Mastering Product-Led Growth and Reseller Strategies in B2B: Insights from A Product Marketing Expert In this article, Anna explains the advantages of the product-led growth approach and shares best practices for working with resellers and aggregator sites. She highlights that these strategies can contribute up to 70 per cent of revenue for B2B companies in the US.

Anna Maikova is a distinguished product marketing specialist with experience in promoting complex technological solutions. She has been leading product marketing at Gan.AI, a company specializing in personalized video tools designed to enhance customer engagement and drive sales. Through her efforts, Gan.AI has run campaigns for Salesforce, Samsung, Uber, and other major clients, as well as achieved significant recognition by winning the prestigious SXSW Pitch Award and securing the Best Gen AI Video Award at the AI Breakthrough Awards. Previously, the leading expert focused on product marketing for partner sales at AudioEye, a company that generates over USD 30 million in annual revenue by enabling businesses to create inclusive and compliant websites.

Additionally, as a Senior Product Marketing Manager, Maikova managed a team at Picsart, a photo and video mobile app with over 150 million users worldwide backed by Sequoia Capital and Softbank. She led campaigns for new product features, including the Sketch effect, which earned the prestigious Webby Award for Best Use of Filter/Lens.

Prior to this, Anna served as a Product Marketing Manager at WayRay, a Swiss developer of augmented reality car displays supported by Porsche, Hyundai, and Alibaba. In this role, she developed and executed a go-to-market strategy for the True AR SDK, becoming a finalist of the SXSW Interactive Innovation Awards.

In this article, Anna explains the advantages of the product-led growth approacch and shares best practices for working with resellers and aggregator sites. She highlights that these strategies can contribute up to 70 per cent of revenue for B2B companies in the US.

Leading Reseller Programs at AudioEye

As a seasoned marketing professional with over a decade of experience, Anna Maikova has worked with industry giants like McDonald's and Nestlé before honing her skills as a Senior Product Marketing Manager for AudioEye. AudioEye's plug-in solution allows its clients to make websites and apps accessible to customers with disabilities.

At AudioEye, Maikova developed an innovative sales enablement program that achieved a remarkable 90 per cent reseller retention rate and a 26 per cent year-on-year increase in partner sales. She notes that in the US, companies can significantly boost their revenues by working with 2-3 resellers with deep expertise in their verticals.

As part of this program, the expert's team educated resellers about AudioEye's product, its technical specifications, legal requirements, and strategies for handling legal claims. She developed case studies, training materials, and other resources for the account management team. AudioEye offered various support levels for end-users, ranging from basic assistance to complete legal support, and Maikova created partner collateral accordingly.

In her role, Anna successfully revived a partnership with Finalsite, a provider of technology stacks, including websites and internal assessment systems, for thousands of schools in the US and abroad. Another partnership was with Bentobox, which offers digital solutions for restaurants.

When working with such resellers, Maikova advises against the "spoiled phone effect." The product marketing professional emphasizes the need for well-trained partners who understand the product intricacies. Additionally, she highlights the competitive landscape resellers navigate, as they often manage a vast portfolio of solutions. Properly packaging the product with comprehensive information and prioritization is key, as is cultivating strong personal relationships to ensure preference over competitors.

Additionally, Anna secured partnerships with technological marketplaces and software review services such as Square, HubSpot, AppSumo, and G2. Her efforts propelled AudioEye to rank among the top four services for digital accessibility. She mentions that these companies often take up to 80 per cent of the profit but provide significant sales volume and awareness. They also reinvigorate B2B influencer marketing, as internal influencers review and promote the product, boosting its visibility and ranking.

The expert underscores the importance of thorough preparation for launches on such platforms, because they have specific publishing requirements and schedules. International launches also necessitate adapting product descriptions and visuals to cater to diverse audiences. Finally, building relationships and meeting requirements to earn special badges, such as certified or featured app status, is vital for gaining customer trust.

Crafting Innovative Go-to-Market Strategies at Gan.AI

After AudioEye, Anna Maikova led product marketing at Gan.AI as a Senior Product Marketing Manager. The company enhances ad and outreach campaigns by incorporating brand ambassadors, celebrities, and company representatives. The process involves a speaker recording a video, which Gan.AI's generative AI model then personalizes for each customer in the database. The final product is a unique video where the celebrity or representative addresses the recipient by name and presents a tailored offer.

Gan.AI serves a diverse range of industries, including financial services, insurance, FMCG, healthcare, real estate, and retail across the US, India, and other countries. Customer statistics indicate that personalized videos from Gan.AI increase engagement threefold and boost viewability nearly fivefold. The company's innovative approach reflects a broader trend in the creative world: the democratization of the pixel. Today, simple text prompts can generate a wide array of photos and videos. This shift is poised to impact the entire industry, compelling major players like Adobe, Microsoft, and Google to adapt to new paradigms.

At Gan.AI, Anna was responsible for creating sales enablement materials that facilitate closing deals, including presentations, case studies, and training booklets. The product marketing specialist was also developing product onboarding, triggered email communication, and a comprehensive knowledge base with detailed FAQs on Gan.AI's solutions — a first for the company.

Among Maikova's key initiatives is introducing a product-led growth strategy, a novel approach for Gan.AI, and launching a new product: a video recorder with personalization features. It allows users to capture videos and send them via custom landing pages with subtitles, personalized GIF previews, and more. This innovation enables the target audience, particularly salespeople, to start with basic personalization and eventually progress to more advanced AI tools from Gan.AI.

Another significant project led by Anna is the go-to-market strategy for in-video personalized text and visuals. Clients can now receive unique video ads or messages with customized elements, such as postcards and cups. For example, a potential real estate buyer might get a recording from a developer offering three tailored property options, addressing them by name and inviting them for a tour.

Her role involves packaging these products, researching competitors, analyzing sales channels, and conducting beta tests. Anna Maikova is also redesigning the company's website to reflect all updates and innovations.

Product-Led Growth in the SaaS Era

Talking about product-led growth (PLG) strategy, the product marketing expert explains that in the SaaS industry, the approach to customer acquisition has undergone significant transformation. Traditionally, companies constrained their spending to match subscription or purchase costs. For example, if a user bought a USD 70 subscription, companies would allocate up to USD 70 on advertising and attribution channels to acquire that customer. And while this method attracted numerous clients, it led to vast expenditures on ads via platforms like Facebook, Apple, and Google, often resulting in a zero-sum game.

This unsustainable spending model contributed to the venture capital winter. SaaS companies could no longer depend indefinitely on investor backing. Consequently, they began exploring more efficient ways to ensure lead growth without excessive advertising costs. This shift led to the widespread adoption of the PLG approach, where positive user experience becomes the cornerstone of attracting, retaining, and expanding the customer base. The goal is to cultivate ongoing product use and encourage referrals.

Slack was a pioneer in implementing PLG. Users registered for the messenger and then invited their colleagues to join, creating a network effect. Eventually, companies adopted the Slack solution on a corporate level because a significant number of their employees were already using the platform. Other successful examples include Figma and Miro, which encourage users to share the product with collaborators after experiencing initial satisfaction with the features.

Anna explains Gan.AI's video recorder with personalization features aims to build brand awareness and trust as users progressively access more AI functions, provide their feedback, and recommend the product to their colleagues. By focusing on enhancing client experience and encouraging organic growth, Gan.AI seeks to capitalize on the benefits of PLG.

Strategies to Navigate an Oversaturated Market

When you are dealing with intense competition, the goal is to overcome market saturation where customers are hesitant to recommend products. Within the Gan.AI industry, the expert underscores the effectiveness of community building and focused outreach. The company primarily targets sales professionals across the five to six major U.S. communities in this sector. When individuals seek to develop or upskill as sales professionals, they often join such communities to access resources and learn about new tech tools. Practically every professional in tech uses at least ten different solutions, and Gan.AI's go-to-market goal is to be included in that list.

Another strategic approach involves a B2B influencer campaign. Each community boasts several leaders, and LinkedIn hosts numerous prominent B2B sales influencers who have substantial followings among industry professionals. They can promote Gan.AI's products, and smaller influencers from targeted locations will amplify reach and engagement through reposts and comments. Developing an ideal customer profile (ICP) in advance is key to ensure that such opinion leaders are followed by the target audience.

Anna Maikova adds that partnerships can vary in scope and scale. Many communities offer partnership packages, such as a series of training webinars or inclusion in a recommended list of tech vendors. For a B2B software product, promotion can also occur through knowledge-sharing podcasts, and certification training programs. For example, she is now working on an integration with a sales show where presenters will educate the audience about video prospecting, outreach trends, and demonstrate Gan.AI's tools. In any case, emphasizing the benefits to the core demographic is essential.

The product marketing professional mentions that even without the budget for a full-fledged partnership, startups can negotiate pilot projects to assess compatibility within a community. For instance, participation in select aspects of a show at a reduced cost allows companies to gauge audience response and registration numbers. Success hinges on understanding unit economics. With a product priced at USD 50,000, a USD10,000 partnership cost can be offset by just one sale. However, for a solution with a USD 20 monthly subscription fee, acquiring even a hundred new users may not be enough to break even. Therefore, it's crucial to investigate whether the community has collaborated with products in a comparable price range and to conduct detailed financial evaluations accordingly.