On this Keepin’ it 100, Trinity is joined by Kate Donahue, Head of Product Marketing at Pitch, an app to help teams build presentations collaboratively, effectively, and beautifully.
“Getting in the heads of your users is by far the most important thing you can do at a product-led company.”
Kate logged hundreds of hours interviewing their customers for feedback while preparing for Pitch’s beta launch. You only have one chance to make an impression, so tune in to learn how to understand your customer’s needs.
Kate’s career started in PR and content marketing, where she spent more than a decade working for agencies and SaaS companies before transitioning to product marketing. Or, in Kate's words: "When I was 14 I earned my monthly allowance by reviewing my dad's words and suggesting new ones. I basically still do that."
Trinity: Welcome to the First 100 Days, a show for revenue practitioners by revenue practitioners, giving you unscripted access and exclusive resources to help you navigate any new transition or initiative. I'm your host, Trinity Nguyen from User Jams. Kate Donahue is Head of Product Marketing at Pitch. In case you missed it, we released an interview with Kate last week about her first 100 days of launching Pitch product. If you are searching for how to create a successful marketing foundation for product-led growth, check out that episode. But today's episode though, Kate shared some tips for marketers considering switching their roles. Kate's career started in PR and content marketing where she spent more than a decade working for agencies and SaaS companies before transitioning to product marketing.
What is Kate's advice for anyone looking to make a similar career shift? Check it out.
Kate: The big thing is thinking more strategically, understanding the value proposition. Like, if you can start internally and make the switch, that's probably the easiest. But if you understand how people discover and start adopting new software and what that path looks like to purchase, who are the people involved, starting to get familiar with sales teams, product marketing teams, if they exist within your organization, being able to show that you can think more strategically and understand the full impact is a prerequisite, for sure. I think more and more obviously content is such an important part of the discovery of new products, of education, of software. They think content marketers are probably primed to make the switch more easily than other people within the marketing organization, that you really need to show that you can think holistically about how you're getting people to be from leads to qualified users, to customers, what that journey looks like and understanding how stories can support that.
But like also the, just the different types of collateral or materials needed to get somebody to go from like anonymous user to happy customer, to hopefully like evangelist.
Trinity: Do you have any tips or words of encouragement that you can share with our audience in this case, sales marketers in CSM.
Kate: Some of the key points is just sitting with customers, really being good about the documentation. It's one of those things that pays dividends later on. The more complete you can be, the more searchable you can make things, just being as customer obsessed, as customer focused as possible will really reflect in the other things – the conversations you have with other people, the way you think about growth opportunities, about audience segmentation. Just getting in the heads of your users is, I think, by far, the most important thing you can do at a product-led company.
Trinity: Do you have a note of encouragement or insights to share? Email me and we'll get you on the show at podcast@userjems.com. Thanks for listening.
