3 Essential Go-to-Market Software Features to Supercharge Your Launches

Project management software is inadequate for managing go-to-market strategies. It’s great for managing and assigning tasks involved in a go-to-market plan, but because it can’t do any of the work on its own, PM software actually creates more work than it saves. Instead, the work behind a GTM plan takes place in different locations and in different apps — not within the PM software, creating data silos.

Go-to-market software, on the other hand, succeeds in doing what project management software tries to do: it centralizes the tasks necessary to bring a product to market in just one place, for easy visibility. Then, it allows you to do that work within the go-to-market software.

So, when you’re picking your go-to-market software, you need to be aware of a few core features and differentiators, so you don’t end up with yet another project management tool that only makes your work harder. A good tool is your central hub for everything GTM-related. It updates automatically based on changes, and it templates out tasks. It’s more than just a glorified spreadsheet. It's its own beast and helps you go to market faster. Here’s what you should look for.

Centralized Applications and Workflows

Your go-to-market software should centralize your applications and workflows. This will give everyone on the team access to the same data, the same tools, and the same 10,000-foot overview that’s often useful for cross-functional collaboration and strategy development, rather than siloed task completion. Ultimately, this makes everyone’s jobseasier, not just the product marketing manager’s.

The problem that project management tools create is that they can aggregate data for your team to access, but they’re not great at presenting that data for your team to consumer and use. So all the work that goes into a GTMplan instead happens outside of the tool. Trying to research your competition? Pull up Klue. Got customer surveys to send out? Create one in SurveyMonkey. Need to write documentation? Open up Coda.

This constant switching creates problems: all these different applications create a wealth of data that’s not contained in a central location. And perhaps worst of all, using this bevy of tools creates an ecosystem of applications that your organization has to manage separately. Eventually, you start spending more time managing the project management tool instead of actually building your go-to-market plan.

Process Automation

Process automation saves you time across the entire go-to-market cycle by helping you — and everyone involved — execute on GTM-related tasks that can ordinarily slow progress. Some of these tasks include adjusting launch dates, competitor research, and a high-level strategy based on predefined GTM parameters. Automation also reduces mistakes and simplifies workflows by taking the possibility for human error out of the equation.

If you’re looking toward your project management tool to automate some of the above, don’t bother. Project management tools work well for certain tasks outside of launch planning and execution, but their ability to automate the actual work of a go-to-market strategy remains in doubt.

Asana, for example, comes with some automated features regarding task assignment and template creation, but that’s for project management. Getting into the nitty-gritty of a GTM requires you to do things that aren’t as easy to automate in Asana. For example, if you want to reach customers through specific channels, you can add and track tasks to build your messaging out for each channel with Asana. But Ignition actually builds out and adapts plans based on your strategy, and automates the workflow from there. You choose display ads as a key channel, and Ignition automatically adds the necessary assets to your asset plan, and creates tasks for your team to develop messaging, ad copy, and design.

Want to run a social media campaign to promote your product? Process automation will create a task with the necessary parameters (x words of copy, header image, attribution, etc.). Ignition’s software will even generate starter copy, saving you even more time. Develop your strategic messaging the software’s embedded AI copywriting assistant will use it to generate engaging copy lines that tie into your GTM strategy. Asana won’t — not because it’s terrible software, but it’s just not built to take you to market.

Also look for a go-to-market software that gives you dynamic templating options that conform to your go-to-market needs. If you have a mature GTM process, you likely have a multi-tiered structure for your launches — with each tier multiplying the complexity and scope of the launch. A dynamic launch template will automatically take into account the specific parameters around each launch to craft a plan appropriate to that product or feature. Choose your GTM features (launch tier, promotional budget, macro strategic approach to marketing objectives, and launch date) — Ignition will automatically create a launch template that reflects the best possible plan based on your selections.

End-to-end Visibility for Your Entire Team

Go-to-market plans are complex, strategic undertakings that require alignment from your entire team in order to be successful. As the product marketing manager, you might be leading GTM efforts, but other stakeholders and team members also need to understand the strategy. Too often, project management tools steer them to complete their tasks, without that cohesive understanding.

Project management software is bad for communicating the meat of go-to-market plans beyond progress and timelines. Designers, for instance, can easily see when tasks are due for creative assets, but they have little visibility into product positioning or competitor research. You can check how many tasks are complete or how many are overdue, but key details about target personas are buried in a ticket that was checked off weeks ago.

Many project management tools also charge per “seat”, even if you just want team members added to the tool for visibility. You either need to pay more money just to have all of your teams looped in, even if they’re not actually doing any work inside the PM software — or you risk cutting some team members out of the communication chain, and having to update them outside of the tool completely.

Go-to-market software corrects the task-based communication approach and provides your entire team with full visibility into the crux of your GTM strategy. Ignition’s tool communicates key strategic milestones like persona development, product and competitor positioning, messaging, and competitor analysis, alongside important deadlines. And we also only charge for editors, so any team member can access the plan for full visibility, without draining your budget.

Abandon Project Management Tools, Not Your Go-To-Market

Project management tools are great for... managing projects. While you could make the case that go-to-market plans are just big projects, that case falls apart when you look at the limited functionality and scope of project management tools. They’re not built for the dynamic world of modern go-to-market strategies. It’s time to stop making Asana and other tools do jobs they were never meant to do.

Ignition is a go-to-market software that’s built by go-to-market experts for product experts getting-to-market. It centralizes the entire GTM process into one application and is built to take project management tools head-on. Test drive a free demo today.

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