Launching a new product or service is very exciting for any organization. New offerings can help businesses achieve a variety of goals including expansion into new markets, increased customer retention and improved revenue growth, to name a few. But before any success is to come from your product launch, a solid strategy needs to be in place beforehand.
This strategy is referred to as a go-to-market strategy. It can be applied in several cases such as when launching a new product or service, re-launching your company or brand, or even moving an existing product into a new market. Let’s further dive into what a go-to-market strategy, or GTM strategy, is and why you need one if you find yourself in any of the aforementioned scenarios.
What is a go-to-market strategy?
A GTM strategy is a tactical plan that outlines the necessary steps to succeed with a new product or service, in a new market or with a new customer. It serves as a comprehensive tool across your organization and will be the backbone during the entire process of bringing a new product to market. Not only should it be comprehensive enough to be valuable, it should also be agile for when customer feedback is received and changes are needed.
Why do you need a go-to-market strategy?
With time being such a valuable resource and so many organizations finding it in such limited supply today, it can be tempting to try and skip the exercise of building out a GTM strategy. But here are four reasons why it is worthwhile and necessary to do so:
1. Understand the purpose of your product. A GTM strategy plays a vital role here, ultimately defining why you are launching your product and why your customers need it. What problems are you solving? How does this benefit your customer or make their job or life easier? These are high-priority questions to address when mapping out your strategy.
2. Define target audiences. Another very important aspect of your GTM strategy is understanding who your viable target audiences are. Who exactly is going to buy your product, what information can you glean from them and how will your strategy support them? Having a close grasp on this information will set the bar for how you will engage and retain them as your customer long-term.
3. Know the marketing and sales strategy. Another way to look at a GTM strategy is to think of it as a hyper-focused marketing and sales strategy. These components will outline how exactly you will bring your product to the market. It will entail how and why your product has competitive advantage over other competitors from both a marketing and sales standpoint. Nailing down both of these strategies will be key in winning over your customer as well.
4. Keep you on path to success. From the moment of launch, your product will embark on a journey of natural evolution based on a few factors like customer feedback or any product/service improvements that are implemented due to internal testing. Whether this evolution is big or small, a go-to-market strategy will keep you on the path to succeed and align with your goals – even if those evolve over time as well. It will always bring you back to your “why” and doing so will ensure that the vision will not stray off into the wrong direction.
Happy Marketing!
