Are you engaging the right way with your customers? Is your unique value proposition delivered effectively to your prospects? How do you nurture your leads from initial connects with prospects to adding brand value and achieve conversion?

The answer to these important questions dwells in the go-to-market (GTM) strategy.

A GTM plan sets a potential platform to make all your key marketing elements function in tandem – sales, marketing, branding, analytics and insights. It is a strategic action plan that clearly explains how you plan to reach out to your target audience and establish your stance in the marketplace.

A GTM is equally valid for the launch of new product / services in a new market, old product / service in new market or relaunch in the existing market.

Benefits of GTM Strategy

Developing a comprehensive GTM strategy is both cost and time intensive process that requires resources to adeptly implement it. However, it has significant advantages that can help burnish your approach with an assured viable path to successful market launch.

Some of the key benefits of GTM strategy are it helps reduce the time to market, minimize risks by reducing the costs associated with failed product launch and efficiently manage challenges of innovation. GTM strategy helps in enhancing the ability to change while abiding by regulatory compliance. Go to market strategy ensures a successful product/ service launch by establishing a clarity of plan and impart direction for all the marketing elements, avoid the wrong path and provide better customer experience.

Objectives of GTM Strategy

Your GTM strategy must aim at some vital objectives that should be fulfilled while making the plan – mainly create awareness of your offering, establish brand value and reinforce brand positioning while reducing the overall marketing cost and maximize profits.

In addition, the strategy harps on converting the prospects through better connect and customer experience. A robust GTM strategy also ensures that you defend your current market share while actively competing for more. In parallel you also establish a path to maximize your market share by eyeing on your competitors, how to enter new markets, and enhance customer engagement.

Creating a GTM Plan

1. Define Your Target Markets

Any product is not suitable for every market. You need to identify your ideal market which is a vital aspect in formulation of your GTM strategy. Factors such as demographics, buyer person, drivers of need, etc. need to be studied and mapped to understand where you can profitably and effectively establish niche crowd who will understand your brand offerings and effectively resonate with it. You need to pursue a market where your product can viably be marketed while creating brand differentiation.

Come up with a list of all possible markets you could pursue, find a way to assess each market opportunity using metrics like market size, growth trends, ability to compete, barriers to entry and the economics of each market.

Next, study individual market dynamics in terms of accessibility, alignment, and overall opportunity by testing or validating each market opportunity with key

stakeholders.Review trend data from available sources such as customer surveys and external focus groups.

Finally, focus on your market opportunities and polish them as and when possible.

2. Define Your Target Customer

In words of Peter Drucker, the Management guru, “The purpose of business is to create a customer.”

The purpose is sorted only by understanding the driving force that will help you define your prospects. Develop actionable intelligence from consumer insights garnered through surveys, focus groups, one-to-one interviews and other channels.

Your goal is to understand who your customers are and how to set pace with their emotions and resonate the same in your offerings. How they behave, and what they experience? The more consumer insights you have, the chances of you developing an efficient GTM strategy enhances.

3. Define Your Brand Positioning

The process of brand positioning entails setting pace or a lasting impression of your brand in the mind of your target customer. The customer intelligence data in step 2 can be comprehensively utilized adopting a forward-looking approach that can positively influence your brand’s position in the eyes of your target customers.

4. Define Your Offering

Now, you are at a stage where you must clearly define your product/ service which is the unique value proposition. Start with understanding the key features of your product/ service, followed by the benefits.Then,set the context of use – how it can help your target customers in offering a unique solution to the challenge they face with existing options. Thereby, connecting with them seamlessly. The better insight you gather about your customers, the more effectively you can define your offerings which again means you have to clearly and thoroughly study your customers, to the level of obsession.

Communicate with them as often as possible, listen to them and know their problems that will help in developing a clear message.

5. Define Your Channels

Here you must define your channels which you will use to communicate your value proposition where the chances of tracing your target customers is most likely. Internet, retail store, call center, direct marketing, webinar, partnering or trade shows.

Your goal to define your channel doesn’t end here. It’s equally pertinent that you ensure that each channel is seamlessly integrated with each other to your best efforts, establishing a uniform and consistent messaging, and a cohesive customer engagement at all touch points.

Do bear in mind that while choosing your channel, ensure it correctly aligns with your brand offerings.For instance, it’s rather impossible to follow an e-commerce route for complex services or premium products sales.

6. Build Your Budget Model

Once you have defined your channel, you have the power to establish a budget model wherein you will require to define your product / service pricing and associated costs in your GTM strategy.

While developing the pricing, consider the value you offer, existing market price and how you price in relation to that of your competitor’s. You must clearly create a competitive advantage through a robust pricing model.

Consider key channel economics. Your goal is certainly to generate an efficient revenue model based on anticipated market penetration, average transaction size, number of transactions, etc.

In order to mitigate risk, always identify the economic, competitive and internal risks associated with your strategy. Flag those that may drastically affect your ability to reach your goals and set counter strategies to overcome those.

7. Define Your Marketing Strategy

Now in the final lap, merge all the elements in order to formulate a unique marketing GTM plan for that ideal markets you identified in the beginning.

Your marketing mix will be further developed based on your individual market GTM strategy.

Starting with brand positioning, your goal is to build competitive advantage for your product/ service at the onset. To further sharpen your marketing tactics, consider how will you reach out to the economic buyers and influencers,and what should be the messaging approach to motivate them to make a purchase?

Conclusion
Always bear in mind that your marketing goals and strategy will have to evolve constantly and prepare to adapt to changing marketing dynamics throughout the product life cycle.  Also, ensure that you measure and track your key performance metrics on a day-to-day or periodic basis so that you can immediately adjust and scale your strategy, investment and other resources accordingly in order to successfully execute of your GTM plan.

For more, download our white paper on how to develop a successful GTM Plan for 2019