Table of Content
What does go to market (GTM) mean?
Why is a GTM strategy necessary?
What Separates a GTM Strategy from a Marketing Strategy?
Which sales technique is best for your GTM SaaS strategy?
How do you create a go-to-market plan?
What does go to market (GTM) mean?
A go-to-market strategy is a detailed plan or instruction manual for releasing your product onto the market.
It covers everything, including who your target market or potential customers are, where they are the best marketing tactics and sales strategies to reach them, positioning tactics, price strategy, and more.
Product marketers & their teams use this go-to-market strategy to make sure you successfully launch the product to the appropriate customers at the correct moment and distinguish out from the market's already-existing competition.
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Why is a GTM strategy necessary?
You'll need the plan to help you quickly enter the market and attract the interest of your target audience whether launching any new product or introducing your current product into a new market.
A go-to-market strategy is useful in this situation.
It is a thorough plan that aids in determining how to launch.
According to Harvard Business School research, 95% of newly released goods fail within the first year.
Your odds of failing might be lowered with the aid of a GTM approach because:
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It aids in the mapping out of all significant touchpoints, including your potential customers' problems, current competitors' plans, and their business models. Additionally, it addresses your brand positioning and the marketing techniques you use to differentiate yourself from the competition. When you introduce your product, the GTM strategy makes sure it meets consumer needs, resolving the issue of product-market fit.
What Separates a GTM Strategy from a Marketing Strategy?
A go-to-market strategy is a one-time plan that assists you in entering the market as your product is being released. On the other hand, a marketing plan entails ongoing efforts you'll make to win clients and keep your market share beyond the original product launch. The primary distinction between a GTM strategy as well as a marketing plan is that the former is product-specific. A marketing strategy, in contrast, concentrates on the actions, distribution methods, and target market of the value proposition. Download ebooks to gain extensive knowledge about them.
Which sales technique is best for your GTM SaaS strategy?
You must choose the appropriate sales strategy to use before releasing your goods to attract buyers.
Two basic categories of sales GTM methods are used in SaaS to entice & convert potential customers.
Product-led marketing tactics:
Your product is the main objective and the focal point of all marketing and sales efforts in a product-led go-to-market strategy.
In this tactic, your product serves as the engine that propels acquisition, activation, then retention.
Users can convert without going via a sales funnel or a member of your sales staff.
It's simpler for them to convert to paying clients once they've used your product and found value.
Many SaaS companies, like Dropbox and Slack, use this sales tactic.
It is accomplished by creating a valuable user experience for the product that motivates users to stay around.
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Sales-driven marketing tactics:
A sales-led growth approach is advised for B2B SaaS companies like Salesforce & Microsoft whose solutions demand more hands-on assistance and have a longer sales cycle.
This go-to-market approach places a strong emphasis on your marketing campaigns' efforts to generate leads and your sales team's capacity to persuade and turn those prospects into customers.
The success of a sales-led approach depends on your marketing team's lead generation efforts and how effective your sales reps are in pitching your key benefits and persuading prospects to convert, unlike a product-led sales strategy where conversions are driven by your product experience.
How do you create a go-to-market plan?
You need to consider several factors while developing your go-to-market strategy. The steps you need to think about when making one are as follows:
Step 1 of the GTM strategy Chooses the appropriate audience:
Finding the ideal target market or user persona should come first.
Every single aspect of your SaaS go-to-market plan will depend on your audience.
Which demographic will gain the most from the product? When you launch it, who will you be aiming it at? How will you contact them, too? Now that you have determined the appropriate audience, you can structure your marketing strategy and campaigns around them.
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GTM plan phase 2: Develop messaging and a value proposition:
The next stage after determining your target market is to design a value matrix that will aid in the development of your distinctive value proposition.
This will draw attention to consumer issues and offer your product the ideal remedy.
List your buyer personas, their challenges, and whether or not your solution solves them to do.
You can then develop a value proposition with marketing messaging for the landing page as well as other channels that address specifically the customer's pain areas after you've completed this.
Step 3 of the GTM approach is to choose your pricing and sales strategies:
Different pricing schemes are used by SaaS companies, which we discussed in a previous section.
The optimal model for both you and your clients must be chosen.
Will you provide a free trial or even a freemium product?
Choosing a sales plan can help you get your goods in front of customers.
Here are some of the most typical:
- Self-service: This eliminates the need for a sales representative or team because customers can browse your items and subscribe to them on their own with ease. To attract customers to your product, you will need a strong marketing staff and a solid marketing strategy.
- Inside Sales Model: This calls for inside sales representatives who are in charge of developing and closing inbound leads. Due to their lengthier sales cycles, B2B SaaS companies tend to see this most frequently.
- The Field Sales concept entails employing and educating outside sales representatives who will present your goods to potential clients. They must go out into the "field" to meet potential clients and make an effort to persuade them.
- The channel model calls for you to collaborate with a company or third party to market and sell your goods. You don't need a sales team to do it. You merely require a trustworthy business partner.
Step 4 of the GTM approach is to select a marketing distribution plan:
Your marketing plan should outline how you plan to connect with your target market.
How will you raise consumer awareness of your brand, stimulate demand, and capture their interest? The channels you pick will rely on the audience you've identified and what would convert them the best.
However, the majority of SaaS companies employ content marketing & SEO as a marketing distribution channel to increase their domain authority, benefit users and also create demand.
Step 5 includes picking a customer experience strategy & customer funnel for your GTM plan:
You'll need a strategy for customer experience if you opted for the product-led approach, in which your product serves as the primary driver of client acquisition and retention.
This will guarantee users a smooth experience with your product.
Their chances of switching from a free trial or freemium membership to paying consumers are also increased.
The complete customer journey is covered in the plan, along with suggestions for enhancing user experience and customer success at each point.
Step 6 of the GTM method is to select success indicators:
Product teams at SaaS companies must constantly monitor a variety of growth measures.
You should concentrate just on a select handful at this point because it might easily become overwhelming.
Among the crucial metrics are:
Cost of acquiring new clients (CAC)
A lifetime worth of the client (LTV)
Expenditure and income by channel
The key indicators of your CAC and LTV show how much you pay to acquire clients and how much value they provide to your company.
You will need to change your acquisition expenditure or improve your offering to boost retention if the CAC is higher than the LTV.
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