# Go-to-market strategy Human Guide

## What This Is For
Comprehensive go-to-market strategy and launch execution skill. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for go-to-market strategy: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the Go-to-market strategy agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for go-to-market strategy.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the Go-to-market strategy guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- **Headline** — Core benefit in 5-10 words
- **Sub-headline** — How it works or who it's for
- **3 Key Benefits** — Feature → benefit
- **Social Proof** — Testimonials, logos, metrics
- **Week -6:** Finalize messaging, create content, set metrics
- **Week -4:** Build waitlist, draft emails, reach out to press/influencers
- **Week -2:** Tease on social, send "coming soon" emails, final QA
- **Week 0 (Launch Day):** Publish landing page + blog, post to Product Hunt 12:01 AM PT, send launch email, share on socials, monitor and respond
- **Week +1:** Share testimonials, post case studies, analyze metrics
- **Week +2:** Post-launch analysis, plan ongoing marketing
- **Awareness:** Website visitors, social impressions
- **Acquisition:** Signups, trial starts, purchases

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Workspace Context, Operating Contract, Core Philosophy, GTM Motion Selection, 5-Phase GTM Strategy, Phase 1: Market Positioning, Phase 2: Messaging & Content, Phase 3: Channel Strategy (ORB), Phase 4: Launch Timeline, Phase 5: Metrics & Success Criteria.

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- **A launch is a campaign, not an event.** Build momentum before launch, peak at launch, sustain after. The best companies don't launch once — they launch again and again.
- **Documentation is non-negotiable** — Don't launch without a getting started guide + API reference + 3+ code samples
- **Show, don't tell** — Actual code > marketing copy
- **Surprising insight:** a stat or observation (must be verifiable)
- Avoid vague hype (“revolutionary”, “10x”, “game-changing”) unless you can prove it.
- **PR-led:** useful when you have real news and a crisp angle, but requires careful execution.
- Traditional B2B SaaS metrics don't always apply directly.
- Don't compare developer product metrics to:

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Go-to-market strategy human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the manojbajaj95/claude-gtm-plugin skill entry for `go-to-market-strategy`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

# Go-to-Market Strategy

## Workspace Context

Read bootstrap context before asking questions: `strategy/brand.md` for brand, audience, offer, channels, tools, constraints, and metrics; `about/me.md` for personal voice; `content/ideas.md` and `content/calendar.md` for content planning. Use legacy product-marketing context files only as fallback. Save generated drafts to `content/<platform>/drafts/YYYY-MM-DD_short-topic-slug.md`, and route durable learnings back to `strategy/brand.md`, `about/me.md`, or `content/ideas.md`.

## Operating Contract

This skill is self-contained for its frontmatter scope: use its local instructions, references, scripts, and assets as the playbook; ask only for missing task-specific inputs; hand off to adjacent skills instead of expanding scope; and return an actionable artifact, decision, plan, draft, or diagnostic.


End-to-end GTM playbook: motion selection, positioning, channel strategy, phased launch execution, launch marketing, and technical product launches.

---

## Core Philosophy

**A launch is a campaign, not an event.** Build momentum before launch, peak at launch, sustain after. The best companies don't launch once — they launch again and again.

---

## GTM Motion Selection

| Motion | Best For | Key Lever |
|--------|----------|-----------|
| **PLG** | SMB, developers, low ACV (<$5K) | Free → paid conversion |
| **PLG + Sales-Assist** | Mid-market, $5K-$25K ACV | PQL → SQL routing |
| **Sales-Led** | Enterprise, complex product, >$25K ACV | Relationship, champion |
| **Community-Led** | Developer tools, OSS | Community adoption |
| **Partner-Led** | Geographic expansion, enterprise | Partner incentives |

**Quick decision:**
```
ACV < $5K and self-serve possible? → PLG
Buyer technical? → Developer/community-led
Everything else? → Sales-led
```

---

## 5-Phase GTM Strategy

### Phase 1: Market Positioning

Define ICP, positioning, and messaging using the `marketing-strategy` skill before executing launch phases.

Validate: target customer defined, differentiation identified, tested with 5+ customers.

### Phase 2: Messaging & Content

**Message hierarchy:**
1. **Headline** — Core benefit in 5-10 words
2. **Sub-headline** — How it works or who it's for
3. **3 Key Benefits** — Feature → benefit
4. **Social Proof** — Testimonials, logos, metrics
5. **CTA** — Clear next step

**Content to create:** Launch blog post · Product demo video (2-3 min) · Landing page · Email announcement · 5-10 social posts

### Phase 3: Channel Strategy (ORB)

**Owned** (highest ROI — build these first): Email list · Blog/SEO · Branded community

**Rented** (speed, not stability): Twitter/X · LinkedIn · YouTube · Reddit — use to drive to owned

**Borrowed** (shortcut to audiences): Guest posts · Podcast interviews · Influencer partnerships · Co-marketing

*Strategy: Use rented/borrowed to drive traffic, capture into owned.*

### Phase 4: Launch Timeline

**6-Week Launch Timeline:**
- **Week -6:** Finalize messaging, create content, set metrics
- **Week -4:** Build waitlist, draft emails, reach out to press/influencers
- **Week -2:** Tease on social, send "coming soon" emails, final QA
- **Week 0 (Launch Day):** Publish landing page + blog, post to Product Hunt 12:01 AM PT, send launch email, share on socials, monitor and respond
- **Week +1:** Share testimonials, post case studies, analyze metrics
- **Week +2:** Post-launch analysis, plan ongoing marketing

### Phase 5: Metrics & Success Criteria