Why You Need a Go-to-Market Strategy

Product launches can be exciting. A successful launch can be a breakout moment for a company, driving new revenue, increasing market share, and setting a business apart from its competitors.

But an unsuccessful launch can do the opposite – wasting valuable resources, losing customers, and potentially giving the firm a bad name. To ensure a product rollout succeeds, a business needs a carefully planned go-to-market strategy.

What Is a Go-to-Market Strategy?

Without proper planning, it’s impossible to know if you’re chasing the wrong audience, are too early to market, or are late in targeting a segment that’s already saturated with similar offerings.

A go-to-market (GTM) strategy helps you avoid these missteps by providing a step-by-step plan for rolling out a new product or expanding into a new market. It helps set you up for success, so you launch your product to the right audience with the right messaging at the right time. Think of your GTM strategy as a blueprint that answers the following questions: 

• What product are you selling, and what are its chief benefits?
• Who are you targeting with this product, and what problems does it solve for the customer? 
• Where will you sell this product? What sales territories do you want to pursue, and what do the demand and competition look like in those markets?
• How will you grab your target customers' attention? 

A comprehensive go-to-market strategy framework will help you get your product into the hands of as many customers as possible as efficiently as possible. In addition to helping you set your product strategy, a well thought-out GTM strategy should include plans for the following:

• Pricing and promotion
• Marketing communications (marcom)
• Sales channels and distribution

What’s the Difference Between a Go-to-Market Strategy and a Marketing Plan?

While similar, a GTM strategy is different from a marketing plan. The former details the steps needed to bring a new product to market (or an existing product to a new market); the latter lays out the requirements for a marketing campaign. A GTM strategy can include a marketing plan, but a marketing plan does not have the scope required to accommodate a GTM strategy.

In addition to laying the groundwork for a successful product launch, a well-conceived GTM strategy can give you a better understanding of your market and competition, while also helping you find ways to reduce costs and build greater brand awareness.

In addition to laying the groundwork for a successful product launch, a well-conceived GTM strategy can give you a better understanding of your market and competition, while also helping you find ways to reduce costs and build greater brand awareness.

How to Create a Go-to-Market Strategy Template

Developing a powerful and effective GTM strategy can be broken down into six steps:

1. Develop a customer profile.

This is the basic building block for a successful product launch. Ensure the product is a good fit for the market or customer set to which you’re planning to offer it. First, consider the attributes of the target audience you hope to serve, such as the demographics, personal aspirations, and pain points of its members. Then compare those with the benefits of your product or service. If they align well, you have a good product-market fit.

2. Research market demand and the competition.

Before launching the product, be sure there’s sufficient demand to justify the investment and that your value proposition will stand up to the competition. Market research and a competitive analysis will provide the intelligence you need by answering questions, such as: 

• Are there similar products already on the market? 
• What do you offer that others don’t? 
• What audiences and geographic regions are your competitors targeting? 
• Is there strong demand for this type of product, or is the market overcrowded?

3. Determine your messaging.

How will you capture your target audience’s attention and begin moving prospects through your sales funnel? Plan thoughtfully to develop advertising and customer communications messaging to stir customers to action.

Messaging should draw on the customer profile you developed to address your target audience’s pain points, while highlighting the benefits they’ll receive. Of course, it should do this in the catchiest, most compelling way possible and aim to strike an emotional chord with the prospect. If there are different sets of buyers within your target audience, such as various age groups, messaging should be tailored to each group's needs.

4. Choose your marcom channels.

How will you put this carefully-crafted messaging in front of your audience? Will you rely on the web and online advertising, or should print advertising and mailers also play a role? Do you plan to mount a social media campaign? Are billboards a possibility?

The answers to these questions depend on the makeup of your customer set and its media habits. A professional audience, for example, may rely on specialized publications that still come in a printed format. Teenagers and young adults may favor social media.

5. Set a sales plan.

This is where the rubber meets the road. How will you turn your prospects into buyers? Again, this depends on who those prospects are, but there are four common sales models:

1. The self-service sales model, in which customers conclude the purchase on their own. This is commonly used online and for relatively simple and inexpensive products that don’t require dedicated salespeople to answer questions and guide the customer.
2. The inside sales model is more appropriate for more complex products at higher price points. Working via phone, email, text messages, and internet chat, sales reps can interact directly with customers and respond to their questions.
3. The outside or field sales model requires the most skilled personnel, the greatest investment, and typically has the longest sales cycle. But it’s well-suited for extremely complex and costly products that require face-to-face contact with the customer to make the sale, such as high-end business software or central-air-conditioning systems. The high profit margins on these types of offerings can compensate for the longer times and higher costs.
4. The channel sales model relies on using third-party sales partners to sell your product. While this approach gives you less say in how you market your product, it can help you quickly ramp up your sales effort and reach customers in places where your organization has a limited presence – such as in-store sales, for example. With the exception of self-service, channel sales is the least expensive sales model and can work particularly well if you partner with a company that sells similar products. For example, if you’re selling a new type of dog leash, partnering with a pet supply chain could help expand your reach.

6. Establish processes and goals.

Every GTM strategy should set clear, measurable goals. These can take the form of metrics, such as click rates, downloads, purchases, and other key performance indicators (KPIs). But even the best thought-out GTM will fall short if it isn’t well executed. Establish clear procedures and lines of communication with sales and marketing teams, check progress regularly against KPIs, and make the necessary course corrections as you go.

The Takeaway

A go-to-market strategy provides a step-by-step template for launching a new product or entering a new market. It consists of six key steps, beginning with defining who your target customer is and researching market demand and the competition. With such a plan in place, you can successfully launch your product to the right audience, the right way, at the right time.

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