By Emily Moore

In a world of fierce competition, young businesses need a clever startup strategy to get ahead of competitors; a Go-To-Market Strategy for Startups cuts away the middleman and lets a business approach the target market quickly and hassle-free.

Being a fledgling startup business in a world filled with bright young thinkers and overachievers isn’t an easy thing. No matter if you run a small flower shop or an aerospace business working on an Alpha rocket, young startups need both a good startup marketing strategy and a good startup sales strategy. It might seem intimidating at first, but let us explain.

The GTM strategy, or the Go-To-Market strategy, is a popular startup strategy plan that combines many aspects of traditional marketing and sales strategies into one neat bundle.

A good Go-To-Market strategy benefits a startup in many ways:

• Shifts focus on the best product your company has to offer;
• Locates an audience that will be interested in that product;
• Establishes clear goals within your company that are easy to follow.

But how do you build a successful startup business strategy? We’ve established six steps that will explain the process. Let’s get going!

Step 1: Research and understand your target audience

When you first establish your startup, it might seem tempting to target a product to as many people as possible. While the idea sounds solid at first, it might cause problems down the line. Trying to stretch out a startup idea to blanket many different demographics will not only weaken your brand strength, but it will come with hidden costs down the line.

For example, when Apple first came out with their original iPhone idea, they used clever marketing, targeting the youngest generation. A good startup branding strategy should do the same. Research your target demographic in-depth and understand their needs. Review your product and see if it can meet those needs. There are two ways of gathering this information:

• Maintain a social media presence
• Use online Questionnaires

Step 2: Define your product and brand

This step of establishing a good startup strategy is also one of the most time-consuming. As a startup owner, it requires you to evaluate the quality of your products, making sure that they have a proper voice. By a product voice, we mean: “Does my product fit in any demographic?”. It’s very rare that a startup will design a product first and then try to sell it to whoever is interested. Even larger companies such as Apple and Microsoft define their brand first and then manufacture something.

The goal of designing your product brand is to make sure that you are not wasting your time designing something that will not sell. Start by asking questions such as:

• “Who is this product for?”
• “How many people will buy this product?”
• “Is it truly necessary?”

Step 3: Establish a communication channel with your audience

Once you’ve worked out on understanding your target audience and your product, it’s time to build a good communication strategy. This step sets the foundation of startup marketing strategy ideas. Often, having a good communications relay will allow saving time and costs on reaching your audience.

There are many different ways to keep communications open with your audience:

• Facebook;
• Twitter;
• Discord;
• Blogs;
• Websites;
• SEO;
• Email marketing;
• Partnerships;
• Affiliate programs;

There is technically no bad way of reaching out. Depending on the type of product your startup offers, some communication strategies may be better suited than others.

Step 4: Choose a good marketing tactic for your product

Marketing should generate buzz surrounding your startup company or product launch. The marketing strategy for a startup should reflect the needs of your company and the ‘voice’ of your customers. To build a marketing tactic for your product, you should decide what kind of marketing you want. There are many kinds available to you, some already covered within Step 3.

• Email marketing;
• Social networks;
• Website ad-space;
• Traditional;

You can choose one or several of these marketing strategies based on your startup goals and needs. It’s worth mentioning that some marketing strategies cost more than others. Make sure you establish a good startup pricing strategy in the next step.

Step 5: Set a decent marketing budget

Once you’ve decided on the type of marketing plan, you need to work out exactly how much money you want to set aside. A good startup pricing strategy can make or break a business. Deciding on a good marketing strategy for your startup could cost you quite a lot, so you should be prepared with upfront and surprise costs along the way.

When establishing a marketing budget, it’s important to know your startup goals. The general ballpark number that you will need to set aside is at least a couple of grand.

Step 6: Keep testing and researching

Once you’ve set everything up, it’s important to continue re-evaluating your startup strategy and to stay in contact with your customers. Customer opinions and desires change daily, and to remain a successful business, you need to stay on top of things. Continue research into brand awareness, customer retention, and alternative marketing. Make sure to analyze thoroughly how successful your startup is regularly to maintain the cutting edge on future strategies.

Author Emily Moore :

Emily Moore is an English & programming teacher with a passion for space and blogging. She believes that current exploration should be focused on preserving our planet’s resources. With satellites circling the orbit, it is easier to get relevant data on any environmental changes. This, in turn, should help people quickly address any challenges.

NOTE: Images supplied by Author.