“Don’t find customers for your product. Find products for your customers.” – Seth Godin
Products fail, not necessarily because they are bad but because they aren’t backed by a strong go-to-market (GTM) strategy. GTM strategies have become important in a tech-savvy world as most businesses are competing for the same target customers.
There are more than 15,000 SaaS companies and your success would rest on the marketing strategy you adopt. According to Gartner, the SaaS market is expected to grow beyond $170 Billion in 2022. To stay ahead of the competition and leverage this opportunity, your brand needs to put your GTM strategy in the right order.
Let us discuss six tactics you can use to make your B2B go-to-market strategy more effective.
Start Early on Your Go-to-Market Strategy
Your go-to-market strategy shouldn’t be an afterthought but a part of your product development cycle. You should never end up with a product, not knowing how and whom to sell it! It is important to integrate the marketing plan with your product development strategy. Starting early on your GTM strategy ensures several benefits, such as You can leverage market research, data, and the metrics that would go into product development. Work on different buyer personas to understand your target customers better. Learn about their pain points and prepare a successful sales pitch that addresses those pain points. Market your Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to limited users and generate their feedback to understand the market better and improve your product. Generate leads while working on the product; this would help you find a ready market when your SaaS product is ready for launch.
Don’t Fall for Product-Market Fit
Marketing a B2B SaaS product is different from selling a consumer product. First, you aren’t selling tangible goods or services and secondly, you aren’t selling it to an individual but rather, a buying committee. Hence, the old-school Product-Market fit principle doesn’t apply in your case, and neither should you bank on it to work wonders. It is the opposite for SaaS companies where the focus is on achieving a Market-Product Fit. The goal here is to identify a problem and solve it. Your go-to-market strategy should also be on the same line. You must sell something the benefits of which can be experienced rather than explained in terms of specs and features. Thus, your marketers need to work on a core strategy that focuses on the problem-solving aspects of your product. Your sales pitch should highlight the problem and showcase the solution.
Target Different Buyer Personas
Selling B2B SaaS products isn’t the easiest of jobs on the planet. As several studies on B2B buying journeys have shown, your marketing team should be prepared to identify and target different buyer personas. Depending on their job titles and roles in an organization, your marketing team would have to deal with the following personas (at times the same person wearing different personas in different roles). Initiator – Typically a junior-level executive in an organization who shows an early interest in your product. Influencer – A person having considerable influence over others in the organization and can convince the team and decision-makers. Gatekeeper – The most dangerous person in the organization who doesn’t like change and can block your product from getting sold. Approver – A senior-level executive who initiates discussion on your product on a big scale and can turn things in your favor. Decision-maker – The person who gives the final go-ahead and signs the dotted lines. It is important to research your prospective clients to understand their personas. Your marketing team should have detailed knowledge of the person, their roles, objectives, and what motivates them to strike the deal.
Identify Marketing Channels and Test Your Messaging
Before starting a massive GTM campaign, you must test the waters. Irrespective of the time, passion, and creativity your team invests in refining the campaign, it can fall flat. Hence, it is important to test your messaging before starting your all-out campaign. In this process, you must gather valuable data on three important variables—channel, audience, and messaging. Have you picked the right channel for your marketing campaign? Facebook might offer you the highest exposure, but does it offer more engagement than Twitter and LinkedIn.
Are you reaching out to your intended audience?
Poor targeting often results in B2B campaigns reaching out to non-targeted groups.
Is your message resonating with the audience? Is it generating curiosity in their minds about your product? Try different messages and targeting measures in your test campaign and analyze the KPIs. This would help you advertise on the channels that offer maximum engagement, reach the right audience, and deliver a message that convinces the audience to buy the product.
Target Low-Hanging Fruits
Targeting a big enterprise might sound lucrative. You can get hundreds of users to use your product and it promises a good revenue stream immediately. But big enterprises have a long and complicated sales process. You shall have to deal with a long hierarchy of decision-makers which can be overwhelming for startups. Big enterprises are usually risk-averse and don’t go for untested products. Instead, reach out to small businesses and startups that are more likely to opt for a new solution. The goal should be to get early adopters on board and improve the product based on the problems they face. Build your reputation before targeting bigger companies.
Study Competitors and Beat Them
Your GTM strategy doesn’t work in a vacuum. Success often rests on what your competitors are doing and how your strategies fare against the competition. It is important to keep an eye on the marketing strategy that your competitors use.
Carry out a SWOT analysis on their campaign and take note of the channels they are using and the kind of messaging strategy they have adopted. Having a fair idea about your competition would help you match up to their strengths and exploit the weaknesses in their strategy.
Wrapping Up Working on a GTM strategy is a challenge, more so in the case of B2B SaaS products. Applying the tactics we have discussed above will help you develop a tailored go-to-market strategy that helps generate maximum interaction with your target audience. Your goal should be to find a strong foothold that paves the way for ultimate victory in a competitive environment.
If you want a winning go-to-market strategy for your SaaS business, Growth Natives’ team of dynamic designers and marketers is experienced in delivering unmatched results for your marketing campaigns.
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