Zuora

Product Marketing Associate

University of Nottingham

International student ambassador

Content Creator

Summit Creative

-Owned the creation of a brand bible to achieve consistency in content and communications with key stakeholder management.

-Created a content and communication strategy for social media, website, emails and internal communication by carrying competitor analysis, audits, performing SWOT analysis and aligning company goals with 3-month and 6-month KPIs.

-Developed content across the board with stakeholder and team-buy in to generate brand awareness and boost lead generation.

Content Strategist

ConvertKit

-Wrote articles around the creator economy and ConvertKit, as an email software solution for creators, following a content brief by the editor.

-Conducted thorough research for each article through Google, social media, webinars, transcribing podcasts, interviewing subject matter experts through LinkedIn and Twitter, and reflecting on my own experience as a social media content creator, conducting bootcamps for freelancers, and collaborating with brands for creator campaigns.

Blog Writer

Flying Cat Marketing

-Created data-driven, research-heavy and SaaS-based blog posts for client accounts in diverse niches including marketing and behavior analytics, hospitality software solutions and guides and documentation solutions. 

Client accounts: Hotjar, Homebase, Jetstream, Operto, Hospitable, and Stonly.

-Collaborated with the agency's content workflow in ClickUp, working with the client, project managers, content strategists, and editors to create articles that solve user problems, rank well on Google and drive strategic product sign-ups.

B2B SaaS Writer

Zapier

-Worked directly with the Managing Editor at Zapier.

-Pitched productivity-related topics, based off my personal experience of managing a freelance business.

-Worked with Deb on the outlines for these articles, wrote them with thorough online, and experience-backed research to publish them on the Zapier blog.

SaaS and Productivity Writer

VEED.IO

-Worked directly with the Head of Content at Veed.io.

-Wrote long-form, and research-heavy articles around videos, and video marketing, following detailed content briefs that informed me about the funnel stage, target audience details, post intent and SERP analysis. 

This lay the groundwork, gave me direction on my content pieces and helped me deliver content that could one up our competitors.

-Positioned VEED's product offerings strategically throughout the blog posts to encourage the reader to solve their problems using our product, and successfully drive traffic, and boost click through rate along with product sign-ups.

SaaS Writer

InVideo

-Worked with the content lead and managing editor on creating outlines for pieces related to video marketing, as per the content strategy.

-Understood their product offerings, used it firsthand, researched about the industry and users to write articles from an informed and pain point-driven perspective by combining different sources of information that allowed me to create original articles that helped readers solve their problems with actionable advice, and which also rank well on SERPs.

-Strategically placed their product as a solution throughout the articles to drive click-throughs and product sign-ups.

Senior Writer

Dialogues

-Remote internship in my 2nd year of college.

-Wrote articles around freelancing and startups, collaborated with the editor to incorporate feedback and give suggestions on presenting it well on the website for reader comprehension.

Content Writer

labgo.in

-Remote internship in 2nd year of college.

-Paraphrased 50+ lab descriptions for the website, while collaborating with the Founder and CEO.

-Wrote long-form articles around the cluster of "lab testings."

Web Content Writer

Msc Marketing Graduate | Product Marketer | B2B SaaS Writer for Hotjar, Shopify, ConvertKit | 🎯Helping SaaS brands drive awareness and demand with product-led content | Content Marketer

Hey👋
I’m a content and product marketer, recently graduated with an Msc in Marketing from the University of Nottingham. Prior to this, I worked as a freelance writer and content strategist for B2B SaaS brands like ConvertKit, Zapier, Hotjar, and Shopify; created content on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram—totalling an audience of 135,000; spoke at industry-leading events and was awarded a financial grant as part of the LinkedIn Creator Accelerator Program.

While my experience has largely been in content marketing, leaning on writing and storytelling heavily (thanks to the literature grad in me), I've always kept a close eye on what the product team is doing, taking ownership in launches, messaging, GTM strategies and competitive intelligence while combining my skills in content, comms, narrative creation, marketing and personal branding.

I've also collaborated on creator campaigns with brands like CRED, Byju’s, Maybelline Paris, Color’s Infinity and ClickUp, was one of the earliest members of LinkedIn Creator Management Program in India and was featured under Pepper's 30 women in content marketing.

Outside of work, you’ll find me watching Gilmore Girls (currently at my fourth rewatch) or cooking!

If you'd like to connect, feel free to drop a direct message or connect at komal.ahuja7372@gmail.com.

I moved to London almost 6 months back with the most uncertainty I’ve ever faced in my life. 

Fresh out of university, trying to create a mark in a different country, pivoting from content to product, facing visa issues and finding a house in one of the most expensive cities in the world - you can imagine I had more low days than high. 

A few things I realised, which echo in my mind every now and then:

1. Cliche, but be prepared for things to go in the opposite direction of how you want them to go YET still work out for you. I got rejected for more than 100 content roles (with 4 years of experience) and landed a product marketing role - a title I haven’t held before and that worked out for the absolute best. 

2. Boiling down from the last one - things happen in unexpected ways but you will never be able to receive them if you don’t keep an open mind.

3. What you don’t have will always look more fascinating as compared to what you do have. That really never goes away - unless you start living in the present and not forget that hiccups are a part and not your whole life in itself.

4. There’s either doing it or giving up. When things don’t work well, your mind will find a 100 different ways to ditch the uncomfortable and take the safe route out. 

There’s no problem in doing that - but there’s growth and (so much) self-awareness in making difficult decision and riding out the tough times - resilience is a sweet virtue which pays dividends for a long time.

5. Surround yourself with people who hold a mirror in front of you when you need it. 

Most people will sugarcoat things for you just because they don’t want to have very deep conversations or expense effort in trying to make a point. So try and find those handful who will do that at times, be a good sounding board for your thoughts but also give you the reality check.

I believe international students and immigrants are among the strongest people I’ve ever met - to be able to make sacrifices, live really far from home and build a life from scratch is truly admirable. It’s not easy, but hang in there because it’s a long time coming!

Komal Ahuja

You’ll find way too much advice on finding a job as an international student - I did too. But the reality is quite different than what I was told during my job search.

Deepali Kothari and I got to talking about this and here are a couple of reel vs real takes on job search in the UK:

👉”Keep your options open” is far too vague of an advice. Too many people suggested I apply to generalist marketing roles because I’d have higher chances given the sheer volume of such roles in the country - but all that did was loop me in a numbers game and discount my chances of being a specialist.

BUT, niching down and finding my sweet spot between what I’d done before and how I wanted to progress further really helped position myself better on LinkedIn, tailor my CV, cover letter and pitches and overall, personalise my applications. 

So your best bet is to play the quality game and quit the spray and pray mentality.

👉Getting the first interview is a HUGE part but only half the battle. Powering through the whole process to position yourself as the right candidate for the role and company while sorting the legalities associated with being hired as an immigrant isn’t very straightforward.

But it’ll be way easier to navigate if you really own and lead the conversation by knowing answers to the if’s and but’s around the post-study work visa or skilled worker visa + rely on the massive network on LinkedIn to prepare the absolute best for interviews so the company can’t afford to let you slip through the cracks - especially because of admin dependencies.

You do need just ONE company to take a bet on you—find that one and make it worth their (and your) while.

👉Graduating from a top university or even top of class is an excellent feat. But unfortunately that doesn’t guarantee you a job. So, while you focus on your coursework, find space to accommodate some country-specific experience in your field, be it through an internship, volunteer position or part-time placement. 

Highlighting transferable skills is helpful but it’s not enough to land a job in this market, especially being an immigrant. So try to get some real experience and results on your CV and badger your past employers to add numbers in there - that impact will really put you ahead.

While I totally believe getting a job in the UK is not easy and requires a lot of resilience, truth be told, it also has a bit of luck involved in it.

So just be in a constant test, execute, and iterate cycle and ask for help—you’ll be surprised to see how many people show up.

Want to read ahead for 3 more valuable takes? Head over to Deepali’s post for part two🚀

#internationalstudents

The trickiest bit about product marketing is that it quickly takes the shape of "everything under the sun"—unless you prioritise. 

Since where product marketing sits - under the product team, marketing team or an individual function - varies with the org and business model, there's no one way to define what a product marketer does. 

But the challenge is that very quickly everything can land on your to-do list if you don't have priorities to go back to and qualify what you should or shouldn't take up. This was also perhaps one of the most important questions I asked in my calls with product marketers from other companies leading upto my job and those within my team after joining as well.

As I'm in process of setting my own goals and priorities, here's what's helping:

1. Work your way backwards
Business > Product > Product priorities

Your work as a product marketer needs to complement what the product team is doing - developing new features, making feature enhancements, resolving technical debt, research for roadmap planning, etc. This feeds into what the business wants to achieve in a short and long haul so your KPIs are directly tied to the business' KPIs. 

Being a cross-functional role with a lot of joint initiatives, it can get difficult to keep a track of your core metrics, so I view "influence" metrics to be helpful. For example, influence of your competitive intel and enablement efforts on opportunities/ACV won.

2. Let the data do some talking

Zooming into the larger business priorities, try focusing on what is more likely to move the needle. For example, if a lot of the upsell/cross-sell opportunities either have an extended sales cycle, consistently become stalled or don't end up being converted, you may have to work on making expansion + enablement a priority and work with the cross-functional teams to eliminate friction.

I find it helpful to block some time on Mondays to go over pipeline numbers and opportunities while listening into prospect/customer calls from the previous week, browsing customer success channels on Slack and support tickets (if relevant), enablement usage and adoption as well as any visible blockers in team conversations. Consistent feedback loops and 1-1s with the team are also helpful in refocusing if necessary.

While it can be tempting to get involved in projects that seem interesting, it's more important to delegate time working on those that will contribute to the larger goals. Personally, having set priorities and using that as direction to plan my weeks and pick/drop projects is helpful - but it's also wise to maintain some agility in case an urgent or time-sensitive initiative requires your involvement.

What's your top tip to prioritise?

#productmarketing #saas 

Building a product, you can often get lost in the features and functionality, not realising that your customers don't care about it as much as you think they do.

They care about which problem it helps them solve and "why" you have the absolute best solution for it.

Here, customer pain points, blockers, and the most straightforward questions they've always gotten complex answers for need to be echoed.
 
As a product marketer, few of my most frequently asked questions in meetings, and while creating any internal or external-facing collateral is:

1. How does this help the customer?
2. Why should they care?
3. Does this help them perform X job better? In what way?
4. What sort of outcome/metric can they improve with this?

The simpler it is for customers to understand this, the better it is. However, the challenge is balancing the narrative between how product defines this vs how the market defines this for maximum resonance and adoption, where the "so what" framework comes in very handy.

For example, say you develop a new feature enabling your customers to export user data with their chosen attributes and filters. That's the functionality of your feature, but you can discover the "why" by repeatedly asking "so what."

A: customers can now download their user data with custom attributes and filters
👉so what?
A: they can now collect, store and export their first-party data - all in one place
👉so what?
A: this will allow them to own their data and not just collect it 
👉so what?
A: they can activate their "owned" user data for further data analysis, segmentation or more personalized targeting

Today, the cognitive load associated with content consumption and decision making is really significant. And you can't afford to have your customer communication or messaging be a hit or miss each time. So, lead with "why" and reveal the rest on a need-to-know basis to avoid overcomplicating your product.

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