Go-to-market strategies are not like defined formulas that you can apply from the management area in the same way in all companies, but, depending on their interests, you have to take into account the objectives and needs of each company to understand the best way to implement them successfully.
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In the world of marketing, a go-to-market strategy is defined as the combination of distribution channels, commercial conditions, and actions directed at customers and the market. Companies must ensure that their products or services reach consumers, optimizing costs and promoting growth through higher billing.
The proposal for this article is to explain the main keys to developing an effective go-to-market strategy that is tailored to your company's products or services. Because we know that each product and market are different, the solution can have various edges that must be taken into account.
We can divide a go-to-market strategy into 3 stages: product, market, and segment. When we focus on the product, we must define what product or service we want to sell; it's what we call the offer. From the moment we define the product, we consider its characteristics: price, benefits, size, weight, etc.
Then, we must also think about how we are going to sell the product or service, how we are going to communicate the offer and make it reach more people through the use of sales channels to demonstrate its value, without forgetting the distribution channels so that the delivery to the customer quickly and efficiently. All of these variables are part of the go-to-market strategy.
Marketing channels are important because they allow the product to be communicated so that it becomes known and consumers want to buy it. However, selling is not the same as delivering, since in the marketing channels the product is displayed but not delivered. That is why there are various channels to display these products, either physically or online through an e-commerce store.
Distribution channels are the logistics processes that allow the delivery of the product or service directly to the customer.
When the offer being provided is an online education, the delivery channels may also vary. It can be streaming or live, or it can be a self-service bookstore. The final delivery channel is just as important as the sales channel, but the delivery channel can change the nature of the business. For example, the online channel for teaching is not the same as a physical channel with personal interaction with other people.
So, recapitulating, in a go-to-market strategy you must define what product you are looking to sell, what characteristics it has that make it valuable, what price is going to be set for it, what sales channels are going to promote it, and what distribution channels are going to deliver it to the customer.
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Then, we should continue to the next category, which is the market, where we are going to take into account two elements: customers and competitors. The market is the sum of supply and demand. The supply is the competitors and the demand is the customers who could buy from us. Continuing with the example of the learning course, your objective will be to know the competitors (what other similar courses or seminars are being disseminated and by what means), their benefits, price range, degree of innovation in the transmission of knowledge, types of customers, etc., as well as the preferences and profiles of your customers and prospects.
Analyzing the market involves determining who is competing and how part of what should be identified when creating a go-to-market strategy focused on your product or service is built. However, we must clarify that this categorization is not sequential, since there is no established order to start the strategy, but all these elements must be analyzed as a whole and in parallel.
In this sense, the price cannot be determined without analyzing the competition, the characteristics cannot be analyzed without analyzing the competition. In a nutshell, we end up defining our go-to-market strategy based on market research, analyzing supply and demand.
When companies are looking to launch a new product, they should know their competitors very well to analyze what they are offering to their customers. From there, define the type of product or service and start promoting it through sales channels.
Within the same analysis, it is also necessary to consider who your customers are and what they are like. The product you have is going to depend on who your customers are. In the example of online training, if your company targets the learning of older adults who suddenly want to learn a new language or knowledge as a hobby or for whatever reason, this is probably going to change who the competitor is, how the delivery will be, how it will be promoted, and charged.
We have reached the last stage in which a go-to-market strategy can be divided, although the analysis of each one does not establish a sequential application but rather a parallel one. We are talking about the segment in which your audience is divided.
When we talk about the segment, it refers to the size of the audience you target as your ideal customer or buyer persona. Once you have it defined, you can now focus your efforts on an action plan to carry out the go-to-market strategy to promote your products or services.
Concluding with our example of the online course, it would be illogical to ask an elderly person to pay for this course with bitcoin because generally older adults do not handle or understand cryptocurrencies or electronic wallets.
On the other hand, if the buyer persona of the course is aimed at young people between 18 and 25 years old, they could calmly manage their payments with bitcoin or cryptocurrencies, because the message will be well redirected to people who have complete access to information and the latest trends in the market.
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In conclusion, a go-to-market strategy will not be the same in two different companies because its implementation will depend on the various variables contained in each of the 3 stages that we have developed: what type of product or service your company offers, what its characteristics and benefits are, what its price is, in what sales channels it will be promoted and what distribution channels will be used to deliver it to customers.
You have to compare all these variables, but without neglecting the supply and demand relationship, which will help define your strategy, and finally, know the market segment your offer is aimed at.