What Is Product Marketing? Roles, Salaries, Outlook

Product marketing is essential to the launch and ongoing success of a company's products. Working in this area often means having a deep understanding of a product's features and then using that knowledge to create engaging marketing campaigns to drive awareness.

Learn about some of the roles you can consider if you're interested in product marketing, as well as the different salaries you can earn, and the skills you'll need to develop for this career path. If you're interested in building your product knowledge, consider getting started with the IBM Product Manager Professional Certificate. Although product managers are different than product marketing managers, the essential product lifecycle strategies you'll learn in the program will be an asset.

What do product marketers do? 

Product marketers are a pivotal part of the product lifecycle. They help research and launch new products by conducting research in advance to understand their target market, and then develop and implement a marketing strategy to drive awareness.

While product marketers may officially sit on marketing teams (or on product teams, depending on the company), they play an important cross-functional role that will include collaborating with other teams, including product, marketing, and sales.

Product marketing roles

There's no set path to break into product marketing. Generally, you'll need to have a strong understanding of the product lifecycle, customer behavior, and marketing strategies, which you can acquire in a number of job titles across product, marketing, and sales.

We've compiled some of the common job titles you may want to consider as you develop your career in product marketing [1].

Entry-level roles

• Product marketing specialist

• Marketing coordinator

• Social media specialist

• Project manager

• Customer service specialist

Mid-level roles

• Product marketing manager

• Marketing manager

• Product manager

• Account manager

Senior-level roles

• Senior product marketing manager

• Director of product marketing

• Brand manager

• Director of Growth

Key product marketing skills

Because product marketing often sits at the intersection of, you guessed it, product and marketing, they tend to have a specialized technical skill set. The following are the top five skills needed to succeed in product marketing, according to Zippia [1].

• Digital marketing: 6.92%

• Product management: 6.83%

• Project management: 6.06%

• Marketing campaigns: 4.90%

• Market research: 4.19%

How much do product marketing managers make? 

Product marketers typically earn higher salaries than average thanks to their specialized product knowledge and their impact across the marketing funnel. Here are the averages by title, according to Glassdoor.

• Product specialist: $84,280 [2]

• Product marketing manager: $114,177 [3]

• Senior product marketing manager: $141,996 [4]

You may be able to find higher salaries depending on your location, company size, industry, education, and experience. These factors can affect what you may be able to earn across roles.

Product marketing career outlook

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics expects marketing manager roles to grow by eight percent between 2023 and 2033, which is faster than average [5].

How to get started in product marketing

If you're interested in pursuing a career in product marketing, review the four steps below.

1. Earn a degree

While you may not need a degree to get started in a marketing or product role, you may find that a bachelor's degree becomes a requirement as you continue advancing in your career. According to Zippia, 75.4 percent of product marketing managers hold a bachelor's degree, while 18.4 percent hold a master's [1]. Recommended majors for this type of work includes: marketing, business administration, product design, and data science.

2. Gain experience

It can take 3-5 years to move into product marketing, though that experience requirement can vary by company. Look for internships and entry-level roles on marketing and sales team to begin building the necessary experience and key skills to eventually advance your career toward product marketing opportunities.

If you're working in marketing or sales, consider asking your manager if there are any product-focused projects or initiatives you can support, or any opportunities to work cross-functionally with the product team. These can be useful to further your overall skill set and network.

3. Develop your skills

In addition to the skills we outlined above, product marketers need to have a strong understanding of:

• Product lifecycle

• Market research

• Data analysis

• User stories

• Storytelling

• Communications

Spend time looking for projects in your full-time role—or opportunities on the side through volunteer work or freelancing—to build out key skills in product marketing.

4. Continue seeking out professional development

If you can't always find hands-on projects to help further your knowledge, consider taking professional development programs, like online courses or Professional Certificates, to address any skills gaps you may have. These can be excellent, self-paced ways to keep learning about in-demand skills and strengthening both your abilities and your resume.

Keep developing your product marketing skills on Coursera

You'll find many opportunities to develop your skills in product, marketing, and data on Coursera. Here are three options to get started:

• Get comfortable with the product lifecycle through the IBM Product Manager Professional Certificate, where you'll learn how to describe product development and analysis best practices.

• Strengthen your product knowledge with the University of Maryland's Product Ideation, Design, and Management Specialization, where you'll learn about discovering your target customer, your customer’s underserved needs, and your value propositions.

• Build important data skills with a marketing focus through the Meta Marketing Analytics Professional Certificate, where you'll learn how to analyze data using key marketing analytics methods.