Employee Spotlight: Head of Product Marketing Gabrielė Petkauskė

Welcome to another chapter of the Atlas VPN Employee Spotlight series! Today, we have the pleasure of uncovering the journey of Gabrielė Petkauskė, the Head of Product Marketing at Atlas VPN.

In this interview, we'll explore her insights on staying ahead of industry trends, her perspective on embracing failures, and much more. Get ready to be inspired!

Can you tell us about your journey to become the Head of Product Marketing?

After graduating from political science, I moved to public relations and started my career in a PR agency. I started as an assistant, later transferred to the project manager role, moving on to a team lead position.

Four years passed, and I decided that I would like to try more marketing-related tasks, such as brand positioning and campaigns which led me to work for one of the biggest online shops in Lithuania. Working there, I deepened my knowledge and learned the marketing jargon.

I decided to join Atlas VPN almost a year ago, and I’m very happy I made that decision. Working for Atlas VPN is a wonderful experience: I’m encouraged to try new things here, and the company offers marketers a lot of possibilities to grow.

What are your primary responsibilities, and how do you contribute to the overall success of Atlas VPN?

I’m responsible for Atlas VPN’s brand positioning. I manage brand and sales campaigns and oversee the creative team. Talking about contribution, I’d like to emphasize the importance of product marketing itself rather than focusing on me personally. I believe that strategic product marketing, which is closely related to brand positioning and messaging, is a significant part of a successful business.

It may seem like a brand consists only of elements like colors or logos, but it actually represents your business’s entire identity and personality. A well-chosen image and messaging can separate you from other brands, boost revenue, create trust around the customers, and even inspire others.

So, in general, I think that the whole product marketing team, which, step by step, tries to strengthen the brand and discover the best positioning angles, strongly contributes to the success of Atlas VPN.

How do you stay ahead of industry trends and ensure your marketing strategies remain effective and relevant?

Without going into too much detail, I’ll name a few things:

• Continuously researching marketing and industry trends
• Monitoring competitors and seeking ideas from other industries; for example, what could we apply to our product
• A/B testing and trying out different ideas based on our research and instinct
• Being open to your team’s recommendations and ideas

What advice would you give to someone who is just starting a career in marketing?

Always remember that marketing is a vast field that offers a lot of diverging career paths. I’d suggest trying a couple of disciplines to find the one you are most excited about. If you’re into video, download some stock footage and start editing it. If you want to become an SEO master, read as much content as possible. If writing is your thing, try to sit and write each day.

It may seem that in marketing, you need to master everything from CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) to advertising. While it doesn’t hurt to know a lot, to be a successful marketer, you have to master one or two areas of expertise. Don’t worry, and give yourself time to find the one you love the most.

What have you learned from your biggest failures at work?

Instead of focusing on where I’ve failed, I’ve learned to calm down and try to find a viable solution to remedy the issue. The most important thing after the problem is solved is to write down lessons you’ve learned from these failures to improve yourself and find the best solutions in the future.

How do you maintain a positive mindset when facing obstacles in your career and personal life?

I try my best to focus on solutions instead of dreading problems themselves. Life’s full of ups and downs, and chasing the solution turns a problem into a game, a difficult one but quite interesting.

Imagine you have a superpower that's directly related to your work. What would it be, and how would you use it in your day-to-day tasks?

I believe that one of the most important things in marketing is understanding your current and potential customers. So my superpower would be to know what customers really need. Like Mel Gibson in the movie “What Women Want.”

How awesome it’d be to instinctively understand what customers love and hate about the product, what would be their ideal product, and how they’d react to specific creatives. This would provide us with deep insights on what to improve and how to act without the need to conduct any tests.

If you could master one new skill, what would it be and why?

My daily work involves interacting with visual creatives. We closely collaborate with designers to prepare the best media assets to form a good impression for our customers. I often have a lot of different ideas in my head, but sometimes I struggle to make them come true. That’s why it would be exciting to learn graphic design. It seems like a super-useful and enjoyable skill that may even turn into a hobby.