How individual contributors can navigate product marketing at the enterprise level

Product Marketing
Written By Raechel Lambert

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This article is all about that big company energy: what it takes to drive impact at the enterprise level. Here at Olivine, we’ve been lucky enough to work with over 50 companies ranging from pre-seed startups to Fortune 500 enterprises. 

Some of the big names we’ve worked with:

(Plus some we can’t mention yet. We haven’t gotten around to case studies for all of these clients — what’s the saying? Oh yeah, the cobbler has no shoes.)

Because our team shares insights with each other and we work with multiple clients each year, the velocity of learning is high, perhaps higher than with a typical in-house employee. So we pooled our learnings and even tapped into some of our trusted network to share what it’s like to get things done at big companies, despite lots of red tape.

TL;DR: 6 Lessons learned working in product marketing at big companies

  1. Put work out, even if you get a strong reaction. Progress over perfection. Internal alignment is built incrementally.

  2. Launches require working at three levels: company strategy, project management, and detailed IC work for messaging.

  3. Helping others know what your team is up to is key to making an impact. But it has to be lightweight.

  4. Rather than continuously creating more content, prioritize, improve, and delete. Simplicity beats over-information.

  5. The closer you play to the edge with your copy and creative, the better the chance something interesting might leave the room.

  6. Data trumps opinions. This means getting out of the office and taking your new message to the streets.

“Put work out, even if you get a strong reaction. Progress over perfection. Internal alignment is built incrementally.”
— Arielle Shnaidman, Director of Product Marketing at Olivine

I’ve worked with a number of large companies and they get big in one of two ways: they’ve either been at it for a long time building products and solutions, or they’ve taken the balance sheet growth route by making several acquisitions. What gets tricky with the latter is the more you buy, the more complex bringing everything together becomes.

You need buy-in to get things done. But getting that buy-in gets hard when everyone is busy with their own team’s priorities or siloed within their own products/solutions. Many will say “process is the way.” What that typically means: a list of checkboxes that often create more (and unproductive) opportunities for disagreement that prevent people from getting on the same page and shipping.

For the people in the back: process does not equal internal alignment. 

A lot of people have different ways of talking about products, solutions, and value. That becomes more obvious once someone finally puts it to paper. A lack of alignment is best solved by putting something out there and getting a reaction. Don’t hem and haw forever collecting inputs. Sometimes people don’t pay attention until they see something they don’t like.

Not everyone is going to get their place at the table — not all products will be equally emphasized. And that’s OK. Progress over perfection. Big companies can be so afraid to get it wrong or to ruffle feathers, which gets in the way of progress and shipping.

“Launches require working at three levels: company strategy, project management, and detailed IC work for messaging.”
— Michael Greene, Product Marketing Lead at Olivine

Product Marketers are always operating at many different levels, but especially during high-value launches. In most cases, Product Marketing is in charge of

  • Leading the entire GTM team

  • Ensuring each and every GTM initiative is on time and unblocked

  • Informing the product team of GTM changes and the GTM team of product updates

  • Helping the team change course when leadership announces changes

  • Creating messaging and positioning 

  • Reviewing and editing content to ensure it aligns with messaging

  • Competitive research and intelligence

  • Sales enablement content

At big companies, this translates to not just a lot of work but a lot of project management. A ton of meetings are needed to keep everyone on the same page and rowing in the same direction. It also means Product Marketers aren’t left with a lot of time to do core strategic projects like competitive intelligence, positioning, market research, etc. 

The key here is to have empathy for the increased workload and the hidden costs associated with project management work that comes along with big launches. Look to free them up as much as possible and ensure they are still in a position to spend the appropriate amount of time on important strategic initiatives that will make the launch a success.

“Helping others know what your team is up to is key to making an impact. But it has to be lightweight.”
— Saahil Patel, Product Marketing Manager at LinkedIn (formerly Olivine!)

Staying in the know and helping everyone else know what your team is up to is key to getting things done, cross-team collaboration, and making an impact. But it has to be lightweight.

Communicating your role and your team's charter to the company is key to avoiding burnout, and doing this can actually help you be known as the "golden partner." It's important to make sure your core cross-functionals know exactly what you do, and what you don't. Otherwise, you'll end up trying to do everything but actually doing nothing.

Socialize your work by leveraging internal comms channels like newsletters, Slack announcements, and microsites for the audiences that will find your work the most valuable. This helps you build trust, drive impact, and extend your influence across various functions, setting you up to be known as the "MVP."

“Rather than continuously creating more content, prioritize, improve, and delete. Simplicity beats over-information.”
— Dejan Gajsek, Co-founder at Grow + Scale
Lessons learned while working with Fortune 100 companies

Corporations have a crazy amount of tools, assets, and data at their disposal. It's the opposite problem for early-stage, nimble startups. They have too much "stuff." 

When it comes to coming up with the right messaging, tool, or assets, the team might stumble and search for the right info at that exact moment (for example, a competitive intel piece on a call with a prospect). It's much better to have a small batch of killer pieces that are accessible and relevant than a whole storage of inventory no one knows how to handle.

When you can get the right message at the right time, you will gain prospects' trust and increase the probability of closing the deal.  

Summary: Simple and clear beats out complex 9 times out of 10.

“The closer you play to the edge, the better the chance something interesting might leave the room.”
— Jadon Thomas, Product Marketing Manager at Olivine

Bring your own flair to the work. Playing it safe and sticking to the status quo may seem like the best approach, but it's not always the most effective. By taking risks and bringing new and innovative ideas to the table, you have a better chance of creating something truly interesting and impactful. 

Invariably, it has been observed that ideas and contributions, irrespective of one's preference, tend to undergo a process of dilution while undergoing enterprise review, leading to a homogenization of messaging… And when sentences sound like that, it’s not interesting for anyone.

By bringing your own unique style and approach to your work, you can help differentiate yourself and your clients. It takes courage and confidence to bring new ideas to the table, but the rewards can be significant.

It's important to remember that there is a balance to be struck. You don't want to be so far out of the box that your ideas are dismissed entirely. But the closer you play to the edge, the better the chance something interesting might leave the room.

“Data trumps opinions. This means getting out of the office and taking your new message to the streets.”
— Robert Kaminski, Co-Founder at Fletch
Lessons learned while working at Oracle

Crafting messages with enterprise executives almost always creates a “too many cooks in the kitchen” scenario.  And there is no avoiding these multi-level conversations with various stakeholders.

It’s best to approach these sessions with a focus on sharing and collecting insights — Not seeking consensus and approval. 

To do this, consider breaking up the session into 2 parts:

  1. Listen for their insights: Give your audience the opportunity to express their perspective on the approach — including any data and research they have gathered to support their perspective. 

  2. Sharing your own insights: Make your stakeholders feel like they are getting an “insider view” into the strategy.  It’s best to use real data — ideally a combination of quantitative data points AND qualitative learnings. 

So if you are working with a lot of stakeholders in developing strategic messaging, remember…

The best way to approach your stakeholders is not with a logical argument.  Instead, bring data and insights to the table.  This means getting out of the office and taking your new message to the streets.  And sharing what you learned with a partnership mindset.

Since 2016, Olivine has been focussed on product marketing and along the way we’ve helped our clients launch new products, overhaul long-entrenched positioning & messaging, unify multiple acquisitions into a single platform pitch, lead strategic workshops at team offsites, and develop product-centric go-to-market campaigns.

Interested in learning how we help enterprise companies grow? Reach out here.

Raechel Lambert

Co-Founder & VP of Product Marketing. Formerly Intercom.

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