of tracking the effectiveness of each? 

We at Nurturebox make multi-channel sourcing effortless. With the download of a simple plugin, recruiters can use various sources such as LinkedIn, indeed, or any other website to source the desired candidates quickly. Our tool will take over all admin tasks, such as managing the data, collecting and recording prospects' details, reaching candidates on various platforms, etc. 

However, a multi-channel approach doesn't mean skipping the job boards or any other traditional way. The aim is to increase the sourcing channels and improve the chances of candidate engagement. This calls for a specific job description and consistent communication with the candidates to set clear expectations. 

Here is a template to start with. Remember, a job description is not just about mentioning the roles and responsibilities. It further shares the company journey, vision, expectations, perks, and other relevant information to persuade the most suitable manager. 

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Product Marketing Manager Job Description Template 

XYA Ltd. is looking for a product marketing manager to handle the marketing initiative and team of 20+ marketing professionals. We offer a (product/ service offerings) to (target audience/ clientele base). We have been working with leading companies such as ABC, GHI, LMN, etc. and delivering quality products for over 3 years. 

Responsibilities:

• Managing and training a team of 15 sales rep
• Performing market research to curate the product marketing strategy
• Planning and developing marketing materials and resources 
• Creating customer personas and marketing strategies based on research
• Collaborate with product development, marketing, and sales team to ensure product marketing success 

Requirements & Skills:

• 4+ years of experience in the marketing field
• Bachelors in marketing-related field 
• Strong research and problem-solving skills 
• Ability to lead large teams and train them to achieve marketing success
• Excellent communication skills to collaborate and curate marketing message  

Ps:- In addition, you can include perks, experience requirements and salary expectations.

Step 2: Interviewing Candidates 

Once you have a pool of qualified candidates, you must assess their capabilities. This can include interviews, assessment tests, group discussion rounds, aptitude tests, etc. The tests will vary on the job role, and the business needs to find the perfect fit for the company. Here are a few sample questions you might want to ask when hiring a product marketing manager:

• What kind of results can be generated with product marketing? 
• What are KPIs critical to measuring product marketing success? 
• How do you collaborate with the employees? 
• How do you keep big teams aligned during a big cross-functional project? 
• How do you encourage participation and resolve conflicts, if any? 
• Could you elaborate on a recent product marketing campaign you worked on? What were the shortcomings, and how did you manage them? 
• How will you communicate a price rise in a marketing campaign message? 
• How do you ensure product engagement? 
• How do you leverage digital marketing for lead generation?
• How do you analyze complex data? When was the last time you had to deal with complex data & how did you draw conclusions?
• What attracted you to our product? What will be your short-term goal upon joining our team? 
• Who do you consider our audience & how do you plan to attract them?
• What are some of the loopholes in our existing product marketing campaigns, and how will you fix them?

This is a partial list of questions. You can analyze the job role requirements and ask questions accordingly. 

Step 3: Hiring and Onboarding Candidates 

The final step after sourcing and engaging (plus interviewing) is selecting the right candidate for the job. The recruiter must evaluate the skill fit, team fit, and long-term relationship and results. 

But what does a recruiter look for in a product marketing manager? What are the key skills of a product marketing manager? Here is a checklist of PMM skills required. 

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• Conceptual ability
• Collaborative skills
• Project management 
• Goal setting 
• Creativity 
• Customer focus
• Product Orientation
• Data analysis
• Analytical 
• Communication skills 
• Storytelling
• Empathy
• Research & Analytics
• Problem-solving
• Marketing skills 
• Advocacy 
• Copywriting 

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Once you have selected the product marketing manager, you onboard them to join the team. The first step is clearly defining and conveying the responsibility to avoid overlap with the product manager. Discuss the scope of work, and specify the task ownership to mitigate work overload or confusion. 

Discuss the quarterly goals to get kick-started. Familiarise them with the workflows for collaboration and smooth functioning. Offer a complete product tour better to understand the product/ service offerings and business goals. This is achievable via dedicated resources or a 1:1 discussion with the product manager.  

Onboarding is critical for product marketing managers to give them a robust head start.  Communicate all the vital information, including business goals, to see visible desired results. 

Effortlessly Hire Your Next Product Marketer With Nurturebox

Want to make your hiring experience smooth? Here are 5 skills to look for when hiring your next product marketing manager: 

• Strategic Skills- Can they strategize the marketing efforts?

• Collaboration Evidence- Can they collaborate efficiently with the team? Do they fit well in the company culture?

• Quantitative Skills- Can they quantify the results and analyze the big data to measure effectiveness with numbers? 

• Qualitative Skills- Do they fulfill the soft skill requirements such as problem-solving, empathy, advocacy, etc.? 

• Industry Fit- Do they have experience and grasp over the marketing industry along with expertise in dealing with products/services like yours? 

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In addition to assessing the PMM, the company must spend sufficient time sourcing qualified candidates. A multi-channel approach will be your ultimate solution for effortlessly capturing top talent. Need help? 

Download our plugin to automate and scale your hiring within minutes. You can download the Nurturebox plugin to integrate with your HR tech stack and seamlessly build a more substantial talent pipeline. Get away with all the admin tasks and focus on what's important!