Orange Owl
April 26, 2024
Approximately 20% of new businesses or startups fail during their first two years and 45% during their first five years. What is even more shocking is the fact that these numbers have been fairly consistent since the 1990s.
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Now whether you’re launching a new business or are simply expanding your product portfolio, you can avoid failure with the help of a go-to-market strategy. Developing this strategy will guide you every step of the way—from preparing your product to launching it and assessing its performance.
If you don’t want to be counted in that 20% or 45% of businesses that fail, stay with us as we explore go-to-market strategy. In this GTM guide, we’ll cover the meaning and benefits of GTM and see how you can create a go-to-market strategy for your business. Moreover, we also have a GTM planning checklist that you can download for your reference.
A go-to-market (GTM) strategy is your action plan for launching a product or service into the market, targeting specific customer segments and channels to gain a competitive edge. It outlines your product’s value proposition, marketing and sales tactics, and how to engage with your intended audience.
Think of GTM as the roadmap for how you’ll introduce your offerings to the market, aiming to reach the right customers, through the right channels, with the right message. By executing a well-thought-out GTM strategy, you can efficiently use your resources, attract your ideal customers, and achieve your sales targets more effectively.
Explore 5Ws and 1H for Crafting Effective B2B GTM Plans here.
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to GTM strategies. However, there are types of GTM strategies that you should know about. According to your product and target audience, you can experiment with these types:
Building a B2B GTM strategy that fits your budget as well as your buyer persona is a long-drawn and complicated process. However, spending time and effort creating a well-planned GTM strategy will significantly increase your chances of a successful product launch. Here are some benefits that you will get by indulging in this process:
A good go-to-market strategy is tailored to your target audience and includes effective product positioning, pricing, sales, and digital marketing strategies and is still agile enough to adapt to changing marketing conditions and customer demands.
Here are essential components and steps to help you create a go-to-market strategy.
The harsh truth is that not everyone is your customer. Even if your product is the need of the hour or used by every business around the globe, everyone will still not be your customer. So, what you need to do is identify who your target audience is.
82% of marketers say having high-quality data on the target audience is important to succeed.
– Hubspot
Here’s what you can do:
Unless you have something new or different to offer, getting the attention of your target audience can be a challenge. This is where developing your value proposition comes in as it differentiates your product or service in the market. It succinctly describes why customers should choose your offering over competitors’ by highlighting unique benefits and solving specific customer pain points.
From the previous stage, you’ll already have an understanding of your target audiences’ needs and pain points. You must have also created buyer personas. Now, you can leverage this data to craft unique and compelling messages for your audience. You can describe the positive impact your product or service will have on customers’ lives or businesses. Whether it’s saving time, reducing costs, improving performance, or enhancing quality of life, make the outcome clear and compelling.
However, here are some things to keep in mind while developing your value proposition:
Before you start advertising your product, you want to ensure that you are 100% ready. This means being fully prepared to meet market demands and positioning your product effectively against the competitors.
This is where you actually plan to enter the market. It requires outlining specific actions, timelines, and resources required to successfully introduce your product or service to the market.
At this stage, you need to determine the most effective ways to sell and deliver your product or service to your customers. Based on your customer analysis, you will know the buying journey and preferences of your customers. This will help you choose sales channels that align with your customers’ habits. Here are some sales strategies that you’ll need to analyze:
You need to effectively communicate the value of your product or service to your target audience and encourage them to take action. For this, you need to develop a comprehensive plan that covers how you will attract, engage, and convert your audience through various marketing and promotional tactics.
Effective customer acquisition and onboarding plans ensure you attract new customers and they transition to becoming proficient users of your product or service.
For acquisition:
For onboarding:
This is the final stage where you assess the effectiveness of your initiatives, and make necessary adjustments for continuous improvement and scale your GTM strategy. This process involves tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) against your objectives, analyzing the data, and refining your strategies based on insights gained.
Using these terms interchangeably isn’t correct. This table will help you understand the differences between GTM vs. Marketing Strategy vs. Marketing Plan.
Go-to-market strategy | Marketing strategy | Marketing plan | |
Purpose | Outlines how to launch new products or enter new markets. | Defines how to achieve business goals through marketing efforts. | Details the specific actions, timelines, and resources to implement the marketing strategy. |
Scope | Broad, covering product launch, target audience, pricing, distribution, and sales channels. | Focused on overall approach to reaching target audiences and competitive positioning. | Narrow, concentrating on specific marketing campaigns, channels, and tactics. |
Time frame | Often project-based, centered around the timeline of a product launch or market entry. | Long-term, setting the direction for marketing efforts over a period of years or the product lifecycle. | Short-term to medium-term, usually covering a fiscal year or campaign period. |
Key components | Product-market fit, value proposition, target market, distribution channels, sales strategy. | Target market, competitive advantage, positioning, brand messaging. | Marketing channels, budget allocation, KPIs, campaign schedules, content strategy. |
Objective | To successfully introduce a product or service to the market and achieve initial market traction. | To establish a sustainable competitive advantage and engage effectively with the target market. | To execute the marketing strategy through specific, actionable initiatives that drive towards set goals. |
Understanding common misconceptions in B2B GTM strategies is essential for developing effective marketing approaches. Many believe that a great product sells itself, or that a single strategy fits all, but these myths can derail success. It’s crucial to recognize that immediate results are rare, lower prices don’t always win, and more features don’t necessarily make a better product.
Additionally, B2B strategies differ significantly from B2C, and the product launch is just the beginning of ongoing efforts. Viral marketing isn’t essential, and more traffic doesn’t equate to success.
Finally, while higher customer acquisition costs might be justified for some B2B products, it’s vital to balance these costs with long-term profitability. By debunking these myths, businesses can tailor their GTM strategies to meet unique market conditions and customer needs, ensuring a more successful market entry and growth.
Developing a successful Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy is essential for B2B companies launching new products or services. However, common pitfalls such as lack of clear objectives, inadequate market research, and ignoring customer feedback can derail efforts.
Other mistakes include poorly defined value propositions, ineffective positioning, flawed pricing strategies, inconsistent messaging, neglecting sales enablement, underestimating digital marketing, and ignoring scalability.
By understanding and addressing these GTM pitfalls, businesses can enhance their GTM strategies and achieve better market success.
Crafting a go-to-market strategy for B2B companies is both an art and a science, requiring meticulous planning, execution, and ongoing optimization. This comprehensive guide aims to equip you with the knowledge and tools necessary to navigate the complex B2B landscape successfully.
Read a sample GTM case study here.
Remember, the key to a successful GTM strategy lies in deeply understanding your market, continuously refining your approach based on real-world feedback, and maintaining alignment across your organization. By prioritizing these strategic elements, your B2B company can achieve sustainable growth, build lasting customer relationships, and stand out in a competitive market.
Also, don’t miss out on the latest B2B GTM Trends and Stats.
The two main go-to-market (GTM) plan methodologies are the Funnel and Flywheel approaches. The Funnel methodology guides customers through a linear journey from awareness to purchase, while the Flywheel model emphasizes creating a self-sustaining cycle of engagement that leverages customer satisfaction to drive referrals and repeat business.
Go-to-market (GTM) strategies are used by businesses of all sizes across various industries, from startups launching their first product to established companies entering new markets or introducing new products. GTM strategies are essential for aligning product, marketing, sales, and customer success teams toward a successful market launch or expansion.
Customer relationship management (CRM) platforms like Salesforce, marketing automation tools such as HubSpot, analytics tools like Google Analytics, project management software such as Asana or Trello, and communication tools like Slack can support your GTM strategy creation and implementation process. These GTM tools help in managing customer data, automating marketing efforts, tracking performance, organizing tasks, and facilitating team collaboration.
The GTM strategy framework includes:
These four points are integral parts of the step-by-step go-to-market strategy and having answers to them will bring you closer to success.