Fast Track Business Growth: Seven-Steps to a Successful Go-to-Market Strategy
Do you have a great business idea or new product, but feel unsure about how to bring it to market quickly, differentiate it from the competition, or expand into a new market or region?
This blog explores seven steps to implementing an effective go-to-market strategy. It also offers key issues and questions to consider when strategizing your go-to-market approach.
Create your Ideal Customer Profile
Creating an ideal customer profile (ICP) involves defining the specific types of customers most likely to benefit from and purchase your products or services, essential to ensuring your marketing outreach is targeted at the right audience and will move them to action.
When creating your ICP, consider:
- Geographies/Locations
Where do your target audiences live? Where do they work? Geographic data helps you adapt your value proposition to your target market, choose the best distribution channels, and localize your strategy. - Designations
Who are the primary decision-makers and leaders within your target accounts? The CTO, CFO, CMO, head of security, key managers, and others? What are their titles and income levels? What messages or incentives must your deliver to close deals with them? - Interests, pain points and challenges
What problems do these stakeholders need to solve? How can your product or service add value to their jobs or lives?
Conduct Competitive Analysis
Identify or describe your competitors’ unique selling propositions, key messaging, brand image, and pricing plans to understand how they try to differentiate their offerings from others.
Consider:
- Your direct and indirect competitors?
- Their products, pricing, target market, distribution channels
- Competitors positioning in their channels, including websites and social media.
Articulate Your Value Proposition
Having conducted your competitor analysis, identify opportunities that you can seize or gaps you can fill to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
Best practice is to prepare a messaging document that adapts your messaging to each of your target customer profiles. This messaging document creates a foundation for developing current and future marketing initiatives.
When developing your value proposition, consider:
- What marketplace need does your product or service fill?
- What specific benefits does your product deliver to your target audiences?
- Why should prospects choose your product over competitors’ offerings?
- Can your communicate your value proposition succinctly, ideally in ten words or fewer?
Set Objectives and Goals
Articulate as specifically as possible what you aim to achieve with your go-to-market strategy. Include a timeline with key milestones and dependencies.
Marketers generally use two metrics:
SMART goals: Set goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound
For example, the following SMART goals could be set for launching a new app: “In six months, generate 10K total app downloads and 8K new user accounts.”
Key performance indicators: KPIs are quantitative metrics that help you track progress toward business objectives. They are broad in scope and can measure both long-term and short-term outcomes.
For a start, KPIs for a growing businesses focused on multichannel marketing could include email open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and return on investment (ROI).
Evaluate Your Marketing Channels
Examine the performance and effectiveness of the various platforms and media you use to build brand awareness, boost product visibility, and engage your target audiences.
Finding the right combination of channels, offers, and engagement tactics to connect with your target audiences is key. By understanding and speaking directly to their needs, you will build more meaningful connections that ultimately drive conversion.
When evaluating channels, consider:
- Who are your buyer personas?
- What motivates them most?
- What media channels do they use to consume information?
For example, Do you have bargain-hunter Bailey who gets swayed by push notifications offering discounts? Or, will you more likely encounter high-end Hilda who prefers exclusive email invitations to soft launches?
Enable Your Sales and Marketing Team
Sales team members are critical to executing a go-to-market strategy successfully. As the main point of contact between a company and its customers, their input and collaboration are essential for successful implementation. Equip your sales team with the knowledge, tools, and training they need to understand your value proposition and target markets.
Consider:
- Are there discrepancies or differences in how sales team members and the marking team perceive the target audience?
- Does the sales team have a feedback loop to provide insights on lead quality and conversion rates back to marketing?
- Is your brand voice and messaging unified and consistent across sales and marketing efforts?
- What key metrics do sales and marketing track and how do they report and share this information among themselves?
Assess Your Marketing Tools
If you use digital marketing or analytics tools, evaluate whether your current tech stack is adequate to meet your marketing objectives. This help you identify areas for improvement, address redundancies, and make informed decisions about staying competitive and leading in the market.
Consider:
- What marketing tools do you using currently to execute your campaigns and activities?
- Are there gaps in your toolset that prevent you from executing all or part of you marketing strategy or tactics?
- Do your tools align with your marketing goals and objectives?
Conclusion
Building a successful go-to-market strategy is an ongoing process. Best practice is to regularly review and refine your strategy based on competitive position, customer feedback, and performance against business objectives.
If you feel hampered by limited resources, time, and expertise, an easy-to-implement multichannel marketing solution like Marketing Star can empower your teams, fast track your go-to-market strategy, and boost your marketing returns in record time.
Contact us today to discuss your requirements and explore how we can help you fast track business growth.