Many people would have heard about the GTM Strategy. But what exactly is it? GTM Strategy or Go-to-Market Strategy is an action plan to introduce any new product, service, solution, or offerings into the market.

A GTM Strategy can be a marketing strategy, but it is a lot more specific and action-oriented. It requires a detailed plan and a dedicated team. Unlike a marketing plan involving just the marketers. A GTM team involves a much larger and varied group including researchers, a product team, a sales team, strategists, and a marketing team.

Go-To-Marketing – Framework

A framework is very important to introduce any new product/offerings/ solutions into the market. Let’s see some of the key steps involving the GTM Plan.

Identification of your Target Market

Identifying your target market is very much essential to get started with your Go-to-Market strategy. Different products will apply to different customers/clients/industries. For example, the solutions offered in the IT industry are very much different from those offered in some other sectors.

Competitor Analysis

What your competitors are doing, what are their products, and what are the problems they are solving, knowing all this is very much essential. At the end of the day, you want to be unique and solve the problems that are not solved.

Identifying the current market trend

Getting to know about the trend that is there in the market is equally essential. For example, Post the pandemic, the future of the workplace has become more or less hybrid, hence organizations should also be providing services that cater to needs that can apply to a hybrid or remote setup.

Unique Selling Proposition

Identifying and highlighting your unique selling features/solutions/ offerings is essential. You must be knowing what is it that is your unique and authentic product. And what it is that sets you apart.

Marketing Plan

A marketing plan is essential to release your offering to the market. Usually, there are three stages before any product launch.

Pre-Launch: It includes all the activities before the launch of any product/solution/offering. It can consist of email campaigns, creating hype before the product launch, etc. For Example, it is just like the trailer before the release of a movie. A good trailer will build much-needed anticipation among consumers. Hence creating anticipation is very much necessary before the product launch as well.

Launch: It is when you introduce your product to the market. It can be done in various ways. For example, organizations like Apple during the release of the new iPhone, make product availability very limited. It is one of the strategies to create what we call the scarcity effect. Similarly, some organizations can promote the product by giving the initial pieces to some celebrities, hence creating what we call social proof strategy. They can tie up with different channels to offer discounts. etc.

Post-Launch: It usually happens to post the launch of any product/services/offerings to make the audience aware of any tweaks, or upcoming changes in the already existing product or services. Post Launch can be done all through the year.
Difference between a Go-to-Market strategy and Marketing

Some people might get confused between marketing and a Go-to-Market Strategy. Here is what you need to know;

A Go-to-Market strategy is very specific, it involves the entire action plan around introducing a specific product or service into the market. A GTM strategy is like a framework that not only involves marketing but many other things prior to marketing like research, SWOT analysis, identifying the potential threats, new entrants, etc.

On the other hand, marketing involves year-round activities in order to create more awareness around the product including campaigns, advertisements, teasers, launches, etc. The marketing could come as one of the sub-sets under the GTM plan.

Deciding the type of marketing to use is also one of the key areas under GTM.
The strategist will need to identify the type of marketing to choose in order for the product to get the maximum traction.
Marketing plays a very important role in a GTM plan. A well-planned marketing needs to be done to evangelize the new product or service in order to get the much-needed recognition.
Conclusion

A Go-to-Marketing strategy helps in introducing your key products into the market. A well-executed GTM strategy will help the organizations to thrive better with their products in the market.