How to Have a Winning Go-to-Market Plan (Part 2)
Learn how to create a GTM plan to serve as a roadmap, ensuring that all marketing efforts align with the company's goals and target audiences. We discuss minimizing risks, optimizing resource allocation, and enhancing customer engagement by formulating a GTM strategy based on the best industry standards.
CONTENT MARKETINGPRODUCT BRANDINGPUBLIC RELATIONSSOCIAL MEDIA MARKETINGCO-BRANDED EMAILSMARKETING STRATEGIESSTARTUPSMARKETING PLANLEVERAGESALES ENABLEMENTINFLUENCER MARKETINGMARKETING/SALES ALIGNMENTBRAND GUIDELINESBRANDINGGO-TO-MARKETPARTNER PROGRAMSGO-TO-MARKET STRATEGIESGTM
Bill Arnold
10/23/20248 min read
In our last blog, How to Have a Winning Go-to-Market Plan (Part 1), we began the journey of creating a Go-To-Market (GTM) plan that will resonate with your ideal customer and capture market share. In that first installment, we discussed the need to understand the industry and competitive landscape thoroughly. We laid out the Prevail Marketing Discover and Assessment Process, which forms the framework for gathering and analyzing this information.
We will continue discussing the plan's elements, which will serve as a roadmap, ensuring that all marketing efforts align with the company's goals and target audiences. Businesses can minimize risks, optimize resource allocation, and enhance customer engagement by formulating and vetting a GTM strategy based on the best industry standards.
This systematic approach helps identify key market segments and enables effective positioning and messaging. Moreover, a comprehensive GTM plan fosters collaboration across departments, ensuring synchronization of sales, marketing, and product teams. Investing time and resources into a robust GTM plan can improve market penetration, increase revenue, and long-term sustainability in an ever-evolving market landscape.
Develop Compelling Value Propositions
Now that you fully understand the the market you are seeing to enter, you can begin developing how you introduce your product or service to the marketplace. The next step in this process is to establish your unique value proposition. This statement communicates your product or service's benefits to the target market. It should answer the question, "Why should customers choose your offering over competitors?" Here are some tips for developing compelling value propositions:
Uniqueness: Highlight what sets your product or service apart. This could be unique features, superior quality, innovative technology, or exceptional customer service.
Relevance: Ensure your value proposition is relevant to your target market's needs and pain points. Demonstrate how your offering solves their specific challenges or improves their lives.
Quantifiable Benefits: Whenever possible, quantify the benefits of your product or service. For example, "Save up to 20% on energy costs with our innovative solution."
Emotional Appeal: Tap into your target market's emotional needs. Your value proposition could emphasize how your product makes customers' lives easier, more secure, or more enjoyable.
Keep it Simple: Avoid using jargon or complicated language. Your value proposition should be easy to understand and communicate quickly.
How it Address Pain Points and Concerns: If your product or solution does not address the pain points, concerns, or interests of your target audience, then you will have great difficulty gaining traction in the marketplace.
Define Your Pricing and Packaging Strategy
Your pricing and packaging strategy will play a crucial role in the success of your launch. It should be aligned with the value you deliver, the competition, and the purchasing power of your target market. Here are some key considerations:
Value-Based Pricing: Set prices based on your product or service's perceived value. Consider the benefits and features that are most important to your target market and price accordingly.
Competition and Market Pricing: Research competitors' pricing to understand the market rate for similar products or services. Then, you can position your pricing to be competitive while highlighting your unique value.
Pricing Models: Explore pricing models, such as one-time payments, subscriptions, usage-based pricing, or freemium models. The suitable model will depend on your industry, target market, and the nature of your offering.
Tip: Reoccurring pricing models are often the best choice as they allow for a steady revenue stream.
Bundling and Packaging: Consider how to bundle or package your offering to create additional value. For example, you could offer different tiers or plans with varying feature sets and prices.
Pricing Flexibility: Build flexibility into your pricing strategy to accommodate negotiations, especially for enterprise or high-value customers. You could also offer limited-time discounts or promotions to create a sense of urgency.
Determine Your Distribution Channels
Your distribution channels are the pathways through which your product or service will reach the target market. This could include online and offline channels, direct and indirect sales, partnerships, and resellers. Here's how to determine the proper distribution approach:
Online v. Offline: Assess whether your target market is more likely to purchase your product or service online or offline. For example, an online distribution strategy may be more effective if you're targeting tech-savvy millennials.
Tip: We strongly advocate that digital and traditional marketing must be part of EVERY marketing plan. The Prevail Discovery and Assessment process will identify the proper online and offline engagement mix and the EXACT places your targeted buyer personas go for information, education, entertainment, and third-party verification.
Direct vs. Indirect Sales: Direct sales involve selling directly to the end customer, while indirect sales rely on intermediaries such as distributors, resellers, or agents. Consider the resources and expertise available to determine the right approach.
Tip: One of the best ways to bring a new product or service to market is to leverage the time, energy, reach, and relationships of third parties. This allows you to take advantage of the trust that another party has already built with their community. For an understanding of how to accomplish this, here is a previous blog, Leverage Your Way to Success.
Partnerships: Identify potential partners who can help extend your reach. This could include strategic alliances, co-marketing agreements, or referral partnerships. Partners can help you access new markets, leverage their customer base, and amplify your message.
Tips: Partnerships are another effective way of leveraging success in a go-to-market strategy. We have often partnered with influential industry publications or associations to increase interest in our client's new product or solution. One technique we have used quite effectively is co-branded emails. These are emails created by you but sent out by the partner under their domain email. The open rates are high because it is a trusted source, and the trust the partner has built is transferred to our client. The best practices for this type of marketing can be found in our blogs "Co-branded Emails - The Strategy You Need to Try" and "Co-branded Emails - Guaranteed Results."
Omni-Channel Approach: Today's customers expect a seamless experience across multiple channels. Adopt an omni-channel distribution strategy that integrates online and offline channels, providing a consistent and connected experience.
Tip: Your prospect needs to have 15 or more touchpoints with your brand before they start to develop trust and consider purchasing your product or service. While the Prevail Discovery and Assessment Process will show you the best channels, here is a blog that begins to set forth some of your options, "Introducing the New and Improved Inbound Marketing."
Influencers: Using influencers to help create awareness and market your product or service has become an increasingly cost-effective marketing approach.
Tip: To understand the importance of using influencers and how best to implement a program, we recommend reading our comprehensive ebook," The Almost Definitive Guide to Influencer Marketing."
International Expansion: To expand globally, factor this into your distribution strategy. Consider each target market's unique cultural, legal, and logistical challenges and adapt your approach accordingly.
Build a Comprehensive Marketing and Promotional Plan
Your marketing and promotional plan will raise awareness, generate interest, and drive adoption of your product or service. Here are the key elements to include:
Messaging and Positioning: Develop clear and consistent messaging that articulates your value proposition and differentiates your brand. Ensure all communication materials are aligned with this messaging framework.
Tip: To ensure your brand messaging remains consistent and what the targeted personas need to see and comport to your vision of the brand, we recommend you develop both brand and voice guidelines. This will keep everyone aligned. A few articles will help you establish these guidelines: "The Importance of Doing Branding Right" and "Developing Brand Guidelines."
Content Marketing: Create a content plan that educates, informs, and engages your target audience. This could include blog articles, videos, infographics, webinars, and social media content. Focus on providing value rather than a hard sell.
Tip: Every piece of content must be created to address the pain points, interests, and concerns of a targeted buyer persona at a particular stage in the buyer's journey. When you create that content, you should be able to state who it is for, what issue it is addressing, and how you anticipate the persona's reaction. The process for doing this can be found in the following blogs:
"Discover How to Create Great Content," and "Content Marketing Formula - Rules for Success."
PR and Earned Media Relations: Build relationships with your industry's critical media outlets and influencers. Pitch them newsworthy stories about your product launch, thought leadership articles, or exclusive interviews. If you are bringing a new or innovative product or solution to the marketplace, don't underestimate the potential of PR and Earned Media. They have the potential to kick-start your new venture and create buzz and excitement. Here are a few articles that will help you understand best practices and get you started:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO): To succeed, you must apply best practices and understand the marketing fundamentals. Nothing is more fundamental than On-page and Technical SEO. If you want to obtain organic traffic, you MUST appease Google. Here are a few primers that will allow you to implement an effective SEO program.
Social Media Marketing: Leveraging and creating effective social media campaigns is critical to the success of your startup. We live in the digital age, and if you are not capitalizing on the power of social media marketing (organic and paid), you are leaving opportunity and sales on the table. Here are a series of articles that will help you get started.
Paid Demand Programs: While most startups do not have the funds for an aggressive paid demand program, it remains one of the quickest ways to jump-start an organization. We recommend that a startup not bank its success on paid demand, as it can quickly burn through funds. However, if you have content that performed well organically or an event you need to ensure attendance, using paid demand may be in order. Here are some articles that should help you determine how and when to use paid demand.
Paid-Demand
Introduction To Paid-Demand
Events and Webinars: Host or attend events, hold webinars and product launch parties to generate buzz, and engage directly with potential customers. Nothing builds trust quicker than meeting and speaking to the founders or principles behind a company. When funds permit, attend conferences or trade shows to showcase your product or solution. Hold webinars every month to educate and inform your prospects. Every webinar should be co-hosted by an industry expert or influencer who will invite their followers to attend.
Influencer Marketing: As discussed earlier, influencers can quickly galvanize their followers to adopt your product or solution. Identifying and collaborating with influencers or industry experts who have a strong following in your target market is important. Their endorsement can help amplify your message and build trust. To understand the power and how to utilize influencers effectively, read these articles:
Influencer Marketing
Account-Based Marketing (ABM): ABM can be an extremely effective program that quickly scales a new organization or market release. Account-based marketing is a highly focused strategic approach implemented by the marketing and sales teams to target high-value accounts using personalized content. It flips the traditional marketing funnel upside down by focusing on specific target accounts and engaging individuals within them. ABM includes the same elements of the comprehensive marketing plan: inbound marketing, content marketing, earned media, and outbound marketing. The differentiation between ABM and Comprehensive Marketing is the size of the net you cast and the degree of personalization. Here is a link to a comprehensive ebook and several blog articles.
Account-Based Marketing
Conclusion
We have given you a lot of information on constructing and implementing a go-to-market strategy. In our next blog, we will show examples of GTM programs we have successfully implemented for clients and the strategies we use to track and optimize the results.
Contacts:
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