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Another year of change is upon us in 2023. As a go-to-market leader, you’re aware that the strategies which worked this year might not work the next. If you hope to have any chance of creating a successful go-to-market strategy, you must rethink your approach against this new challenging era of work and economic climate.

While there is no one-size fits all template, a common theme among effective go-to-market strategies points to prioritizing several elements to find and persuade the people most likely to benefit from your product. Here are the top 4 criteria for creating a revenue-generating go-to-market strategy for your business in 2023:

1. Determine and Distinguish Buyer Personas and Target Audiences

This point comes as no surprise, but when 15% of marketers claim that they rarely or never plan their projects ahead of time, it bears repeating.

You’ll want to understand who your best customers are, why they buy from you, and what resonates with them, as they will be the ones to put your product on the map. By getting a general sense of what they do, their goals, and their pain points, you can build your ideal customer profiles to have a clearer picture of who your ideal buyers and users are. 

Remember: your company’s internal perception of value does not equal your customers’ perception of it, so it does you no favors to go on gut feelings and untested assumptions alone without first identifying your audience.

A classic case of customer and market research negligence led to one of Microsoft’s few but big errors back in 2006. As a direct competitor to Apple’s iPod, the tech giant debuted their own portable media player called the Zune. Unfortunately, the Zune did not address any customer pain points or justification for existing in the market—with even former Microsoft executive Robbie Bach calling Zune a “chasing” product. A lack of marketing segmentation could not compel enough customers to swap their iPods for Zunes, resulting in Microsoft pulling the plug in 2011.

2. Figure Out if Your Product Fits the Market

Understanding your product’s place within the existing market is another crucial element to the success of your go-to-market strategy. What product are you selling, and does it truly solve your target buyers’ problems? Determining product-market fit should take priority before launching.

According to Marc Andreessen, co-founder and general partner of the Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz: “Product/market fit means being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market.”

“You can always feel when product-market fit isn’t happening. The customers aren’t quite getting value out of the product, word of mouth isn’t spreading, usage isn’t growing that fast, press reviews are kind of ‘blah’, the sales cycle takes too long, and lots of deals never close.”

Consider product testing in a controlled environment. By conducting surveys on a small sample of ideal buyers who have used your product, you can gain valuable insight. Do they think your product is a must-have? Would they miss it if it were gone? The experiences of your subjects will help you assess your product’s market fit.

3. Keep an Eye on Your Competitors and Market Demand

Before investing in your product, it’s important to know that there is sufficient demand for it and that competition is fairly low. By researching your competitors’ offerings and comparing your own value proposition with theirs, you’ll gain an idea of what demand looks like and how to differentiate yourself.

While deep dive researching in your competition, ask yourself questions such as:

 

  • “How does my product differ from the competition? What do we offer that others don’t?”
  • “What is it that my target audience dislikes or likes about my competitors?”
  • “Do the reviews about my competition suggest my target audience’s pain points are being addressed? If not, how does my offering solve their problems and impact their lives?”
  • “Does their unique value proposition (UVP) resonate with the target audience? How can I make sure my UVP resonates?”
  • “What is my competition doing to create good first impressions, and how can I replicate that to provide a better buyer experience?”

Conducting this competitive analysis will help you uncover your competitors, their strengths and weaknesses in relation to your own, and the current market demand for products similar to your own.

4. Determine Where and How You will Sell Your Product

Are you considering traditional media as your channel of choice? Perhaps digital advertising? When choosing amongst the myriad of channels to sell your product, remember that your go-to-market strategy should take into account where your prospects are during their buyer’s journey—only providing different types of supporting content where appropriate to aid, not force, them into reaching a buying decision.

In addition, you’ll want to align the channels you pick to where your target audience consumes content. Creating demand for your product by putting the right blog, paid search ad, and social post on the right channel.

For instance, you can use search engine optimization (SEO) content on LinkedIn to direct top-of-funnel customers who are unfamiliar with your product to your website, provide case studies and testimonials for middle-of-funnel customers who are considering your product, and turn to “de-risk” strategies like free trials and demos to convince potential customers at the bottom-of-the funnel to commit.

Final Thoughts

Having an actionable go-to-market strategy is crucial before bringing your next product into the market. It’s a challenge to know where to start, but with the addition of new tools and resources found in this modern era of sales & marketing, planning doesn’t have to be time-consuming or overly complicated.

If you’re looking to equip your sales team with actionable go-to-market strategies that’ll help you find qualified leads and convert them into buyers, then download your copy of our 5 Interrelated Go-to-Market Tactics to Fortify Lead-to-Customer Conversions.