What I put into the Go-To-Market Strategy
When I first started as a social media marketer, I prided myself on my research and ability to understand the needs of my communities. Even now, research is some of my favourite tasks because it involves learning and understanding a new perspective.
This is where a Go-To-Market strategy comes in because we wouldn’t want to put all that good research to waste. Whether you’re launching a new product or service, you need a Go-To-Market strategy, as it gives you a full breakdown of your company, industry, competitors, community... Everything.
Many social media marketers actually implement many pieces of a go-to-market strategy into their social media strategy, which isn’t a bad thing. But it can definitely confuse your clients as to why certain things are in there.
Properly separating these things allows us to be more objective, more transparent, and give our clients more actionable information. Ultimately, giving our clients more actionable information about what and why we’re doing the things we’re doing is going to create that trust and expertise.
Here are 4 sections of the Go-To-Market Strategy that I add and why I add them:
SWOT Analysis
This is honestly, probably either the most important or the second most important section to add to your Go-To-Market Strategy. I’ve seen good SWOT’s and I’ve seen some bad ones. The hardest part about building a SWOT is it requires you (the marketer) to be extremely objective and have a deep understanding of the industry you’re writing about.
If you’re the owner of the company or you’re very close to the product (it’s something really personal to you), you might consider someone doing this work for you. Even though you as the business owner have extensive experience and knowledge in the industry, you might not be able to see the holes that exist in your own company. The SWOT analysis is meant to help you look at everything from all angles so you understand how you will be moving forward with your efforts.
Brand Persona, ICA (Ideal Client Avatar), Buyer’s Persona, etc.
(They literally mean all the same thing y’all)
This is my favourite section to build and every client looks very different from each other, even if they are in the same industry. Other than the SWOT analysis this is probably the section that I take the most time with, as I scour the internet, talk to industry professionals, and ask community members all kinds of questions. I’ll even go as far as put up a google survey if it’s a huge industry (ie hotels/travel, restaurants, breweries).
Due to the extended amount of time I take putting together Brand Personas, I tend to start it as soon as I sign on a client. The building that centralized market research also enables me to create a better SWOT analysis, however, I make sure that I put together the sections on different days. Brand Persona’s are built from more of an emotional point of view, while SWOT’s require you to be completely objective.
Voicemapping
Voice maps are meant to specifically convey what tone to use, when to use it (what content it goes on), and who it’s for. This is a guide, that will help them understand when it’s time to switch on different parts of who they are as a business.
When I first started building this section for my clients, I found more success in conveying tone and usage. I found when I was prescribing specific words for my clients to use, they would be completely and totally stuck on them. You would see it throughout ALL their copywriting to the point where it didn’t even sound like them anymore. Guides are meant to be guides, and people’s (and communities') language will change and develop over time. Giving them a guide is easier than changing an entire section every few months.
Quarterly Roadmap
It’s all well and good to give client’s a strategy, but they need to see where they are also going. Seeing the action plan put a lot of different work into perspective. When I’m doing these for a done-with-you client, I know it’s one of the most important pieces to show and go through. Doing everything all at once is overwhelming, exhausting, and more likely to lead to burnout faster. Showing the long and short-term goals within the roadmap are meant to build confidence within them.
Something I always say with the quarterly roadmap is that it’s unlikely to come out absolutely perfectly, as we cannot see the unexpected, we can be prepared for it, but life happens and you will need to be adaptable to the changes. What is even more important is to journal where things broke down, and what to change the next time.
A Go-To-Market Strategy is meant to answer the “who, why, and what” portions of your marketing strategy. While there are parts of “how” to add a clearer overview of the business’s marketing, it is meant to be a helpful manual for the business and how it functions.
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