How To Create an Effective Go-To-Market Strategy

A go-to-market strategy (GTM strategy) is a detailed plan that outlines how a company or organisation will introduce and promote its products or services to the target market and customers.

It’s a strategic approach that covers all aspects of bringing a product or service from development to market launch and beyond.

The main goal of a go-to-market strategy is to ensure a successful product launch and a successful lifespan for the product.

Of course, a huge part of any go-to-marketing strategy is marketing.

Without that, you’ll have a great product or service ready to launch, but no one will know it exists.

The biggest mistake we see is go-to-market strategies that only include marketing right at the end, but for your strategy to work, marketing needs to be involved in all three main stages:

Pre-launch
Launch
Post-launch.

Let’s start with the stage with the most planning — pre-launch.

Pre-launch

Pre-launch is a pivotal phase where your expertise and strategic thinking can make all the difference in ensuring a successful product or service launch.

Understanding Your Product/Service and Market

Start by defining your product or service.

This sounds obvious, but having this clear from the start will make everyone’s lives easier.

Being clear on exactly what you’re selling from the get-go will give you a north star to work towards. You can’t market the vague idea of a product or service.

Are you selling one product, or is it an entire range?

Are there multiple products or services that are part of the same range but have slightly different audiences?

For example, Gymshark stock clothing collections that include items for men and women, so they include multiple models in their website imagery.

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Next, conduct in-depth market research. Dive into the hearts and minds of your target audience to understand their needs, pain points and desires.

Uncover valuable insights about their preferences, behaviours and expectations. This knowledge will serve as the bedrock for shaping the entire strategy.

HelloFresh understands that their audience is looking to save time by spending less time shopping and cooking, so they highlight that on their homepage.

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Then, armed with the insights from your market research, you’ll collaborate with the product team to craft an irresistible value proposition.

Highlight the unique benefits your offering brings to the table and clearly communicate why it’s the perfect solution for your target customers.

Finally, it’s important you analyse the competitive landscape.

Investigate the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors to identify opportunities for differentiation.

This will help you position your product or service in a way that stands out in the crowd.

Focus on the way they market their product or service — do they highlight price, quality or something else?

Which marketing channels are they using? What type of content are they sharing on those channels?

Gousto highlights that they are the number-one recipe box for choice, as they realised that customers wanted more meal options from meal kit subscriptions. Having the most recipes gives them an edge over competitors; this may convert people who feel that they don’t get enough choice with other meal kits.

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In their ads on Facebook and Instagram, Gousto often focuses on the number of recipes they offer — 250 per month and 75 per week. By keeping this consistent across all their channels, people will begin to associate Gousto with having the widest choice of meals in the meal kit market.

Setting Clear Objectives and Goals

Setting clear objectives and goals is critical in creating a successful go-to-market strategy.

Well-defined objectives provide direction, focus and a benchmark for measuring the strategy’s effectiveness.

Be Specific: Ensure your objectives are specific and clearly defined. Vague goals can lead to confusion and a lack of focus.
An example of a specific goal would be to increase market share by 10% within the first quarter of the product launch.
Make it Measurable: Use quantifiable metrics to track your progress and measure success.
For example, you could aim to achieve one thousand new sign-ups for the product’s free trial within the first month.
Set Attainable Goals: Be ambitious but realistic. Setting unattainable goals can demotivate your team and hinder progress.
For example, securing partnerships with at least three major industry influencers within six months is more realistic than ten major industry influencers in the next three months.
Ensure Relevance: Align your objectives with the overall business strategy to drive meaningful impact.
For example, increasing sales revenue by 20% in the target market segment identified by the business expansion plan is better than trying to target a new audience that’s less relevant to the business plan.
Time-Bound: Assign specific timeframes to your objectives to create a sense of urgency and maintain a sense of accountability.
An example of a time-bound goal would be to achieve 50,000 app downloads within the first three months of the mobile app launch.

If you want to take these goals to the next level, you should also consider the following:

Consider Resources: Take into account the available resources, budget and team capabilities when setting goals.
An example of this would be to increase social media engagement by 30% with the current social media team and budget.
Segment Your Objectives: Divide your goals into short-term and long-term objectives to ensure steady progress and momentum. The short-term goals should feed directly into the long-term ones.
For example, you could set a short-term goal of securing at least five media mentions during the product launch week, with your long-term goal being to maintain a consistent media presence with at least one feature per month.
Ensure Alignment: Make sure your objectives are aligned with different departments within the organisation to foster collaboration.
An example goal would be to increase cross-functional collaboration between marketing and sales teams, resulting in a 15% increase in lead conversion rates.
Quantify Market Penetration: If you’re entering a new market, you should set objectives for market penetration.
For example, your goal could be to capture a 12% market share in the Southeast Asian market within the first year of expansion.
Customer-Centric Objectives: Focus on customer-centric goals to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty. This shows you’re thinking beyond the launch of the product.
This goal could be to achieve a customer retention rate of 80% by implementing a comprehensive customer success program.

Remember, well-crafted objectives provide clarity and direction for your go-to-market strategy.

By following these guidelines and using measurable and time-bound objectives, it will be easier to track how successful your marketing is and make changes as needed.

It’s normal to need to make adjustments to these goals once you’ve launched your strategy. For example, a channel that you thought would be a winner might flop, you might have a change in team capacity, or you may find that a less obvious channel leads to lots of sales — there are plenty of reasons why you may want to change things up.

Your goals should be flexible, but any changes to them should be based on data and facts.

Crafting a Unique Value Proposition

Crafting a unique value proposition is all about speaking directly to your target audience. It helps you stand out from your competitors, address your customers’ needs and communicate the value of your product or service.

Here are three things you need to consider when creating your unique value proposition:

1. Differentiation from Competitors

Think of your value proposition as a spotlight that highlights what makes your product or service special and distinct.

Start by identifying the key features or benefits that set you apart from the competition. Maybe you offer unique technology, exceptional customer service or a more affordable pricing model. Highlight the things that make you shine in a crowded marketplace.

Salesforce positions itself as the customer-first CRM platform. This is reflected in their homepage copy, as well as in their metadata.

They refer to themselves as “the customer company” in the meta title and mention “the customer journey” in the meta description.

2. Addressing Customer Pain Points

Put yourself in your customers’ shoes and identify the challenges they face. Your value proposition should be a solution to their problems or pain points.

Show them how your product or service can make their lives easier, more enjoyable or more efficient.

Empathy goes a long way in building a connection with your audience, but it’s also worth speaking to actual customers.

Find out what makes them tick and how they feel about the product or service you’re bringing to market.

You might get insights that you never expected, which will influence the rest of your marketing strategy.

Monday run ads on the keyword “salesforce” and highlight a common problem people have with Salesforce – that it’s hard to use. They position themselves as being “actually easy to use”.

3. Communicating Value Clearly

Keep it simple and straightforward. Your value proposition should be concise and easy to understand.

Remember to avoid using technical jargon that might confuse or alienate your audience. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking your audience uses the same terminology as you, but you may find out that they don’t

Focus on the core benefits your customers will experience and use relatable language to convey your message effectively.

For example, “Get a restful night’s sleep with our memory foam mattress, designed to provide unmatched comfort and support for your best sleep ever.”

Remember, a compelling value proposition is the heart of your go-to-market strategy. It’s the reason why customers will choose you over your competitors.

By clearly showcasing what makes you unique, addressing your customers’ needs and communicating with clarity, you’ll create a value proposition that resonates with your target audience and leaves a lasting impression.

Smol is a brand that makes it clear right away that its products benefit you and the planet. Since you can buy cleaning products in most supermarkets, they need to find a way to stand out and convert people over to buying Smol. Further down the homepage, they also highlight that their products are delivered straight to your door, highlighting convenience.

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Choosing Your Marketing Channels

The channels you choose for your go-to-market marketing strategy could make or break your entire campaign.

You should have an idea of which channels will work best for you based on your audience and competitor research, but you should also take into consideration the capabilities of each channel.

Imagine digital channels as various tools in your marketing toolbox. Each has unique strengths and capabilities. From social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn to content-driven platforms like YouTube and blogs, you should explore what each channel can offer. This knowledge will help you leverage their strengths effectively.

If you’re a visually-driven brand, platforms like Instagram and Pinterest might work wonders. For thought leadership, LinkedIn and blogging platforms could be your best friends.

You also need to take into account which channels work best for the different stages of the sales funnel.

Keep in mind that the sales funnel is active while you’re building hype before your new product or service launch. Some people will have reached the bottom of the funnel by launch day, but it may take others longer.

At the top of the funnel, your audience will be looking for information about your new product or service but might not know much about it or if it’s right for them. They might not have come into contact with it before, especially if it’s entirely new.

You want to raise awareness and educate here. Answer common questions as blog posts, run PPC ads in the places your audience spends their time and create a buzz on social media. Reach out to the publications your audience reads often and get featured in one of their articles.

In the middle of the funnel, your audience needs nurturing.

You should create more tailored blogs for this stage, as well as automated email campaigns that warm users up to your business and product. When you’re launching a new product, this is a great way to build hype.

At the bottom of the funnel, you need to make sure there are clear next steps for your audience. If this is pre-launch, offer them the chance to pre-register to hear more about the launch or pre-order your product.

If you’re at launch, run early-bird offers for the people who convert first, and make sure your checkout process is straightforward.

If you’re expecting a lot of traffic on launch day, make sure you plan ahead to have more customer service representatives available.

Yes, this isn’t technically a marketing role, but if customer service is poor on launch day, this will not look good for the brand as a whole.

Remember, your role at the pre-launch stage sets the stage for a stellar product or service launch. Your dedication, insights and marketing prowess will pave the way for a successful go-to-market strategy. So, embrace this phase with enthusiasm and creative flair.

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Launch

Executing the Launch Plan

This is where you get to put your marketing plan into place.

For some content, like social media or email, you’ll want to stagger rather than post it all at once, but you may want to make all your blogs live so that you’re getting traffic from a variety of different questions and search terms.

Make sure that your sales and customer service teams understand what content is going live and when. This will help them understand the questions customers might have and can be useful to them in helping customers.

You may want to make your new product the star of the show or highlight it in a more subtle way.

Lush does both with their new Spongebob range — there’s a banner on their homepage promoting the range, but they also label the product images with “limited edition” to show that these products are new and only available for a limited time.

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Tracking KPIs

Tracking KPIs during a product launch is a crucial aspect of a marketer’s role in a go-to-market strategy. KPIs help us to assess the effectiveness of their plans and measure the impact of their efforts.

By monitoring KPIs, we gain valuable insights into various aspects of the launch, such as website traffic, conversion rates, social media engagement and sales figures.

This data-driven approach helps marketers understand what’s working and what needs improvement, enabling us to make informed decisions to optimise the go-to-market strategy.

Tracking KPIs also fosters accountability and transparency within the marketing team and across the organisation.

It provides a tangible way to evaluate the success of the product launch, identify areas of success or challenges and make data-backed adjustments for future endeavours.

Embracing KPI tracking empowers marketers to adapt and refine their tactics in real time, steering the product launch towards resounding success.

Analysing Results and Making Improvements

Tracking your KPIs will allow you to adjust the campaign in ways that you couldn’t have predicted until launch.

You may see lots of questions coming through from potential customers that you haven’t answered on landing pages, an FAQ or a blog, so you’ll want to make these answers visible ASAP.

By analysing your results, you’ll be able to plan the type of content you need to make during the post-launch phase of your go-to-market strategy.

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Post-Launch

The biggest mistake you can make in your go-to-market strategy is losing focus after your new product or service has launched. You need to be thinking about how to optimise and scale your campaign once the data starts rolling in.

Start by analysing the performance metrics of each marketing channel used during the launch.

Identify the channels that yielded the best results in terms of conversions, engagement and ROI. This will help you pinpoint the most effective channels to focus on.

You should also listen to what your customers are saying about your product and marketing efforts. Use this feedback to make improvements and align your strategies with their needs.

Then, review the messaging and content used in each channel.

Fine-tune the language and visuals to align with the preferences of your target audience. Tailor the content to resonate with specific segments, making it more personalised and relatable.

Don’t be afraid to broaden your audience demographics or venture into new geographic regions.

Be open to exploring new target segments that might have untapped potential, but remember that these audiences may need different messaging.

Finally, never stop experimenting and iterating like an artist perfecting a masterpiece.

A/B test different variations of your ads, content, and landing pages to discover what works best and use the insights from these tests to continuously refine your marketing strategy.

These insights will also help any future marketing campaigns you run if the audience or product is similar.

Conclusion

A well-defined go-to-market strategy helps companies avoid costly mistakes, focus their efforts on the right target audience, and create a compelling and differentiated market presence.

It ensures that all departments within the organisation are aligned and working towards the same goal, ultimately increasing the chances of success in the market.