Every product needs a go-to-market (GTM) strategy. However, according to a Gartner survey of Chief Sales Officers (CSOs), less than 75% of GTMs are a success. So, how can businesses do better? The key lies in making things as simple as possible.
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What is a go-to-market (GTM) strategy?
A go-to-market (GTM) strategy is a clear and detailed plan that outlines how your business will introduce a product or service to the market. These plans act as a roadmap for connecting with your target audience, ensuring product adoption, and reaching sales and revenue goals.
Key Components of a Go-To-Market Strategy
The best way to simplify any strategy is to break it down into its constituent parts. Here are the key ingredients of a solid GTM strategy.
Target market: Understanding your target market will help you understand what demographics will benefit from your product. Get this right, and you can tailor your marketing to the right people.
Value proposition: Why is your product unique, and why should your customers choose it over rival products? To get the answer, you must understand what problems and pain points your product solves.
Product marketing strategy: How will you market and sell your product? Which channels will help you reach your target market?
Pricing: How much will you charge for your product, depending on various factors like market research and competitor pricing?
Distribution: How do you plan to deliver your product to your users?
OK, now that you understand some of the main concepts behind a solid GTM strategy, it’s time to look at the steps you need to get there.
Simple steps for developing a Go-To-Market Strategy
Here are four simple steps you need for a streamlined GTM strategy.
Whether your SaaS product is B2B or B2C, the user should be at the center. That is true for the design, user experience, and your product marketing.
So, before you outline your GTM strategy, you need to do in-depth research on who will buy your product. Some key steps here include:
Define your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). Understand what industry they work in, company size, job titles, and their pain points.
Conduct interviews with potential users and find their pain points, what current solutions they’re using, what features they want, and what they’d pay for a product that solves their problems.
Analyze your competitors and learn what features they’re offering, the prices they charge, and where their strengths and weaknesses lie.
Research the market that you want to enter, figure out its size and viability, and learn if there are any disruptive trends or regulatory changes on the horizon.
Explore which customer acquisition channels you’ll need to reach your target audience, whether it’s blogs, news sites, social media, etc.
#2. Define your value proposition
Your product’s value lies in the benefits and solutions it offers your users. In other words, it’s about why someone should buy your product. If you don’t know the answer to that, it’s going to be nearly impossible to articulate it to your target audience.
You can figure out your value proposition with a few simple questions, which are:
Which pain points or problems does your product solve?
What makes your product different or better than competing solutions?
What unique features or benefits does your product have that differentiate it from rival tools?
Once you have the answer to these questions, your product marketing plan should start to come together.
#3. Pricing
Pricing is one of the most important—and contentious—aspects of product marketing. Set your prices too high, and you’ll isolate your target market; go too low, and you’ll struggle to keep the lights on. Knowing the right price to set is as much of an art as it is a science, but here are some key questions that can get you in the right area.
First, you need to consider:
How much does it cost to develop and maintain your product?
What are your CAC costs?
What price do you need to set to make a profit?
That’s a straightforward way to think about things. However, it’s not the only method. You can also go back to your target market research and find out how much your target audience is willing to pay for your product. Similarly, you can set your prices against your competitors. For example, you can offer similar features but at a reduced price.
#4. Promotion
A good promotion strategy is about defining the channels and methods you’ll use to connect with your target audience. However, the decisions you make here largely depend on who you’re selling to, your product, and your niche.
Some questions to ask yourself here include:
What channels will get you in front of your target audience?
Will outbound or inbound marketing work best? What about both?
What sort of product marketing budget do you have at your disposal?
#5. Find the sales and distribution channels that will make a difference
Now that you’ve considered the optimal promotion channels, it’s time to think about the right sales and distribution channels for your business.
Sales channels
Sales channels refer to the ways you directly sell to your customers. Some of your options here include:
In-house sales reps who engage potential customers.
Inside sales reps who sell remotely.
Customer self-service.
The customer self-service option is a particularly interesting option for SaaS teams. Digital adoption platforms can form an integral part of this approach. For example, they can help with:
Sales enablement tools that support product demos and customer interactions.
Easily downloadable interactive product demo that lets users experience the product and see what it can do.
You can also use customer self-service tools to help with a product-led growth approach. This sales method involves using a mix of word-of-mouth and referrals to gain new users. When done well, it all but eliminates customer acquisition costs from sales and marketing.
Distribution channels
Distribution channels refer to the broader way you get your product into the hands of users. Some of the most common examples include:
Direct selling to customers, as detailed in sales channels.
Third-party sales through retailers, app stores, or other partners.
API sales, where other companies integrate and resell your SaaS service.
Finally, white-label resellers repack and rebrand your SaaS service under their own name.
Which method or combination of methods you use depends on your product, target audience, and personal preference. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses.
#6. How to ensure product adoption
Once you’ve figured out the right promotion strategies, you need to think about converting prospects into users. Here is where product adoption intersects with your GTM strategy.
Everyone knows that it’s expensive to acquire users. What they don’t tell you is that once they try your solution, there’s no guarantee that they will adopt it and convert into paying users. This situation is where digital adoption platforms come into their own.
In essence, a smooth GTM strategy requires excellent customer onboarding. Here is how digital adoption platforms can help drive your conversion rates.
Digital adoption platforms (DAPs) allow SaaS teams to create in-app guides, walkthroughs, and product tours that help new users understand how your solution can solve their issues. Increasing time to value drives adoption.
Of course, not all software requires a detailed, step-by-step product tour, and not all users want to learn this way. So, if you want to take a more subtle approach, include in-app tooltips and hotspot beacons to help your users learn your product's features and functionality.
Personalization is a huge part of modern product marketing. DAPs allow you to segment users and deliver tailored onboarding experiences based on their roles, needs, or behaviors, ensuring a more relevant and engaging experience.
#7. Measure and iterate
Once you’ve decided on your GTM direction, you need to define how you will measure success. So, decide upon the metrics that matter for your objectives. Some of the most popular measures include:
Customer acquisition costs (CAC)
Return on ad spend (ROAS)
Customer churn
Customer lifetime value (CLTV)
Organic search traffic
Conversion rates
Net promoter score (NPS)
Monthly recurring revenue (MRR)
Whatever metrics you add to your dashboard, the important thing is that you are open and ready to make adjustments that will take your product marketing to the next level.
Final thoughts
Simplifying your GTM strategy is essential. Start with clear objectives and take things step-by-step. Finally, remember that digital adoption platforms like Usetiful can help you streamline your sales and user onboarding by automating them. If you want to see how Usetiful can help, sign up for free today.