Kelly Xu

There are two major ones I’ve used over the years. The first is pipeline generation--how much pipeline is generated by the campaigns or sales plays that are tied to the launch The second is use case adoption. There are different tools and ways to measure it but ultimately it’s usually a CRM report you can pull and analyze which use cases are being adopted, and what are customers using your product for. If it’s tied to the key use cases you promoted during the launch, and even better if there’s historical data where you can compare and ideally see a lift, that means the launch is an impactful one. I also want to share my POV about the so-called vanity metrics. I think there’s a lot of value in them because those metrics are very important early signals of whether your messaging is resonating. So instead of waiting for the pipeline number and use case adoption metrics which usually take 1-2 quarters at least, I would encourage PMMs to regularly check metrics like downloads and registrations. Initially post-launch, I recommend a monthly review or something even more frequent. Once things settle a bit, it can be a quarterly review.

First is to recognize that launch is just the beginning and the work never stops. It’s important to get all the stakeholders aligned on this mentality across the organization, so it’s not a done-and-forget thing. Second, you need to communicate to the market that your work and commitment have just started and there are a lot more exciting things in the works where you will bring more value to your user. It can be as straightforward as simply acknowledging that “last year we launched A and did B, this year we are doing B better plus C, and next year we will be doing D.” Third, depending on your business, you can create new moments that rally your team and excite your audience. Major regulations that require companies to do things differently, key 3rd party events, meaningful partnerships, new product announcements from your company, big industry news, sector trends, and so on are all great materials you can tap into for long-term engagement.

First, be prepared to sound like a broken record and repeat your messaging multiple times across different occasions, channels, and stakeholders. Second, share wins internally. Ask reps to share how they successfully sold to their customers. This is usually best arranged by a sales leader and at a sales team call or email. Third, publish external-facing customer stories to show the value the product can bring. Be deliberate about seeking new stories that cover new use cases, product capabilities, industry & persona.

I think it should be a committee of people, including product, marketing, sales, customer success, professional services, and other teams if applicable. They can own different aspects of the journey from pipeline generation, to win rates and revenue targets, to product usage and customer satisfaction scores.

Yes. Continuous monitoring of content and event performance provides key metrics that tell us what resonates with which audience, and just as important, what doesn’t perform well. It’s important to not ONLY monitor the new materials you put out there but look at things holistically. If some classic materials still perform very well, they would be great content to refresh with your latest messaging and industry trends to stay relevant.

The foundation to success is to thoroughly enable the influencer and key partners. This includes a much wider variety of topics than the product features themselves, it can be technical resources to get influencers started, building relationships between you and the partner beyond just the C level or your initial point of contact, and educating your partners on your messaging, go-to-market strategies and key use cases. Again, if that work is done properly and effectively, the network effect will be much stronger. Another key lever for success is to have dedicated resources to help those partners and influencers. 100% of one person’s time will be way more effective than 10% of ten people’s time. It goes without saying that you need to set clear expectations, ownership, and responsibility internally on who should own those programs. 

Step one is to develop a clear view of what the different stages are. That process alone requires a lot of research, analyzing data (if there’s any), and internal agreement on a framework that sales can grasp and apply in their pitch. I would say that’s actually the most challenging part to get it right. Once everyone is on the same page, you can then work with the broader team to develop different materials that surface to different customers at the agreed-upon stages. Last but not least is to track performance and develop a reasonably fast feedback loop so that you can make adjustments as needed and continue to optimize.

There are multiple criteria to decide whether a dedicated industry marketing resource is needed. First, does this vertical need distinct, industry specific messaging and GTM motion? Are the use cases very different from other industries? So different that an industry agnostic story wouldn’t be effective? If an industry needs some industry specific features, or faces industry specific regulations and maturity curve, it might warrant dedicated marketing resources too. Second, does it have alignment with sales? Are there a critical mass of sellers who are dedicated to sell to accounts in that vertical and can take your messaging & positioning to market? Third, does the industry have a big enough TAM to justify the investment? What are the sub-vertical within the industry or accounts and partners that are in the ecosystem? Fourth, are there proven customer success and ongoing resources to keep investing and growing this vertical? Does the company have a lot of opportunity to win and grow in that vertical? An industry led GTM motion is a long term commitment, sales need to get familiar with the vertical specifics, the marketing team needs time to develop assets, the funnel takes time to nurture and the pipeline takes time to grow. Without a long term commitment, you won’t be able to make the most out of your initial investment.

I would start with learning more about the account. What are their company priorities and key initiatives? What personas are you meeting with and what are the pain points they’ve shared? What technology are they using today and what are their key areas of technology investments? I would go from there to put together the personalized pitch, highlighting the use cases and value prop that will resonate the most with the challenges they are facing. 

"Talking to customers" doesn't always need to happen via a customer call. I have personally found the following ways to be very helpful: 1) Industry reports published by analysts, consulting firms and relevant market research firms in your domain. These reports usually highlight customer priorities, challenges, pain points and top use cases at an aggregated level, and can be a very effective way to understand the broader market trend. 2) Online communities, be that X, Reddit, G2, Medium, LinkedIn, etc, anywhere your target audience are sharing with each other. 3) Leverage insights from existing calls/analyses. Without setting up an additional call, you can get a lot of customer insights via sales calls, QBRs, user research, regular newsletter/readouts that touches on customer use cases already. 4) Speak to colleagues who work with a lot of customers regularly. This is particularly effective if you have a specific question or want to workshop something for your messaging or campaign.