Plan your Go-to-Market with the Bullseye Framework
Planning your Go-to-Market strategy right from the beginning using the Product Phase Map is critical. It will help inform the direction of your product right from the beginning. The model I like to use for this is the Bullseye Framework, created by Justin Mares and Gabriel Weinberg, the founder of DuckDuckGo.
The approach used in the Bullseye Framework begins by listing all the possible marketing channels you could use.
They include:
1. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Ranking at the top of a search is one of the most effective ways to generate awareness, and it’s free. However, it is likely to take months to achieve this, which doesn’t help with any short-term goals. This shouldn’t stop you working on your SEO now, though, so you can build towards it in the long term.
2. Search Engine Marketing
One way to appear in a search, without having to wait for your SEO to prove effective, is to pay for it. While it can be expensive, this will fast track you to a prominent position in search engine results.
3. Public Relations (PR)
You can either pay a PR firm to get your stories in the press or build relationships with journalists yourself. If you can’t afford a PR firm, and you don’t have the time to build relationships, you can use a PR tool that distributes your press releases. I have successfully used PR Newswire in the past. Also, you don’t necessarily have to have relationships with journalists from national papers because an article in a local publication can get picked up by national media. This is called ‘laddering up’.
4. Unconventional PR
This is when you create a huge amount of publicity with a stunt or video. The Dollar Shave Club video is a great example. It reached 4.75 million views in three months, generating 12,000 orders in 48 hours. Flash mobs are another way to achieve unconventional PR. The flash mob that danced at Liverpool Street station in 2009 for T-Mobile is an excellent example, albeit probably out of the budget of an ordinary start-up. With the ability to share on social channels, unconventional PR is a powerful tool, if you get it right.
5. Viral marketing
This is when your existing users bring in new users on your behalf. The most effective way is through word of mouth, either in person or on social channels. You can encourage this by offering discounts or rewards to users if they refer friends. For example, Whoop, a wearable device for fitness, offers existing customers a free month’s membership if they refer someone.
6. Email marketing
Email marketing is still a very effective approach. This is particularly true if you have an existing base of customers and you want to announce new features or products. If you are relying on content marketing (see below), you could ask for email addresses and follow up with product announcements. The secret here is not to make it sound like a sales pitch (the book I recommend on this subject is How to Write Sales Letters that Sell by Drayton Bird).
7. Content marketing
Create your own content targeted at your users and publish it on your website, your social channels, or on other relevant sites that already have an existing audience. The format of the content could be a blog post, explanation video, white paper, eBook, or informational guide. Whoop does a great job of this. It runs multiple trials, testing the effectiveness of its product with high-performing athletes, and publishes the results in multiple places.
8. Social and display ads
This is banner advertising on websites or on social channels. Advertising on social channels will give you the ability to target your ad to a specific demographic, interest, or behaviour, which is a big advantage if you want to attract a niche audience.
9. Offline ads
It is now a lot cheaper to advertise on billboards, in newspapers and in magazines. The challenge is tracking your performance. You can, however, use coupon codes, create special phone numbers, or set up a unique web address to measure your performance.
10. Influencer marketing
This is like PR in that you will aim to build relationships with online influencers. The key here is to find influencers in your niche. It isn’t just about the influencers with the biggest audience, but the ones with a passionate following within your area of expertise. Influencers can also become early adopters who will give you feedback on your product before you go to market. That has the added benefit that they become advocates of your product.
11. Direct sales
This involves hiring a sales team to sell direct to your consumer. This is usually the option if you have a high-cost product or enterprise software. Ideally, you will combine this with another channel to generate the leads so that you don’t have to rely on cold calling.
12. Events and trade shows
Attend events to build relationships and promote your product. If you have the budget, you could purchase a booth at a trade show.
13. Creating your own event
Be seen as the industry leader by creating your own event. The most cost-effective way to do this is to host it online. Build your initial community and host an event. Combine it with one or more of the other channels to promote the event.
14. Speaking engagements
Standing up in front of an audience that includes potential customers is a great way to promote yourself and your product. If you are a recognised expert in your field, then it will be easier to get invitations to speak. If you don’t have a reputation, then start with small local events and build up to large national events. Often you will combine this strategy with content marketing, to promote yourself as an expert in your field.
15. Partnerships
Partner with other organisations in your space where there is a mutual benefit, and you can promote each other’s products or services.
16. Affiliate marketing
Affiliate networks will drive traffic to your site and take commission for any resultant sales.
17. Engineering as marketing
You can use smaller engineering projects to generate interest in your product. For example, a company that offers software for tax advice could have a free tax calculator on their website. Another example is the many SEO toolkits that offer a free SEO review of your website.
The next step is to brainstorm each of the above to come up with ideas on how you could use these channels to market your product. You must have at least one idea per channel. The reason you do this is to ensure that you haven’t ignored any of them with preconceived notions.
When doing this, the Bullseye Framework suggests that for each idea you consider:
1. How likely is it to work?
2. How much would you expect to pay to acquire a customer?
3. How many customers could you expect to acquire at that cost before you reach saturation?
4. How long will it take to run the test?
It is recommended that you put these in a spreadsheet, alongside the idea, and rank them from 1-5. This will help quantify which channels work best for you.
The next step is to then take the top three ideas and put them in your Product Phase Map. You should have no more than three ideas, as this is the maximum you should experiment with at any one time. Alternatively, you should not have fewer than three, as that will limit your options. Following that, take the next six ideas and put them to the side, in case the top three don’t work out as expected. The remaining ideas are your ‘Long Shots’. This is the basis of the Bullseye Framework, which you can see attached.
The ultimate aim is to find one GTM strategy that works for you. Once you have found it, you will make the most of that channel until you have saturated its potential. You will then move on to the next channel. How we test these ideas, to find the best one, will be discussed later in the hypothesis-testing phase in the next chapter.
Please keep in mind that your GTM will be guided by your target market. If you are B2B, then LinkedIn is more likely to work than WhatsApp. If you are aiming for a younger B2C market, then TikTok may be a better platform to generate awareness.
The Bullseye Framework by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares
