Product marketers are business people who position what their company supplies (the product) in terms of what their target customer demands (the market). One geometrical shape I’ve found helpful for this mission is that of the funnel, itself an abstraction of the customer journey.
Below is a view of said funnel, with key activities, metrics, and other words (generated using the combined power of my intelligence with another very patient, very dogged form of intelligence.)
Product Marketing must be "full funnel"
As a product marketer, the customer journey is your responsibility. Yes, the whole thing, from initial awareness to purchase and advocacy.
The marketing funnel (or purchase funnel) is a useful visual way to collapse the customer journey into discrete stages.
Your responsibility is to understand which parts of the funnel are working well, where potential customers are getting lost, and how to get them from "never heard of it" to "can't live without it."
The Funnel at a Glance
Awareness
Building visibility and establishing market presence through accessible (read: entertaining) content and thought leadership
Interest
Deepening engagement through higher-calorie educational content and value demonstration
Consideration
Structuring productive conversations with narrative and a consistent message (read: slides)
Decision
Supporting choice through concrete value demonstration and implementation planning
Purchase & Advocacy
Fostering success and building lasting partnerships
Stage-by-Stage Analysis
Awareness Stage
Key Metrics
- Website traffic
- Content reach and virality
- Aided vs. unaided brand awareness
Key Activities
- Comparative channel analysis
- Making great content
- Target audience research
Interest Stage
Key Metrics
- Sales qualification ratio (Leads/Opptys)
- Content engagement rate
- Influenced pipeline
Key Activities
- Writing clear positioning docs
- Still making great content, ideally omnichannel
- Competitive benchmarking
Consideration Stage
Key Metrics
- Asset utilization
- Demo request rate
- Technical win rate (technical validation)
Key Activities
- Makin' slides: first call decks, product and story pages
- Product demo development
- Training GTM teams (Sales + CS)
Decision Stage
Key Metrics
- Win rate
- Deal velocity
- ARPU (average revenue per unit)
Key Activities
- Win-loss analysis
- ROI model development
- Pricing and packaging analysis
Purchase & Advocacy Stage
Key Metrics
- Product adoption depth (time and depth)
- Customer satisfaction
- Churn rate
Key Activities
- Onboarding / product "first mile" optimization
- Customer success stories
- Product feedback loops