Inside Olivine #32
3 Cross-Industry Strategies You Can Steal from Companies Mastering Product Marketing
Wah gwarn family!
Jadon Thomas here, a Product Marketer at Olivine, and that’s how we say “Good day sir/ma’am, how are you doing on this fine day?” in the Caribbean.
Ok, maybe not that formally, but you get the idea.
I’ve been at Olivine for a couple of years now and we’ve worked with a lot of companies in different industries within the B2B SaaS space. This month, we’re giving you a behind-the-scenes look at some of the lessons we’ve learned so you can steal the strategies to deliver more impact in your product marketing.
Warning: this isn’t theory - each lesson comes from a real client we’ve had. And if you read to the end, there may be a bonus lesson. No promises…
Let’s get into it.
Lesson 1: Revisit the Fundamentals (Mercury)
Mercury, a fast-growing banking platform for startups, saw a surge in users and needed to realign their strategy. We helped refine their Personas and Jobs-to-Be-Done (JTBD) through workshops and research, aligning their product, sales, and marketing, and establishing a solid foundation for future messaging work.
Key Lesson: Even Established Companies Benefit from Revisiting the Basics. Mercury recognized that even though they are an established company already seeing success, it’s worth revisiting core strategies to uncover new insights that improve overall business effectiveness.
Lesson 2: Patience Creates Impact (Vultr)
We partnered with Vultr, a cloud infrastructure company, over the course of a year to support the successful launch of the Vultr Cloud Alliance. During that time, we helped develop key marketing and sales assets for each of their 17 partners, from Positioning & Messaging guides to an updated sales deck and event promo video. Our approach helped Vultr execute high-quality work at volume while aligning on a long-term strategy, maximizing the value they got from each partner relationship.
Key Lesson: Strategic Depth Drives Lasting Impact. Vultr appreciated the extended collaboration because it gave us the context needed to dive deep into strategic development and the technical aspects of the product. This time investment enabled us to own several work streams and produce high-quality, cohesive work that contributed to a successful launch and long-term partnership. While quick wins have their place, a well-paced approach allows product marketing to deliver results that are both impactful and sustainable.
Lesson 3: Trust the Process (Envoy)
Envoy, a workplace platform, partnered with us over two years to build foundational product marketing strategies and processes, helping them go to market in new and impactful ways. Our work together included Envoy’s new product launch for Rooms, an initiative that uncovered entirely new personas, including security-focused users, sparking an unexpected and profitable revenue stream. Additionally, we led strategic workshops with Envoy’s leadership on core topics like defining proto-personas, messaging, and marketing with Jobs To Be Done, setting the stage for future growth.
Key Lesson: Trust the Process to Discover Hidden Opportunities. By embracing a step-by-step approach to product marketing, Envoy uncovered valuable business opportunities they hadn’t initially considered. Trusting in a proven process and working alongside product marketing experts can reveal untapped markets and disguised pain points, often with a greater long-term impact than quick wins.
Bonus Lesson: You Can’t Read the Label from Inside the Jar (Loqate)
Congrats for reading this far (if you just scrolled down and skipped ahead… we know who you are). Either way, you’ve earned the bonus.
This one comes from Loqate, a global leader in location data intelligence. They brought us in to refine their product messaging and ensure company-wide alignment. By holding workshops with different teams to align on product positioning and messaging, we helped Loqate gain a new perspective on how to enhance their messaging. Something that’s hard to achieve with an internal team that works on this stuff daily.
Loqate gained from having someone with no dogs in the fight (Olivine) come in, listen objectively to the various teams, and offer recommendations based on industry best practices and outsider observations. The result – a fresh perspective that brings new energy to the team.
Sound like something you’d like to do? We can help with that.
TL;DR
In case you didn’t have the 132 seconds it takes to speed-read this, here’s the summary:
Don’t forget the fundamentals
Be patient
Trust the process
Get an outside perspective
Think Olivine can bring some outside perspective for you? Reach out today and let’s start the conversation.
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Job openings:
EvenUp is hiring a Senior Product Marketing Manager.
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