8 Proven Steps to Craft a Winning Go-to-Market Strategy

Your team has been hard at work on your new product (or feature), and it’s time for the world to finally see the fruits of that labor. How can you ensure that all that work lands with a splash instead of silence?

No successful product launch is complete without a complete go-to-market (GTM) strategy. Knowing who your audience is, what the competitive landscape looks like, your pricing strategy, and how you’re planning to sell your product are core details you need to work out before you go live, or — even better — as your team works on the product or feature itself.

After all, we don’t have to look much further than Quibi to see what happens when vast amounts of money, industry goodwill, engineering talent, and high-caliber content come together without having a solid understanding of current market dynamics. 

It was one of the highest-profile flops of the 21st century so far, with founder Jeffrey Katzenberg (formerly of Disney and Dreamworks) and CEO Meg Whitman (formerly of Hewlett-Packard) saying “there were ‘one or two reasons’ for Quibi’s failure: The idea behind Quibi either ‘wasn’t strong enough to justify a stand-alone streaming service’ or the service’s launch in the middle of a pandemic was particularly ill-timed. ‘Unfortunately, we will never know, but we suspect it’s been a combination of the two.’” (WSJ, 2020)

So how can you avoid being the next Quibi? In this article, we’ve got all of the tools you need to develop your own top-notch GTM strategy — and avoid that kind of fate.

What is a go-to-market strategy?

A go-to-market (GTM) strategy is used to launch, promote, and sell a new product or feature. A successful GTM strategy includes identifying the target market (audience), their pain points and how you can solve them, as well as your company’s plans to effectively market and sell the new offering against any competitive forces.

There is no one-size-fits-all GTM plan as each new launch should be solving a specific problem, but by implementing a larger strategy capturing the factors listed above, you can create general guidelines of what to look for and what to avoid. If implemented correctly, you should have a high degree of confidence that you’ll have a successful launch, focused on whatever measures of success you decide on (direct sales/downloads, customer acquisition or awareness, depositioning a competitor, etc.)

GTM strategy vs GTM plan: What’s the difference?

A GTM strategy is the general approach your team takes when bringing new products and features to market, while a GTM plan is the specific checklist to follow when bringing a particular product or feature to market. Your plan should be adapted from your strategy and curated specifically for each new launch. 

GTM strategy vs marketing strategy vs business plan

The easiest way to think about the differences between a GTM strategy, a marketing strategy, and a business plan is by imagining a set of three Russian nesting dolls. The smallest, innermost doll is your GTM strategy: a rubric designed to launch specific offerings. This is often a time-bound or short-term project with offer-specific success metrics.

The next doll, slightly larger and further out, is your marketing strategy, or how you sell your brand and full suite of products/features. This is usually longer-term, with higher-level success metrics, and will be tweaked or rebuilt as necessary over time.

The largest and outermost doll is your business plan: what your company needs to do to be successful and profitable. While changes may occur to this plan, they should happen very infrequently, and usually only as a result of a major business event like a merger, acquisition, or bankruptcy.

Why do you need a GTM strategy?

Products that launch without using a go-to-market strategy framework are in real danger of failing to successfully launch. Using a GTM strategy allows you to effectively de-risk your launch by making sure it has an audience, is targeted correctly, is differentiated from competitors, and has a viable sales or marketing channel.

While a GTM strategy can’t always prevent a product or feature’s failure to be adopted, it should give you a clear sense of what your headwinds are, allowing you to work to avoid them.

What every successful GTM strategy has in common

There are four major factors shared by successful GTM strategies: product-market fit, an identified target audience, understanding the competitive demand, and finding a distribution channel. Let’s explore what makes them essential.

Product-market fit

Before you launch (or even put it into development), your product or service has to solve a specific, identified problem. Google, for example, was hardly the first search engine on the market, but the existing solutions didn’t solve for relevancy, frequently serving results that weren’t useful. 

Google’s PageRank algorithm solved the relevancy problem by identifying important pages on a subject by examining the number of backlinks they had, allowing them to serve results that were more likely to get searchers the answer they were looking for.

Target audience

You also need to determine if your offering has a target audience — and who that is. Who is experiencing the problem you’ve identified as your product-market fit? How acute is the pain they experience in existing solutions? Are they willing to pay to solve those pain points, and if so, how much would they spend? Asking these questions will allow you to effectively package, price, market, and sell your new offering to potential customers.

Competitive demand

Are there any other companies out there with offerings that solve the same problem your product is looking to solve? Who are they marketing and selling to? Is there still a demand for your product or is the market already oversaturated? 

Again, a late entry into the field doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t make a splash — or even that you can’t have a competitive advantage. You can learn from your competitors what mistakes to avoid (Did they price too high? Too low? Target too limited or too wide an audience?), and how to replicate success — especially if your offering is materially better (like Google’s search engine).

Distribution

Determine what your sales and marketing plan is. Can you sell directly on your site? Through a third-party marketplace? Resellers? Do you need a lead generation component or can you set up a self-service motion? Asking these questions will help you price and package your offering to allow for maximum monetization.

How to write a GTM plan

It’s time for you to write your GTM plan — but you don’t know where to start! You just know that you don’t want to be the next Quibi. Here’s our step-by-step guide to writing a go-to-market plan: 

1. Identify your buying team and personas.

The first thing to do when you’re getting ready to launch your product is to identify who has the purchasing power and who is the actual buyer. In the business-to-consumer (B2C) world, those are likely the same person. In the business-to-business world (B2B), you’re likely looking at 6-10 decision makers (Source: Gartner), some of whom may be only advisory, while others may have direct budget ownership but little to do with the day-to-day problem your product solves.

By identifying these different scenarios you can determine the best way to sell your product (should you have a self-service motion, a sales-led one, or a hybrid?), and how to target each of those personas. In a sales-led motion, you can go the step further and break down those personas on a per-company basis.

After all, at some companies, you may need to talk to only one or two people, such as a user and a manager. At others, you may start with a user, then do a demo for them and their manager, build a deck for those two to take to their decision maker/s who have budget approval, who then, ultimately, need to get the contract to the finance team, get final approval from the CEO… only to have to wait for rollout from the Ops or IT team. That’s very different from selling a weighted blanket directly to someone through a Shopify storefront.

2. Use a value matrix and identify messaging.

Now that you’ve identified who your stakeholders are, you can create specific messaging for each of them to help them understand the value of your product, the pain of the problem you’re solving, and build the business case.

In a B2B scenario like the one outlined above, the best thing to do is to break down the likeliest types of individuals with whom you’ll be working, and map those pain/value points, the takeaway message, and any assets you might need to use (or create) to help them remove friction along the buyer’s journey. The easiest way to do this is to create a simple matrix with the persona, talking points, message, and assets.

3. Test your messaging.

ABT = Always Be Testing. As soon as you’re ready to start selling your product, you should start running multiple sets of ads across any channels you deem viable sales avenues. Those channels might include Search Engine Marketing (SEM), display ads, video pre-roll, paid social media, or even TV.

Know that what might work best for one channel won’t work for another, so consider each one in isolation. Vary your audience targeting, and the message you’re presenting in each channel to identify the best performing versions.

4. Continuously optimize your ads.

Now that you have your messaging winners, that doesn’t mean you’re done. The market evolves, and so should your ad creative! Continue to iterate on the top-performing messages and channels, while removing the lowest-performing versions from circulation and potentially decreasing spend on channels that aren’t delivering.

5. Scale ads that work.

As you continue to optimize your winning ads, you should have a good understanding of which creative messaging and visuals are resonating. It’s time to make those the basis of your larger marketing campaign. 

Get ready to blitz scale your ads to make sure you get in front of the widest possible audience with the highest possible return and start to build other marketing assets around that messaging narrative. That can mean supporting thought leadership, case studies, multiple different landing pages for audience segments, and any other work that can help support your broader campaign.

6. Pick a sales strategy (or more than one).

Choose one or more of the following options:

The self-service model

The self-service sales model (aka when a customer is able to buy something directly online with no sales mediation) is traditionally associated with consumer goods/services, as they have one-time costs, can be transacted immediately (a short sales cycle), and can be reproduced at scale. The self-service model needs to be supported by marketing efforts (for both organic and paid discovery as well as any supporting assets required by eCommerce), but doesn’t require sales professionals to facilitate.

Though this model is mostly used in the B2C space, we’re seeing more B2B (especially SaaS) companies adopt it as a model to support a product-led growth strategy, as it supports single person/small teams and can have a very low per-seat or per-team cost barrier, if not an outright freemium model.

The inside sales model

The inside sales model is for high-volume sales operations that need sales nurture support, but not custom sales. This is usually for offerings with an entry cost barrier that likely requires consideration and buy-in, but doesn’t require complex, enterprise-level agreements and custom packaging. The sales cycles for inside sales motions are longer than those of self-serve motions, usually between 1-3 months.

The field sales model

The field sales model is for complex sales organizations that frequently work with enterprise prospects, and require custom demos, decks, and contracts, with sales cycles that typically exceed 4 months.

This model needs a full team to support it, including sales development representatives (SDRs)/account development representatives (ADRs), sales enablement managers, sales engineers, account executives (AEs), and sales operations/automation experts. It can be costly and difficult to scale, but the value of the enterprise deals should outweigh the costs of running the department.

The channel model

The channel sales model doesn’t require an in-house sales team as it allows your product to be sold by a third-party business (such as Amazon). This facilitates a self-service motion, but your product is only one of many on a digital shelf and may suffer from eye-catching competitive factors like lower prices and better imagery.

Many companies pursue both an in-house model and a channel model to ensure the product is seen by the widest possible audience. In fact, it’s totally normal to have a mix of all of the above models in any given company, as scaled offerings require more or less sales support to be effective. There’s no right solution.

7. Build brand awareness and generate demand.

There are two main ways to build brand awareness and generate demand: the inbound approach (in which customers find you), and the outbound approach (in which you find customers). In both, you’re bringing potential customers into your sales funnel. Let’s explore them.

Inbound approach

Inbound marketing (when the customers find you) focuses on getting your product or solution visibility and awareness in spaces where customers are doing research for similar solutions, targeted pain points, and related questions. It can take one of two paths: organic and paid.

Organic inbound marketing traffic channels include search engine optimization (SEO), unpaid social media, unpaid reviews, and news coverage. Paid inbound marketing traffic channels include search engine marketing (SEM), boosted social posts or paid social ads, and content syndication.

Outbound approach

Outbound marketing (when you find customers) is often synonymous with targeted outreach or cold outreach. Working from a list of existing leads (whether fully cold from targeted accounts, using account-based marketing (ABM), or warmed by existing opt-ins), sales teams will reach out to see if a prospect is interested in beginning a sales conversation.

8. Support prospects throughout the buyer’s journey.

Once you have prospects in your funnel, it’s important to support them through the buyer’s journey. This is the process of moving them from initial awareness of your product or solution to actually buying it.

There are three key stages in the buyer’s journey:

1. Awareness: Prospects become aware of your product or solution and may start doing research on it
2. Evaluation: Prospects evaluate whether your product or solution is a good fit for their needs
3. Purchase: Prospects decide to buy your product or solution and go through the purchase process
   

Depending on which stage a prospect is in, they may need different types of content and engagement from you. For example, someone who is in the evaluation stage may need more in-depth information than someone who is just becoming aware.

Content marketing

Content marketing is one of the key strategies used to support prospects through the buyer’s journey. It involves creating and sharing content that is relevant to your target audience in order to attract and convert them. Types of content include blog posts, ebooks, infographics, case studies, videos, and more.

Creating quality content takes time and effort, but it’s worth it because it can help you achieve a lot of things, such as:

• Increasing brand awareness
• Generating leads
• Converting leads into customers
• Enhancing customer loyalty and retention
• Building thought leadership in your industry
  

Many companies outsource their content marketing to agencies or freelance writers. Alternatively, you could create a team of in-house writers who are dedicated to creating useful content for your target audience.

Conversion rate optimization

Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the process of increasing the percentage of visitors to a website who take a desired action, such as filling out a form or buying a product. There are many things you can do to improve your conversion rate, such as optimizing your website design, testing different variations of your landing pages, and improving your copywriting.

9. Improve pipeline conversion rates.

No matter how good your go-to-market strategy is, if your conversion rates are low, you’ll struggle to make sales. This is why it’s important to track your pipeline conversion rates and optimize them as much as possible.

There are many things you can do to improve pipeline conversion rates, such as:

• Improving the quality of your leads
• Focusing on qualifying leads before passing them to sales
• Offering better incentives for sales reps to close deals
• Increasing the accuracy of your lead scoring models

10. Assess and shorten your sales cycle.

The sales cycle is the time it takes for a prospect to go from initial contact to purchase. It’s important to track and assess your sales cycle so you can identify any bottlenecks and work to shorten it.

There are many things you can do to shorten your sales cycle, such as:

• Focusing on leads that are most likely to buy
• Offering better incentives for sales reps to close deals quickly
• Increasing the accuracy of your lead scoring models
• Streamlining the buying process
• Using automation tools to speed up the sales process

11. Improve expansion and decrease churn.

Next, create a plan to improve expansion and decrease churn. Expansion means increasing the number of customers you have, while churn means losing customers.

There are many things you can do to improve expansion and decrease churn, including creating better customer retention programs, offering incentives for customers to refer new business, create churn likelihood scoring, and generally focusing on creating better customer satisfaction — including increased value.

12. Find low-cost ways to acquire new customers. 

Finally, you want to expand your customer base, without greatly increasing your acquisition costs. Continuing to refine your inbound marketing strategies (both paid and organic) should provide the best value for your dollar.

Go-to-market strategy examples

Remember, there is no one-size-fits-all GTM strategy! The strategy for small businesses should be quite different than those of larger corporations. Direct-to-consumer sock companies have an entirely different audience than SaaS companies who sell, say, expensive, niche, architecture software. Your strategy should be tailored to your solution, your audience, your type of business, and your overall marketing and development budgets.

Here are some examples of great GTM strategies:

1. Bombas

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How can a sock company make over $100M a year? The answer lies in their brilliant "buy a pair, give a pair" commitment. They garnered media attention and captured hearts with their brand's permanent dedication to philanthropy. See the full story here.

2. Square

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Square brought a powerhouse combination of a stellar product that solved a challenge merchants faced, plus effective engagement of social media influencers and word of mouth. Over time, they reached a market cap of $110B. See the full story here.

3. Salesforce

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When you have a novel idea at just the right time, a killer GTM strategy focused on building an emotional connection with in-office rebels could do the trick. See how Salesforce began its market takeover with an "end of software" campaign here.

What are the types of go-to-market strategies?

There are four main types of go-to-market strategy frameworks: inbound-centric, demand generation, sales enablement, and account-based marketing. But there's no need for you to choose just one. Luckily, they all work together and you can (and probably should!) mix and match for best results (much like a burrito, there's no right way to make it taste delicious). Here's how they work.

1. Inbound-centric

Inbound marketing is a go-to method for many businesses and — especially —  B2B organizations. It’s designed to bring the audience to you at scale by creating your company and product narrative and getting it placed in front of people. If you've got a killer blog, great supporting content offerings, and SEO chops, go ahead and go all-in with an inbound-centric go-to-market approach. 

2. Demand generation

This method uses paid search, ads, and social media, and while it might seem like it’s priming the pump for your inbound model, its goal is more focused: generate quality leads at scale, not just drive brand awareness. It's definitely something to consider if your company has the budget (and predictable purchase cycle) to support it. 

3. Sales enablement

If your marketing efforts are generating leads, but sales is struggling to convert them into paying customers, go-to-market sales enablement is a great solution. This strategy focuses on arming your sales reps with the right content and tools they need to close deals, as well as giving them insight into how prospects are engaging with the content.

4. Account-based marketing (ABM)

This go-to-market strategy is perfect for businesses that are using sales time to focus on a limited number of high-value accounts. Rather than casting a wide net and trying to attract as many customers as possible, account-based marketing focuses on identifying and targeting key prospects. Then, the ABM strategy goes into overdrive by personalizing the buyer's experience and providing value beyond what the competition can offer.

Developing a strong GTM strategy

A great GTM strategy is absolutely essential to any business, regardless of size or industry, and the best kind is the one that aligns with your business objectives and lets you stay focused on generating revenue and growing as quickly as possible. But because strategies necessarily change over time, and given the complexity of building, maintaining, and training your team on them, you need a solution that can get everyone the knowledge they need, as it changes, where they work. Try Guru’s product enablement solution to make optimizing your GTM strategy a breeze.