Product Launches Get Confetti. Releases Get Crickets.

Hi {{first_name}} ,

We made it to Spring—yay!

Which means it’s almost Q2—OMG!

Each month, I cut through the marketing noise to bring you real talk from other leaders, what’s actually worth reading, and the occasional hot take that makes you think.

In today’s newsletter:

Since a large part of my job now involves talking to marketing leaders at companies large and small, I’ve become a bit of a “trend forecaster” when it comes to what’s going on in the world of marketing. And the trend I’m seeing pop up more and more recently? Release Marketing.

Sexy, right?

As Product Marketers, it’s easy to overlook release marketing for the market-moving motions included in an actual launch. By the time we’re done with the product launch, PMMs have little time or energy to focus on how customers will actually use the thing. But with AI compressing development times, product teams are shipping faster than ever, and speed to market has never been more crucial. Shipping more products in a shorter amount of time means there’s an urgent need for clear, concise, predictable communication to users about everything new available to use. And it’s Release Marketing that can, and should, rally your existing customers to make them not just adopters, but champions of your product.

If a product launch tells the market there’s a new product to buy, release marketing tells your users there’s a new product available to use.

Even though there’s no point building and selling a product if it’s not going to be put to use, release marketing is often an afterthought for Product Marketers. Product launches get all the glitz and glamor: PR! Launch videos! CEO tweets! Customer testimonials! And by the time the product GAs, inevitably, someone on the Product Management or Customer Success team asks, “So, where are the release notes?”

Release marketing communicates new product and feature updates to customers and internal teams, often using a predictable cadence and a set bill of materials. Here’s how I distill the difference between launch marketing and release marketing:

A launch is a market moment tied to an announcement, whereas Release Marketing requires—you guessed it—the product to be released, aka generally available, aka ready to not just buy, but use.

Why does Release Marketing matter? Customers can’t use features they don’t know about! Release Marketing ensures customers see what’s new, understand the value, and start using it.

So what does a release marketing program actually look like — and who owns it?

Here’s where I share what I’ve found worthwhile among the myriad newsletters, podcasts, and open tabs across my devices lately. No fluff, just the good stuff.

🧠 HBR: When Using AI Leads to “Brain Fry”. A warning to marketing leaders: 26% of marketers have experienced AI brain fry, aka “mental fatigue that results from excessive use of, interaction with, and/or oversight of AI beyond one’s cognitive capacity.” According to HBR’s research, AI oversight is the most mentally taxing form of AI engagement, with workers whose AI work required a high degree of oversight experiencing 14% more mental effort. And a warning to the AI-sprawl happening: Using one or two AI tools may significantly increase productivity, but after three tools, productivity scores dipped.

tl;dr: Every organization has an AI mandate now in an attempt to increase productivity, but what if it’s actually having the opposite effect? It’s not enough to just “use AI.” You have to know how to use AI to eliminate repetitive, routine tasks, but keep the creative, engaging, insight-deriving work 100% human. And it goes without saying, but using AI shouldn’t create more work for you. If you’re working harder to manage the tools than you would if you did it yourself…just pick up a pencil.

👷‍♀ What’s the future of marketing careers? My friend, Al Dea, moderated a panel at SXSW on the future of marketing careers with the CMOs of StitchFix and Zoom. I’ll save the insights I shared with him for a future “What’s on my mind,” and instead will leave you with the nugget from the talk: Thanks to AI, marketers are becoming orchestrators, aka people who know how to direct, coordinate, and make judgment calls across a much more complex and interconnected set of tools, teams, and channels.

tl;dr: There’s no question AI is changing careers, and marketing careers are no exception. But no matter how good AI gets at automating tasks, recognizing patterns, or conducting research, you still need experts who can validate the inputs, verify the outputs, and put an authentic point of view together. Individuals don’t need to be experts at everything thanks to AI, but they need to have access to an expert on their team who can help them.

A bit of my own writing, recent engagements, client updates, and things I’m doing.

🤖 Nobody knows how to execute their AI mandate. Every marketing leader I talk to right now has been given some version of the same directive: “Use AI to move faster and cut the busywork.” And almost none of them know what that actually means in practice. I have a strong opinion that AI should not replace your voice or your thinking (you've worked too hard on both). But where can marketing teams use AI to genuinely move faster and deliver better work? I'm meeting with CMOs and marketing leaders to find out — what's working, what they wish they could do, and where the real opportunities are. My goal is to figure out how I can be an AI accelerant for marketing teams without sacrificing their voice or perspective in the process. If that's a conversation you want to be part of, reply and let's talk.

📌 Even established companies need a fresh set of eyes. I just wrapped a long-term engagement helping a well-known SaaS company take a hard look at its PMM launch strategy and org structure. Between new product offerings and reorgs, it's easy to lose the plot on whether your team is actually set up to do its best work. What I keep hearing from clients is that the value of an outside perspective isn't just a different opinion — it's that I have the time and access to talk to other marketing organizations and leaders across the industry, and bring that synthesized view back to you. Sometimes, you’re too close to your own org to see what everyone else has already figured out.

Last time I made a direct ask like this, I landed a new client, some great introductions, and a webinar. So, here I am again! Marketing leaders bring me in to add capacity or capabilities to their team. Reach out if you need someone to:

Lovable was free for a day, so I built a site that scrapes my podcast for book and episode recommendations based on your favorite Taylor Swift song, album, or theme. Look what you made me do, Lovable!

Jodi