We’ve already covered some of the basics of what a go to market strategy is, and how you can prepare one for your own launch. Adding to this, go to market strategy examples help you to refine your own marketing strategy, whether you’re launching a new product, entering into an unfamiliar market, or re-launching a brand.
Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all GTM strategy. You can’t just download a template that tells you everything you need to do to succeed. Rather, it will depend on the product/ service/ solution you’re selling, the market you’re entering, and the specific details of your business.
We do have a handy Go To Market Checklist to help you produce you own GTM strategy.
All of this means that creating a strategy from scratch can be quite complex.
That said, you can learn from what other companies have done. To that end, we’ve collected five ingenious GTM strategy examples to inspire yours.
Read - What is the difference between a Go to Market Strategy and a Marketing Strategy?
Go to Market Strategy Examples and What You Can Learn from Them
Upscope
Screen sharing software company, Upscope, launched into an already fairly saturated market, with competition like TeamViewer. To help themselves stand out, their GTM strategy leveraged the use of live chat to target a new customer segment.
Unlike TeamViewer, Upscope focused on support staff, onboarding specialists, technical support, and customer success teams. They also focused on just one pain point: the hassle involved in setting up screen sharing. This allowed them to highlight the time-saving benefits of their own platform, allowing users to avoid written instructions and frustrating calls.
“Upscope is instant, no-download screen sharing for seeing the user’s screen in one click when they phone in or live chat with you. You can then use your mouse on their screen to click for that user.”
To target these specific buyer personas, they leveraged content marketing to drive traffic to their website, and partnered with existing live chat companies such Drift, Zendesk and LiveChat, to get themselves listed on their websites.
The Lesson: Partner with businesses who share complementary audiences and use their existing reach to boost awareness of your own brand.
Eight Sleep
Another GTM strategy example highlighting the importance of strategic partnerships. Smart mattress manufacturers, Eight Sleep, partnered with IFTTT (a free service which allows users to create conditional statements, integrating various apps) for the launch of a new feature of their existing product.
This feature allowed users to connect their mattress to their smart home system, enabling them to start their coffee maker, turn their lights on and off, activate bed warming and even lock their doors.
The partnership with IFTTT enabled users to perform these tasks from their smartphones or virtual assistant devices such as Alexa.
“We also worked closely with the IFTTT team on marketing strategy. We were included in their GIFTTT Guide, which drove an incremental 15,000 visitors to our service page and connections. More recently, we were included in the February IFTTT newsletter. It brought us a spike in traffic and doubled our sales for a period of 4 days.”
Their go to market strategies involved:
- Emails sent to their entire database, encouraging users to think about the possibilities
- Creation of a dedicated landing page, educating and informing users of the new feature
- Highlighting use cases and benefits on Facebook and Instagram
- Being featured in the IFTTT newsletter and guide
The Lesson: Alongside strategic partnerships for expanding your reach, leverage social media and your existing database. Focus on use cases to show exactly how users will benefit from your product or service.
VSCO
VSCO is a tool which allows users to capture and edit both photo and video. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the company launched a new tool, ‘Montage’, a multimedia creation tool designed for visual storytelling.
Their GTM strategy focused on the challenges people faced during the pandemic, with product messaging crafted to highlight how the product could help people connect in the age of social distancing.
In an email to their users, they said, “As the world slows down, we know that these times can be difficult and uncertain. And in a small way, we hope our community connects you with others around the world.”
They focused on an immediate problem and provided a solution.
The Lesson: Focus on the ways your product can solve your target market prospects’ pain points, needs and challenges.
FitBit
An American company which manufactures activity trackers, FitBit launched a new personal training app and premium service called Smart Coach, which integrated with the user’s existing FitBit. The objectives of the launch were simple: boost brand awareness and increase subscription revenue.
Their GTM strategy included:
- Leveraging their own channels as well as paid media such as display ads to reach their target audience - people who already owned a FitBit device.
- Making use of push notifications and emails to boost subscription rates.
The Lesson: When launching a new feature, leverage your existing audience.
TaxJar
TaxJar, a company which offers tax solutions to businesses, launched themselves as a technology company first, and a tax company second. Their primary goal was to improve on the products already available on the market.
“We looked at ourselves as a technology company, not so much as a tax company. That was a new approach to our space. We’ve let the customer be in the driver’s seat for the way the product has been built.”
Since much of the tax-related content available online was either difficult to understand, or extremely hard to find, they began publishing high-quality educational content designed to help their users understand sales tax. This allowed them to build credibility and the trust of their target customers and began driving new sales.
The Lesson: Identify gaps in the market through market research and design your plan to fill them.
Summary
Whilst every Go to Market strategy will differ, the above examples will hopefully provide sufficient ideas to get you started. If you feel you need help or guidance though, why not book a free session with one of our Go to Market experts.
