When you are launching a new product, it is crucial that you also have a go-to-market strategy. You want to make sure that you are able to maximize all possible promotions before launching a new product. That first period after launch is crucial because it is a great opportunity to introduce the larger market to your product.
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Steps to Build a Go To Market Strategy
1 – Set Goals for Your Strategy
Before you make your go-to-market strategy, you should define the goals you want to achieve from it. Without goals, it will be difficult for your marketing team to know what techniques they should use. Do you just want to create awareness for your product? Do you want to convert more leads to customers? Maybe you want to reposition your brand? Determining the goals you have will lead your marketing team in various different directions.
Additionally, you should make sure that whatever goals you set are realistic. You do not want to set unrealistic standards because this will likely lead your team to become discouraged from creating a go-to-market plan. This is also why it is so important to periodically evaluate your goals. If you notice that you will likely not be able to meet your goals, you should lower them. The opposite is also true, if you are meeting your goals too easily, you should increase your goals.
2 – Determine Your Target Market
Determining your target market is an important step when creating a go-to-market strategy. This is due to the fact that different audiences will respond to marketing messages differently. When determining who your target market is, consider the average age, ethnicity, gender, and location of the consumer who would be likely to purchase your product.
If you are struggling to determine who your target audience might be, consider what your competition’s target audience is. Since you are in the same industry as your competition you will likely have a similar target audience. Obviously, they will likely not publish who their target audience is directly on their website. However, there are still ways to determine who their target audience might be. Look at any of their advertisements they have published. If there are people in the advertisements, what do they look like? Their target audience will likely look like whatever person is in the advertisement. Additionally, look at where the advertisements are placed. Look at the demographics of the platform they are posted on. This can tell you a lot about who they are trying to target.
3 – Research Your Competition
Not only can researching your competition help you determine your target market, it can also help you better establish your own go-to-market plan. Look at the techniques your competitors are using to market their products . Do an analysis to see if these efforts were successful or not. More importantly, make sure you study why they were or were not successful.
You should also look for any potential opportunities they might be missing. See the areas that your product differs. This is important since you want to create a unique selling proposition. Additionally, look at the market trends your competition is trying to use. When you are researching what is a go-to-market strategy, you should also pay attention to popular trends. These trends can be a great way to improve your go-to-market plan. It is important to note that you should update your go-to-market strategy over time. This will ensure that if there are any trends your competition is using that you have not yet, you can capitalize on them.
4 – Determine if Your Product is Marketing-Intensive or Sales-Intensive
One of the best ways to help determine the direction you should go in when making a go-to-market strategy is to decide if your product is marketing-intensive or sales-intensive. Although you will likely use both, knowing which one your product will require more of is crucial. It will help you determine where you should put most of your resources.
So how do you determine if your product is marketing-intensive or sales-intensive? There are several factors that can help you determine this. You should consider the price, market size, and relationship needed to make the product sell. If the price of your product is on the higher end, then you likely have a sales-intensive product. If your market is large, then you will likely have a marketing-intensive product. This is because you will want to reach as many consumers in the market as quickly as possible. If your product needs relationship-building to sell, then you most likely have a sale-intensive product. There are additional factors to help you determine if your product is market-intensive or sales-intensive , however these can help get you on the right track.
5 – Determine Which Mediums You Plan on Using
Once you have a better understanding of who you should be targeting and how you want to position your product, you should decide which mediums you want to use. Knowing the mediums you plan on using is crucial. After all, you want to make sure that you are able to properly use that medium to the best of your ability.
Different mediums come with different benefits and challenges. This is why when looking at go-to-market strategy templates, you should consider which medium would be best for you to use. So how do you determine which medium would be most effective for your business? Look at the audience you are trying to reach. Different demographics will be more impacted by various mediums. For example, if you are attempting to reach an older demographic you might not want to use social media since older demographics use social media less . This is why knowing who your target demographic is before deciding what medium you plan on using is so important.
6 – Learn About Your Buyer’s Journey
One of the best ways to improve and build upon your market strategy is to imagine what the buyer’s journey is like . This is often suggested in go-to-market strategy templates because it can help you determine what might be missing in your strategy. Understanding what the buyer’s journey is like is often a very literal process.
The first step is the buyer realizing they have a problem and are in need of a solution. You then want to analyze how your product can help consumers in various situations. This will likely help your positioning as a brand. Next, the consumer will decide what possible options they can choose from to solve their problem. When developing your marketing strategy , you want to figure out a way to ensure that you are a part of the consumer’s decision set when they are looking for solutions. Finally, you want to make sure that the consumer is able to easily find out where they can purchase your product. To be the solution to the consumer’s problem, it is best to make sure the product is as accessible as possible.
Try Out Your Go to Market Strategy
After you have created a go-to-market strategy template using the steps above, it is time to test it out. This is a really important part of making a go-to-market strategy because you do not want to invest a lot of resources into something that is likely to fail. So how do you test a marketing strategy without investing too many resources? There are several ways to do this.
Traditionally marketing teams would conduct a focus group. These typically consist of 6-12 consumers. In a focus group, you can ask the consumers questions about how they react to your product to get feedback. This is a good option because you can ask open-ended questions and ask the consumer to elaborate whenever necessary. If you are looking for overall trends in consumers’ opinions, you can also send out a survey to get feedback. This is also typically a cheaper option than a focus group because you do not have to compensate the consumers for their time. The only issue with this option is that sometimes it can be difficult to convince consumers to take a survey without an incentive. Regardless of what methods you use, these can be great strategies to get more feedback on your go-to-market strategy.
FAQs:
- What is a go-to-market strategy?
- Why should you set goals when building a go-to-market strategy?
- What is the importance of determining a target market when making a go-to-market strategy?
- Why should you research your competition when making a go-to-market strategy?
- What are the benefits of making a go-to-market strategy?
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