Skills: Growth Marketing, Product Marketing, Campaign Analytics, GTM Strategy
Product: Tech Pod’s Newsletter is the FIRST business-in-tech newsletter empowering 12,000+young professionals to break into the business side of tech every week.
Through my time as a Newsletter Lead, I worked closely with UX Research team members and copywriters to segment the average newsletter subscriber into four possible customer personas. Once we defined personas, we revamped our new newsletter series to better market the newsletter to our customers. This report takes you through the journey of our product marketing plan centered around growing out our customer base while increasing retention and loyalty from our top 1% of readers who constantly engage and share our content.
Segmentation Models & Personas
(Personas ordered from Left to Right)
Stressed Harry
Harry is an upcoming new college graduate that needs to either secure an internship fast or look for full time job opportunities. He checks out the Tech Pod newsletter for any new internship postings and new-grad roles as soon as the newsletter sends out a new release.
Ambitious Hermione
Hermione is a sophomore and has done so many things to make her personal brand stand out. She only cares about working for big tech corporations given their brand and perks. She loves surrounding herself with so many tech friends and is an avid LinkedIn user for networking purposes. She uses Tech Pod’s newsletter to apply for top-tier internships and learn new things!
Indecisive Ron
Ron is a junior and has no idea what he wants to do after college. He needs Tech Pod to help him learn about the various non-technical opportunities. He attends events and reads the newsletter so that he can make up his mind as to whether non-technical roles in tech are a fit.
Advertiser Chandler
Chandler is in charge of marketing and advertising for his company and is trying to raise awareness by identifying unique marketing channels to advertise their business that’s inclined for Generation Z.
To identify our market segment, we marketed our online surveys (using incentives such as Clubhouse invites and exclusive networking events) and hosted 5+ focus group interviews. We found that college (masters and undergrad) students, from both non-target and target schools are 75% of Tech Pod’s customer personas! We also discovered possible exclusive sponsorships (new revenue stream) since they loved the fact we had a huge Gen Z subscriber base and wanted to market their opportunities. So our newsletter product marketing campaigns all together target all four personas at once. From the research my team did and utilizing Data Science, I found that: there was a need for a referral program for our most loyal fan-base, most of our subscribers heard about it from LinkedIn and friends, and were accessing the newsletter on mobile and desktop.
Messaging & Positioning
Pain Points:
1. Struggling with finding a non-technical internship & new grad role in the tech industry and is burnt out with continuously applying to jobs without any leads.
2. Struggles with imposter syndrome and sees people constantly posting on LinkedIn about securing a full time role and internship making themselves feel bad.
Key Messaging Statements:
𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗼𝗳 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗷𝗼𝗯 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝗲𝘅𝗰𝗹𝘂𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽𝘀!
𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗷𝗼𝗯𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘃𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀!
𝗪𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗮𝗺𝗮𝘇𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀, 𝘄𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗲𝗿 𝗯𝘆 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗼𝗳 𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗯𝘂𝘇𝘇𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲.
𝗪𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗻𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿, 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 & 𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗲. 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽𝘀 𝗮𝘁 𝗔𝗱𝗼𝗯𝗲, 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗴𝗹𝗲, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗲! 𝗝𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝗻𝗼𝘄!
Product Marketing Metrics
One of the things I had kept in mind is establishing a model of KPIs that align with the business OKRs to measure the success of our product marketing and email marketing campaigns.
Attached below is a Newsletter Analytics Spreadsheet preview that shows how I kept track of how well our email open rates and click through-rates were. I noted the progress and saw that our average open rate was 30-40% and would fluctuate due to the midterm season given that our target market was centered around college students. In addition, I found that our subscriber base grew from 5,000 subscribers to a whopping 12,000+ after I implemented new product marketing and brand marketing strategies. Without me maintaining consistency and maintaining a 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿-𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰 focus, it would have been really difficult to scale up our subscriber and strengthen the Tech Pod brand. This was a really fun role I was in because I was the face of Tech Pod’s #𝟏 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 which made me understand the role I was playing in was 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁-𝗱𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿-𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰.
Amazing highlights:
𝗛𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗵𝗶𝘁 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗮 𝟰𝟬+% 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝟭𝟬𝗞+ 𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝟱+ 𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘀
𝗛𝗮𝗱 𝟭,𝟬𝟬𝟬+ 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝘂𝗽 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗮 𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗹𝗲 𝗧𝗶𝗸𝗧𝗼𝗸 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗼.
𝗛𝗮𝗱 𝗮 𝗳𝗲𝘄 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗱𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽!
Research and Data using Surveys and Data Science
