Your GTM fails? Blame 2009 content ops

Photo by Clark Tibbs on Unsplash

You’ve got the product. You’ve mapped out the strategy. You’ve even aligned the teams (or so you think). But despite all this effort, your go-to-market (GTM) motions keep hitting a wall. Sound familiar?

Here’s the hard truth: it’s not your product, your pricing, or even your positioning that’s failing — it’s your content operations (content ops).

The silent saboteur in your GTM strategy

Content ops is the backbone of any successful GTM strategy. It’s how content flows — from ideation to execution — to support marketing campaigns, sales enablement, and customer success. When it works, content ops ensures that the right messaging reaches the right people at the right time. When it doesn’t, the cracks start to show:

• Inconsistencies: Sales teams scramble with outdated pitch decks, while marketers waste time recreating the wheel.
• Delays: Launch timelines slip because workflows are manual or unclear, and approval cycles are endless.
• Siloes: Teams don’t know who owns what, leading to duplicated efforts or worse — missed opportunities.

Poor content ops doesn’t just slow you down — it erodes credibility with your sales teams and customers. And once trust starts to slip, it’s hard to recover.

Why content ops deserves first-class status

Too often, content ops is an afterthought, patched together with “good enough” processes and tools. But in a world where speed and consistency are everything, treating content ops as a second-class citizen is no longer an option.

Here’s how to elevate your content ops and unlock your GTM potential:

1. Automate wherever possible
   Tools like workflow automation, AI content generators, and centralized asset repositories can reduce manual bottlenecks and enable faster execution.
2. Tear down the silos
   Content isn’t just marketing’s job — it’s everyone’s job. Foster cross-functional collaboration between marketing, sales, product, and customer success to ensure alignment and avoid duplication.
3. Build agile workflows
   Adopt processes that allow for flexibility and iteration without sacrificing quality. Agile content operations ensure you can respond quickly to market shifts and customer needs.
4. Audit and optimize your tools
   Notion, Confluence, and similar platforms are only as effective as the workflows they support. Audit your tools to ensure they’re solving problems, not creating new ones.

The bottom line

Content is the currency of trust in any GTM strategy. It informs sales conversations, drives customer engagement, and reinforces your brand promise. But without robust content ops, you’re burning time, resources, and credibility.

👉 So ask yourself: Is your content ops ready for 2025, or is it still running on workflows from a decade ago?

It’s time to treat content ops like the strategic powerhouse it is. Your GTM success depends on it.

Will Kelly is a writer, marketer, and keen observer of the IT industry. Medium is home to his personal writing. He’s written for CIO, TechTarget, InfoWorld, and others. His career includes stints in technical writing, training, and marketing. Follow him on X: @willkelly.