Swaying decisions: 8 ways to unleash your inner influencer

This article is based on Olivia McNaughten’s talk at the Product Marketing Summit in New York. As a PMA member, you can enjoy the complete recording here.

Chances are, you recognize at least one of the people below – and that's no surprise. From Arianna Huffington to Danielle Bernstein and James Charles, these are some pretty well-known influencers.

Now, what about the people in this next image? You might recognize some of them, you might have worked with them, or maybe you’ve even heard them speak at a Product Marketing Summit.

But, you might be wondering, what do they have in common with the people in the previous slide? Well, it turns out a lot – they’re influencers too. That’s because influence is, at its core, the ability to affect or change how someone or something develops, behaves, or thinks.

We're all being influenced every day – in what we wear, the food we eat, where we go on holiday, even the hobbies we pursue. The power of social media influencers just can't be understated!

As PMMs, there's a lot we can learn about enhancing our influence in the workplace – and that’s what I’m going to help you do today, with eight key strategies for unleashing your inner influencer. 

Digital influence vs. corporate influence

Let’s start by comparing the two types of influence: digital and corporate.

In the digital world, influencers use social media to sway their audience’s opinions, actions, and purchasing decisions. They use their online presence, large following, expertise on a particular topic, and rapport with their audience to shape behaviors. They do this through content, whether it's photos, videos, blogs, vlogs, or podcasts. 

Now, let’s talk about influencers in the corporate world. Here, individuals – like you – shape business decisions and guide change. They do this by leveraging their expertise in certain areas – like competitors or the product – and their relationships with internal stakeholders. This is done in one-on-one or large group meetings, and through presentations, slide decks, proposals, messaging, and visuals.

When you compare these two types of influence, they’re actually quite similar. That’s because influencers, whether online or in the corporate world, inspire action, foster change, and drive results. Whether it’s through an Instagram post or a pitch deck, the goal is to influence outcomes.

Why PMMs make brilliant influencers

PMMs have the potential to influence various areas within an organization because we’re highly cross-functional. 

We’re close to the product and to our customers, which allows us to shape the product roadmap by advocating for features our customers want or by responding to shifts in the market. 

We can influence how a company or product is perceived in the marketplace by crafting value propositions, providing sales teams with effective talk tracks, and ensuring consistent messaging across all marketing channels.

We also drive team alignment by motivating everyone toward a shared vision or goal. Plus, by staying ahead of industry trends, we help guide pivots or innovations that keep the organization competitive and can even help the company become an industry leader.

Eight key strategies for unleashing your inner influencer

So, now that we know what we can influence, how do we actually build influence within our organizations? Let’s take a page from the book of our social media friends and see how we can apply their strategies to our day-to-day. 

Strategy #1: Establish credibility

The best influencers find a niche and hone their expertise in that area. Whether it's skincare, gaming, wellness, or something else, they build their knowledge and showcase it to their audience. We can do the same by becoming experts in our field and sharing that expertise within our organizations.

Master product knowledge

To build your influence within an organization as a PMM, you need to establish credibility by building your expertise. This starts with mastering product knowledge. 

Just like the best beauty influencers out there, who know exactly which ingredients are in skincare products and what’s best for dry skin or fine lines, PMMs need to understand the ins and outs of their products. We need to know why a product exists, understand its intricacies, and be the go-to person for all things related to it.

Build competitive intel

The best beauty influencers will tell you which moisturizer is best for your skin type, what's a good value product, and which products are considered clean beauty. They compare products and help their audience understand how different options stack up. 

In the same way, as PMMs, we need to know how our products stack up against competitors, including how our pricing compares.

Demonstrate market awareness

These beauty influencers stay ahead of trends – they know which ingredients are popular, the latest skincare gadgets, and the trends that are gaining traction. They bring this knowledge to their audience, adding value and staying relevant. 

Similarly, as a PMM, you need to know the trends impacting your customers, what’s keeping them up at night, and the changes shaping your industry.

Of course, if you’re new to a role, recognize that building all this knowledge won’t happen overnight. It takes time. So, start by focusing on one or two areas, becoming an expert in either competitive intelligence or market trends. 

Be a trusted thought partner

As you build your expertise, you’ll gain credibility, and people will naturally start coming to you with questions, just like people turn to beauty influencers for advice.

The more credibility you build, the more opportunities you’ll have. Like influencers who are invited to headquarters to discuss product roadmaps or test new products, you, too, can become a trusted thought partner. 

By consistently delivering value through your knowledge, you establish yourself as a credible asset, and people will start seeking you out for your insights and expertise.

Strategy #2: Develop your personal brand

The best influencers are able to create a strong, recognizable brand that feels real and authentic. 

Take John from the Preppy Kitchen, for example – he’s an excellent chef and baker who has built his brand around a very preppy aesthetic. Everything he shares, from his decadent and delicious recipes to his beautifully crafted content and cookbooks, aligns with this theme.

Uncover your edge and define your unique value prop

Just like John, you need to define your unique edge. Or, as Tamara Grominsky puts it, you need to find your secret sauce. Are you a master at messaging and positioning? Do you specialize in startups or scale-ups? Or maybe you're very technical and know all the product details. Pinpoint what makes you different and define your unique value proposition.

Just as your company has a value prop and so do its products, you can have one too. Be ready to articulate what sets you apart, which is a blend of your skills, experiences, and passions. What do you truly enjoy? What do you excel at? Own it, and then build your reputation around it.

Be authentic and showcase your personality

Don't be afraid to showcase your personality. John does this brilliantly on his social media; his content feels authentic and genuine. 

As PMMs, we are highly cross-functional and often present to various stakeholders. Showcasing your personality can make a big difference – inject a bit of humor, make people feel at ease. The more authentic you are, the more memorable and relatable you become as a product marketer.

Strategy #3: Understand and cater to your audience

The best social media influencers know exactly who their audience is, what they care about, and what they want to see. They serve their audience by partnering with the right brands and producing content that resonates. As a product marketer, you need to do the same.

Understand your stakeholders

When I talk about understanding and catering to your audience, I’m not just talking about your customers – I’m talking about your internal stakeholders. 

One of the most valuable things you can do as a product marketer is to understand who your internal stakeholders are, whether it's sales, customer success (CS), or product teams. Get to know them, understand their needs, and identify their pain points. What keeps your sales managers up at night? What’s on the mind of the director of CS?

Tailor your communications

Show your stakeholders that you understand their concerns and their goals by tailoring your communication and messaging to them. 

Let’s say you’re launching a new product to the sales team, and they’ve been struggling against a certain competitor. This is a great opportunity for you to identify whether this release is going to close that competitive gap and help reduce the number of deals lost to competitors.

On the CS side, maybe the new product solves a pain point that could reduce churn, or it might be something the CS team can leverage for upsells or cross-sells. 

Explicitly highlight these advantages to show that you understand your stakeholders’ needs, goals, and challenges. Provide them with tailored talk tracks, content, one-pagers, and other resources. Doing this will help you build your reputation and trust with your stakeholders – after all, trust is key.

Strategy #4: Generate interest and excitement

Have you ever bought a product because you saw an influencer post about it on social media? I know I have. Did you make that feta pasta dish that went viral on TikTok? If you haven’t, you should – it's delicious!

The best social media influencers have a knack for generating interest and excitement, whether it’s about a product, a trend, or that famous TikTok pasta. They tell engaging stories, like sharing their acne journey or explaining how a supplement changed their life. 

When done right, it’s entertaining, believable, and inspiring, leading you to take action – like buying the product or making the recipe.

Bring the hype

Like all the best influencers, you need to generate hype. A great example of this is Hailey Bieber and her recent launch of the Strawberry Glaze lip gloss. She went all out with her promotion strategy. 

She partnered with Krispy Kreme to create a limited-edition strawberry glazed donut and even made an $18 strawberry smoothie with Erewhon. She had a red Corvette and her social media was plastered with the color red. In short, she endorsed the heck out of these Strawberry Glaze lip glosses, creating massive hype. 

And what happened? They flew off the shelves – you could barely get your hands on them!

As PMMs, it's also our job to get the internal teams excited – whether it’s about a new asset dropping, a new process being implemented, or a new product launch. After all, if you’re not excited when sharing this news, how can you expect sales or customer success teams to be excited?

To get the team genuinely excited, consider hyping up your product and engineering teams as visionaries and innovators. Showcase the innovation process, amp up your roadmap, and tell a compelling story. Make it riveting and relatable. 

The buzz and energy you bring to the table will translate into positive interactions with prospects and customers, ultimately driving business results. If you're excited, you can get the sales and CS teams excited, which will then get your customers excited, leading to major business results.

Strategy #5: Create valuable content

Creating valuable content is key. This is how social media influencers connect with their audience and build their networks, whether through a TikTok video, a podcast, or any other format. Influencers know their content needs to be valuable to engage their audience. 

As product marketers, we should follow the same principle. This is a key part of our role; we’re always creating one-pagers or decks to influence internal decision-making or shaping external perceptions through new messaging, positioning, or customer success stories.

Know who your content is for

Like influencers, PMMs must tailor content to their specific audience – whether that’s customers, prospects, sales, or customer success teams. This doesn’t mean starting from scratch every time; it could be about tweaking and repurposing existing content to meet the unique needs of different stakeholders. 

Take inspiration from Tasha Franken, a Pilates and wellness creator who knows exactly what her audience wants. She offers a variety of content – quick seven-minute workouts, hour-long full-body routines, a wedding program for brides-to-be, and even pajama Pilates for those lazy days. Tailoring content like this ensures it resonates with the intended audience.

Simplify your messaging

Simplifying your messaging is crucial. If TikTok has shown us anything, it’s the effectiveness of digestible, quick-hitting content. 

Keep your messaging simple and to the point. Brevity is a valuable skill – avoid unnecessary details and stick to clear, straightforward language. Just like Tasha Franken uses simple phrases like “full-body movement,” which leaves no room for doubt, we should strive for clarity in our communication.

Incorporate visuals

Incorporating visuals is another powerful tactic. Influencers often use GIFs, videos, and infographics to make their messages more engaging and easier to understand. As PMMs, we shouldn’t hesitate to use visuals to enhance our content. They can help convey complex ideas more effectively and keep your audience engaged.

Format effectively

The power of effective formatting is often underestimated, but it can significantly impact how your content is received, especially in internal documents. 

When preparing a pitch or proposal for the executive leadership team (ELT), make sure to use proper formatting. Include a TL;DR (too long; didn’t read) section, clear headers, and bullet points to make the content more digestible. 

Be open to feedback

Finally, be open to feedback. Just like influencers such as Tasha Franken, who regularly seek feedback from their audience to fine-tune their content, we should also be willing to listen and adapt. 

Regularly ask for feedback from your stakeholders and be prepared to make changes to ensure your content remains relevant and valuable. This adaptability will help you continuously improve and maintain the effectiveness of your content.

Strategy #6: Grow your network

One of the top goals for any influencer is to grow their followers. The more followers they have, the more opportunities they get, leading to more brand partnerships and, ultimately, more revenue. 

MrBeast is a prime example of this. With over 300 million subscribers, he’s the most subscribed person on YouTube. How did he achieve this? Well, he didn’t do it alone. He has a team of 200 people behind him and frequently collaborates with other influencers to expand his network.

Engage with internal teams

Like MrBeast, you should focus on building your internal network by staying hyper-connected with your stakeholders and keeping up constant communication. 

In product marketing, much of our success relies on favors – whether that’s asking someone to use new messaging, come to a training session, or help find a case study candidate. Because we’re always asking for support, it's crucial to build strong relationships and goodwill with your internal teams.

Create a community of advocates

Even though product marketing often feels like an individual contributor (IC) role, it's not something you can excel at alone. You need the support of others to truly succeed. This is why creating a community of advocates within your organization is so beneficial. 

Find people who can be your champions and go-to resources in each department: someone in sales to check over messaging or talk tracks, a colleague in customer success who can help you get hold of testimonials, and so on. 

By building a network of advocates, you'll have reliable people to turn to when needed.

Encourage their expertise

Lastly, encourage participation and feedback from your stakeholders. Show them that you value their knowledge and expertise, and make it clear that you see the relationship as a two-way street. By supporting them, you’ll foster a culture of mutual support, where they’ll be more inclined to assist you in return.

Strategy #7: Measure your influence and impact

How do you know if your influence is growing? How can you tell if you’re actually making an impact? The answer is measurement. The best influencers know their numbers – they’re aware of how many followers they have, their engagement rate, and which content resonates with their audience. 

As PMMs, we need to know our metrics, too, even though there's no single measure that applies universally to our work. The metrics we track depend on our specific goals.

Set launch goals

If you're launching products, the first step is to set clear launch goals. Define what success looks like before the launch so you have a benchmark to measure against afterward. 

Setting these goals upfront allows you to evaluate success more effectively and provides valuable insights for future initiatives.

Measure the impact

While it’s easy to get caught up in preparing for the next launch, it’s crucial to pause and reflect on the one you've just done. Did you drive adoption? Did you achieve your customer acquisition goals? Which channels were the most effective, and which content performed the best? 

Make sure you measure the impact of your launch, get qualitative feedback from internal stakeholders and customers, and make a note of your wins. Why? Well, that brings us to the final strategy for unleashing your inner influencer…

Strategy #8: Showcase your success

Just like influencers who publicly share their milestones – for instance, Connor Price, who celebrated reaching a billion streams – you should share your successes with your team and stakeholders. It’s a beautiful way to take them on the journey with you and thank them for being by your side.

Showcasing your success helps answer the perennial question, "What does product marketing actually do?" so don’t be shy – use tools like Slack or direct conversations with your manager to highlight your achievements. 

Elevate not only yourself but also your entire team by celebrating their accomplishments. If a teammate has achieved something remarkable, be sure to highlight their success.

Especially if you're a manager, promoting your team's successes will ultimately enhance your own standing as well. Your team's achievements are a reflection of your leadership, so help build their profiles and reputations. 

By consistently sharing your wins and your team's successes, you’ll elevate your influence within the organization and contribute to the broader impact and visibility of product marketing as a discipline.

Time to unleash your inner influencer

So, give it a try. You don’t have to implement all eight strategies at once. Start with one or two that feel most natural to you and use them to drive action and impact in your organization. 

If you need some inspiration, think about your favorite influencer, look at how they build their influence, and apply that to your day-to-day work. Take that influencer mindset and unleash your inner influencer!