# Marketing strategy Human Guide

## What This Is For
Product marketing strategy, positioning, and competitive intelligence for B2B SaaS. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for marketing 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 Marketing 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 marketing 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 Marketing 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
- **Economic Buyer** (VP/Director): Cares about ROI, cost reduction → business outcomes + case studies
- **Technical Buyer** (Engineer): Cares about integration, security → architecture, uptime, SOC 2
- **Champion** (Manager): Cares about ease of use → UX, quick wins
- **Competitive alternatives** — What would customers do without you? (competitors, spreadsheets, DIY, status quo)
- **Unique attributes** — What do you have that alternatives don't?
- **Value mapping** — `Attribute → Value → Outcome` (e.g., AI automation → eliminates manual entry → save 10 hrs/week)
- **Best-fit customers** — Who values this most? Use win/loss data.
- **Market category** — Head-to-head, niche ("CRM for agencies"), or new category
- **Trend layer** — What macro trend makes now the right time to buy?
- Headline — product name + one-sentence customer benefit
- Opening — who is the customer and what problem is solved
- Problem paragraph — the current pain in detail

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Workspace Context, Operating Contract, Product Strategy Stack, Product-Market Fit Spectrum, Market Opportunity (TAM/SAM/SOM), ICP & Segmentation, Positioning (April Dunford Method), Working Backwards (PR/FAQ), Competitive Intelligence, Growth Loops & PLG.

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
- **Philosophy:** Start with the customer problem, not your solution. Make trade-offs explicit — strategy is choosing what NOT to do. Systems over tactics: growth loops compound; growth hacks don't.
- **Unique attributes** — What do you have that alternatives don't?
- Write an internal press release BEFORE building. If you can't write a compelling press release, you don't have a compelling product.
- **Tiers:** Direct competitors | Indirect/adjacent | Status quo (spreadsheets, DIY, do nothing)
- **AARRR Funnel:** Acquisition → Activation → Retention → Revenue → Referral. Fix activation before optimizing acquisition — don't fill a leaky bucket.

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Marketing 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 `marketing-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.

# Marketing 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.


Strategy and positioning layer for B2B SaaS — from product-market fit through competitive intelligence, sales enablement, and growth loops. For launch execution and channel strategy, see `go-to-market-strategy`.

---

## Product Strategy Stack

```
VISION      — Where are we going? (3–10 years)
STRATEGY    — How will we win? (1–3 years)
ROADMAP     — What are we building? (Quarters)
EXECUTION   — How are we building? (Sprints)
```

**Philosophy:** Start with the customer problem, not your solution. Make trade-offs explicit — strategy is choosing what NOT to do. Systems over tactics: growth loops compound; growth hacks don't.

---

## Product-Market Fit Spectrum

```
Level 0: Problem Fit    → Real problem worth solving
Level 1: Solution Fit   → Your solution addresses the problem
Level 2: PMF            → Customers pull the product from you
Level 3: Scale Fit      → Repeatable growth engine working
Level 4: Moat Fit       → Defensible competitive advantage established
```

**PMF validation signals:** 5+ ICP customers, below-median sales cycle, above-median LTV, <5% churn, NPS 9–10.

---

## Market Opportunity (TAM/SAM/SOM)

| Metric | What It Means | How to Calculate |
|--------|---------------|------------------|
| **TAM** | Everyone who could theoretically buy | Target customers × avg contract value |
| **SAM** | Those you can reach and serve | TAM × geographic/product constraints |
| **SOM** | Realistic near-term share | SAM × 1–5% penetration |

Validate top-down with bottom-up: (realistic customers × conversion rate × ACV). Gap >3x → revisit assumptions.

---

## ICP & Segmentation

**ICP Firmographics** (Series A sweet spot): 50–5,000 employees, SaaS/Tech/Professional Services, $5M–$500M revenue.

**Buyer Personas:**
- **Economic Buyer** (VP/Director): Cares about ROI, cost reduction → business outcomes + case studies
- **Technical Buyer** (Engineer): Cares about integration, security → architecture, uptime, SOC 2
- **Champion** (Manager): Cares about ease of use → UX, quick wins

**ICP Scoring** (HubSpot): A (perfect fit) → D (poor fit). Focus acquisition on A/B, disqualify D.

---

## Positioning (April Dunford Method)

1. **Competitive alternatives** — What would customers do without you? (competitors, spreadsheets, DIY, status quo)
2. **Unique attributes** — What do you have that alternatives don't?
3. **Value mapping** — `Attribute → Value → Outcome` (e.g., AI automation → eliminates manual entry → save 10 hrs/week)
4. **Best-fit customers** — Who values this most? Use win/loss data.
5. **Market category** — Head-to-head, niche ("CRM for agencies"), or new category
6. **Trend layer** — What macro trend makes now the right time to buy?

**Value proposition:** `[Product] helps [Target] [Achieve Goal] by [Unique Approach]`

**Positioning template:**
```