Attribution in marketing gets a lot of attention—and rightly so. After all, “What gets measured gets managed,” right?
But the fact that something is true doesn’t mean that its inverse is not.
“What gets measured gets managed” doesn’t mean “What can’t be measured can’t be managed.” The fact that we’ll never be able to measure the revenue lost from an ineffective go-to-market strategy doesn’t mean this risk can’t be managed.
Lack of Counterfactuals
Most companies measure the revenue generated from a campaign or product launch, but will never be able to measure a counterfactual of revenue that could have been generated from a more effective campaign or launch strategy that was never implemented. It’s easy to haphazardly try a tactic and decide “That doesn’t work for us,” than to more accurately conclude, “We didn’t execute on that well.” Most experiments companies claim run aren’t really experiments. Unless clear control variants are isolated and measured, most of the activity companies call “experiments” are just two poorly thought out variations run concurrently. These tactics don’t yield reliable data, but delude marketers into believing they’re acting on data.
Data inputs need to be reliable for outputs to be actionable.
The truth is, we simply cannot measure the revenue lost by an ineffective go-to-market strategy because it’s not feasible to isolate all of the variables needed to measure the difference in performance between them.
That’s where relying on industry benchmarks and best practices comes in. Without an understanding of validated best practices, go-to-market strategies will continue falling short.
And worst of all, it won’t be clear why.
This article will break down how to execute good, great, and best in class go-to-market strategy.
You may wonder “Why would I want good go-to-market strategy? Shouldn’t I aim for best in class?”
Sure, in theory, better approaches will lead to better results. But we live in the real world with real constraints on resources. This means that sometimes companies can’t afford the resources to be best in class in one area, or the delays to achieve best in class performance in one area wouldn’t be worth the tradeoff.
Tradeoffs and Acceptable Mistakes
One of the biggest missing components of most go-to-market strategies is an Acceptable Mistake. You can think of this as a tradeoff that doesn’t erode the integrity and goals of a launch. In some cases, this might look like shorter sales enablement product training for the sake of moving more quickly to announce a new release. In others, it’s a willingness to compromise on speed to conduct more comprehensive testing.
An Acceptable Mistake is the opposite of a risk. A risk is something we need to mitigate to avoid a bad outcome. An Acceptable Mistake is a tradeoff that’s important to make for the sake of a greater goal.
Tradeoffs are essential. If you don’t make them intentionally, you’re making them unintentionally.
Making a tradeoff intentionally means accepting the downsides of something that won’t jeopardize business goals. Speed and accuracy are common Acceptable Mistakes — tradeoffs worth making, based on the goals and circumstances.
Components of Go-to-Market Strategy
The term “go-to-market strategy” isn’t interchangeable with “product launch.” Go-to-market strategy is relevant to anything you’re trying to bring to a target audience: including a new positioning framework, pricing strategy, or market expansion.
There are four components of go-to-market strategy:
- Market Insights, which are generated by Market Research
- Messaging and Positioning
- Enablement
- Launch
This article is based on a presentation Tamara Grominsky and I gave at HubSpot INBOUND.
Market Insight and Research
Market insights are the foundation and the limiting factor of a go-to-market strategy. Paradoxically, this is the component most likely to be rushed or misunderstood, because effective market research can be time-consuming. But without a real understanding of market needs, a go-to-market strategy will almost certainly be missing valuable market opportunity.
Where companies go wrong: Among the potential pitfalls in market research, the most common is confusing Product and User Research with Buyer and Customer research. Product, User, Customer, and Buyer research each serve distinct roles and functions with distinct methodologies. Without understanding which type you’re conducting, results will be unreliable.
Most often, unreliable research comes from interviewers biasing the answers they hear from users through the lens of asking for feedback on product direction, thinking it’s uncovering user needs.
Often, the flawed process sounds like this:
Company: “Hey [customer], we’re rolling out this new feature—is this something you would want?”
Customer: “Sure. I’d use that”
Company: “How much would you pay for it?”
And so on.
This doesn’t just compromise your learnings about potential market opportunities, it also creates the flawed illusion that you’re acting on data when you’re really making assumptions. The goal of talking to customers and prospects is not to slightly iterate on existing internal knowledge, which is what happens through biased interviews, but to find out what they customers want. The insight that matters comes from helping customers and prospects open up about challenges and priorities you may be able to solve, but they wouldn’t realize are relevant to mention if they questions you ask are already skewed toward talking about the product they think you want to build.
Good, Great, and Best-In-Class Market Research
Consolidating customer insights into an internal location every team can reference and use will make all go-to-market decision-making better and more efficient. Internal alignment around market research can become a shortcut to decision-making, giving teams shared language around your audience personas and funnel stages.
Good Market Research
Outcome: Discovering the true market problem to be solved, and defining clear segmentation of who it is being solved for.
Actions:
- Identify your competitors and alternatives to solving the problem.
This includes all alternatives to using your product to achieve a specific goal, including leaving a problem unsolved.
- Identify the personas who are not part of the target market.
Sometimes called negative or anti-personas, these are the people you wouldn’t make go-to-market decisions around because they don’t have the same willingness to pay as more profitable segments. Missing this step and trying to market to “everyone” is one of the most common compromises that jeopardizes revenue opportunities, by watering down the value proposition.
- Categorize themes from customer and prospect calls.
Categorizing and documenting the themes that emerge from customer and prospect calls your sales and BDR teams are already conducting, in a way that internal teams can reference, will begin aligning shared language to make better decisions more efficiently.
Better Market Research
Outcome: Clear differentiation between your solution and competitive alternatives, framed in terms that resonate with your audience’s priorities. A common question is, ‘What if our product is better than the competition, but the market doesn’t see it that way?’ The truth is, ‘better’ only matters if it aligns with what your audience values. If your strengths aren’t prioritized by your target market, they won’t perceive your solution as better.
Actions:
- Conduct unbiased customer and prospect interviews that capture their true priorities and challenges.
- Segment your market by meaningful personas.
- Document research insights for use by cross-functional teams.
Best-in-Class Market Research
Outcome: Transforming unidentified market needs into revenue opportunities.
Actions:
- Combine research sources: primary and secondary.
- Segment the market by willingness to pay.
- Inform product + business decisions based on a strong POV about how to frame the problem.
A best-in-class approach to market research turns unidentified market needs into revenue opportunities. This begins by combining primary and secondary research to develop a holistic view of your market. (Note: primary is research you conduct yourself, secondary is research conducted by other parties, like industry analysts.)
Messaging and Positioning
Developing your messaging and positioning on sound market insight will determine how well your new product or feature resonates with customers.
Where companies go wrong: Ineffective messaging and positioning often stems from a lack of true audience insight. Your messaging and positioning should speak to what customers genuinely care about, rather than internal opinions or descriptions. Too often, messaging is often built around internal assumptions, which leads to highlighting the wrong components in messaging, or generic claims that fail to differentiate the product meaningfully.
Good Messaging and Positioning
Outcome: A research-driven point of view about the differentiated value you offer.
Actions:
- Capitalize on the real impact you offer now, not aspire to offer eventually.
- Deploy an internal messaging framework that’s consistently used across teams.
- Use marketable metrics to support each messaging claim with credible proof points.
A good approach to messaging and positioning starts with having a research-driven point of view about the differentiated value your product or feature offers. This involves capitalizing on the actual value you currently provide to your customers and using that value to inform your messaging. From there, one of the easiest ways you can ensure this component of your strategy remains “good” over time is to document those differentiated values through a messaging framework that is used internally. This allows you to say, “These are all things that customers actually care about. And they’re documented in a single place that anyone in the company can reference.” Using “marketable metrics” — proof points that will capture market attention — connect each value proposition to concrete proof points offers evidence that your messaging is credible and aligned with the values of your customers.
Better Messaging and Positioning
Outcome: A research-driven point of view on the value you offer and why it matters.
Actions:
- Connect each launch to your company’s overarching value proposition.
- Social proof: Build case studies and testimonials to showcase real customer results, in their own words.
- Tailor messaging to the pain points and motivations of customers at each stage of the buying journey.
A better approach to messaging and positioning communicates a research-driven perspective on the differentiated value you offer and, crucially, why it matters. Moving from ‘good’ to ‘better’ requires connecting each product launch to your company’s core value proposition. Customers turn to your organization to solve specific problems, so demonstrating how each launch fulfills that promise boosts engagement and interest. Reinforce this connection with social proof by sharing case studies and testimonials that showcase real results in customers’ own words. You’ll unlock even more value by tailoring your messaging to the specific channel and pain points customers experience at each stage of the buying journey.
Best-in-Class Messaging and Positioning
Outcome: A research-driven point of view on the value you offer to a specific audience, and why those people care.
Actions:
- Identify the people you’re willing to alienate.
- Research relative feature preference, and package accordingly.
- Test audience reactions to potential value propositions, and segment messaging based on audience segment.
Best-in-class messaging goes beyond articulating differentiated value; it delivers a research-driven perspective tailored to a specific audience, making it clear why they should care. Achieving this level of messaging often requires something deceptively simple yet uncomfortable: the willingness to prioritize resonance over broad appeal. Marketers can fall into the trap of diluting their messaging in a misguided attempt to avoid any negative feedback, hoping to please everyone. But aiming to be ‘the least criticized’ company won’t fuel growth; it dooms messaging to mediocrity by prioritizing “less criticism” over “more growth.” This sacrifices the bold, targeted messaging that resonates deeply with those who will actually buy.
To create truly impactful, best-in-class messaging, identify which audience segments you’re willing to alienate to reach those who matter most. Research your audience’s feature preferences, craft your offerings around them, and test reactions to refine your value propositions. When you’re clear on who your messaging is for—and who it’s not for—you can connect with your ideal customers in a way that drives genuine engagement and growth.
Feature Preferences
Understanding your audience’s feature preferences is essential for achieving best-in-class positioning and messaging.
Effective messaging prioritizes high-value, high-Willingness-To-Pay features that resonate with customer priorities, positioning your brand as a solution specifically tailored to meet their most valued needs. This approach not only strengthens customer alignment but also enhances perceived value.
Conversely, emphasizing features that internal teams find valuable, rather than those prioritized by customers, can dilute the impact of your offering. As Tamara Grominsky explained, “Customers may feel they’re paying for features they don’t need or may question your expertise in the areas they care most about.”
Enablement
Effective enablement has the potential to be a core differentiator in your go-to-market strategy—if you do it right. That’s because it’s a high-impact activity that very few companies do well.
As Jasna Puntar said, “Without a well-prepared GTM team, even the best products can struggle to find their footing in the market. A killer go-to-market wins over a great product. History repeats itself not only in startups, but in enterprises as well.”
Where companies go wrong: Even the best-conceived go-to-market market strategy will be limited if your teams aren’t fully enabled to implement it well. And yet, many businesses treat enablement as an afterthought—something to be rushed through in an existing team meeting. This haphazard approach stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of the role and goals of enablement, and leads to disengaged teams, confused messaging, and missed opportunities.
Good Enablement
Outcome: Internal teams understand what’s launching and why it’s relevant to their role.
Actions:
- Circulate internal FAQs that each team knows how to access and utilize.
- Just-in-time learning: announce release internally soon enough to be informative, but not so soon it loses momentum.
- Host a dedicated company-wide announcement and Q&A session.
Good enablement is grounded in making sure that internal teams understand what’s launching and why it’s relevant to their role. Sharing updates, creating launch trackers, and circulating easily accessible internal FAQs can help keep everyone on the same page as you progress towards the launch. Using “just-in-time learning” to announce releases soon enough to be informative, but not so soon that it loses momentum because of unclear action items between announcement and launch. Ultimately, you need to convince people across the company that this launch is something they should care about. A good way to accomplish this on a baseline level is to host a company-wide announcement and Q&A session to brief each department on the information they’re expected to know, and their role implementing the the launch strategy.
Better Enablement
Outcome: Every customer-facing team feels like part of the launch.
Actions:
- Bring cross-functional stakeholders into the launch planning process early.
- Share milestones and early customer feedback.
- Keep stakeholders informed of pivots and results.
Taking enablement from good to great means involving customer-facing stakeholders in the design of the launch process, not just informing them of decisions. Engaging these teams as collaborative partners from the outset—by actively seeking their input—helps break down silos, fosters genuine buy-in, and encourages cross-functional alignment. Sharing milestones and early customer feedback keeps everyone engaged and invested in the launch’s success. When stakeholders feel like co-creators rather than passive participants, they’re more likely to support pivots, advocate for the launch, and drive better outcomes across teams.
Best-in-Class Enablement
Outcome: Every internal team is excited to support the launch and knows how to do it within their role.
Actions:
- Customize enablement sessions and information to each team.
- Make it easy and fun for all teams to advocate for the launch and drive customer success.
- Create internal buzz around the countdown to launch and each phase.
A best-in-class approach to enablement energizes every team, making them not only eager to support the launch but also clear on their role within it. Rather than relying on one-size-fits-all memos, strategically customize enablement sessions and materials to suit each team’s unique responsibilities and needs. I’ve structured these as internal half-day events, that begin with a company-wide announcement, and have subsequent 45-minute sessions that get progressively more detailed and tailored to specific teams.
You can also continuously reinforce the momentum building up to launch and ensure it’s felt across teams with low-touch, high-recurrence tactics like a Slack-bot countdown timer that reminds teams of the days leading up to a launch event.
One way I’ve done this in the past is through weekly pre-launch updates in weekly team meetings, sharing the momentum and early beta tester feedback to date.
These updates included visibility into both good and bad feedback: Why certain pivots were made, including delays and setbacks that are causing tweaks to the product or launch strategy. This makes people more aware of the importance of their role implementing a successful launch, and the rest of the positive updates more credible, because we’ve offered real transparency into both the good and the bad.
Launch
As Tamara says, “A rolling thunder launch is like a storm building on the horizon.” It starts with subtle signals—teasers, early promotions, and whispers that hint at something big. As launch day approaches, the noise builds, creating buzz and anticipation.
On launch day, the storm hits with full force. It’s a powerful culmination of momentum that captures your audience’s focus. But it doesn’t end there. Follow-up campaigns and post-launch momentum drive value and awareness.
Where companies go wrong: One of the biggest mistakes companies make is treating the launch day as a finish line. They assume their audience will remember their launch with the same enthusiasm. It’s common to overestimate how memorable or far-reaching a launch event was, regardless of the impressions or metrics measured.
Good Launch Strategy
Outcome: An integrated launch campaign that tells one cohesive story across channels.
Actions:
- Align stakeholders on meaningful KPIs and how they’ll be measured.
- Launch a central hub as a core destination that all campaigns lead back to.
- Designate a clear point of contact serving as the cohesive owner of the entire launch.
A “good” approach to launch strategy focuses on building an integrated campaign that tells a cohesive story across all channels. The launch tracker should align stakeholders on meaningful KPIs and have a plan in place for how those KPIs will be measured. You’ll also want to launch a central hub as a core destination that all campaigns lead back to. This hub will serve as the single source of truth for anyone interacting with the launch. Lastly, designate a clear point of contact who will be the cohesive owner of the entire launch. It’s surprising how often there is ambiguity about ownership. Assigning a single person, typically a product marketing manager, helps avoid confusion and keeps all efforts aligned and integrated throughout the campaign.
Better Launch Strategy
Outcome: Tailor launch strategies to each market segment.
Actions:
- Tailor messaging to each marketing channel and market segment.
- Align launch campaigns with lifecycle and in-app messaging.
- Ramp resources up or down based on segment priority.
A “better” approach means tailoring messaging, KPIs, and launch channels to each market segment. Customize messaging for each marketing channel and market segment to speak more directly to the needs of each persona. Align launch campaigns with lifecycle and in-app messaging to create a cohesive experience from awareness to usage. Customers should not feel a disconnect between what they see in marketing materials and what they experience in the product. Once you’ve dialed in your approach, you can adjust resources based on segment priority to focus more on high-value segments while scaling back on others to maximize impact.
Best-in-Class Launch Strategy
Outcome: Rolling thunder launches that don’t end after launch day.
Actions:
- Build demand and excitement ahead of launch.
- Iterate on messaging and audience segments with microtests to refine launch assets.
- Keep momentum going after launch day and identify new ways to drive sustained adoption.
You can think of a successful launch as a storm—you should hear about it in the distance before it hits you at launch, and still hear it after it passes. This concept of a “rolling thunder” launch is a metaphor for a best-in-class approach: building anticipation early, capturing attention at the peak, and keeping momentum alive long after the main event has concluded.
In the days, weeks, and months leading up to the launch, your goal should be to build anticipation and gather momentum. Involve key stakeholders from other departments and share pre-launch content that generates intrigue about what’s coming. Continue to iterate on messaging and audience segments using microtests to refine launch assets up until the week of the launch. After the initial launch, your job becomes to keep the momentum going by finding new ways to drive sustained adoption. This could mean sharing customer success stories, offering additional content, or running post-launch campaigns that keep your product in the spotlight and maintain engagement.
Be The Best Where It Matters
Maximizing the results of your go-to-market strategy requires intentional tradeoffs, a deep understanding of your audience, and a commitment to a cohesive execution across market insights, messaging, enablement, and launch. By aligning each component with the unique needs and values of your target market, you ensure that every effort—from early-stage research to post-launch momentum—reinforces your position and drives sustained growth.
Optimizing the balance of resources across good, better, and best-in-class elements of your go-to-market strategy depends on factors like your current position, timeline, objectives, and available resources. Few organizations have the resources to achieve ‘best-in-class’ in all four strategy areas. However, by defining meaningful KPIs and making deliberate tradeoffs that prioritize key goals, you can drive stronger results than if you spread resources thinly across all categories to merely achieve ‘better’ outcomes.
To summarize the four key components of go-to-market strategy:
Market insights start with open-ended conversations that move beyond confirming assumptions into acquiring a more nuanced understanding of your audience by segment.
Messaging and positioning stem from the research about what your highest-priority audience segment desires most, even if that means alienating lower-priority personas who represent a smaller market opportunity.
Enablement requires equipping your teams with the resources to understand how the product connects with their goals and creating a collaborative environment where everyone is able and eager to advocate for your product.
The launch, which isn’t a single day’s event but an iterative process that builds momentum early and keeps your product in focus well beyond launch day.
This article aims to offer a foundation for thinking more strategically about the goals and tradeoffs involved in building an effective go-to-market strategy. Any initiative aimed at capturing value from a target market—whether it’s a product launch, a new pricing model, or expanding an existing product into a new market—will drive more impact when built on a well-crafted go-to-market strategy.
