Getting the problem statement right was hard because it's really the most important part of the doc, and the management team was so close to the product that it was hard for them to get the perspective they needed to effectively market it.


They had a (mostly) completed product and needed the strategy and tactics to drive the marketing/sales funnel.


Getting the company story right is the foundation of any effective marketing.

"The company story is the company strategy." -Ben Horowitz (of a16z fame)

I have seen the results of getting the core narrative right over many engagements, and it never fails to amaze me how much more efficient marketing becomes once that is done.

John Derrick

Adam Gordon

This document presents how we took Skywriter to market, laid out the basic value props, and gave an overview of why we made the product.

Business has always run on content. But now we’re drowning in it. As the importance of content has increased, it’s volume and variety have grown even more. And, it’s everywhere. Multiple clouds, apps, platforms, devices, websites, and whatever comes next.

It’s a time consuming and tedious task to even know what you have, let alone find it and use it. Businesses that don’t deal with content well are simply not able to monetize it well.

 to manage content—those in regulated industries, for instance—face an even tougher challenge. For them, failure means exposure to huge risks.

The “content problem” is evergreen and gets worse every year.

Skywriter is the first tool specifically designed to manage content. Any content from anywhere. Combine YouTube videos with original articles and the latest product updates and publish it as a package in moments. To everyone or specific groups.

It automates much of “content operations.” As labor is no longer needed for the mundane/routine tasks, the costs decline, the process accelerates, and content operations becomes a reliable business asset.

The platform is highly scalable and provides flexible features that provide “downstream” users the ability to customize and add their own content. The means of publication is via push through email, web and social media. Skywriter provides a complete suite of analytics tools for tracking usage.

Small & Medium Enterprises (SME) where collaboration, speed and scalability of moving accurate content to downstream groups or people is critical.

Initially targeting compliance (insurance, security/ privacy, financial institutions) and training (users, customers or employees).

In all cases, we plan to work with content operators who have a critical need to distribute content in a “production environment” that assures ease of use, scale capacity, content customization, audience selection, an audit trail for delivery, consumption, and analytics that track usage as far downstream as it goes.

Skywriter has developed a content automation platform. The first to completely address the needs of content companies.

Content from all types of sources in all types of forms can be ingested, organized, and found, quickly and easily. Then it can be assembled, shared and tracked. These can be collaborative documents from any cloud, videos, presentations, PDFs, anything from anywhere can go into Skywriter.

From there it is completely customizable and can be shared selectively, re-used endlessly, and tracked comprehensively. This platform is highly scalable and provides flexible features that provide “downstream” users the ability to customize and add their own content.

Content is published via push; through email, web and social media. Skywriter provides a complete suite of analytics tools for tracking usage. The current version supports email, Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, web landing pages, web pages, and web content portals. Future enhancements will include additional social media channels, enhanced automation for categorization of content during import, and broadcast.

Skywriter is a SaaS platform. We target companies whose business naturally involves an eco-system of users (e.g. health insurance) or large number of channel partners, or who have critical business functions that require an audit trail for content delivery & consumption (e.g. compliance).

Our pricing model is designed to flexibly map to business needs: we can offer customers a rev-share model where we meter usage and charge a (small) fee throughout an eco-system, or work with a single payor for whom eco-system usage is free. In metered usage, where users can number in 1000’s or even millions, the multiplier factor makes the revenue model very compelling. The same multiplier effect also makes our business model inherently viral.

Sales Channels Strategy (What/When + Promotion)

: We plan to leverage providers who already serve the industries we’re targeting; regulated industries who must show compliance. Any company that generates, shares, and manages content will have strong revenue-sharing incentives to work with Skywriter, as we will represent a new revenue source for them.

: We plan to supplement our channel strategy with a selective direct sales approach to leverage our network of contacts. Because Skywriter’s business is viral in nature, we expect inbound referrals once users become familiar with our platform.

: Awareness/lead generating channels such as associations & social media will be employed as funding permits.


Competition (Ad hoc, Incomplete, Labor-intensive)

The dominant competitor Skywriter faces is already-existing systems that have been patched together. These usually involve multiple apps and lots of staff time. There are a few compliance workflow companies, but the solution are rigid and not leveraging or using inbound / outbound communication channels.

GTM Plan at Skywriter Systems

Skywriter Go To Market Strategy

Problem

Solution

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