Product Managers build great features & products but usually miss giving attention to GTM assuming great feature will work automatically.
So sharing some thoughts based on my experience of what worked
❌ What GTM Strategy is NOT ?
🔸 identifying customer pain-points, figuring out target market/segment, competitive analysis or building Product Strategy – This should have been done much earlier before building the product or feature
🔸 Growth strategy – this comes later on when feature or product has become somewhat successful
🔸 just marketing/PR campaigns
🔸 product/feature roadmap
✔ Then what is GTM Strategy ?
🔹 an action plan to create awareness and acquire initial set of users
🔹 validation of initial hypothesis or insights. Baby step towards Product/Feature Market Fit
🔹 marketing and storytelling along with product experience – hence close working with marketing
🔹 early stage of full-fledge acquisition & retention strategy
🔹 can work along AB Test
💠 When to build GTM Strategy ?
This is where maximum PMs and even Product Leaders make mistakes.
it is built along with PRD/Design and NOT when the feature is about to be released.
👉 Reason – Most of the time GTM will have multiple dependencies and inputs for/from other teams like marketing, business, finance, operations and even PMs/Designers on how customer journey or user flow of the Product/Feature works.
E.g. if your feature is dependent on a lot of compliance and validation steps like in case of Fintech Or say in eCommerce product/feature you want users to learn a new way of browsing or engagement, in such cases you need basic education/guidance for the users. That education and guidance should resonate with GTM strategy to achieve outcome
🔅✳ Finally, how to go about building a #gotomarketstrategy✳🔅
1️⃣ Identify one or two subsets out of your target base
2️⃣ Prepare crisp value proposition
3️⃣ Identify metrics & decide success targets. Estimate backwards on how should your funnel look. You want to make sure you are able to get a sizable outcome to make any meaningful assessment.
4️⃣ Build action items with schedule/timeline for whole funnel for GTM – Awareness -> Discovery -> Education/Guidance -> Adoption/Usage -> Feedback
5️⃣ Don’t forget to estimate the cost involved in execution for budgeting, approvals and viability/extensibility of your strategy. Believe me it will save time when you actually start executing your GTM strategy
6️⃣ Make sure essence of Value Prop is consistent across all campaigns and communication whether ATL/BTL/SocialMedia/PR/Push/SMS/Emails/In-App Banners etc
7️⃣ Close the loop by collating user feedback through reviews, complaints, social media posts, user interviews and data analysis
8️⃣ Finally use insights/learnings for managing Product Roadmap and future Growth Strategies
Part 2 – https://lnkd.in/d_GxgYRP
Part 3 – https://lnkd.in/eUQHD2me
Part 4 – https://lnkd.in/dvJ2z53H