So, you have a product and you are ready to launch it in the market. You need a well thought through, meticulously planned framework that utilizes external resources to now convey the unique value prop your product delivers to your audience. A robust and fool-proof strategy that conveys the solution to a core problem within your segment and markets it successfully will drive growth.
First things first – Presumably you have done the target audience research, where you have identified who is the audience for the product, what are their interests as well as their pain points. It is always important to lead with the benefits. Your audience will be keen to find out more about the product only if they think their problem can be mitigated with the help of your product. They don’t really care about the features of your product to start with. Hence, for your target audience to listen and then engage with your content it is important to nurture them with the benefits. This will help you identify assets, media channels, appropriate formats of content they consume and more. Use all this information to your marketing mix while creating your marketing plan.
The differentiation factor – Why should your audience listen and what is so unique in your product that they should be interested? Answering this will give you a clear idea of what sets you apart from your competitors. You can then use these USPs through your marketing assets and messaging – to remind your audience of these differentiators from time to time across multiple channels and content pieces.
Define your goals – Identify what does success look like. Having a great product is not enough, having the right assets to promote it and identifying the most relevant channels to promote them is important to achieve business goals. Defining metrics are important to measure the success of your go-to-market strategy. Some of the most common metrics to help measure the success of go-to-market campaign are;
- Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
- Conversion rate
- Length of the sales cycle
- Customer lifetime value and many more…
Develop a marketing plan – Based on the assets, marketing channels and tactics identified above, build a long term and a short-term marketing plan. Build dedicated marketing plans for each vertical in the industry if need be. For example, if you are targeting the technology sector, are you looking at targeting a specific use case i.e. Financial companies, Healthcare, Education that could benefit from your product? You cannot have one go-to-market strategy for all verticals. Instead customize to launch in each vertical. This is because audience in different segments consume information differently. Each industry has varying regulations, and ways in which you can contact leads or not. Here in this blog I explain how you can start with creating a plan for your audience.
Develop a sales strategy – While you work on a marketing strategy and identify the marketing channels for go-to-market, it is important to align with sales too. Outlining a clear sales funnel from hard cold leads till they reach the closing stage that is in sync with the marketing tactics therein, is a winning strategy. Outlining the sales channels or the distribution channels in line with how your audience will consume the product will encourage sales. Having a seamless sales process, is key to ensuring good customer experience pre-sale, and a seamless post-sales process is key for returning customers.
Partner and collaborate to go big – One of the best ways to magnify your efforts is to find partners that compliment your product and services in the market. Collaborating with strategic partners, suppliers and distributors can help you reach more audiences across multiple markets and across multiple channels. This can be very useful when it comes to market expansion and lead gen.
Measure and pivot – In today’s world, customer needs are rapidly changing and constantly evolving. There is a need for speed along with the need to change. It is important to continuously measure the outcomes of your marketing efforts and be agile to pivot depending on how the audience interprets your products. Understand that critical metrics that define your audience’s response to your marketing. Check this Semrush read on content marketing metrics you should track . At the same time, avoid death by metrics. It is key to remain adaptable and refine your go-to-market strategy based on the feedback from the real world, especially because not all metrics tell you the whole story. With a balance between what the numbers say and feedback from real people you can accelerate your growth in the market with a robust go-to-market strategy.
Good luck!
