Emily Kramer

Use 'Areas of Responsibility' (AORs) to define clear ownership beyond job titles to reduce cross-functional friction.

"We had a list of areas of responsibility which is just who owns what, it's not your job title. It's what are the things that you are the DRI for? It doesn't mean you're not going to collaborate with p..."

Prioritize candidates with experience in your specific business model (e.g., PLG vs. Enterprise) over those with specific industry or audience experience.

"I think having the right business model experience is almost more important than having industry experience or experience with that audience. And I think often people are like, I need someone who is m..."

The ideal first marketing hire is a 'pie-shaped' generalist with deep expertise in two core areas and the strategic ability to manage the rest.

"You want the first marketer to be an expert in one of those three areas that I mentioned, product marketing, content marketing, growth marketing. And you want them to be proficient in another one, the..."

Avoid hiring early marketers from large, siloed organizations; look for those who have seen the 'foundation' being built.

"I think I want to see that they've worked on a team that's early enough where they are not siloed into their specific role. Because what happens at leader stage companies or at public companies is whe..."

In PLG companies, the 'marketing-to-product handoff' is as critical as the 'marketing-to-sales handoff' in traditional models.

"It's like how do you get the marketing to product handoff right? And if it means you have someone that owns onboarding, it's in a hybrid role, then great. If it means there's a committee sort of situa..."

Marketing should be viewed as a combination of 'fuel' (content and messaging) and 'engine' (distribution and operations).

"Forget the product marketing content partner, demand and growth, forget all of it, and just think of marketing as you need a fuel and you need an engine. And goal is like all the things that you're cr..."

Core positioning must answer three questions: What is it, why is it better, and who is it for?

"The company that you're working on, what's the product? Why is it better? Who is it for? It's the most basic positioning question you can ask, but a lot of people can't answer it. So that's a good one..."

The GACCS framework (Goals, Audience, Creative, Channels, Stakeholders) ensures strategic alignment before executing any major marketing project.

"This is a marketing brief that I recommend you do before you make anything big in marketing or do any big projects. And it's just what are the goals? What's the audience? What's the creative or unique..."

Marketing teams must be measured by impact (funnel metrics) rather than activity (volume of content).

"If our goal is to write 10 blog posts this month. And I'm like, no, that's not a goal, that's maybe a tactic. But the goal should be traffic and the conversion rate from that traffic or the signups th..."