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You’ve spent 18+ months in developing the best new product. This product is so great that you know everyone will benefit from it. Now its time to ship. You have invested in product development, sales and distribution channels, SEO and advertising and you are ready to sit back and watch the sales skyrocket. After months of waiting, the breakthrough never comes. Why? What could you have done differently? And what should you do now?
Creating a winning Go-To-Market strategy is always step one in any successful market entry. Learn how to construct the ideal framework for your next product launch and ensure market success for all future developments in your company.
Hitting the bullseye
All great Go-To-Market strategies begin with a defined target market. The key is to focus on one segment. Start by considering all potential market segments and weighing them out. Be specific and take existing competitors into consideration.
Once you have identified the target group with the biggest potential, focus all your efforts in creating the best product for that group. Even if you think you know them well, invest in research and testing in order to observe their unique behaviours and learn about their specific needs.
Create personas to get even higher internal focus, so your employees know exactly who they are creating and designing for. These steps are key for developing a winning Go-To-Market strategy and ultimately lead to market success both in the short run and long run.
The secret of a successful framework for Go-To-Market strategy
The framework for Go-To-Market varies greatly from situation to situation. In order to find the best approach for you, your primary focus must be the customer. Many companies get lost in chasing their competitors. Unfortunately for them, by following, one can never lead. In order to become a market leader, you should always put the customer first.
Another mistake a lot of companies make is that they assume in what way their product will be used. When creating your unique value proposition, let the customer tell you on the who, the why and the how part. Observe their behaviour. Don’t get tied with your initial vision. Adapt and succeed.
How to create an irresistible offer?
The most difficult part of winning go-to-market strategy is the product launch. There are endless lists for product launch ideas and tactics, but choosing the right one can appear quite daunting. No one knows exactly how the market will react, and that is what creates the pressure when its time to ship.
In order to raise the likelihood of success, the focus should always, first and foremost, on the customers. One of the best ways to create a solid market entry strategy is to base it on a lot of research and knowledge of the market. However, another key is to not stress too much – success might not be achieved the first time and you can always adapt and try a different approach.
Product launch success stories
For some additional inspiration, here are some examples of a very successful product launch campaigns that focused on listening to the customer and adapting accordingly:
1.The very popular Worldwide Developers Conference created by Apple to debut their new products, a great example of building anticipation, hype and exclusivity.
2. Tim Ferris, a famous author and entrepreneur, when launching his worldwide bestseller “The 4-Hour-Work-Week”, originally published online under 4 different titles, and chose the make stick the one that appealed most to his consumers.
3. The popular healthy breakfast biscuits belVita, when launching a new flavour in Brazil, used YouTube as the advertising platform. Early on through testing, they noticed that the viewers paid most attention to the first 5 seconds of the add. They even skipped less when the brand and the packaging were shown before the SKIP button appeared. So they did just that and the launch was a major success.
4. One of the most successful launch campaigns ever was that of Windows 7. People even hosted at home parties with friends and family on the day of the launch. Windows achieved this by taking the “ask your customer what he/she wants” literally, and based the whole campaign on the consumers and their participation in the design.
5. Pivara Skopje, the biggest beer producer in Macedonia noticed that the younger generations weren’t too keen on the strong flavour of their classic Skopsko beer. So they created a new flavour named Skopsko Smooth and launched it with a massive campaign that focused on values their target group cared about, like individuality and self-expression. Their approach proved to be a major success.
Ideal Go-To-Market strategy
Global competition raises the stakes and customers constantly expecting more innovative, creative and just all-around great products and advertising campaigns. This is why your Go-To-Market strategy is going to be absolutely essential in your next product launch.
The task of building your unique framework requires a lot of effort and expertise. But worry not if you don’t think your company has the capacity and insights to handle it alone. Even if you have the capacity, it never hurts to involve another perspective. In fact, this is exactly what the most successful companies do, to ensure their product succeeds on the market.