Michelle Picoto
Positioning, Messaging, and Growth Advisor.
Bio
After 17 years in the tech industry from customer success to sales to tech to marketing, I've seen too many good solutions hit a growth wall. - they don't understand their best buyers - they don't have strong positioning - they do sales and marketing like it's 2013 How can I help? - Get to the heart of exactly who you're for, who you're against, and why you -> Positioning House - Connect the dots between your buyers, your revenue, and your product -> Go To Market. - Reframe your solution space to wreck your growth walls. - How to reach and message to your ideal buyers throughout the buying journey Who I work best with? Growth stage B2B tech companies that can't seem to break through growth stagnation. Those ready to reframe the status quo. Mindset matters more than anything else.
Expertise
Branding
Brand is often a dirty word because it's so misunderstood. The true core of branding is the personification of your business and how you expose that to your market. It's not visual identity, it's not a campaign, it's not a side project or team. It's the sum of all the parts of your business and how it is experienced by both internal and external parties. It requires cohesion and business strategy, and it requires repetition to solidify it.
Content marketing
Yes, you need good content, but that content is only valuable if it's getting in front of the people it was created for. That's what content marketing really is. I've planned out content pillars matched to buyer journeys, run content audits and repurposing plans, and grown content marketing from single channel to multi channel. Best approach is a simple approach.
Demand generation
Disregarding the intense LinkedIn semantic debates, demand generation applies to generating awareness and preference for your product from as early in the buying journey as possible. Call it brand awareness, product awareness, etc. the basics still stand: you have buyers out of market, and buyers in market, and you need to build mental and physical availability for future revenue growth. Those core building blocks outlive the names and labels given to them.
Go to market strategy
Taking a product to market involves multiple facets: product analysis, product messaging, the sales proposition, marketing strategy, and the sales strategy. I've been fortunate enough to work in roles in all those facets, bringing brand new products to market or expanding existing products into new markets. Matching the right message to the right buyers in the places they hang out.
Growth marketing
What is marketing for if not growth? I've worked with startups, agencies, and enterprises to unblock growth, from reframing problem spaces and ideal buyer profiling, to category design and go-to-market plans to find untapped revenue opportunities.
Imposter syndrome
Yeah, this one hits right in the heart. I'm nowhere near perfect in this, but I've found ways to deal with this for myself, and having connections that build you up when you can't do it yourself is invaluable. I'll happily be your cheer squad!
User research
This has to be one of my favourite activities. Most growth walls that my clients face come down to not knowing who their ideal buyers are and why they would care - it's one of the key pillars in my positioning house approach. It's more than surface level questions; it's adapting and digging to understand the user's world and context, and what their true challenges, objections, and risk perceptions are.
Venting frustration
Sometimes this is all you really need. And I'm here for it. Safe space, open mind, and a positive approach to working through any issues. We all need a little more empathy in this life.
Toolkit
Miro
6 years of experienceI've been using Miro over the past few years for everything from workshops to technical diagrams and workflows. It's simple enough to use for the right purposes.
Typeform
5 years of experienceI predominantly use Typeform for custom surveys and forms that I build for my business as well as for clients. I've also integrated it into custom landing pages.
Hubspot
5 years of experienceI use Hubspot for my own business as well as for clients. I've implemented email automation for personalised product onboarding journeys, as well as marketing and sales campaigns. I've implemented email, social, and account automation, landing pages, websites, and meetings through Hubspot, custom deal and lead fields and attribution fields, etc.