What is a GTM aka Go-To-Market Strategy?
A go-to-market (GTM) strategy is a plan that outlines how a company might engage with customers in order to persuade them to acquire a product or service while also gaining a competitive advantage. Pricing, sales, channel tactics, the buying journey, new product or service releases, product rebranding, and product introduction to a new market are all part of a GTM strategy.
Don’t get confused between a go-to-market (GTM) strategy with a business plan. While they are related, they are different. A business plan is broader in scope and considers every aspect of a business, while a go-to-market strategy is focused specifically on delivering a product or service to an end customer.
Why Do You Need a Go-to-Market Strategy?
GTM strategies serve a multitude of purposes for any company goal including:
New Products or Services launch
New Markets: A GTM plan for testing known and unknown untapped markets
Existing Markets: Products that are currently offered need to adapt to evolving markets. Creating a GTM strategy gives time to evaluate what makes your product successful (and unsuccessful)
Cross and Up-selling: Retaining current customers is great for the revenue stream, and using their buying behaviour and loyalty to market other same category products or cross-category products to create more value for the customers as well as for the brand
5 Steps for Developing a Go-To-Market Strategy
Define your target market
Most businesses begin by deciding what services they wish to provide and it's best to begin with the challenges you want to solve or, much better, the markets you want to be in. Growth, geographic location, and existing client base are all significant factors to consider when choosing markets. Do some secondary research and build hypothesis or market knowledge and try to validate it via primary research
Customer segmentation
Which segment are you likely to add the most value to? Which segments are most likely to be a good fit with your firm? These are your target clients.
It’s not a matter of who can use your service. It’s quite likely that many prospects could. But that doesn’t mean you should target them all. You will likely have no advantage, just a very difficult time closing prospects. Try to segment it as niche as possible considering your business idea
Brand positioning
In relation to your competition, how do you want your product/service to be perceived? Do you want to be a trailblazer? who is the thought-leader? a low-cost alternative?
Of course, each of these options would have a very distinct market posture. If you're aiming to reach out to young hustlers and innovators - your positioning and service mix should reflect that. Young, inventive, and hustling.
Define the offerings
Most people start here and search for the right target audience and that’s a mistake! The offerings should flow from the target and positioning, not the other way around.
What services address the specific needs of the niche you've chosen to focus on? What role do these products play in reinforcing your brand? Are your services actually innovative if you portray yourself as innovative? Do you have high-value, low-cost services that aren't available anywhere else in your market if you're marketing yourself as a low-cost alternative? With a low-cost GTM plan, be careful not to paint yourself into a corner. When you want or need to raise pricing, this could come back to harm you. Not to mention the possibility of ruthless, no-win pricing fights with rivals.
Develop a fantastic marketing strategy
Your marketing approach should correspond with your target customers' preferences, just as your service offerings should deliver on your brand promise. Reaching and encouraging them will be much easier with a marketing strategy that speaks their language and directly tackles their "pains." This what channels your target customers use the most. If you targeting Gen Zs, then social media or online channels are one of the many channels that you should never miss. Based on the customer segmentation that you have created, deduce their psychographics and behavioural patterns and use them in your marketing strategy.
Attaching two snaps of the Marico Over the Wall B-School Case study competition, the first round was to prepare an executive summary - this contains the elements of the GTM strategy of a new product
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