Kristin Fracchia

"But Kyle, the spreadsheet said our conversion 'has to go up.' Shouldn't this be something owned by Product Marketing?" I’ve seen this play out more times than I can count. And I've been responsible for guiding people in the wrong direction more than once. Here's what usually happens: Leadership builds a model, the model spits out a number, and suddenly, “Stage 1 to Stage 2 needs to improve by X%.” So we hand that number to a team (PMM) and tell them to go make it happen. Completely the wrong way to go about it. The first mistake is assigning a number to someone who can’t actually control it. Product marketing gets this all the time. Close rate. Late-stage conversion. Revenue that depends on pricing, sales execution, product gaps, competitive pressure, and a dozen other variables. PMM can influence outcomes. They don’t own the entire system. When we pretend they do, they end up getting blamed for things they didn’t cause and doing random work to prove they’re “helping.” Which leads to the second issue. Everyone runs in different directions. One person rewrites messaging. Another rebuilds the deck. Someone else launches a campaign. It all feels productive, but none of it is coordinated. EOQ shows up, and someone asks what actually worked, and the honest answer is usually “we’re not sure.” Then comes the third problem. Product marketing gets pulled apart. Sales wants enablement. Product wants launches. CS wants customer stories. Everyone has a reasonable ask. So PMM gradually becomes the highest-paid request taker in the company. So how do you fix it? Here's what has worked for me in the past. Especially after The fix isn’t complicated, but it does require you to ACTUALLY DO IT. Pick a North Star. One metric everyone agrees matters most right now. Then be explicit about what you’re trying to change, why you believe it’s the right lever, and what specific projects you’re going to run to move it. Conversion rate might be it, and that's okay! One more thing that matters more than people realize: don’t report the metric every week. If you have a long sales cycle, weekly conversion updates are a waste of time. Report the work weekly. What shipped, what you learned, what you’re changing next. Look at the metric quarterly. Models are useful. They tell you where you want to go. They don’t tell you how to get there. That part is still on us. Ya know, the humans. ;)

80

14 Comments

LLMs and AI summaries are becoming the new front door to brand discovery. People aren’t just Googling you anymore. They’re asking AI. And what those AI summaries and answers to prompts say about your brand now shapes perception long before anyone visits your website. Here’s what I shared with Marketing Magazine Asia recently: 1. AI is now the new search layer. People increasingly trust assistants like ChatGPT and Gemini for answers, skipping traditional search altogether - 60% of global searches end without a click to a website. 2. Fixing AI errors isn’t enough. You can’t just chase inaccuracies; you have to feed the right information into the system. Keep websites, press rooms, and product pages current. Monitor how AI platforms describe your brand. Vigilance is the new visibility. 3. SEO isn’t dead. It’s evolving. Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) builds on SEO’s foundation. The goal isn’t just ranking anymore; it’s being in the answer. 4. Algorithms influence perception, but don’t own it. The story still belongs to the brand. CMOs who stay agile, consistent, and credible will always have the upper hand. 5. AI optimisation isn’t a new department. It’s a new discipline. LLMs pull from everything ever said or written about you. Credibility and consistency across every touchpoint now matter more than ever. 6. What do you do next? Start with an audit. See how your brand appears in AI summaries. Track what’s being said, and by whom. Use that insight to shape your media and content strategy. We’ve just launched a product I’m really excited about, Gen AI Lens. It helps brands see exactly how they show up across AI platforms, and how those narratives are forming in real time. It’s part of how we’re evolving Meltwater's search intelligence and social listening to meet this new reality, where perception is shaped by both people and AI.

27

3 Comments

Your PMM role is changing: How to build human+AI workflows that define what's next That's what I'll cover on April 1 at Product Marketing Alliance's Product Marketing Summit in Denver. I will show HOW I guide AI live using various AI platforms. Your launch campaign workflow could connect positioning, messaging, content, and sales enablement in one flow. Your sales enablement workflow could build pitch decks, dynamic sales prep dashboards, and interactive ROI calculators. This becomes possible when you move from using AI to building with it. The PMM's job is changing. Trailblazing PMMs are building AI teammates trained on their expertise, connecting them into workflows across functions, and deciding how humans and AI work together. They're writing the new job description themselves. You'll see real workflows for product launches and sales enablement, and a tool that helps you identify which workflows to build and which AI teammates to connect. You'll learn: ► How to find workflow ideas and decide which are worth building for PMM work ► How to design workflows that create new value, not just speed up existing processes ► How to evolve your role from AI user to builder and orchestrator Looking forward to learning from an insightful line-up of speakers on April 1-2. Come join us. See link in comments for more info and to register.

26

3 Comments