Marketing comes in many forms, so identifying the right solution for your software-as-a-service (SaaS) brand is crucial for smashing your marketing goals and keeping a steady stream of leads.
The success of any SaaS PPC campaign lies within the strategizing period – but before you do that, identifying the right strategy is key. One such strategy is the ‘go-to-market’ (GTM) option, which prioritizes the authentication and validation of a product/service, which can save much time and money before investing in marketing resources.
If you’ve yet to delve into the fruitful world of GTM, we have put together an invaluable guide that allows you to understand what the concept is, why it is important for SaaS, and how to incorporate it into your marketing.
1 – What is a Go-To-Market Strategy for SaaS?
In a nutshell, a go-to-market strategy focuses on launching a campaign that highlights a new product or feature to attract new leads.
A well-thought-out GTM will thoroughly outline how you can attract these leads (and boost revenue, of course), as well as stand out from your competitors. During the strategizing process, you should outline the following:
- A detailed understanding of your core target audience.
- A plan that covers customer support and liaison.
- The produce or feature’s unique value proposition (UVP).
- The ideal marketing channels (e.g.: email, social media, etc.).
- A competitive price.
It is important to continue coming back to your strategy throughout the marketing process to refine or retweak if needed. You can do this by regularly monitoring your KPIs (key performance indicators).
2 – How Does GTM Differ From Regular Marketing?
Although there are similarities between the two, there is a reason why GTM is ideal for certain campaigns.
While regular marketing focuses on selling products or services and ushering leads through the sales funnel, GTM’s purpose is to highlight something new that may not be an entire product or service – just an element thereof – meaning standard marketing may be too vague to adequately advertise it.
Also, GTM campaigns tend to be on a shorter timescale than regular marketing campaigns, with the focus being the new product/service (or extension of), as opposed to another marketing goal, such as brand awareness.
It is also important to understand that GTM depends on how old your brand is. For example, if it is a startup, GTM will not apply because you will be focusing on brand awareness and first-time product launches.
As your organization grows, you will begin to require both regular marketing and GTM, depending on your future marketing goals.
3 – The Importance of GTM For SaaS
There are several reasons to consider GTM for your marketing, including:
- Predicting Success
Once your organization reaches a point where GTM becomes relevant, you will need to revisit some of the marketing points you would have looked at in your early days, such as target audience, advertising channels, and your overall brand message, which can be crucial for redefining and redirecting your marketing.
Also, because your brand will have prior marketing experience, you will already have some of the clues within your KPIs to initiate success with your GTM campaign, allowing you to save time and money with the campaign-building process.
- (Re)Analyze Your Market
GTM is the perfect opportunity to reevaluate your target segments, such as serviceable available marketing (SAM) and key stakeholders.
- Characterize Your Marketing & Sales
As we mentioned earlier, GTM is the ideal time to refine your current marketing and sales efforts, and because you will have the data already, this will be a quick and easy process.
Ideally, a core focus should be your messaging and your current advertising platforms. Is there room for improvement? Are you missing out on a lucrative channel?
- Touchpoint Mapping
You can look at key areas, such as your potential audience’s pain points, as well as take a closer look at your competitors (their pricing, business model/strategies, etc.), giving you a chance to buck up your ideas to stay ahead.
- Saving Time & Money
One of the key benefits of a good GTM strategy is reducing time and money spent on marketing because you can identify the best channels to maximize your ROI (return on investment) and reach the widest target audience.
And because GTM is designed to be short-term marketing, you can launch your product/feature quickly, allowing you to prioritize essential marketing tasks, troubleshoot any particular areas, and define your logistics distribution.
4 – Types of GTM Strategies For SaaS Brands
As with standard marketing, there is more than one GTM strategy, and it is important to harness the right option for your brand.
Sales-Led GTM
Naturally, this option harnesses the sales force to enhance lead-gen and ultimately, more profit. Keep in mind the following:
- Sales team optimization. This means hiring and promoting as necessary, employee training, investing in software and resources, and anything else that will boost the team.
- Performance tracking. When investing in your sales team resources, don’t forget to opt for the best tracking and monitoring tools. This allows you to monitor and record data such as metrics, customer acquisition costs, customer lifetime value, revenue generation, and so on. Use these tools alongside customer feedback to leave no stone unturned.
- Optimized communication. Your sales team will need to be trained in customer management to effectively communicate and understand the needs and pain points of the lead (lead nurturing).
- Build a sales playbook. This can help you underline certain points such as the sales process, techniques, and value proposition, making the campaign process smoother and streamlined.
- Audience targeting and ICP (ideal customer profile). The success of any marketing campaign lies within the targeted audience, so make sure your sales team does its homework to create the ideal profile that will most benefit from the product/feature.
- Goal setting. The backbone of any strategy is the desired outcome, which must be realistic. Once your sales team understands the overall objective, it can work towards that goal.
Product-Led GTM
This strategy focuses on generating revenue by highlighting the benefits of a product to retain and keep long-term customers. Key focuses include:
- Listening to feedback. Your customers’ opinions are priceless and always be noted. This will help you boost your product and maintain clients.
- Ensuring a positive customer experience by providing end-to-end support and effective troubleshooting tactics. Also, harness channels that allow leads to share and engage with the campaign, including sharing their reviews of the product.
- Launch a user-friendly, self-service onboarding process that enables leads to use your product without human assistance, e.g.: a video tutorial or written instructions.
- Free trials. Don’t disregard the power of a free product/service trial. This is often the best way to showcase your product and allow the customer to familiarize themselves to experience the benefits, which then often leads to permanent lead acquisition.
- Make sure your product is designed around the pain points of the ICP. This is a surefire way to ensure it meets expectations and outshines rival products.
5 – How to Create a GTM For Your SaaS Brand
So, now that we understand what a GTM is and why it’s important, let’s look at creating your first strategy.
Step 1. Identify & Target Your Ideal Audience
This should be done before you even consider creating any content. Start by deciphering which audience segments to target – the clues of which will lie within your current and prior lead data. Look at the buyer persona and where they are in their buying journey, as well as gaps in the market, and of course, what your competitors are doing.
It can also be beneficial to use surveys, interviews, etc., to help build your ideal buyer persona.
Consider the following:
- Who is the product/service decision-maker? Is it a CEO, sales manager, or someone else?
- Why should they purchase your product? (What problem does it solve?).
- Will the user of the product be the buyer? If the answer is no, is the product user-friendly for the leads whom the product is designed for?
Step 2. Be Clear on Your Value Proposition
In other words, create a concise statement on how your product solves the pain points of your ICP and why it is superior to rival products. This means understanding the daily challenges of your target audience and creating a product that rectifies those problems.
This statement should be short, simple, and easy to digest, so focus on selling points and how/why it is unique to rival products.
Step 3. Define Your Pricing Strategy
This step is crucial for influencing sales, marketing, budget, and everything in between. Pricing strategies can be broken down into 8 options.
- PAYG (pay-as-you-go), which is self-explanatory.
- Per-feature. This is set pricing based on specific features that your leads can choose from to be included within their SaaS subscription. This allows for customization and flexibility.
- Value-based. This can be deciphered based on how the product will benefit and rectify the pain points of the customer – AKA, how valuable the product is to them.
- “Freemium”. This is essentially a free trial, enabling the customers to experience for themselves the benefits of the product without fully committing.
- Per-user. This is set pricing which is based on how many individuals will be using the product (per company).
- Tiered. This is multiple pricing options, with each tier offering different features, support, usage limits, and so on. The user can choose their tier and upgrade if need be.
- Usage-based. As the name suggests, the charge is based on the usage of the SaaS product, which can be measured in various ways, such as the number of users, API calls, data storage, and so on.
- Flat-rate. This is fixed pricing (e.g.: monthly, quarterly, annually, etc.), enabling consistent usage and fees for the customer.
Step 4. Implement Metrics & KPIs
Once you have built your target audience, it is crucial to measure their engagement to further define the outcome of your campaign. The right metrics for you should be centered around your overall GTM marketing objective. An example of metrics are:
- Click-through rate (CTR)
- Conversion rate (CR)
- Website traffic.
Understanding the right metrics to use involves clear communication between yourself and your marketing and sales teams, and liaising with each other on how to meet your goals.
Step 5. Find the Right Distribution Channels to Market Your Product
The answer to this lies within your target audience and where they are most likely going to engage (for example, LinkedIn).
Depending on the channel/s you choose, you can communicate with your audience directly (e.g.: email marketing, paid advertising, etc.) or indirectly (App stores/online marketplaces, affiliate/influencer marketing, etc.).
The right channels depend on your audience, your goal, and your GTM strategy, so base your decision on this research – and leverage these channels to build a strong rapport with the lead.
Pro tip: Generally, pick the channels where you can get insights quickly. For example, paid advertising is great because you immediately gain insights since you are paying to be directly in front of your audience. Avoid going all-in on SEO for your go-to-market (GTM) strategy because it usually takes months to see the first results.
Step 6. Create Your Content
Now is the time to start building your campaign content (making sure it is in keeping with the specs of the chosen channel/s).
Chances are you’re using more than one platform, so you will need to create various versions of the campaign to fit each channel. Once launched, you will need to monitor your selected KPIs of each channel and optimize your campaign accordingly.
Also, if your campaign involves driving traffic to your website to be converted there, make sure your landing page is optimized, easy to navigate, and fast-loading. Creating an option for a user to submit a review is also wise to help future conversions.
All content should be created with your brand’s voice, mission, and overall goals in mind. Make sure images are crystal-clear and well-pixilated and all written content is reader-friendly and grammatically correct.
Pro tip: Targeted content using personalisation is great way to test different audience segmentation and buyer persona. Focus on benefits and create content depending on the pain points and funnel stage of your buyer persona.
6 – Things to Avoid With Your GTM Strategy
As well as following the above steps, make sure you avoid these potential GTM disasters:
- Failing to Define Your Target Audience
Your target audience needs to be meticulously curated and researched to ensure maximum ROI, and failure to do this will mean lucrative leads are missing out and the users who are seeing your content are not likely to find it beneficial.
Also, refer back to your buyer persona and don’t forsake the importance of personalization where applicable.
- Neglecting the Customer
Your ICP should remain at the forefront of every decision, optimization, and content creation. After all, the product is about them, not your brand (or not exclusively your brand), so keep their requirements and pain points in focus.
- Using More Than One Strategy
Sometimes less is more, as good marketing is about quality over quantity, so resist the urge to bamboozle your audience by advertising on every single channel. Stick to one or two options where your audience will most likely be and potentially hiring a specialized SaaS PPC agency to refine and optimize your paid search campaigns.
Pro tip: Don’t rush into the execution phase without getting a solid strategic plan and foundation first. We often favor action over planning which can lead to inefficient marketing actions. Always adapt and adjust your strategy depending on the market feedback.
Final Thoughts
A GTM strategy is ideal for SaaS brands who have been in the game for a while, as early-stage brands will find that GTM and marketing are the same concept. But don’t lose sight of the nuances between the two, as GTM is all about outlining the validity and authenticity of a product.
By differentiating marketing and GTM, you can refine your strategy to meet the goals of your product/service launch for optimum results – and by following these steps – and avoiding the potential mishaps – your GTM strategy is headed towards success in the form of new leads and a profitable ROI.
If you’d like to learn more about how we help B2B SaaS and Tech companies grow their MRR through paid advertising, contact us online or send us an email today at info@getuplead.com to speak with someone on our team.
You might also be interested:
