AMA: Nasuni VP of Product Marketing, Justin Fink on Go-To-Market Strategy

In terms of relating GTM work and associated with products or services, you should have a clear alignment of the level of impact that a product will have in market (estimated) and build a strategy around that. This can be done through market and competitive research, customer interviews (1:1 or 1:many), and then align the product to a given launch tier (Tier 1 getting the most GTM support v. Tier 3 / 4 getting the least). Examples are highlighted below: 1. Tier 1: Major Launch (Strategic, High-Impact): 1. Definition: A flagship release introducing a new product or a solution expected to drive revenue and market positioning. PR-worthy: Reporters may pick this up as earned media. 2. Examples: Major platform upgrade, entry into a new market segment (e.g. new vertical, AI solution). 3. Marketing Effort: Full Marketing Resourcing: PR, analyst briefings, live/virtual events, demand generation, sales enablement. 4. Success Metrics: Revenue impact, pipeline influence, customer acquisition, media coverage, etc. 2. Tier 4: Maintenance / Technical Release : 1. Definition: Routine updates, bug fixes, or security patches. 2. Examples: Performance patches, backend optimizations. 3. Marketing Effort: Internal release notes, customer advisory (if needed). 4. Success Metrics: CSAT / NPS impact, support ticket reduction.

I break this down into a few buckets: 1. Roles & Responsibilities: Detail the product marketing owner, product management counterpart, and important stakeholders. 2. Key Dates: Highlight the important dates (product in limited v. general availability, marketing moment, etc.). 3. Goal(s): What are the goals of the launch 4. Messaging Docs: Detail relevant messaging docs associated with a product launch. 5. Overview: Give an overview of the product, feature, or solution (blend of products, features, services; vertical launch; etc.) 6. CTAs: What are you trying to drive the targets of the launch to do 7. Tactics: Walk through all of the different tactics (content, channel) with associated timing 8. External Pages: What will be public-facing 9. Internal Resources: Highlight helpful internal resources for internal stakeholders to learn more

The varying degrees when thinking through partner-specific tactics are dramatic, but I break it down into a few buckets: 1. Who is in your current portfolio of partners and how do you partner with them on GTM? 1. You need to understand the customer overlap and how you can partner to/through/with them to access a part of a prospect base? 2. Does this current partner base assist with your ability to get net new customers / target enterprise v. small biz customers? 1. This is a question of whether you have the right partners if you're looking to target enterprise v. SMB organizations. Only then would I ask what the appropriate channels are to activate your partners (e.g. co-host events, co-create content, build referral agreements, create technical integrations {expand use cases to advertise}, etc.).

If it is not working, you should first assess two areas: 1. Is it the first launch of its kind at the company (product tier, product category)? 2. What is the metrics baseline for this product launch? These questions should be asked to determine if it truly 'isn't working' or whether it is just new and we need to see the launch fully through before making a determination. If the answer is (1) no and (2) there is no baseline yet, then you can: 1. Change the specific tactics to lean into what specific activities are working better than others 2. Pull funding for marketing tactics that aren't working well 3. Let the launch program run it's course, run a post-mortem, and pivot for the next launch (those learnings should be applied to similar tiered / similar product category launches)

I create 2 documents for every launch: 1. GTM Plan - Brief: This includes below 1. Roles & Responsibilities: Detail the product marketing owner, product management counterpart, and important stakeholders. 2. Key Dates: Highlight the important dates (product in limited v. general availability, marketing moment, etc.). 3. Goal(s): What are the goals of the launch 4. Messaging Docs: Detail relevant messaging docs associated with a product launch. 5. Overview: Give an overview of the product, feature, or solution (blend of products, features, services; vertical launch; etc.) 6. CTAs: What are you trying to drive the targets of the launch to do 7. Tactics: Walk through all of the different tactics (content, channel) with associated timing 8. External Pages: What will be public-facing 9. Internal Resources: Highlight helpful internal resources for internal stakeholders to learn more 2. GTM Messaging Doc 1. Overview 2. Description of product (15- and 50- words) 3. Audience / Target Market 4. Why it's great 5. Proof points / case studies 6. Core CTAs 7. FAQs

I have clear definitions for a product, feature, or solution: 1. Product: Standalone good or service that provides value to customers; something we develop, market, and sell to solve customer problems / needs. 2. Feature: Specific functionality or capability within a product that enhances its value but does not stand alone (features contribute to the overall usefulness of a product). 3. Solution: A solution is how a product (or combination of products and services) and its features work together to solve a specific customer problem. Solutions are often tailored to particular industries, roles, or business challenges, and may involve dependencies on 3rd-party technology and / or products. These should fit into a specific tiering framework of the level of impact that any of these offerings will have in market (Tier 1 - most marketing support; Tier 3/4 - least). Based on this, the level of marketing support will shift (meaning the investment will shift), and hence the importance of goals of a launch are exacerbated.

I typically look to assess the impact of a product and whether it will have a stronger impact or if a revenue model is built around it. I typically try to get as close to revenue or product usage / engagement metrics as those figures typically are what executives care about. However, broader example metrics are below: Messaging & Positioning: 1. Message Resonance & Product Perception: Track shifts in company & product perceptions post-messaging updates (customer surveys) 2. Conversion Rate on Messaging: Evaluate if your messaging is effective in converting leads or website visitors into opportunities or customers (website stats, surveys, pipeline progression) 3. Brand Awareness: Measure target audience recognition and recalls the product/brand (unaided & aided surveys) Outbound (Launches) 1. Product Adoption Rate (post launch) 2. Revenue Growth: Revenue generated directly from the product launch (new customers, upsell) 3. TOFU: MQLs 4. Lead Conversion Rate 5. Sales Pipeline Growth: Measure the increase in opportunities and deals in the pipeline 6. Customer Feedback Post-Launch: Gather and analyze feedback after the launch to assess PMF Inbound Research 1. Feature Adoption Rate 2. Recommendation Usage: Insights leveraged by product teams for inclusion in roadmap 3. Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) or Net Promoter Score (NPS): Feedback on how satisfied customers are with the product / overall customer loyalty 4. Churn Rate: The percentage of customers who stop using the product over a certain period 5. Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV) Enablement Overall takes longer to evaluate, qualitative feedback form sales is imperative 1. Win Rate 2. Sales Collateral Usage 3. Deal Velocity: Time it takes for a deal to move through the sales funnel after receiving enablement 4. Quota Attainment 5. Sales Cycle Length

1. Goals / Metrics Alignment: Typically GTM launches for product marketing have loose goals associated with them. You need to strive to put a # (revenue, product engagement, etc.) to a specific launch; it is critical. If you don't have a baseline, you need to take an educated guess and then continue to baseline, as slowly over time you will form baselines are various tiered launches. 1. Mitigation plans can include putting realistic / educated baselines to launches with the caveat that you are entering into the unknown. 2. Overdoing a Launch: It is common to overdue the amount of channels that are used in a launch without systematically thinking through how much marketing support is needed. 1. Always ask whether a tactic is worth it and how it will contribute to your launch goal (e.g. increase revenue by 2%) or a tangential goal (e.g. increase share of voice). Those are my two biggest risks I have to address most frequently; the others are a distant third and beyond.

The key here is building out a 'messaging source of truth' that can serve as a living-breathing document various GTM teams can go to when revamping materials. This document includes: 1. Industry overview 2. Company overview 1. Vision / mission 2. What is the company? 3. Company pillars 4. How differentiated 5. Challenges the company addresses 3. Product details (for each core product) 1. Solution Summary 2. Elevator Pitch Description 3. Key Messages 4. Audience 5. Customer Challenges 6. Use Cases 7. Differentiators & Proof Points 8. Routes to Market 9. Product Description Then it requires consistent enablement and circulation with all GTM teams (ideally on a monthly basis or when there are major changes).