How to create a winning go-to-market strategy

What’s the best way to launch a new product or enter a new market? A go-to-market strategy provides a step-by-step template for success.

Product launches are exciting. A successful launch can be a breakout moment for a company, driving new revenue, increasing market share, and creating a point of competitive difference.

 

But an unsuccessful launch can do the opposite – wasting valuable resources, losing customers, and potentially impacting reputation. To ensure a product rollout succeeds, a business needs a carefully planned go-to-market (GTM) strategy.

What is a go-to-market strategy?

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

 

A go-to-market strategy helps you avoid these missteps by providing a step-by-step plan for rolling out new products or expanding into new markets. It provides confidence that you’re launching the right product to the right audience at the right time. Think of your GTM strategy as a blueprint that answers the following questions:

 

  • What product are you selling?
  • What are its chief benefits?
  • Who are you targeting?
  • What problems does it solve for the customer?
  • Where will you sell this product?
  • What sales territories do you want to pursue?
  • How much existing demand is there?
  • What does competition look like?
  • How will you grab 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) and 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.

 

A GTM STRATEGY GIVES YOU A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF YOUR MARKET AND COMPETITION, WHILE ALSO HELPING YOU FIND WAYS TO REDUCE COSTS AND BUILD BRAND AWARENESS.

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

How to create a go-to-market strategy

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 target market or customer. First, consider the attributes of the target audience, 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 competitive analysis will answer key 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 pain points, while highlighting the benefits they’ll receive. It should do this in the catchiest, most compelling way possible and aim to strike an emotional chord. 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 to 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 specialised publications that still come in a printed format, while teenagers and young adults may favour 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. Self-service model: where 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 customer questions.
  2. Inside sales model: more appropriate for more complex products at higher price points. Working via phone, email, text messages, and web chat, sales reps can interact directly with customers and respond to their questions.
  3. Outside or field sales model: this requires the most skilled personnel 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 typically compensate for the longer times and higher costs.
  4. Channel sales model: this 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 helps you quickly ramp up your sales efforts and reach customers in places where your presence might be limited – such as in-store sales, for example. Channel is the second least expensive model – after self-service – and works particularly well if you partner with a company that sells similar products.

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 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 competition. With a GTM plan in place, you can confidently launch your product to the right audience, the right way, at the right time.

This article contains general information and is not intended to provide information that is specific to American Express, or its products and services. Similar products and services offered by different companies will have different features and you should always read about product details before acquiring any financial product.

 

The material made available for you on this website is for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide legal, tax or financial advice. If you have questions, please consult your own professional legal, tax and financial advisors.