When it comes to releasing a new app to the fast-growing Atlassian Marketplace, building a great product is not the whole of the story. To have a successful launch and achieve sustainable early customer growth, you need to make a concerted effort both before and after release day to connect your product with those it offers value to. This talk is a practical guide for how to do just that. It will explore the strategy and tactics of a recently executed add-on go-to-market campaign, from initial concept on through the awareness, consideration, and decision phases of the buyer's journey funnel.

1. How to Plan and Execute a
Go-to-Market Campaign
for an Atlassian App
DAVIN PUKULIS | DIRECTOR OF MARKETING | K15T SOFTWARE | @DAVINDOES

2. Howdy. I’m Davin.

3. Growth experts Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares
Spend half of your time on
product, and half on getting
traction.

4. Agenda
Pre-release groundwork
Awareness stage
Solution stage
Decision stage
Results

5. Pre-release groundwork
Build a great launchpad

6. It’s not about the
product, it’s
about who it
offers value to.
RAW MATERIALS

7. Roles
Who are they in their organization?
Example: Implementing IT Manager
Goals
What are they trying to achieve?
Example: Tool performance; Usability; Uptime
Challenges
What are their blockers and pain points?
Example: Pressure from management; Budget
constraints; Buggy software; Blame for failure
Buyer
Personas

8. Unique value proposition (UVP)
How do you meet persona needs better than
competitors or the status quo?
Benefits and features
‘Why’ do you make life better? = Benefit
‘How’ do you do it? = Feature
Search terms (keywords)
What will personas search to help solve their
problems? Use long tail and competitive analysis
Core
Messaging

9. RAW MATERIALS
Your product is
your baby, name
it well
Balance SEO value with brand ‘stickiness’

10. Build demand
while you build
your app
GENERATE PRE-RELEASE DEMAND

11. Landing page
Hub for traffic; Include your core messaging;
use ‘Get updates’ call-to-action (CTA)
Reach out
Communicate 1-to-1 with existing contacts and
customers in a way that is valuable to them
Blog early, blog often
Great content brings in solution seekers; Appeal
to persona needs and speak with expertise
Establish an
engaged
contact list

12. RECENT BACKBONE BLOG POSTS
Keeping 1st Level
and 2nd Level IT
Support Teams in
Sync
Making IT
Support Process
Easier for Key
Accounts
Consolidate
Multiple JIRA
Service Desk
Instances
Backbone Cloud-to-
Cloud JIRA Sync
Workaround
Behind the
Scenes:
Developing
Backbone for
JIRA Data Center
Winter 17 Spring 17 Spring 17 Spring 17 Summer 17

13. Private beta test
Offers them a new way to be a hero, gives you
valuable feedback and early installations
Priority access
Provide them your best possible service and
prioritize their feedback
Engage the community
Give the Partner community first notice and
insider information
Partner up
with
Solution
Partners

14. PRIVATE BETA
Private betas are valuable for
both you and your testers.

15. Backbone allows us to greatly
improve the support
experience for both our team
and our customers.
PRIVATE BETA USER, 1ST MARKETPLACE REVIEW

16. Time to
blast off
PREP AND GO LIVE

17. Launch
list
Atlassian Marketplace listing
• Unique value proposition
• Key benefits
• Key features
• Search terms
• Professional screenshots
• Professional UPM banner
Website content
• Landing page
• Promo (banners, etc)
• Blog post
• Documentation
Other collateral
• Email
• Social media posts
• Press release
• Live event material:
• Print
• Roll-up banner
• Clever swag

18. Take flight!
Coordinate your release across all
channels and remember to include
Marketplace approval times.
If you’ve done your launch prep, going
live should be smooth sailing.

19. PREP AND GO LIVE
You’re airborne!
. . . so now what?

20. Awareness stage
I have a sore throat, fever, and collaborating with
my team makes me achy all over. What’s wrong
with me?
Consideration stage
Aha! I have strep throat! What are my options for
relieving or curing my symptoms?
Decision stage
I can see my primary care physician, go to a clinic,
or go to the ER. The ER costs a lot, but I have
health insurance.
Buyer’s
journey

21. Awareness stage
Top-of-funnel – it’s about education

22. Make them aware of their
problem – and of your
expertise.

23. Desired action:
Increase page views and
convert viewers to contacts
AWARENESS STAGE

25. Landing page
Still main hub for web traffic; Keep core
messaging; Add features; Keep ‘Get updates’ CTA
Blog more
Drive your website’s SEO authority with a
relentless stream of high-quality content
Distribute across channels
• Email
• Social media
• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Xing
Website
content
• Professional communities
• Product Hunt
• LinkedIn groups
• Relevant professional forums

27. Landing page
Still main hub for web traffic; Keep core
messaging; Add features; Keep ‘Get updates’ CTA
Distribute across channels
• Email
• Social media
• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Xing
Website
content
• Professional communities
• Product Hunt
• LinkedIn groups
• Relevant professional forums
Blog more
Drive your website’s SEO authority with a
relentless stream of high-quality content

28. 2658
unique visitors to Backbone blog posts

29. AWARENESS STAGE
Introductory
webinars
for groups

30. Consideration stage
Middle-of-funnel – it’s about solutions

31. Make them consider the
potential solutions (yours
included) to the problem.

32. Desired action:
Request a demo or
product trial
CONSIDERATION STAGE

33. Losses loom larger
[in the mind]
than potential gains.
KAHNEMAN & TVERSKY, 1979

34. Landing page
Additional CTA: Request a demo
Don’t stop the blogging
Address problems of the status quo, and speak
to specific challenges of specific groups, e.g.:
• Keeping 1st Level and 2nd Level IT Support
Teams in Sync
• Best Tool for Creating Employee Handbooks –
Confluence vs. Word
Stories of success
Seeing is believing – tell customer success
stories on your site and with press releases
Website
content

36. EMAIL
Demonstrate
Expertise
Draw an engaged audience to
your high-quality blog content
Nurture
Drip email campaigns keep
information flowing and
interested contacts warm
Continuous
improvement
Roll out feature enhancements
as your apps evolve

37. Live events
Take your message on the road and go to where
your personas are, e.g. trade shows and AUGs
Crash course videos
Show how to dive in and achieve success
quickly with your app
Evolve social media use
Fight the status quo and address specific persona
needs while expanding reach with paid social
Other
tactics

38. Decision stage
Bottom-of-funnel – it’s about persuasion

39. Convince them that your
solution is the right one.

40. Desired action:
Product trial or purchase
DECISION STAGE

41. Evaluation nurture drip
Help those who try your app achieve a speedy,
successful liftoff
Onboarding success drip
Make your customers heroes, and convert them
into evangelists
Make time for one-to-one
This stage can be very ‘high touch’ – be sure
there are team resources in place
Email

42. WEBSITE
Alternate
landing pages
Speak more specifically to the
needs of your target personas
White papers
Provide enough in-depth
information to convince the
whole team
Call to action
‘Try it free’ – They’re now ready
for a one-click option

43. WEBSITE
Alternate
landing pages
Speak more specifically to the
needs of your target personas
White papers
Provide enough in-depth
information to convince the
whole team
Call to action
‘Try it free’ – They’re now ready
for a one-click option

44. WEBSITE
Alternate
landing pages
Speak more specifically to the
needs of your target personas
White papers
Provide enough in-depth
information to convince the
whole team
Call to action
‘Try it free’ – They’re now ready
for a one-click option

45. Topical webinars
Focus on specific functionality or solving
problems for a vertical
One-to-one webinars
Find your ‘big fish’ evaluators and customers and
offer them personal webinars
Enablement portal
Create a group of evangelists outside your org
who get special access to marketing material
Other
tactics

46. Results
How has this gone for Backbone Issue Sync?

47. Smart launch planning
Use the resources you have wisely and
realistically
Backbone Issue Sync
go-to-market campaign
3-person team used approximately 20% of
manpower resources over one year
Marketing staff ROI
From 1.5 to 3.5 staff in 2016; 90% increase in
web traffic, 42% increase in evals, 43% in sales
Be strategic
about your
go-to-market

48. 76,851
pageviews
Total of Atlassian
Marketplace plus k15t.com
1,320 engaged
contacts
Email contacts known to
be interested in Backbone
49% open rate
14% click rate
Software industry averages:
21% open rate
2% click rate
Backbone top-of-funnel results

49. 1226 evaluations
Total evaluations for server
and cloud
429 active
installations
Total active installations
for server and cloud
305 app
purchases
Total purchases for server
and cloud
Backbone bottom-of-funnel results

50. References
Just a few
favorites
Strategy and tactics
http://okdork.com/blog/
http://www.coelevate.com/essays/
https://blog.intercom.com/category/marketing/
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing
Traction, Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares, 2015
SEO
https://moz.com/blog
http://searchengineland.com/
Atlassian Marketplace
https://developer.atlassian.com/market/how-to-
market-your-app

51. Thank you!
DAVIN PUKULIS | DIRECTOR OF MARKETING | K15T SOFTWARE | @DAVINDOES