Every week, Jason Oakley and Aubrey Chapnick share 5 practical product marketing examples. It's your weekly dose of PMM inspiration and practical advice in less than 3 minutes.
PMM Files # 155 - Five examples of how to differentiate
Thanks for reading PMM Files. A newsletter where we share five cool product marketing examples we found last week.
This issue is all about the big D Word... Differentiation! Something every PMM team is thinking about today more than ever.
Let's get to it...
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What kind of PMM leader are you?
This free PMM Leadership Assessment takes less than 5 minutes and gives you instant, personalized results. Youβll see where youβre strongest today and where to focus next if you want to grow your impact.
Thatβs real positioning β not just chest-thumping about features.
In this beehiiv vs Kit comparison, they call out exactly who Kit serves well, then make a clear case for beehiivβs sweet spot. No "we're for everyone" baloney, just clarity that helps buyers self-select.
The takeaway: Be honest about who should pick your competitor. It builds way more trust than pretending youβre the answer for everyone.
Example #3 - Differentiate on How You Run the Business
Buffer competes with Sprout Social, Hootsuite, and a long list of VC-backed social media tools. Instead of trying to out-feature them, they've chosen a different (or addiitonal) path β differentiating based on how they run their business.
Simon Heaton breaks down company financials and makes it clear, Buffer isn't the typical VC-backed startup who lets the will of their investors get in the way of delivering for customers and employees.
It's an interesting framing that helps Buffer stand out and creates an emotional connection that goes beyond product.
I've seen a bunch of these posts following the big product announcements from Claude recently. This time, Brad Jourdrie takes aim at defending his company, Conquest Planning.
I love how Brad acknowledges how big of a deal Claude's release was while also clearly explaining why it's not going to replace Conquest: auditability, consistency, and verifiable quality.
To put a cherry on it, he ends with a strong POV: "The wealth tech firms that win the next phase won't be the ones who deployed AI fastest. They'll be the ones who deployed it in a way their compliance teams, their regulators, and their clients can trust."
Example #5 - The "Better Together" Comparison Page
Not every competitor page needs to be a takedown. Sometimes the smarter play is a "better together" story.
Sybill does this well with their Gong comparison page. Instead of trying to convince teams to rip out Gong, they position around what they call "the Gong gap" and why Sybill is additive, not duplicative.
It's very smart positioning. By acknowledging what Gong is good at, they make their own differentiation sharper and remove the "We already have Gong" objection.
The skills that make you a great product marketer aren't enough to unlock the influence you want.
As your scope grows, leadership becomes a different job. You are expected to move between different elevations of work and make deliberate choices about where to spend your time and energy. The challenge is knowing what the moment calls for, and adjusting how you show up.
This is called leadership range. The PMM Leadership Assessment is designed to help you understand and start building that range.
Created by Tamara Grominsky, founder of PMM Camp, this free assessment gives you a clear picture of how you currently operate across five PMM leadership modes and where your range may be limiting your impact.
In under 5 minutes, you'll get:
A personalized snapshot of your PMM leadership profile
Clarity on where you are strongest today
Direction on what to focus on next to expand your range
Instant results you can actually use
This is the starting point for PMMs who want to level up.
βTurn CI Strategy Into Deals - Talya Heller shares a simple framework for turning your competitive intel into a one-pager your sales team will love. β
βBuild Better B2B Landing Pages - Tas Bober shares a simple framework for deciding what actually belongs on your landing page β and what to cut.
What did you think of this week's edition?
Hit reply and let me know, or leave a quick testimonial. I'd love to hear from you!
See you next Wednesday!
P.S.
We work with startups and founding PMMs that are trying to build product marketing from zero. If that sounds like you, here are some ways we can help:
βThe Jetpack is a library of templates, playbooks, and examples. β
βThe Foundry is a group coaching program for founding PMMs. β
Want to sponsor our newsletter? Let's chat!β β
Every week, Jason Oakley and Aubrey Chapnick share 5 practical product marketing examples. It's your weekly dose of PMM inspiration and practical advice in less than 3 minutes.