Inside Olivine #36
From onboarding to messaging, make the first impression count.
There’s something uniquely tricky about first impressions.
Whether it’s walking into a new room, joining a call with someone you admire, or trying out a product for the first time, our brains are fast to judge and slow to forget. As marketers, that truth hits close to home. We craft landing pages, write onboarding flows, and obsess over copy because we know: if the start doesn’t land, the rest might not matter.
This month, we’re digging into what it takes to make a great first impression, not just in life, but in your product’s onboarding experience.
PMM Tips: Make a Great First Impression
In her post, "Make a Great First Impression: A Step-by-Step Guide for Successful User Onboarding," Lindsay Tabas breaks down how onboarding is less about features and more about feelings. Here are a few actionable takeaways:
Start before sign-up
Onboarding begins on your landing page, not your dashboard.
Ask: What’s the one promise you’re making upfront, and are you delivering on it once users sign up?
Treat onboarding like storytelling
Use the structure of a three-act story: setup, development, resolution.
Guide users from “What is this?” to “I get it” to “I’m getting value.”
Keep copy clear and human
Tiny tweaks in microcopy can dramatically change activation rates.
Less jargon, more guidance. Nudge users step by step.
Test early, test scrappy
You don’t need a full usability lab; paper prototypes or simple walkthroughs can reveal where users get lost or overwhelmed.
Pro tip: One client increased paid conversions 2.8x just by simplifying the initial onboarding steps. Big wins often come from simplifying, not adding.
Thoughtful onboarding is more than UX. It’s a marketing strategy, and a first date your users will want to go on again.
Need help crafting onboarding flows or aligning your marketing to product moments? That’s exactly what we do. Get in touch if you'd like support from our team.
Olivine Success Story: Helping SafeGraph Attract the Right Leads
When your product is top-tier but your pipeline isn’t full of your ideal buyers, it’s time to rethink how you’re telling your story. That’s exactly what SafeGraph, a global POI data provider, asked us to help with.
In just three months, we worked with their product, marketing, and sales teams to refine their positioning and messaging, define target personas, and overhaul their website and sales collateral. The goal? Attract more qualified leads, and help their team close them.
What we delivered:
A fresh positioning and messaging framework tied to the needs of innovative product builders
Copy for new product and pricing pages, with clear differentiators like service quality and flexible pricing
A revamped sales pitch and proposal deck, plus an ADR email sprint and nurture edits to align sales with the new strategy
“Working with Olivine was a very productive experience. Everything was very organized and the interaction really forced us to think hard about key questions and fundamental strategies.” – Michael Taylor, Product Manager at SafeGraph
The result? More alignment, stronger storytelling, and a tighter connection between SafeGraph’s messaging and the people most ready to buy. Need help refining your positioning or sales strategy?
PMM Toolkit: Tool, Template, Trend
This month’s picks are all about sharpening your strategy and saving time:
Tool: Gamma
Move over static slides. Gamma is an AI-powered tool that helps you create sleek, interactive presentations and docs in minutes. Whether you're pitching a product, recapping a launch, or enabling sales, Gamma helps you go from outline to beautiful deck, fast. Explore GammaTemplate: Olivine’s Positioning & Messaging Guide
Clear positioning isn't just a nice-to-have; it’s the backbone of a scalable GTM motion. Our free guide + template walks you through how to define your product’s value, write clear messaging, and align your team on what you say (and don’t say) to the market. Get the guide & template.Trend: PMMs as Strategic Translators
More companies are realizing their PMMs aren’t just marketers, they’re translators between product and market. The trend? Shifting PMM roles toward internal alignment and external clarity. Expect to see more PMMs embedded in product pods, influencing roadmaps and enabling sales from day one.
Let us know which of these was most useful or what you would like us to include next month.
Meme of the Month 🎉
This month’s PMM meme hits a little too close to home 😅
When your enablement docs are so outdated, even the new sales hire is surprised you had them in the first place 😅
(Somewhere, a rogue one-pager from 2019 is still haunting a prospect's inbox.)
Have a meme that captures your product marketing reality? Tag us on LinkedIn with your best, and you just might be featured next month!
Until next time,
The Olivine Team
We're excited to hear from you!