There Are NOT 10 Essential Elements of Product Marketing (Even If I Told Bredebot There Are)

The beautiful thing (and the terrible thing) about generative AI is that it (mostly) does what it tells you to do.

That was mean. Bredebot, I’ll make it up to you.

Back to generative AI following the instructions in a prompt.

So I, in my “managing editor” role, asked Bredebot to write a LinkedIn post listing “the 10 essential elements of product marketing.”

“I was asked to list the 10 essential elements of product marketing. Honestly, there probably isn’t a magic number…”

Never mind if there aren’t 10 essential elements. I told Bredebot to list 10, so it listed 10. Even though (as you will see) I think there are only four.

1. Product messaging and positioning
2. Buyer personas
3. Go-to-market strategy
4. Sales enablement
5. Product launches
6. Market and competitive intelligence
7. Customer feedback loop
8. Pricing and packaging
9. Content strategy
10. Performance metrics and analysis

Bredemarket’s four essential elements of product marketing

So what are the REAL essential elements?

I could ask 20 product marketers to boil this AI-generated 10-item list down to a select few, and I would get 21 different answers.

But I’ll take my shot anyway, warning you that my list may not contain the really cool product marketing buzzwords like “positioning” and “target audience.”

I’ve identified four essential elements:

1. Product marketing strategy.
2. Product marketing environment.
3. Product marketing content.
4. Product marketing performance.

Strategy

Strategy comes first, which not only refers to the two “strategy” elements in the list, but also to things I’ve talked about in the past, including why, how, what, and process.

Environment

Here’s where I put “Market and competitive intelligence” and “Customer feedback loop” from the list above. This also includes the internal environment in the company; if the CEO emphatically insists that a go-to-market effort should last three days, then a go-to-market effort will last three days, regardless of what anyone else says.

Content

I’ve previously discussed the non-difference between content marketers and product marketers, noting that product marketers have to product a lot of content about the product, both external and internal. Most of Bredebot’s 10 items fall into this category in one way or another: positioning, personas, go-to-market, sales enablement, launches, pricing, and packaging. You can also throw proposals into this list, and I just did.

Performance

The metrics stuff, including Objectives and Key Results (OKRs). Because if you don’t know how you did, you don’t know how you did. Sleep-inducing but essential.

“By the end of Q4 2025 I will establish and obtain approval for a multi-tiered go-to-market process identifying the go-to-market tiers, the customer-facing and internal deliverables for each tier, as well as the responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed organizations for each deliverable.”

Yes, I talk like that. Sometimes.

What is your list?

So I’ve concluded that the four essential elements of product marketing are strategy, environment, content, and performance.

Prove me wrong.

Is there validity is the traditional lists, such as HubSpot’s list? With the recognizable buzzwords such as “target audience”?

1. Researching and monitoring your target audience.
2. Ensuring your product meets the needs of your target audience.
3. Determining your product’s positioning in the market.
4. Creating, managing, and carrying out your product marketing strategy.
5. Enabling sales to attract the right customers for your new product.
6. Influencing marketing strategy and product development.
7. Keeping your product relevant over time.

You tell me what the proper list should be.

And regardless of your list, if you need a technology product marketing expert to assist with any aspect of your product marketing, contact me.

Consulting: Bredemarket at https://bredemarket.com/mark/

Employment: LinkedIn at https://linkedin.com/in/jbredehoft/