You’ve created a fantastic product or have perfected an ideal service. But that’s just the beginning of the long road to business success.
If you don’t have a well-thought-out plan to get your products and services from concepts to actual listings on the marketplace, then your brand will surely perish, no matter how well you can fill a niche.
However, if you have a good go-to-market (GTM) strategy, you’ll attract the right people and enhance their customer experience.
Keep reading for some great GTM strategy tips that’ll push your business to the top.
Figure Out Your Target Market First
It’s rare that a product or service will appeal to all people, so you need to figure out the best target market to make the most of your budget.
Basically, you’ll sift through everyone and pick out those with shared features; this is called segmentation. They can have the same demographic or psychographic characteristics, such as middle-class, college-educated women in their 50s.
A great way to identify your target market is to consider the pain points your product or service solves. From there, you can envision the types of people you’ll help.
Go further and create buyer personas. These allow you to look at your target audience in a more granular fashion since you’ll define unique individuals with specific issues and values, as well as goals.
Define Your Value Proposition
In addition to pinpointing your target market, you should also define the product or service’s value proposition. This illustrates why consumers should pick it, which can then help shape your future marketing strategies.
Some common value propositions include:
- Being a cheaper alternative to a popular product
- Being a better quality alternative to a popular product
- Solving an issue that currently has no solutions
During this stage, do intensive research and dig into what your competition’s doing. This is important if you’re in an already saturated niche. Find out what other brands are doing well, then one-up them by improving upon those processes.
Map Out the Customer Journey
Often, brands have great products and services, but fail to serve the right messages to consumers at the right times. To avoid this, you need to put yourself in your customers’ shoes.
To do this, you should use the buyers’ funnel:
- Top of funnel (ToFu): consumers have an issue they need solved
- Middle of funnel (MoFu): consumers know their choices for solutions
- Bottom of funnel (BoFu): consumers make a final decision
You’ll need to use different types of marketing for each phase. For instance, for ToFu, short blogs are ideal, as they introduce people to your brand. On the other hand, for MoFu, you should use case studies, e-books, and webinars to show consumers how your business shines.
Determine the Pricing
Pricing can be tricky; go too low, and you’ll barely make a profit, but if you go too high, consumers will choose your competitors instead.
Numerous factors go into pricing, and they’re constantly changing. So the professionals who created the Sightfull revenue analysis & optimization platform suggest automating the process. That way, you can tweak your GTM strategies in real time and keep up with fast-paced industries.
Here are some things to consider when pricing your product or service:
- Manufacturing costs
- What you need to make to cut even
- Competitor prices
Depending on what you’re selling, you might also need to weigh the pros and cons of a subscription service vs. one-off charges.
Put Together a Marketing Plan
If you take a look around, even the most famous brands still have aggressive marketing. This is to keep their names top of mind and should give you a clue as to just how important marketing is. Without it, no one will know about your company.
Defining your target market was the first step in your marketing plan. Next, think about how you can reach them; for example, younger audiences will be on social media platforms like Instagram or TikTok. You can then promote your new product or service by posting on those specific channels.
Consider online vs. offline marketing, as well as inbound vs. outbound marketing. If you have the resources to do all of them, then great! You’ll reap the benefits of every method. However, if you have a limited budget, choose the optimal avenues first, then expand to other marketing strategies once your business takes off.
Pick Sales and Distribution Channels
Sales and distribution channels are often one and the same, but not always. Sales channels are how customers purchase your products and services, and distribution channels are how your products and services get to these people.
If you’re a manufacturer who sells business-to-business (B2B), then your sales and distribution channels will be the same, as your customers will buy directly from you. Otherwise, business-to-customer (B2C) operations can be more complicated.
There’s no right answer as to the sales and distribution channels you pick, but you need to weigh your options carefully. Consider the sales and distribution requirements of your product, and from there, the manufacturing needs. You’ll also need to factor in where your target market shops, as this can greatly affect your choices.
Monitor Your Performance
Once you’ve put your services and products on the market, you might breathe a sigh of relief. But the hard work’s not over yet; in fact, it never is.
It’s vital that you set metrics and goals, then measure your performance against these. You’ll find out if your strategies work, and if not, you can adjust them and monitor progress even further.
Some metrics you’ll want to use for your GTM strategy include:
- Length of the sales cycle
- Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
- Cost per dollar of sales expense
- Conversion rate
You’ll Be Successful With an Excellent GTM Strategy
It’s never easy bringing business dreams to life. But if you thoughtfully craft your GTM strategy, you’ll endure fewer hardships and increase your chances of success.
So keep these tips in mind while you formulate your plan. It’ll give you a competitive edge that’ll blow other brands out of the water.
Keep reading our blog page for more advice that’ll boost your sales.