AMA: Iterable Head of Solutions Marketing, Michele Nieberding on Go-To-Market Strategy

The biggest risk I typically see in GTM strategies is that it doesnt work. Somewhere, something was missed, or the messaging, product, etc. doesnt resonate with prospects and customers. ' I have found that your webiste is a great place to experiment to ensure this doesnt happen. It has historical data to anaylze various aspects of your GTM strategy including verticals, personas, messaging, sales motions, customer marketing, etc. Training the org is another big risk. If there is a new revenue-dri ...Read More

Looking at your current customer base and the characteristics of top customers (I do this based on ARR) is a great place to start! You can focus on relevant characteristics such as: Industry/vertical Employee headcount — companywide and within key departments Annual revenue Tech stack Geography Size of their customer base Technologyical/digital maturity  Public vs. private company (if they are looking to IPO, we have found great success in getting our foot in the door with NEW logos!) If you wan ...Read More

Every launch is different, but here is a good starting point!  Identify key stakeholders - I like to do a kickoff before a big launch wiht a POC from key teams including legal, pricing, CS, etc. as needed Align the team around the product - talk about WHAT the product is, WHY it matters, and the opportunity this brings for the company Develop a story behind the product launch and define your messaging Prepare a launch plan (and find a streamlined way to track progress) Define your success metric ...Read More

When we first started to verticalize our solution, we looked at: TAM (total addressable market) and SAM (sellable addressable market--what is realistic that YOUR company can sell in to?) CARR Win Rate Average Deal Size (ADS) Sales Cycle (# of days) Number of Curent Customers This gave us a good idea for where we were already winning and where we had the biggest opportunity. We have also been monitoring industries with high "digital maturity" based on reports from McKinsey and other analysts whic ...Read More

I hate to say it, but it depends on the launch--for example, is this a paid new feature or included? For a paid product/feature: Opportunities created Customer TAM (of the customers we have identified as a good fit for this, how many have an open opportunity?) Revenue generated For a non-paid product/feature: Demand gen metrics like webinar attendees, clicks on website, etc. are helpful since it is not related to revenue Overlap for all products/features: Adoption (how many customers have tried ...Read More

To simplify it at a high level, I would say its having a clear understand of the 3 C's: Customers, Company, and Competition. To dissect that a bit: 1. Identify your target market and key buyer personas -this includes understanding the demand 2. Understand their problems and how your product specifically solves them 3. Develop your messaging 4. Understand your customer's journey (what does the buying process look like) 5. Develop pricing strategy 6. Create marketing plan (with clearly defined suc ...Read More

It is important when thinking globally that you understand the nuances of each region/country. This typically impacts key teams including: Pricing (currency, rates, overall pricing), Product (localization, languages, support, data centers), Security, Legal (contracts and terms may be different) You also need to consider the maturity of customers in those areas. I like to create a crawl, walk, run approach and enable sales in each region on how to speak to that process so that the product can alw ...Read More

Having worked as a Product Marketer in 5 different tech companies (varying in sizes), I find that this is different everywhere I go! It has ranged from being more reactive (PM saying they have features ready for launch) to proactive (inserting myself). I have found that it can be a transition to moving to proactive, which can be tricky, especially when explaining why a "launch" might need to have a later date to formally announce it than the date it is tech ready. Clearly communicating the impac ...Read More

In the case the existing GTM strategy is not working, how can you go about redesigning the new GTM strategy? What should be the approach? This is a big question where it begs more questions than answers. And I think that's the key element is doing a deep dive and asking the right questions. Growth Mindset: Yes, you may not be happy with the way your GTM is doing but what's exciting is that you now have real life actual evidence of what worked or not. That's a critical piece of information that y ...Read More

We use a tiering system from 1-4, 1 being highest priority and 4 being the lowers. Criteria we look at to decide the tier of a release includes questions such as: Is this a major differentiation or revenue driver? Is this a product enhancement or a net new feature? Will it be a paid or free product/feature? (does this open up the company to a new revenue stream? And if so, what is the revenue potential? Is it user based or account based?) How many people with this feature affect within a given t ...Read More

Some lesser known ways: A new metric my team is looking into is TAM (total addressable market) vs. SAM (sellable addressable market) and the delta between the two. The smaller the delta, the better the product fit. If customer acquisition cost is lower than the lifetime value of your customer User adoption (make sure you define the right base audience first) x value (could be Customers who buy that feature) = feature success Some more common ways of analyzing market fit: consistent usage (i.e. f ...Read More

Get buy in EARLY, and share "excitement" around WHY the strategy was decided on and the potential value/opportunity it brings for the company and that specific marketing team! Once I have my messaging, positioning, and overall vision, I like doing a "kickoff call" with the marketing team to go through the "Why, What, and How"--I find that explaining how each person plays a critical role in the success of the strategy is key to getting buy in. When I deliver a market strategy to the marketing tea ...Read More