The Art of Product Marketing: A Conversation with Jasmine Handa

Welcome to another exciting edition of Marketer Interview, where we dive deep into the minds of exceptional marketers shaping the industry.

In this episode, we’re thrilled to introduce Jasmine Handa, a dynamic marketing professional passionate about crafting compelling brand stories and driving impactful campaigns.

Jasmine is the Assistant Manager of Product Marketing at Netcore Cloud, bringing in almost four years of enriching experience in the SaaS domain.

Join us as we explore Jasmine’s remarkable career and gain valuable insights into product marketing, email marketing, and Martech.

Can you tell us about your journey into the world of marketing? What inspired you to pursue a career in this field?

My transition into marketing stems from a profound passion for communication and a tech-driven perspective. After nearly two years as a software engineer, I craved a more strategic yet creative role.

With its blend of technology and storytelling, marketing became my natural next step. I was drawn to growth and product marketing as it assimilates my technical foundation with narrative crafting.

This journey allows me to bridge the gap between technology and communication, strategize and innovate, and articulate the value of products. I’ve found a dynamic field in marketing that continually challenges me to learn and adapt.

You’ve been passionate about communication. How has this passion influenced your role in growth and product marketing?

My passion for communication has significantly shaped my role in growth and product marketing.

Effective communication is at the core of marketing success; my dedication to crafting clear and engaging messaging has helped convey the value of Netcore’s products in a way that truly connects with customers.

In my role, I create email campaigns, social media posts, thought leadership content, video scripts, and more. My passion for communication is pivotal in creating marketing campaigns that engage and convert effectively.

Your experience spans various domains, from email marketing to lead generation, webinars, and podcasts. Could you share a pivotal campaign that showcased your diverse skills?

Sure, one of the pivotal campaigns that highlighted my diverse skills was the “For The Love Of Emails Awards 2022.”

I took the lead on this project, which was a tremendous success. We received numerous global nominations and registrations, including participation from several leading brands. This campaign showcased my accountability, diligence, and adeptness in crafting compelling content and effective promotional strategies.

It was an excellent opportunity to leverage my capability to orchestrate and execute multifaceted campaigns that engaged the audience and industry leaders effectively.

In the realm of product marketing, understanding the audience is crucial. How do you approach identifying and connecting with your target audience?

Connecting with the audience begins with deeply understanding their behavior, needs, and preferences.

My approach involves thorough market research and customer analysis to identify our target audience’s pain points and aspirations. I create detailed buyer personas to humanize our audience, allowing us to tailor our messaging and campaigns precisely to their needs.

Additionally, I actively engage in social listening to capture real-time insights and trends from our audience’s conversations. I also leverage data analytics and user feedback to refine our strategies continuously.

I focus on customer-centric, ensuring that our product resonates with their expectations and delivering solutions that resonate.

Email marketing remains a cornerstone of digital outreach. What strategies have you found most effective in driving engagement and conversions through email campaigns?

I’ve found that leveraging AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) interactive emails and exploring the innovative concept of Inbox Commerce have been very effective strategies. We have seen as high as 400-900% increase in engagement and conversion rates for our clients.

Implementing AMP technology within emails helps to create interactive and dynamic content directly within the inbox. This grabs the recipient’s attention and encourages them to take immediate action, such as filling out surveys, browsing product catalogs, or making purchases without leaving their inbox and navigating a website or app.

Integrating commerce capabilities within emails has been a game-changer. By enabling customers to browse, select, and make purchases directly via email, we’ve short-circuited the conversion process and reduced friction significantly. This convenience has translated into higher click-through rates and conversions.

Other than these, using AI across the various steps of email campaign creation (selecting an audience, creating email content, and assisting in the deliverability of emails to the inbox, etc.) helps achieve some fantastic outcomes.

At Netcore, innovation is at the heart of everything we do. It’s our commitment to pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in the martech landscape. This empowers us to deliver outstanding results for our customers consistently.

Martech (Marketing Technology) plays a vital role in modern marketing. Could you shed light on the Martech tools and software you find indispensable in your role?

There have been some fantastic martech tools out there:

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems: CRM tools like Salesforce enable us to effectively manage and nurture customer relationships. They store critical customer data, track interactions, and facilitate personalized communication. We are also able to track and manage leads throughout the sales funnel.

Analytics and Reporting Tools: Google Analytics, SEMrush, and similar tools provide valuable insights into website and campaign performance, helping us refine strategies. They assist in optimizing content for search engines and identifying relevant keywords to target.

Over and above, I use Netcore’s Email Marketing Platform to send our customers engaging email campaigns at scale. We send over 20 billion emails monthly on behalf of 6500+ businesses across 40 countries.

You’ve engaged in content writing and evangelism. How do these activities contribute to building a brand’s story, and what tips can you offer fellow marketers?

Content writing and evangelism establish credibility and authority and foster peer and leadership connections within the industry community. Here’s how they help me to build a brand’s story:

I engage with communities and discussions related to the Martech industry niche. The active participation in relevant conversations helps keep our brand on top of mind and positions it as a valuable contributor.

I humanize our brand by sharing personal stories and experiences. These anecdotes create an emotional connection and make our brand name more relatable to others.

When individuals witness my passion and enthusiasm for our brand’s mission and vision, it can inspire them to explore and engage further. This organic inspiration fuels brand growth.

My advocacy amplifies our brand’s message, helping it reach a wider audience through word-of-mouth and social sharing.

Chosen tips for fellow marketers:

1. Regularly produce high-quality content and engage with the community. Consistency builds recognition and trust.
2. Be genuine in your interactions and content. Authenticity fosters connections and establishes credibility.
3. Focus on delivering value to your audience. Share insights, tips, and actionable advice that genuinely help others. Don’t be salesy.
4. Actively listen to the community’s needs and feedback. Engage in meaningful conversations and respond to queries promptly.
5. Collaborate with industry peers and influencers. Partnering with others can expand your horizons and bring fresh perspectives.
6. Lastly, building a solid profile and brand reputation takes time. Don’t be discouraged by slow growth. Keep working towards your goals consistently.

In your tenure, you’ve been involved in webinars and events. Could you share a memorable experience where such engagements significantly impacted a product’s reach?

Indeed, the “For The Love Of Emails Thursdays, AMP edition” webinar was a memorable experience that significantly impacted our client’s product’s reach.

We have incorporated an innovative product feature called AMP that offers interactive and dynamic email experiences. While we were excited about the potential of this technology, it was relatively new, and many marketers were unaware of its capabilities.

We, therefore, organized the “For The Love Of Emails Thursdays, AMP edition” webinar. The goal was to educate marketers, email professionals, and decision-makers about the benefits of AMP emails and how they could drive better engagement and higher conversions.

The significant outcomes of the AMP webinar:

1. It raised awareness about AMP emails and helped attendees understand how it could revolutionize their email marketing campaigns.
2. The webinar attracted a broad audience interested in exploring AMP email technology generating leads for our product.
3. After the webinar, our customers and prospects expressed interest in exploring and experimenting with AMP emails, which increased adoption.
4. Hosting the webinar established Netcore as a thought leader in AMP emails, strengthening our brand’s reputation.

The “For The Love Of Emails Thursdays, AMP edition” webinar was a prime example of how educational webinars can significantly impact a product’s reach. It showcased the capabilities of AMP emails and positioned our email platform with AMP capability as the go-to solution for forward-thinking brands.

Navigating the ever-changing landscape of SEO can be challenging. What strategies do you employ to ensure your content stays visible and relevant in search results?

For me, below are some SEO strategies that work:

1. Understanding user intent behind search queries is crucial. I craft content that aligns with various stages of the buyer’s journey, whether informational, transactional, or navigational.
2. I focus on creating high-quality, informative, and engaging content that genuinely addresses the needs and interests of the target audience.
3. I keep the content up-to-date by revisiting and refreshing earlier posts with new information. This demonstrates the freshness of the content, authority, and relevance to search engines.
4. Effective content promotion through social media, email marketing, and outreach initiatives helps increase visibility and attract organic backlinks.
5. Analyzing competitors’ SEO strategies helps identify gaps and opportunities. I adapt and refine our strategies based on competitive insights.

Your commitment to sharing insights with the digital marketing community is commendable. Could you highlight a recent platform where you addressed a topic close to your heart?

Indeed, my recent engagement with the “Email Breakdown” on YouTube, an episode series by Najmah Salam, was an opportunity close to my heart.

On this platform, I had the privilege to discuss two excellent AMP email use cases and share insights on how brands can steer toward success with dynamic interactive emails.

What trends do you foresee in email marketing and Martech, and what advice would you give to marketers aiming to stay ahead of the curve?

Email 2.0 represents a transformative evolution in email marketing. And its components are poised to assimilate into the broader Martech ecosystem seamlessly.

This integration will play a pivotal role in addressing the challenge of the attention recession and staying ahead of the curve in digital marketing.

Five innovations of Email 2.0 convert the customer’s “delete” mindset into “delight.”

1. Hooked Score: Measures habit creation by going beyond opens, clicks, and CTRs. Creates a 30-day exponential moving average of email actions. Offers insights to design messaging strategies based on level of engagement
2. AMP: Improves interactivity, engagement, and outcomes. Bring dynamic/live content and gamification into the emails to make them compelling. By far, the most efficient form of communication to collect zero-party data.
3. EMS: A refreshing combination of micro-content and stories that the consumers look forward to receiving. It makes reading your emails a daily habit through content that can be fully consumed in 15-30 seconds.
4. Atomic Rewards: Innovative micro-incentives that enable marketers to nudge and direct customer behavior. Based on the groundbreaking concept of rewarding customer attention, which is the precursor to customer transactions.
5. Progeny: Disrupts the world of email marketing with a paradigm shift. Driven by KPIs, it leads with pay-for-performance and offers a unified combination of strategies, creatives, software, analytics, and more.

By harnessing Email 2.0 components and addressing the attention recession, marketers can create highly engaging and effective campaigns that adapt to the changing dynamics of digital communication.

My foremost advice for marketers would be: “Invest in technologies and strategies that leverage Email 2.0 principles, and be innovative in your content creation and delivery to combat the attention recession.”