In business, continued success usually follows strategic planning, so if you plan to launch a new product, reveal a new service or undergo a rebrand, you need a proper go-to-market (GTM) strategy.
In this article, we’ll describe what a GTM strategy is, explain why they’re so important and show you how you can build an effective GTM strategy that will ensure success in your next business venture.
Note: For simplicity’s sake, from this point on, “product” means anything you might need a GTM strategy for, including a service, product or rebrand.
What is a go-to-market strategy?
A go-to-market strategy is a comprehensive action plan outlining the steps you should take to succeed in a new business venture. Your go-to-market strategy should outline your product, why you’re launching it, who it’s for, what problem it solves and how you’ll attract and sell to customers.
A GTM strategy is vital for:
Startups launching their first product
Established businesses launching a new product
Product or brand relaunches
Businesses moving an existing product into a different market
The GTM strategy is part of your overarching marketing strategy. The marketing strategy outlines how you market your brand as a whole, while the GTM strategy focuses on a specific product launch.
A GTM strategy should clarify your target market, product positioning, sales strategy and marketing plan.
Note: There’s no single GTM strategy that will work for every product or brand. No two products are the same, so each will need a specific, targeted roadmap to launch successfully. Therefore, different companies must prioritize different aspects of their strategy depending on their unique business case.
Go-to-market strategy template
Any company can benefit from a go-to-market strategy, from small businesses to SaaS startups.
There are many go-to-market strategy examples online. The right GTM strategy template will depend on your business case.
Here is a go-to-market plan template to get you started:
Ideal customers | Who are your ideal customers? How do you plan to find out more about them? |
Messaging | What messaging will you use to attract your ideal customers? |
Acquisition channels | How will you communicate your message? What marketing channels will you use? Consider social media like Instagram or LinkedIn, events, word-of-mouth, etc. |
Marketing strategy | What does your buyer journey look like? What milestones do you need them to hit along the way so you know your marketing efforts are successful? |
Sales strategy | Will your sales strategy focus on inbound, outbound or a combination? |
Launch | What is your launch date? How will you measure the success of your sales and marketing efforts? |
Your answers for each section will depend on elements such as market research, your product roadmap and stakeholders’ input.
How a go-to-market strategy helps your product succeed
Launching a successful product isn’t easy – even big brand names often fail to get new products off the ground. There are many reasons a new product might fail, but you can avoid many of them with a proper launch roadmap.
Having a thorough GTM strategy helps to:
Mitigate risks involved in the launch, including wasted time, money and resources
Reduce the amount of time to get the product on the market
Generate demand and enable sales
Ensure regulatory compliance
Ensure customer satisfaction
Maximize return on investment (ROI)
Identify future opportunities and offer enhanced products
Even the best products need thorough market research and careful planning to ensure they offer the right benefits to their target audience.
5 things to consider before preparing your go-to-market strategy
Before we build an effective go-to-market strategy, let’s outline the components you must understand and leverage throughout the process.
1. Product-market fit
To create a great GTM strategy, you must clearly define the market(s) you’re launching into, including the demand for your product and its positioning (and pricing) within that market. Ask yourself the following questions:
Which market(s) are you targeting?
What pain point(s) does your product address and how does it differ from competitors?
How have you proven the need for your product?
What’s your pricing strategy?
2. Target audience
For any product or service, only so many people need it and have the incentive and means to purchase it. Knowing exactly who they are means being able to target them specifically, helping you get more out of your marketing and sales budget.
Here, you want to get as specific as possible. The more you know about your buyers, the easier it will be to sell your product to them. Find out:
Who will buy your product and how do they experience the problem it solves?
Are there smaller groups within these markets that are more likely to want your product?
Are you targeting businesses or individuals?
3. Competition and demand
You must understand the market you’re launching into. No product exists in a vacuum, and each product will have varying levels of competition and demand to consider before a launch. Ask yourself:
Which other companies already offer a product or service similar to yours?
Is there a demand for your product?
Is the market oversaturated, and if so, what’s your differentiation strategy?
How might a competitor react to your launch?
What market trends are occurring (or could occur) which could affect your launch?
4. Distribution
Distribution refers to how you’ll get your product to a storefront or an ideal customer’s location. For example, you may need a third-party partner to distribute your product.
Consider:
Is it a physical or digital product?
How will you sell and distribute your product?
How much demand will you have and will that affect your distribution process?
Are you going to sell from a store?
Who will your suppliers be?
5. Sales
Depending on your product, it may require a more sales-focused or marketing-focused approach. Some products will sell themselves, so salespeople may not be as important in the buyer journey. Others will require sales team members and all the tools and resources they need to make sales.
Consider:
How large is your market?
Do you need a salesperson or will you use a self-service sales model?
Are you selling to businesses or individuals?
How complex is your product?
Do you need to develop long-term customer relationships because it has a long or complex sales cycle?
All these points will help you determine the approach you need to take to launch successfully.
How to build an effective go-to-market plan
With all that in mind, let’s look at how to create a thorough GTM strategy.
Remember that the GTM plan should act as a guide and is changeable once created. It should be revised and improved as you receive customer feedback and the market changes.
1. Conduct research to understand your customer
The first step in a successful GTM strategy is identifying your buyer personas. You need to know who you’re selling to. Buyer personas are useful to:
Allow your marketing and sales teams to personalize their messaging and outreach efforts, making your marketing more relevant and effective
Help to ensure that you’re reaching decision-makers
Help you separate cold from hot leads (for example, targeting those more likely to purchase because they have the need and budget, and they’re decision-makers)
To create a buyer persona, you need to research the types of people who will have an interest in your product. Ask yourself: Who has the problems that my product solves?
When creating buyer personas, you should include the following information about your ideal customers:
2. Establish your messaging
Next, establish the messaging that will effectively convince people to buy your product.
The best way to do this is with a value matrix. Create a chart using the buyer personas you identified in the last step.
Each buyer persona should have a pain point or problem they face. In the next column, for each pain point, describe how your product addresses that problem. Reword this in the form of a message targeting the buyer persona.
3. Select your acquisition channels
Acquisition channels are the methods and platforms you’ll use to attract new customers. There are plenty of options when it comes to acquisition channels, including:
Blogging
Podcasts
Webinars
Website
Search marketing
Advertisements (TV, radio, print, online)
Events or trade shows
Your buyer personas play a key role here. Think about who you’re selling to and where they’re active, then choose the channels that will bring the most engagement.
You can do a few things to help decide the channels that will be the most beneficial for your product. First, look at your competitors. What are they doing? If they’re seeing success, a similar approach might work for you.
Similarly, pay attention to where your competitors are failing. You may be able to identify a channel on which your customers are active but where your competitor has no presence.
Note: Consistently measure your marketing channels’ success to ensure you’re reaching your goals and objectives. You can then optimize accordingly to ensure your strategy is streamlined and efficient.
4. Define your market strategy
It’s time to solidify your research into a marketing and sales plan. The plan should use the information you’ve gathered to set an agenda you can follow to raise product awareness in your target markets.
Your strategy should include consideration of:
Your branding | Ensure each brand element (e.g., logos, email headers, etc.) is consistent and reflects your company’s values. A solid brand strategy will help you build trust and establish a good market presence. |
The buyer journey | Think about where your potential customers are in the buyer journey and consider using a sales pipeline to track what activities you’ll need to do to make the sale. For instance, if your audience isn’t sales-ready, lead nurturing strategies are a great tool that can help build a relationship and engage with your target market, leading to more sales. |
How you generate product demand | To sell your product, you need to raise awareness of it. Consider whether you’ll use inbound methods, outbound methods or a combination. An inbound strategy will try to pull in leads who have expressed interest in your product, while an outbound strategy will involve prospecting and reaching out to leads. |
What additional resources you use | For example, you may decide to host a series of webinars to explain your new product’s functionality and purpose. You might also run email marketing drip campaigns alerting your subscribers about the new product launch with CTAs that lead to a product-specific landing page. |
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5. Develop a sales strategy
Now that you have the foundation of your go-to-market plan, it’s time to choose a sales strategy that will push your product into your market.
There are several commonly used sales initiatives – which one(s) you use will depend on your product and business. The most common GTM sales strategies are:
Self-service | The self-service model is when a potential customer finds and purchases a product on their own. In a self-service model, the buyers have access to all of the information they need to make a decision, for example, via FAQs, videos or knowledge articles made beforehand. Sales teams usually aren’t required, but you’ll need a marketing team to attract buyers. |
Inside sales | The inside sales business model involves making sales from within an office environment rather than in person. Inside sales largely involves calls, emails and online channels to find and nurture leads. |
Field sales | The field sales (or outside sales) model involves sales reps meeting with customers in person. Field salespeople generally have high expertise and often sell complex or expensive products. |
Channel model | Finally, the channel sales model involves a third-party partner that sells the product. These partners generally make a commission based on sales. The channel model can be useful to reach new customers or save money on sales teams in the early stages of a new product or service. |
Regardless of which sales process you decide to use, there are a few elements you’ll need to incorporate into your plan, including:
Training support. How your sales manager will train your sales team (if you need one) so that they have the knowledge and ability to make sales confidently. Having a sales methodology and sales processes comes in handy.
Client/customer acquisition. Identify the best acquisition channels for your product (as discussed above). As you move forward, marketing and sales teams must work together to optimize your sales activities to drive conversions.
Tools and resources. These include anything your sales team needs to find and engage with prospects, close deals and build long-term customer relationships.
Note: Each of these strategies and components can be mixed and matched, and the optimal configuration will depend on your product, market and target customer base, among other things.
6. Prepare for launch
It’s nearly time to hit the go button and send your product into the world. What are the final things you need to prepare?
Customer support. How will your customers contact you with inquiries? Will you need customer support teams? Will they require onboarding tools for your product?
Customer relationship managers. What’s your retention strategy? How will you nurture your relationships with your customers? A CRM is a great way to track and maintain long-term relationships (as well as generate new ones).
How you’ll measure satisfaction. Decide on a feedback mechanism that lets you see how customers react to your product or customer support, then use the feedback to improve the customer experience.
7. Decide on your ongoing budget and resources
Launching a product into the market doesn’t mean you’ve crossed the finish line – there’s still plenty to do. To succeed, you must continuously nurture your product with effective marketing strategies.
You may also find that your product needs further development (e.g., fixing glitches or problems) and that you need to provide iterative updates or functionality improvements.
All these things require budgeting and resources to ensure your product’s and brand’s long-term success, so keep this in mind as you launch.
8. Test and refine your strategy
Once your product hits the market, you may find your GTM plan needs to change. As we’ve mentioned, your GTM strategy shouldn’t be set in stone. You’ll get the most from it if you adapt to changes in real time.
As you receive feedback from the market and your customers, you need to be flexible and adjust your approach accordingly. You may need to refine your messaging, advertisements or pitches. You may also find that certain segments of your target audience don’t respond and identify others that better align.
Decide on a set of success metrics or key performance indicators (KPIs) that you’ll use to judge your growth. Consistent tracking and A/B testing will help you see if you’re hitting your targets, where you’re falling short and how to shift your strategy to improve.
Final thoughts
Launching a new product is hard work, but a go-to-market strategy gives you a much higher chance of success. With a detailed plan in place, you’ll gain a competitive advantage, so you’ll be well on your way to profitability.
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