Go To Market Planning

One company writes 100 blog articles with 0 traffic.
 Another publishes 10 and fills a pipeline. Why? At first glance, both are investments in content.
 So why does one system fail while the other works? The problem isn’t volume. Or format. Or distribution. The problem is starting in the wrong place. What SPECIFIC kind of marketing steers the ship? → If you start from growth marketing, you’re f*cked. → If you start from content marketing, you’re f*cked. Where do you need to start? (I know this should be obvious, but so often isn’t). PRODUCT MARKETING. → Start with product marketing and you’re rock solid. Without a strong product marketing foundation… → Content becomes fast food quality.  → Messaging is watered down. → AI makes the noise louder. The only way to build a GTM system that compounds is to Start with Product Marketing at the core: That means: → ICP — Know your customers, intimately → Positioning — How you’re better than alternatives → Messaging — Articulate, not sell, your value prop That solid core gives you the clarity to create content that resonates, because you know EXACTLY whose taste you’re designing for. Here’s how I think about the three layers of GTM: Core: Product Marketing What you do (better) and who’s it for → ICP model → Comparison pages → Competitor analysis → Messaging and positioning → Case studies and proof points  → Sales calls and win/loss analysis → Home, persona, use cases, solution pages 
 Middle: Content Marketing How you articulate your Product Marketing → Thought leadership, ebooks → Blog content and newsletter → Video explainers, webinars  → Email nurture sequences → Podcasts & whitepapers Outer: Growth Marketing / Distribution

 Where you inject your messaging and content → Community seeding — Slack, Discord, Reddit → Affiliates, influencers, and strategic referrals → Technical and programmatic SEO → Partnerships and co-marketing → Paid search and paid social → Cold and warm outbound → Event sponsorships, PR When the core is ultra clear, the middle layer can perform Because it’s targeted and differentiated. And once content is working, the outer layer has something worth scaling. TLDR: → Invest in the foundations of product marketing.
 → Build all content within product marketing.
 → Distribution will work itself out. This is where I help clients: getting the core right so the second layer can actually work.

Most GTM strategies fail because they're built for 2020, not 2025. I’ve been fortunate to speak to 50+ founders and operators in 2025 about their GTM. Here's what actually works when buyers have changed, budgets are tight, and your engineering team is drowning in technical debt that's killing your sales velocity. 73% of GTM leaders say their biggest challenge isn't finding prospects, it's getting their own internal systems to work together. Your sales team promises features that engineering can't deliver on time. Your marketing team drives leads that your CRM can't properly track. Your customer success team fights fires that better technical execution could prevent. Sound familiar? After working with 20+ growth-stage companies since the start 2024, here are the 5 strategies that separate winners from the "we'll figure it out next quarter" crowd: 1. Audit Your Technical GTM Stack Stop layering tools on broken foundations. I watched a VP of Marketing spend $180K on a new marketing automation platform while their basic lead routing was broken. Fix your data flow before scaling your outbound. 2. Align Engineering Roadmaps with Sales Promises Make your CTO and Head of Sales best friends. Revenue dies in the gap between "we can build that" and "when exactly?" One product company increased their close rate 34% just by syncing product releases with sales commitments. 3. Build Buyer-Centric Content, Not Feature Lists Your prospects don't care about your API. They care about sleeping better at night. The best performing content I've seen focuses on business outcomes, not technical specifications. Remember what your buyer persona’s pain points are. 4. Create Cross-Functional Revenue Accountability Marketing, Sales, CS, and Product should share the same revenue number. Not just "pipeline contribution." When everyone owns the full customer lifecycle, magic happens. 5. Measure GTM Velocity, Not Just Volume Track how fast prospects move through your funnel, not how many you stuff into it. Velocity metrics reveal bottlenecks that volume metrics hide. Many founders and operators optimize for looking busy instead of being effective. They add more tools, more campaigns, more meetings, when what they really need is better alignment between their technical execution and their go-to-market strategy.

Busy ≠ strategic. Motion ≠ progress. After advising 50+ health tech startups, I can spot the difference in five minutes. Companies with GTM strategy: "We target 150-300-bed hospitals in Texas and KS using Cerner or Athena" "Our ICP is health systems spending $500K+ on readmission penalties" "We avoid practices with <10 providers because our CAC exceeds LTV" Companies with GTM activity: "We're targeting provider groups" "We have 17 different personas" "We're launching in all 50 states" Strategy is saying no 100 times to say yes once. Activity is saying yes 100 times and wondering why nothing works. The most successful health tech GTM strategies I've built follow the 1-3-5 rule: 1 primary customer segment 3 key use cases 5 competitor differentiation points Everything else is distraction. If you can't explain your GTM strategy in 60 seconds, you don't have one. You have a to-do list.

Here’s where most companies fail—they tweak targeting or messaging but leave everything else untouched. ICP research is not an exercise to get voice of the customer data for copywriting. A winning GTM requires a full recalibration. Tweaking your messaging or targeting is a start, but if the rest of your go-to-market strategy isn’t aligned with your ICP, you’re leaving massive growth potential untapped. Here’s all that ICP research need to influence: 1. Messaging & positioning: Address your ICP pain points and goals directly, in a way that highlights your onlyness (where you win). 2. Demand gen targeting: Focus your spend where your ICP actually spends time. Know the communities they belong to, newsletter they read, etc. 3. Product roadmap: Build what your ICP needs—not just what sounds exciting. Their priorities are your priorities. 4. Sales enablement: Equip your team with playbooks and objection-handling scripts tailored to your ICP’s specific concerns. 5. Sales process: Simplify the buying experience to match how your ICP likes to purchase. Align timelines, remove friction. 6. Content creation: Create resources that speak directly to their challenges and goals. 7. Customer marketing: Turn ICPs into advocates. Build strategies for retention, advocacy, and expansion that deepen relationships. ICP alignment is a transformation that touches every part of your strategy.

Most founders track activity, not what actually drives revenue. That's why most GTM efforts feel busy but produce nothing predictable. Here's everything you should actually be tracking for GTM success: 1. Pipeline → Qualified pipeline per month → Pipeline coverage ratio → % from outbound → Pipeline by ICP segment Consistent pipeline is the leading indicator for everything downstream. If you don't know where it's coming from, you can't control what comes next. 2. Meetings → Meetings booked → Show rate → Qualification rate → Meetings per SDR Booked meetings are not a success metric. A full calendar of the wrong people is just waste. Show rate and qualification rate together tell you whether your pipeline is real or inflated. 3. Offer Performance → Reply rate by segment → Positive reply rate → Conversion to discovery → % value delivered before the meeting High reply rate with a low positive reply rate means your hook works but your offer doesn't. If you're not tracking value delivered before the first call, you're missing the thing that separates good GTM activity from average. 4. Sales Reality → Close rate → Sales cycle length → Revenue per rep → Win rate by ICP A long cycle with a low close rate is usually a positioning problem, not a sales problem. Win rate by ICP tells you which segments you're actually built for. 5. Unit Economics → Fully loaded CAC → CAC by channel → LTV on fully loaded margin basis → LTV:CAC ratio Most companies undercount CAC by ignoring tool costs, management time, and failed hires. Anything below 3:1 LTV:CAC and you're not building a business, you're buying revenue. 6. Infrastructure Health → Deliverability rate → Bounce rate → Domain reputation → CRM data accuracy Even the best offer gets zero results with broken infrastructure. Most teams only check this after something breaks. 7. Retention → Revenue from returning customers → Retention curve → Expansion revenue → % revenue from customers over 12 months Acquisition costs are front-loaded. Retention is where the margin lives.   Expansion revenue is the clearest signal you're delivering real results, not just closing deals. Looking to scale your business with outbound and GTM? Apply for our no-cost, no-risk pilot. We'll run a live campaign so you can see real results before committing. Apply here: https://bit.ly/C17Pilot Repost for the founder who needs to see this. Follow Enzo Carasso 🧲 for more on GTM systems, offer design, and revenue execution.

Founders are wasting time and money choosing the wrong GTM strategy for their business. 💸 You'll lose cycles if you blindly copy and paste GTM motions without understanding the core fundamentals. The truth? Your price point dictates your GTM strategy. Think about it. When you're selling $500K+ enterprise software: - Can't throw it on a credit card - It needs budget approval - Procurement will spend 4-5 weeks negotiating - Legal and security reviews are mandatory - RFPs and bake-offs are inevitable Yet, I see founders trying to force the wrong GTM motion to work. We did this previously at Iteratively, and it took me a year to figure out the hard way. We thought we could be a product-led company but realized late that sales-led was the motion that was a better fit given the sales complexity. What to think about for your company: 🏢 Enterprise ($500K+) - Sales-led motion is - 6-12 month sales cycles - Multiple decision makers - Relationship-building focus - Value-based pricing - ROI-driven conversations 🏗️ Mid-market ($50K+) - Hybrid approach works best (sales assisted) - Targeted free trials (not freemium) - Qualified demo-to-close process - Streamlined procurement - 1-3 month sales cycles 🌱 SMB/Low-price - Product-led growth - Self-service emphasis - Freemium/trial strategies - Usage-based expansion - Data-driven onboarding The key is aligning your GTM motion to value and price accordingly to match it. What price point are you targeting, and how did you choose your GTM strategy? 🤔

Want to know why 76% of product launches fail in their first year? A weak Go-To-Market strategy. After analyzing 500+ successful product launches across Fortune 500 companies, I've identified the core principles that separate winners from losers in the marketplace. Here's your blueprint for a robust GTM plan: 1. Market Intelligence - Deep dive into customer pain points - Analyze competitive landscape - Identify market gaps and opportunities 2. Value Proposition - Clear problem-solution fit - Unique selling points - Compelling customer benefits 3. Target Audience - Detailed buyer personas - Decision-maker mapping - Customer journey analysis 4. Channel Strategy - Multi-channel distribution approach - Partner ecosystem development - Sales enablement framework 5. Pricing Strategy - Value-based pricing model - Competitive positioning - Market penetration tactics 6. Launch Timeline - Phased rollout plan - Key milestones - Resource allocation Pro tip: Your GTM plan should be a living document. Review and adjust quarterly based on market feedback and performance metrics. Remember: A great product without a solid GTM strategy is like a Ferrari without fuel - impressive, but going nowhere. What's your biggest challenge in creating a GTM plan? #ProductLaunch #GTMStrategy #BusinessStrategy #ProductManagement

Most startups don’t have a marketing problem. They have a go-to-market strategy problem. They jump straight into campaigns, content, and channels… Before they’ve figured out: → Who they’re actually targeting (ICP) → What to sell them (Offer) → Why those people buy (PMF) → What they should be saying (Positioning) → How to efficiently reach them (Channels & Motion) → What has to happen first to drive growth (Prioritization) That’s GTM Strategy. It’s the cross-functional blueprint for growth—across product, marketing, sales, and support. Marketing strategy? That’s just one part of it. It’s the execution and distribution plan after you’ve got the fundamentals down. Here’s the simplest way I can think to explain the difference: Marketing strategy is about doing marketing right. GTM strategy is about making sure you’re doing the right marketing in the first place. Don’t mistake motion for progress. Don’t pour money into tactics before locking in your GTM strategy.

A lot of founders think "go-to-market" means "How do I promote this?" In reality, there’s 9 other things to figure out. Here is the framework I call “the 10 Ps of GTM”: The first 4 Ps everyone knows: 1. Product: What value are you offering and why should anyone care? 2. Pricing: How you capture value. Does your price reflect perceived value, reinforce your positioning, and support healthy margins? 3. Place: Your distribution strategy. How does your product or service reach the people who buy it? 4. Promotion: How you create demand. What channels, messages, and tactics do you use to generate awareness, interest, and acquisition? The next 6 Ps are where many founders have blind spots: 5. Persona: Who exactly are you targeting? What traits define them? Clarity here drives your entire message. 6. Platform: Where does your product live? Do you build your own site or use an existing platform such as Shopify or Amazon? Do you need an app? This decision affects speed, cost, control, data access, and long-term scalability. 7. Plan: How are you funding your go-to-market? Bootstrap, debt, equity? Your financing model determines the intensity and speed of execution. 8. Profit Formula: What do your unit economics look like? Margin, payback period, acquisition cost. A GTM that doesn’t make economic sense won’t scale. 9. People: Do you have the capabilities required to execute? If not, will you hire, upskill, or bring in external operators? 10. Processes: How does work actually get done? Campaign management, creative workflows, reporting, measurement. Repeatability creates efficiency. The rule of thumb for the 10 Ps: - Go live as soon as possible - Get feedback fast  - Refine over time You can have an MVP for every single P. But you cannot go to market without thinking about all 10. They're all interconnected. PS: If you're curious about how to approach the 10 Ps in detail, I'll cover this in the next issue of the Growth Beyond Reach newsletter.

[G-CMO Event Notes] Insights from yesterday’s G-CMO Session with Amit Daniel, CMO of Checkmarx: The topic: Strategy and Go-to-Market Essentials for Marketers Here are my key takeaways for anyone looking to refine their approach to strategy and GTM. 1. Analyze the Market Landscape Amit underscored that every GTM strategy starts with a robust understanding of the market: Assess current market size, growth potential, and solution categories. Identify emerging tech and trends, while evaluating third-party threats and opportunities. Map the competitive landscape, identifying key players and unique positioning. 2. Execute a Comprehensive Competitive Analysis Tap all internal sources to gather competitor insights, from direct to indirect competitors. Benchmark your performance across metrics like customer base, growth rate, and market share. Develop a clear SWOT analysis to shape your GTM plan. Key takeaway: Competitive advantage goes beyond product features—it’s about market positioning, visual storytelling, and brand strength. 3. Master Buyer Personas Building detailed buyer personas is crucial: Profile their pain points and decision factors, tailoring messaging to each persona’s unique journey. Embrace specificity. For example, some buyers may prefer technical content or short demo videos. Amit reminded us that 80% of developer buyers make decisions based on digital content alone, often without engaging with sales. 4. Positioning that Stands Out In crowded markets, differentiation is everything. Amit’s advice was clear: cut the fluff, avoid jargon, and keep positioning razor-sharp and direct. 5. Crafting a Compelling Unique Selling Proposition (USP) Start by identifying your product’s core strengths, but avoid overwhelming your audience with features. Instead, focus on their top priorities like risk reduction, ease of integration, and speed. Test your USP with your target audience to ensure resonance and relevance—a crucial step that many skip but one that can boost both trust and insights. 6. Choose the Right Go-to-Market Strategy Consider both direct and indirect sales models, weighing the unique benefits of each. Strategic partnerships with technology providers are invaluable; treat them as an extension of your team and equip them with the knowledge to pitch against competitors. 7. Tailor Solutions to Fit Each Persona Define personas by their job roles, critical needs, and attributes. Amit stressed that understanding personas’ goals and concerns builds stronger connections, especially as budgets and decision-making evolve. Customize content and communication strategies based on these personas. In complex sales environments, like security, adapting to budget ownership shifts from security to developers is essential. Continued in the comments...