Simpler is almost always better. Many founders though can forget this truth and make things harder than they need to be. A lot is riding on your go-to-market strategy so it can feel like you need to make it more complicated than you do. Go-to-market strategies are about distribution. Here are the 3 components that make up that distribution.
1) Draw your customer’s world.
The first place to start is with your customer. You should have a fairly good understanding of who they are. Now you need to consider who or what they engage with and who or what engages with them daily. List out every person or organisation you can think of that interacts with your customer. This can include, friends, family, media, advertisers, events, retailers, almost anything, but keep it to things that you have a high degree of confidence that your customers interact with.
2) Consider the Relationships.
Think about the relationship that now exists between your customers and these entities and even between the entities themselves. Who is influencing who and how strong is that level of influence. Ultimately, what you are looking for is finding some key entities that are well-connected nodes within your customer’s world that you can target. Preferably, entities with a strong level of influence on your customers but also influence on other entities around your customer.
3) Incentivise key players in your customer’s world.
Finally, you want to capitalise on these entities and use them as the cornerstone of your go-to-market strategy. The way to do this is to offer them incentives. You can provide financial incentives in the form of commissions, fees or purchasing their service like Facebook ads. Your scaling efforts though will then be closely correlated to the amount of cash you spend.
An alternative is to provide non-financial incentives. Referral programs that give additional features or free access are a great option as people often refer to friends that trust them. In addition, lower-cost advertising options such as hosting events or giving out merchandise are great options. If, however, you have a compelling story to tell then PR could be a great option as it is one of the lowest-cost promotional channels.
TAKEAWAY: Understanding your customer’s world is a critical step when trying to sell and distribute a product to them. It helps to identify less conventional, less crowded, and lower-cost ways to reach out to them and encourage them to make a purchase. So, consider these steps when creating your go-to-market strategy.
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