Rebrand time! Say hello to “A Go-To-Market Perspective”

As I announced in my last article , I have evolved my “Product Marketing Perspective” newsletter to grow as I grow. I will continue to write about all things product marketing (my favorite B2B tech role!), but I will also start writing about other experiences I have in taking solutions to market. Sure, LinkedIn warns us not to change the name of our newsletters once they’ve launched so as not to confuse your subscribers. But I trust that those of you that have found my articles valuable and/or entertaining don’t really care what I call it. ??

It’s not a major change - simply swapping out the words “Product Marketing” with “Go-To-Market”, but I was really intentional by calling it “A” Go-To-Market Perspective.??

My favorite current podcast is “A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs ” hosted by Andrew Hickey. The amount of research and dedication that Andrew puts into each episode is beyond admirable.? But something that he said when discussing the name of his podcast really hit home. He intentionally did not call it “The” History of Rock… He was very intentional in calling it “A” History, explaining that this podcast is his subjective interpretation of the most influential artists and songs that influenced the rock genre. He openly respects that others may have different perspectives, but this passion project of his will simply reflect his personal lens.?

And that’s what I want for my newsletter. I am not claiming to have the definitive answer to solve every go-to-market challenge imaginable. I am simply sharing one perspective - my perspective - of what I’ve learned from my personal and professional experiences.?

My Go-To-Market (GTM) Focus Areas

When I think of all things marketing, I categorize key activities into the following buckets:

• Positioning & Messaging.? The foundation of everything marketing does must begin with your story. ? What market do you compete in ?? What challenges are you best suited to solve?? Who is your ideal customer profile? What differentiates your company and solution from other options available? You can’t effectively execute a single marketing program without a clear, concise, and compelling narrative that nails your key value proposition.?
• Brand. Your positioning and messaging explains who you are and what you do.? Your brand decisions project it. Sure, outputs of these decisions include creative elements like your logo, color schemes, fonts, slide templates, photography, icon, and other design artifacts. But your brand identity also includes what tone of voice and experiences you want your customers to have when engaging with your company.? Your brand is meant to elicit an emotional response to your brand as a whole. The words in your messaging may get someone’s attention, but your brand identity is likely the thing that people will recall.
• The Marketing Funnel. Great, you’ve got a story and now you need to share it with the world. I love the distinction of demand gen vs lead gen. Demand educates your target market as to why you exist and ignites curiosity and excitement in your target markets encouraging them to want to learn more.? Lead gen then walks prospects through their buyers journey and converts interest into real opportunities that can be nurtured and converted into customers. The distinction between demand and lead generation is important, because both are necessary and you don’t necessarily leverage the same tactics to drive. The combo of demand and lead gen efforts are often referred to as the marketing funnel.
• Awareness/Demand Gen. There are a wide variety of strategies to build awareness of your brand, company, and products. Investments in PR and media relations , social media presence, events and webinars, analyst and influencer relations , and community are just a few valuable areas to invest in.
• Lead Gen. Now it’s time to make some money! How can we turn interest and awareness into qualified leads that have a decent chance of converting into closed business? Top lead gen channels include email marketing, organic and paid search, PPC, social ads, digital ads, account based marketing, product-led growth (PLG), content syndication, partner marketing, and many others.? As I mentioned in my article discussing, “My 80/20 rule obsession ,” one of the biggest challenges for a revenue marketing team is to identify the fewest programs that drive the greatest returns so you don’t spread your resources and budget too thin.
• Content. You know the story you want to tell, but how and where are you going to tell it? To attract attention and interest, you need to create compelling content that will encourage your target audience to engage with you. Your lead gen efforts will usually call this the CTA, or the “Call to Action.” What’s the action you want the prospect to take to move them through their buyer’s journey to capture that lead? Your content strategy is critical to enabling those actions.? As I discussed in my article, “The TOFU’s, MOFU’s, and BOFU’s of Content Marketing ,” there are a variety of types of content that will be necessary.?Your website is likely your most critical source of information - it’s the place prospects will most likely go to learn more about you.? But you'll also consider eBooks, white papers, blogs, customer case studies, videos, 3rd party research, analyst reports, media articles, and other sources of information to build out your content library.
• Field Enablement. Product marketing (PMM) and dedicated sales enablement teams are most commonly responsible for field enablement, which supports training for all customer-facing teams including sales, presales, customer support, services, and partners.? But in too many cases, PMM is primarily expected to enable the field on product capabilities and upcoming product launches. That is too narrow. How often within your organizations have you experienced not only a disconnect between sales and marketing teams, but a lack of trust?? I can’t tell you how often I’ve heard sales leaders say we need slides and other content that doesn’t sound like ‘marketing.’ And marketing teams complaining that sales is telling a completely different story from the one marketing crafted.? Enablement should include training the field not just on product capabilities, but on the entire GTM campaign strategy for the business. Sure, enablement will also focus on competitive positioning, pricing, qualification criteria, objection handling, and other best practices. But it must also tie sales and marketing campaigns to total business objectives for full transparency and alignment.

All of these buckets of activities will be combined into major campaign themes and programs for the year which will be assembled to develop your marketing plan.?

And this summary is the foundation of what I’m excited to write about in my newsletter!

Any areas of marketing that you’re most interested in that I left out? Please let me know. I may not have a perspective or experience in that area yet, but that’s why I’m excited about my journey.? I have a lot more to learn and share, and I hope you continue to join me on this ride!

Happy new year - I'm excited for what 2024 will bring!