Most business owners have heard that 90% of startups fail within 3 years. The failure of startups is due to a wide variety of reasons. But one way emerging product manufacturers can greatly reduce their chance of being a part of that 90% is with a rock solid go-to-market strategy.
We are here to give some insights into what makes a go-to-market strategy unique and how to get started, but if you want large-scale commercialization success, reach out to us at Vessel to get the force of our experts behind your product.
Go-to-Market Strategy vs Traditional Marketing Strategies
Think about your go-to-market (GTM) strategy differently than your general marketing strategy.
While your company's general marketing strategy should focus on growing your brand over a long period of time, a GTM strategy is carefully mapped out to focus on introducing your product to a new market or customer base. Your marketing strategy might be guided by principles or long-term goals and it likely has a level of flexibility built in to respond to changing audiences or platforms. Whereas a GTM strategy is a step-by-step guide intended for quick disruption.
In short, your marketing strategy is the plan of how your brand will keep up with changing times, succeed through new channels, maintain repeat customers and attract a larger audience. Your GTM strategy is hyper-focused on reaching a segmented audience that will be interested in specific products.
Starting a Go-to-Market Strategy
Many product manufacturers bringing a new product to market believe the solution they are proposing is clear to their potential customers. But this is often not the case, just because you can see it, doesn't mean that your buyers can.
This is where a GTM strategy comes into play. Your plan must include a framework for how to expose a need in potential customers and position your product as the ultimate solution. To achieve this successfully, it is important to dedicate time early in the process for researching your prospective customers and understanding how they prefer to be communicated with.
If you have a game-changing B2B product, then investing a great amount of time into an Instagram page might not be the best tactic. On the other hand, direct mail might be incredibly effective at reaching your target audience.
We recommend you start your planning and research process with these few questions:
What problem does your product solve?
What impact does that problem currently have on your target customer?
What will solving this problem allow your target customer to achieve?
Is this problem significant enough that a solution would be appealing?
Is this something that my target customer is asking for?
Once you have answered these questions, you can confidently say that your solution is valuable and assume the market is ready to embrace it. These 5 questions are just the first steps in a long process of research before your official product launch.
Go-to-Market Partnering for Success
We believe the best decision a growing product manufacturing company can make is selecting a GTM partner to position your product for success. A typical marketing agency will not be familiar with the unique challenges and characteristics of launching a new product. Having a partner to lead your product from branding to sales optimization can make a world of difference in your commercialization success.
We set ourselves apart by bringing SCM (supply chain management) and GTM under one roof. We will support your product from sourcing through sales, aligning your entire process to your ideal customer, and providing expertise without the overhead that comes along with internalizing these efforts. Reach out to us at Vessel to learn how we can help with SCM + GTM.
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