PPC
What Is a Go-To-Market Strategy? 9 Steps to Build Your Own (with Examples)
To successfully launch a new product, service, or business, you need a go-to-market strategy. Without a go-to-market strategy, running your business will be like driving in the dark without headlights. You might end up at your destination, but it’ll probably take longer than it should and you’ll be much more likely to run into problems along the way.
What it’s like launching a new product or service without a go-to-market strategy.
And that’s because the success of your business or new product launch requires planning. It’s not just about the product, the story, or even the team behind it all. It’s about how you’ll promote that product and to whom.
Because it won’t matter how great what you offer is if the right people never hear about it.
But what is a go-to-market strategy, who needs one, and how do you get started? We’ll cover everything you need to know about building a successful go-to-market strategy in this post.
Table of contents
- What is a go-to-market strategy?
- Benefits of a go-to-market strategy
- Who needs a go-to-market strategy?
- The components of a go-to-market strategy
- Steps to build a go-to-market strategy
- Go-to-market strategy examples
- Go-to-market strategy template
- Go-to-market strategy FAQs
What is a go-to-market strategy?
A go-to-market strategy is a framework for how you will sell your products or services.
It helps you understand what you need to do in order to make money off of your idea, and it guides you through the process of getting your product into the hands of customers.
It’s essential.
Why? Because when you’re launching something new, there aren’t yet customers with loyalty to your brand or reasons to buy what you’re selling.
A go-to-market strategy is the plan to get people both aware of and excited about your idea, enough that they’ll want to pay for it.
The problem with most companies’ go-to-market strategy is that they often believe that because their product is so great, there’s no way it won’t succeed. They don’t take into account their ideal target audience, their competitors, and their own abilities to deliver at scale.
The result? Either heartbreak and disappointment or a lot of wasted time and money thrown at the wrong things while hoping to get lucky.
Benefits of a go-to-market strategy
The most important benefit of a solid go-to-market plan is that it helps you grow your business. A well-executed go-to-market strategy…
1. Shortens the amount of time it takes to get to market
The sooner you get to market, the sooner you can start making money. Likewise, if you can’t get to market quickly, you may not be able to get there at all.
A go-to-market strategy helps you expedite the time to market by prioritizing the tasks needed to launch your idea.
2. Helps ensure that your product launches are successful
Go-to-market strategies provide a roadmap for the team members involved to follow. This ensures that all parties are working toward the same goal and are on the same page regarding timelines, goals, and resources.
It allows for regular checkpoints where you can evaluate your progress against the plan and make adjustments as needed before it’s too late (e.g., before launch).
You don’t want to announce a new product or feature without a plan and the right resources in place. A good go-to-market strategy is one of the best ways to ensure that you get the most out of your launch.
A well-executed strategy considers how you’ll bring your product to market, including how you’ll price it, who will sell it, and how you’ll advertise it. It helps you understand what comes first, second, and last. Should you spend time building awareness before selling? Or should you focus on getting a few critical people to buy, then worry about building larger awareness later?
Some companies take a linear approach–they start by building awareness and then move on to sales–while others take an iterative approach–selling first and building awareness later. The right way depends on your business model and goals for the product itself.
3. Helps companies adapt to change
In a world where consumers are more likely distracted than engaged, a go-to-market strategy can help companies adapt to inevitable change.
A GTM strategy can help you achieve your goals in a way that’s flexible enough to adapt to trends in the marketplace and disruptions in both the economy and the outside world. It can also help you execute your vision on a day-to-day basis.
If you don’t have an effective GTM strategy, then it will be difficult for you to respond effectively when things happen outside of your control.
For example, if you’re not prepared for a disruption in the economy or for a new competitor entering the marketplace, then it will be difficult for you to respond quickly.
A good go-to-market strategy can give you time to react and adapt when these things happen because you’ve prepared and had a plan for when these types of things would inevitably happen.
4. Reduces the likelihood of expensive product launch failures
In going through the process of preparing your go-to-market strategy, companies have ostensibly planned for everything, including the worst that could happen: failure.
The product launch is the most important part of any business. It’s where you prove to the world that what you’ve been working on is actually worth paying for.
It’s also where some companies fall flat on their faces. It happens all too often: a company spends months or even years developing their product, they finally get it out into the market, and…nothing happens.
Coca-Cola could have used a different go-to-market strategy approach before launching New Coke.
The reasons for this are many but one of the biggest is a poorly planned go-to-market strategy. This can mean anything from not knowing how to reach potential customers to not having enough capital to market the product properly.
In short, if there’s no strategy in place, then there’s no way for people outside your company to know about it–and without that knowledge, they won’t buy it.
Because you’ve prepared for the worst, you’ve likely reduced the likelihood of it happening. And if things do start to turn south, you’ll have a plan for how to pivot and reduce the damage.
5. Makes managing challenges less stressful
Let’s face it, life is filled with challenges. As a business owner, you’re not immune to them. But if you’ve done your homework and prepared for every possible scenario, you’ll be able to adapt quickly no matter what comes your way.
Preparing for every possible challenge involves understanding your customer, your market, and what you’re selling. If you know these things well enough, you’ll be able to anticipate and respond to challenges before they become a problem for your business.
When prepared, challenges simply become pivots you were prepared to make.
Rather than feeling the stress of not knowing what to do, you’ll have a plan B ready to be put into action.
6. Provides a better customer experience
The customer experience has become a top priority for most organizations. Why? Because it’s the only way to achieve long-term success. It’s not enough to have a great product anymore; you have to offer an overall experience that is as positive as possible.
To do this, you need to focus on how your company interacts with its customers–from the moment they start their journey with your brand until they’ve been using it for some time, and even after that.
A go-to-market strategy is designed to ensure that you’re covering all the bases when it comes to providing this kind of experience.
7. Streamlines regulatory compliance
A go-to-market strategy allows businesses to streamline regulatory compliance by ensuring that all aspects of the product or service comply with laws and regulations.
They also help companies protect their intellectual property rights. This can be especially important for software companies that rely on software patents to protect their brand from competitors who try to copy their product designs or functionality.
When do you need a go-to-market strategy?
Anyone who finds themselves in the following situations needs a GTM strategy:
1. Launching a new product in an existing market
Many companies launch a new product in an existing market. But they don’t always have a go-to-market strategy.
When entering an existing market, you’ll need to describe how you will communicate with your target audience and what you will say to persuade them to buy your product or service instead of your competitors.
An example of this would be to create something people already know well while attempting to compete with brands they have known and loved for years.
This gluten-free bakery launched build-your-own gluten-free pizzas.
It’s the equivalent of creating a new brand of tennis shoes or jeans. You’ll be entering an existing market and need to convince buyers why you’re worth taking a chance on.
When creating a go-to-market strategy for your new product, it’s important to consider who your target audience is, what they value, and what motivates them. You should also think about the competition and how they are marketing their products or services.
It’s also important to consider how you can differentiate yourself from other companies that are already in the market with competing products or services.
2. Launching an existing product in a new market
Continuing with the tennis shoes or jeans example: say you’re trying to introduce your tennis shoes or jeans to a country that doesn’t currently wear tennis shoes or jeans. What’s your plan to introduce these to them and convince them they are worth spending their money on?
The most important thing to remember is that your target audience will be different from your home market. You need to understand their needs and how you can meet those needs better than your competitors.
To do this, you need to conduct research and find out what’s working and what’s not working in the new market.
This can be done by using surveys, focus groups, or interviews with potential customers. It’s also important to understand what marketing channels are available for this market (e.g., social media platforms) and how they can be used to reach these customers.
Find out the best customer feedback questions to include when you collect feedback.
3. Testing a new product’s market for growth
You can’t just take your product and throw it out into the world, hoping that people will buy it. You need to have a plan for how you’re going to get it into their hands.
There’s no one way to do this, but here are some things you should consider:
- Who are your target customers? Think about who will use your product or service and what they’re looking for when they buy it.
- What do they need? How will you reach them? Does your product solve their problem? How can you get them excited about what you have to offer? If not, how can you make them realize how much they need it?
- What channels will work best for reaching your target customers? Think about where they get their information from–online blogs and podcasts, TV commercials, social media influencers–and figure out which ones would be most effective for reaching them.
- How much does it cost to reach each channel? Each channel has a different advertising price and audience size, so figure out which are the most cost-effective and valuable to be focusing your efforts on.
This makeup brand launched limited-edition hoodies and partnered with music superstar Kacey Musgraves to get the word out.
In the end, don’t be afraid to admit that you’ve run the numbers, and if it doesn’t make sense, don’t push forward.
The components of a go-to-market strategy
By now you understand exactly what a go-to-market strategy is, what types of businesses need them, and why they are necessary. Now we’re getting into the details of exactly how to build one.
The best way to build your go-to-market strategy will always be a combination of factors including:
- Your product
- Your target customer
- Your market size
- The competition within that market
Now let’s walk through the steps you need to take to build an effective go-to-market strategy.
9 steps to build a go-to-market strategy
As a business owner, you’re probably used to thinking about the product or service you offer. But to be successful, you need to think about how people will buy your product and what they’ll do with it after they purchase.
The “how” is your go-to-market strategy–a plan for how you’ll reach your customers and sell them on your product or service. It’s about understanding who your target customer is and what motivates them to buy from you rather than your competitors.
You don’t inherently need to create a formal document describing every step of your go-to-market strategy; in fact, doing so can be counterproductive because it can make it difficult to adapt as needed.
Instead, you could focus on creating an overall approach that gives everyone involved in your company a shared sense of direction and purpose–and then build out those details over time.
Here are some tips for creating an effective go-to-market strategy:
Step 1: Identify the problem you’re solving
If you want to build a great product and have it succeed, you need to know the problem you are solving.
A great product solves a specific problem.
For example:
- Match.com simplifies dating by providing a database of potential suitors and their information.
- Evernote helps you remember things by allowing you to save notes, photos, and other information in one place.
- Airbnb offers an alternative to staying in hotels, letting users rent out their homes to travelers.
- StitchFix allows customers to order curated clothing subscription boxes and returns what they don’t want.
Each of those products has a unique value proposition. They address the pain points of their customers in different ways. This concept (product-market fit) is the degree to which a product satisfies strong market demand.
If you don’t have product-market fit, it’s as if you’re trying to start a football team with no players, no field, and no coach.
Perhaps most importantly: when those products were launched, there was no competition–the market was not yet saturated.
You don’t want to build something that will help people accomplish what they already do easily. You want to solve a problem that’s hard, annoying, or painful.
Identifying the problem isn’t always easy, but it’s critical to building a successful product launch strategy.
Step 2: Define your target audience
In order to have a successful GTM launch, you must clearly understand your target audience and ask yourself the following three questions:
- Who needs your product enough to pay for a solution?
- What specific frustrations do your customers experience that your product can solve?
- How much is your audience willing to pay to be free of the problem?
You could also consider who might be interested in your product but not yet ready to buy. These are typically prospects that are further along in their buying process than those who will immediately purchase but still need more convincing. You can use this information to create marketing campaigns that target these prospects.
There are two common ways to define a business’ target market: The first is by creating an ideal customer profile (ICP), and the second is by creating buyer personas.
Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)
The Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is a hugely important piece of your go-to-market strategy. It’s how you’ll identify your target customer, understand their needs, and find opportunities to reach them.
The ICP approach helps define your “ideal” customer–someone who is experiencing the frustrations your product solves and is in need of purchasing a solution.
It’s important that the ICP is not only already aware of the problem and looking for a solution, but can also buy your product.
To establish an ideal customer profile, consider the following:
Industry
If you’re selling to businesses, a good way of handling this is to identify the entire industry you’re targeting. For example, if your product is a small business accounting software, it would make sense to target any company that falls under the umbrella of accounting and finance. This could include banks, financial advisors, accountants and bookkeepers, lawyers, and so on.
If you only sell to one branch of an industry (e.g., construction companies), then your ideal customer profile will be quite specific. However, if you want to sell to multiple branches of an industry (e.g., construction and architecture), then your ideal customer profile needs to be more general and flexible.
The most important thing is that your ideal customer profile reflects the reality of who is actually buying your products or services, rather than who you would like them to be!
Demographic
If you’re selling to individuals, define specific demographics your ideal customer falls within.
Demographics are a great way to start building your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). It’s important to understand that there are many different ways you can define a demographic, but the most popular are gender, age, and income.
For example: If you were selling children’s clothing, your demographic would-be parents with children between the ages of 0-12 months. If you were selling adult clothing, your demographic would be adults between the ages of 25-65 years old.
Demographics are typically used by companies that sell goods or services directly to consumers. However, if you sell to businesses, then some of these same rules will apply.
If you were selling software for businesses; in this case, the demographics might be small business owners with less than 20 employees who operate in an industry that uses computers as part of their daily operations (e.g., retail stores or restaurants).
Geography
Where do your ideal customers live? Your answer will determine where you advertise, how you promote your products, the amount of traffic you should expect to receive, and perhaps even the manner in which you present your business.
If they’re all over the country but most of them reside in New York City or San Francisco, it might be worthwhile to spend more time and money on those cities’ local publications and communities than on national publications.
Geography can also be used as a tool to segment your customer base and identify which groups are most likely to purchase from you. This can be done by analyzing where they live or work (or both).
Size
This is a tactic mostly employed by B2B companies. It’s where you consider the size of the businesses you’re targeting—for example, you may market your product only to businesses with less than 10 employees, or more than 100.
You can also consider how much money these businesses have to spend on your product. This is often referred to as “buying power” and it can be broken down into different areas: revenue, headcount, average revenue per employee (ARPE), etc.
Once you’ve determined what size of the company will be most likely to buy from you, then it’s time to plan how those companies will be found and reachable by potential customers.
Budget
Before you set your price, consider how much your customers have to spend on your product. It influences people’s perception of what you offer and how much they’re willing to pay for it, so it should impact both price and marketing strategy.
A high-end product can command a higher price tag because it implies quality and exclusivity. A low-end product may benefit from being priced lower than competitors or even free so that customers see value in using the service or product over existing alternatives.
When deciding on a pricing strategy, you also need to consider how your product compares with alternatives. If there are no direct competitors, then you can set prices however high or low you want–but if there are similar products available elsewhere at similar prices, then you need to make sure that yours offers something different enough that makes it worth paying extra for.
Decision-making factors
What outside factors influence their purchase decision, and how can you take advantage of them to generate more sales? Do they rely on referrals? Do they need to get approval from a superior before they pull the trigger? Do they read reviews before deciding whether to buy?
When you know what matters most to your customer, you can tailor your marketing strategy accordingly. For example, if you know that people trust recommendations from friends and family members more than anything else, then give them more opportunities to share on social media and leave reviews.
Here are some of the most common factors that influence customer purchasing decisions:
- Price. The price is an obvious consideration for any potential buyer. If you can’t offer something at a competitive price, expect your sales numbers to suffer.
- Features. Features are another important consideration for buyers — especially when buying technology products and services. If you can offer more features than your competitors, then you’ll likely be able to win over more customers.
- Quality. Quality is also very important when it comes to buying products and services — especially when there’s no significant price difference between similar items. Your goal should be to offer quality products at reasonable prices so that people will choose yours over competing alternatives based on quality alone (if possible).
- Ease of use. Most buyers prefer products that are easy to use or have intuitive interfaces because these qualities make the product easier to say yes to.
You need to know these things so that when it comes time to make a sale, you know what works best with your customers. There are many ways to reach out to potential buyers: email, social media, in person, over the phone, etc.
The key is figuring out what makes sense for your business and your customers.
Pain points
The first step in the go-to-market strategy is identifying the pain points of your customer.
The best way to do this is to speak with a few customers and ask them questions about their problems and frustrations.
Here are some examples:
- “What specific frustrations does your ideal customer have when it comes to accounting?”
- “What solutions have they tried that haven’t worked?”
The answers you get will give you insight into what kind of product or service you should develop, who it should be marketed toward and how much they’ll pay for it.
Preferred media
To be successful, you must identify the channels your target audience uses, and then determine how to reach them there.
If your product or service is for consumers, take a moment to look at their daily lives. How do they consume information? What do they like to read? What do they like to watch? What websites do they visit? Are there any blogs or social media channels or online communities that could help you reach them?
If you want to sell in B2B markets, think about how your product can be used by businesses. How does it fit into their workflow? Is there a specific industry or vertical where it makes sense for you to focus first?
The best way to find out is by asking your customers. You can do this in a number of ways:
- Customer interviews
- Surveys
- Focus groups
- Social media analysis
- Customer journey mapping (This is especially helpful if you already have an existing customer base)
You can use this customer journey map template to help.
Buyer personas
Not all members of your audience are the same. Each person has their own unique set of problems, values, and goals. Creating buyer personas is a great way to humanize your customers, so you can better visualize who they are and what they need.
Remember, you’re selling to real people–not just statistics. Creating multiple customer personas helps you understand your target audience on a more personal level.
Here’s an example of a buyer persona for a SaaS company that sells off-the-beaten-path traveling tips to adventurous wanderers:
Persona: “The Sophisticated Traveler”
Description
“This person is a frequent traveler who has been to multiple countries, most of which have been in Europe or Asia. They’ve also visited all 50 states in the United States and know their way around some major cities in America.
They love learning about different cultures and ways of life, but they don’t have time to research every new place they visit. They want to know what’s interesting in each area before they get there, so they can make the most of their time while on vacation.
This person would prefer an app that can be downloaded onto their smartphone or tablet device instead of having to open up a website every time they enter a new location—they’d rather just use their phone as another tool for exploring wherever they happen to be staying at that moment.”
Notice how this example doesn’t treat their buyer like a number? You can (and should) imagine that this is a real human being with values and emotions and things they care about unique to their personality.
Here’s another example of a buyer persona (in a more visual format).
Aim for that level of depth as much as possible and you’ll be rewarded.
Step 3: Evaluate your competitors
Now that you’ve identified the problem you are solving and the target audience that you are solving the problem for, the next step is to evaluate your competition.
The goal here is not to create a long list of competitors, but rather to narrow it down to a handful of players that make up your competitive landscape.
If you’re building an entirely new product or service, then this will be easy (ie. if you’re the only one offering this, you have no competition). However, if you’re trying to improve upon an existing market, then this process can be more complicated.
The key is to think like a buyer and evaluate the product or service from their perspective. Are there any obvious gaps in what they offer? How could they make their solution better?
Once you have your list of competitors, it’s time to do some more digging into each one by answering these questions:
- Who are they?
- What do they do well?
- Where do they have opportunities for improvement?
- What makes them better than me?
- What makes them worse than me?
By answering these questions about your competitors, you are conducting what is called competitive analysis.
A competitive analysis is a process of determining your competitor’s strategies, strengths, and weaknesses. It can be either a formal process or informal, but the point is that it’s designed to help you understand your market and the best way to approach it.
A SWOT analysis is helpful in this scenario.
Note: It’s important to understand how a competitive analysis is different from market research. Whereas market research focuses on what your customers want, a competitive analysis focuses on what your competitors specifically are doing.
In other words, market research provides insights into trends and customer needs, while competitive analysis provides insights into how your competitors are addressing those needs.
Step 4: Evaluate the market
If you’re working on a new product or service, don’t even think about going to market until you have the answer to the question, “is anyone actually going to buy this?”
Most of us start a business because we have a great idea, but that’s not enough to guarantee that you’ll succeed. One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is to blindly launch a product or service without doing their homework on whether there’s demand for it.
That can mean having an idea and building it, even though no one will buy it. Or it can mean creating a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist in the marketplace.
Before you invest money in bringing your product or service to market, do the research needed to be sure that there’s enough demand for it and that there isn’t too much competition from other solutions or alternatives.
You may find that there isn’t enough demand for your product or service in your region, country, or even the world at large. Perhaps more important than how much demand there is, though, is how much of the market share you could feasibly capture.
Before you invest in bringing your product or service to market, you need to make sure that there is enough demand and not too much competition.
Investigating demand for your products or services requires planning and research, so it could take some time and energy, but it’s worth the extra effort to ensure that there’s a good chance you’ll succeed before investing even more into something that might be at high risk of failure.
Step 5: Decide on messaging
The next step is to determine how you’re going to tell your customers how great your product is. It’s best to use a different message for each buyer persona, so you can address their unique needs, values, and frustrations.
For example, imagine you’re building a new set of kitchen knives.
You could have four personas: home cooks who are trying to cook healthy meals for their families; professional chefs who want to make sure their knives are sharp enough for restaurant-quality cooking; professional chefs who are looking for an edge over other chefs in competitions; and home cooks who love cooking but aren’t as skilled as they’d like to be.
Each persona has different needs–they might all want sharp knives, but some will want them because they’re afraid of cutting themselves while others are concerned about optimal performance.
Once we’ve broken down those needs, we can go further into identifying what pain points each persona experiences around them…and build out our messaging tailored to each.
A message map can help you organize your proof points and best communicate with your audience.
Step 6: Plan out your buyer’s journey
Now that you’ve identified your buyer personas and messaging, you can map the journey customers take from realizing their problem to buying your solution.
Determining the path your buyers take through the buyer’s journey is a crucial part of content marketing because it helps you create messages that are relevant and timely to customers.
The buyer’s journey is often depicted as a funnel broken into three sections:
- The Top of the Funnel is where you attract prospective customers. This may include advertising on social media or search engines or sending emails to people who have signed up for your newsletter.
- Middle of Funnel refers to things like customer surveys, content upgrades or other ways to warm up potential customers so they’re more likely to buy from you later on down the line. The goal is to get them talking about your brand with others, which will help build your authority as an expert in your field.
- Bottom of Funnel is where you convert those warm leads into paying customers by offering an incentive like a discount code or free shipping if they buy now.
Step 7: Decide your marketing channels
Marketing channels are the different places you post content, like social media, blogs, and email, to create buzz, generate demand, and move customers down your marketing funnel.
The problem is that there is no one-size-fits-all marketing channel.
The best channels for you depend on who you’re trying to reach, what message you want to send, and what type of business you run.
Here are two tips to consider when deciding which marketing channel to use:
- Align your channels to your target audience’s needs and behaviors. You’ll want to make sure the marketing channels you choose to align with how your target audience consumes content.
- Use different channels depending on which part of the funnel your audience is in. Customers in different stages of the marketing funnel can be moved to the next stage by different types of content, found in different areas based on how they use technology.
(This is why knowing your customer is so important!)
Step 8: Create content to get customers interested
Inbound leads are more likely to become customers than outbound leads because inbound leads are already partially educated about your product, aware of its benefits, and interested in buying.
Content marketing is the concept of creating “content” that meets your customers in the appropriate state of the funnel they are in, and then getting it in front of them to begin considering purchasing your products and services.
The name of the game is creating content that targets keywords (aka, what people type into a search engine). That keyword-rich content then ranks on Google and drives traffic to your website, which then allows customers to find you and buy your products and services.
In other words, you’re creating content that addresses not only what your business does but also what it can do for your target audience.
As you come up with ideas for your content strategy, think about what your readers want to know about your company or industry and how you can deliver that information to them in a way that makes their lives easier.
Content marketing works because it’s authentic and relevant to people’s lives. It’s not salesy or pushy–it’s useful. People are more likely to share things they find useful than things they find boring or annoying. This means that when you create good content, people will want to share it with their friends, family members, or colleagues.
If your business solves a problem (which it should), then simply write articles, post social media content or share videos that educate your audience on those problems and why your business is the solution they need.
Continue to create and distribute your work to get it in front of the most amount of people possible to start the process of getting inbound leads to contact you about purchases and business inquiries.
Step 9: Create repeatable processes and optimize as you go
It’s one thing to have a plan, but it’s another to continue to execute it forever onward and show up consistently even when you might not feel like it. For this reason, it’s imperative to have replicable processes that you can not only follow yourself but share with your team and train others to follow as well.
Here are two ways to create content with repeatable processes:
1. Create a content calendar
A calendar can be anything from a simple Google spreadsheet with dates and topics listed down a column to an elaborate Trello board that keeps track of everything in real-time.
The goal is to create a system that allows you to plan out every piece of content you want to publish each month or quarter so that when it comes time for the big day (or days), you and your team know exactly what needs doing and when.
2. Outline your content in advance
Outlining forces you to think through your ideas before writing them down and makes the creation process so much simpler once you get started. It helps to eliminate writer’s block because before you get started, you know exactly what points you need to discuss.
Here’s how to create a simple outline:
- Start with an idea for a topic or theme that you want to write about
- Brainstorm as many related topics as possible (what else can be said about this subject? What other angles can be explored?)
- Think about what points you’ll need to make in order to develop those themes (what is the point of view I want to take on these ideas?)
- Organize those points into an order that makes sense (do they flow naturally?)
Once you’ve completed all of these steps, it’s as “simple” as showing up every day, putting in the work, and continuing to adjust and iterate as much as necessary.
Remember, this is a never-ending process. It’s not something you do once, set it and forget it. Always be on the lookout for opportunities to improve and grow if you want to stay ahead of the curve.
Here are a few examples of how others have done this to get you started…
Go-to-market strategy examples
Up until this point, we’ve mainly covered how to bring a new product or service to market, however, businesses can also go to market with a new feature or components of an already existing product.
That’s what the brand Eight Sleep Mattresses did for one of its newest features.
Eight Sleep’s partnership with IFTTT
To market their latest technology, they opted to partner up with IFTTT, a service that lets users create conditional “if this then that” statements where previously separate technologies are able to work together in unison.
By using IFTTT, users could connect their Eight Sleep mattresses with other smart home systems to turn on/off lights, start their coffee machines, activate bed warming, and much more, all through their smartphones. Eight Sleep leveraged this technology with their go-to-market strategy flawlessly.
Their GTM strategy was surprisingly simple, despite how sophisticated technologically it sounded:
They designed an email announcement to get users excited, a landing page to educate the target audience about the new feature, and promoted it on social media after launch, highlighting the benefits and use cases.
Sounds simple, right?
The result was an outpouring of enthusiasm from customers.
Why Eight Sleep’s go to market strategy worked:
Eight Sleep officials said that the secret to success was to invest heavily in showing practical use cases that potential customers could envision themselves using themselves.
By focusing on creating a story around the benefits that would resonate with consumers, they were able to develop an emotional connection with people and were rewarded by helping people envision themselves being able to achieve everything they might be able to in an Eight Sleep mattress.
Fitbit Smart Coach
In 2019, Fitbit, the activity-tracking wearable, launched Smart Coach, a premium personal training service that integrates with a customer’s FitBit.
Their GTM strategy included objectives such as increasing revenue from subscriptions and getting more out of those who had already committed to their product.
They launched a marketing campaign called “Get More With FitBit” that leveraged both paid and owned channels to reach their target audience of people who already owned their wearable devices and smartphones.
Fitbit’s digital marketing strategy was simple: they used paid retargeting display ads to direct potential customers to a landing page that would encourage them to make an additional purchase.
They also utilized push notifications, social media accounts, and newsletters to reach their existing customer base and let them know about new deals being offered.
Why Fitbit’s go-to-market strategy worked:
Fitbit was smart in targeting people who already owned their products. These were people who had already made the commitment to improving their health and trusted Fitbit enough to have paid money for what they had to offer.
Thus, they required much less convincing of what their problem was and simply needed to be made aware of a quicker, better way of solving it that required only a small investment.
The result? Their annual revenue rose from $1.4B in 2017 to $2.1B in 2019.
Go-to-market plan template
While a go-to-market strategy won’t guarantee your product’s success, it can help you manage expectations and work out any kinks before you invest in bringing your products to market.
To help you in this process, our friends at LocaliQ have created a free go-to-market template that will help you build a strategy that positions your product in front of the right people.
Go-to-market strategy FAQs
Below are some quick responses to some of the most common questions we see about GTM Strategies:
1. Who is responsible for GTM strategy?
The person responsible for creating a go-to-market strategy will vary from company to company, but it’s typically someone who has experience in marketing or sales. In some companies, like startups, the founder usually takes responsibility for this task and then passes it off once the business becomes larger and more profitable.
In larger corporations with dedicated marketing departments, often there are specialists who focus on developing these strategies; however, even here it’s still important that everyone understands how their work fits into the bigger picture of generating revenue and growing market share.
2. What is the difference between product-based and customer-based go-to-market strategy?
A product-based go-to-market strategy is the most common and easiest way for a company to get started. It’s based on the idea of creating a core product and then selling it to a large audience. A customer-based go-to-market strategy is more complicated and requires more planning.
A customer-based go-to-market strategy is based on the idea that you should identify your best customers, study their needs and wants, then tailor your products to those needs and wants.
If you’re just starting out, you probably don’t have enough data or experience yet to develop a truly customer-focused approach. However, even if you’re a veteran at this point, it’s still useful to think about how your customers use your product or service and what they need from it.
3. What is the difference between a go-to-market strategy and a marketing strategy?
The go-to-market strategy is the plan for how you will bring your product or service to market and get it sold. It encompasses all aspects of the marketing mix–product, price, promotion, place, and people.
A marketing strategy is an overall plan for how you will communicate with your customers and prospects. It may include aspects of your go-to-market strategy, but it also includes many other aspects of your business that are not part of an overall go-to-market plan.
Next steps: Create a GTM strategy for your next big thing
Before launching a new product or service, it is critical to have a go-to-market strategy in place.
By following the steps and examples in this guide (and using the provided template), you’ll be well on your way to creating a profitable venture that solves customer problems and gets ahead of the competition as quickly as possible.
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9 Ecommerce Trends to Boost Your Business in 2024
This year’s ecommerce trends feel a little oxymoronic. Machines and software are helping do more jobs, even communicating directly with shoppers. At the same time, consumers are heading towards online experiences that give them the personalized, human interactions of in-person buying.
As disparate as the rapid adaptation of technology and the longing for person-to-person retail seem, the two goals are actually coming together in unexpected ways.
Let’s unpack the specific trends ecommerce brands and marketers will face, and explore how to make sure you’re taking advantage of them.
Contents
- Conversational marketing becomes table stakes for ecommerce brands
- Ecommerce businesses will find new uses for AR
- More sellers slide into their customers’ DMs
- Gen Z spurs shift to social shopping
- Live commerce bridges the gap between online and in-person shopping
- Subscription services solidify customer loyalty
- AI fuels customized buying journeys
- Dynamic, personalized websites go mainstream
- Ecommerce brands will launch more data-gathering campaigns
9 ecommerce trends to monitor in 2024
These are the most high-profile ecommerce marketing trends we see headed our way this year. Learn them to stay in tune with customers and ahead of competitors.
1. Conversational marketing becomes table stakes for ecommerce brands
Conversational marketing is a strategy where businesses have two-way communication with customers in real time. Those one-to-one interactions can happen with live agents, but a lot of conversational marketing growth will occur with AI-powered chatbots.
For example, one study suggests that by 2028, around $72 billion in retail spending will happen through chatbot interactions. For context, that’s a 470% increase compared to the $12 billion in chatbot sales from 2023.
Two factors are fueling this ecommerce trend: generative AI and consumers’ desire for fast answers.
Generative AI models like ChatGPT use natural language processing to understand conversational queries. That’s helped chatbots become highly successful sales agents that can guide website visitors through their buying journey.
For most consumers, the most significant upside of using chatbots is the 24/7 availability of information. Instead of waiting until regular business hours, shoppers can jump in when inspiration strikes and get all the information they need to make an informed purchase.
The great news is chatbots are becoming less expensive and easier to launch, so expect to see them gain traction in smaller businesses. You can launch your own chatbot in a jiffy.
💡 Conversational marketing relies on great calls to action. Download this free guide to get inspired by dozens of high-performing CTA phrases.
2. Ecommerce businesses will find new uses for AR
The virtual reality (VR) craze hit its peak when Facebook rebranded as Meta, a signal that the social media giant was turning its vast resources towards developing online worlds known loosely as the metaverse. Despite some optimistic forecasts, most of us still aren’t guiding our avatars down digital promenades in search of the next digital deal. And with Meta still losing millions on its big VR bet, it’s unlikely to happen any time soon.
However, an interesting movement in ecommerce is taking advantage of augmented reality, VR’s cousin that overlays digital imagery on real-world environments in real time.
AR has become very accessible, even offered as free features like stickers and polls on social media platforms. Expect to see online retailers and brands taking advantage of AR in new ways. For example, fashion brands use AR to help mobile shoppers see how they’ll look in this season’s styles.
Users snap a picture in the brand’s app, and AR adds the products. Clothing brands, household goods, and even car dealers are all using AR to help buyers make a purchase decision.
Other retailers are using AR to highlight product details, like price tags or features, in promotional videos.
With AR’s near-zero cost for these use cases and more app developers building creative AR solutions, expect to see it used more often and by a wider variety of ecommerce businesses.
3. More sellers slide into their customers’ DMs
Direct messaging, like the DMs on your Instagram or TikTok account, is ideal for brands to interact with customers and fans one-on-one. You can send links, images, and product videos. Plus, it doesn’t cost anything to send a DM. That’s why we’ll see more brands connect with their customers in direct message apps this year.
Because of their private nature, DMs are a great place to have conversations about customer concerns. You can even use them as a lead generation channel as an alternative to collecting email addresses on your website.
A word of warning if you want to try this trend out for yourself. If you start messaging random people, you’ll definitely get blocked and probably reported. Always ask before contacting someone in their DMs. Offer a reason, like giving someone a personal discount code or asking them to share their experience with your products (free user-generated content!).
4. Gen Z spurs shift to social shopping
At first, social media marketing was mainly a brand awareness play. Sellers could share their wares in organic and paid posts and then offer links to their e-commerce shops.
Jumping from one platform to the next adds friction to the sales process. With social shopping, consumers can click on the products they see in a post and complete the purchase without leaving their favorite social media apps.
Revenue from social commerce could hit the trillion (with a “T”) dollar mark in the next few years. Younger adults lead the charge, with nearly three-quarters of 18 to 34-year-olds saying they’ve made a purchase from social commerce. But the trend is also permeating through all generations—around 25% of consumers over 65 said they’ve bought through that channel as well. With that kind of cross-generational spread, we expect to see a lot a lot more sales through social selling activities.
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5. Live commerce bridges the gap between online and in-person shopping
If QVC and social shopping had a love child, it would be live commerce. During a live commerce event, a host interacts with viewers via video on a social media platform. Those viewers can then purchase the products on offer right from the video.
Live commerce offers the best parts of in-store shopping without fighting traffic or searching for a parking space. Shoppers get instant answers from a knowledgeable brand representative or influencer right from their living room.
The most popular social media apps are participating in this trend. Instagram and TikTok offer live shopping features, and YouTube inked a deal with Shopify to let creators add shoppable links to videos.
While the most common format for live shopping involves one or two representatives on screen touting the brand’s latest and greatest, there’s another interesting way to use this tactic. Say you’re launching a new line of cosmetics. You could have a launch party and let viewers buy what they see on their screens.
The live commerce trend is expected to grow significantly in the near term, with some suggesting it could account for 20% of all ecommerce sales. Since conversion rates at live shopping events can reach 30%, ecommerce brands would be wise to take advantage of this trend.
6. Subscription services solidify customer loyalty
Buy almost any consumable from Amazon, and you’ll be asked if you’d like to save a few dollars by subscribing to auto-refill your order. The initial loss in profit to the seller is well worth the higher potential of repeat business. And the buyer sees the savings as a no-brainer since they’ll need more of the product later.
The trend goes beyond monthly dog food or cosmetics deliveries (although those are common). Now, you can get a regular delivery of all sorts of themed products, like miniature items for your doll house or train set.
Savings and customer loyalty are powerful win-wins that are likely to motivate sellers and shoppers to keep the trend going. 77% of consumers say they spend up to $499 annually on subscriptions, and 41% say they’ll add more in the next year.
7. AI fuels customized buying journeys
In general, AI is a big trend for all marketers. There are many ways ecommerce brands and marketers can use artificial intelligence to boost their businesses. One that’s emerging as particularly useful is having AI create complex, personalized customer journeys.
Here’s an example. Say you send marketing texts to your customers, reminding them of sales and new products. If each text of those campaigns were personalized to the individual based on their prior behavior, you’d close a lot more sales. But it’d be nearly impossible to do manually when you’re promoting hundreds of products to thousands of customers.
That’s where marketing experts are applying AI. Using its machine learning capabilities, AI can “remember” how customers reacted to previous messages, which products they bought, and how they interacted with your website. Then, it can create a custom campaign for each text subscriber.
Personalization is a well-documented marketing strategy that often lifts revenue by up to 25%. Brands that use advanced personalization strategies say they see a 200% return on the investment.
In the coming year, we’ll see many more retailers and brands use AI to construct personalized buying journeys through promotional emails, texts, and social media, individually and across multiple channels.
8. Dynamic, personalized websites go mainstream
Personalization has been the playground of ad campaigns for a while. But what if every person who visited your promotional landing page or home page saw a version that best suited their needs? That’s what dynamic landing pages and websites offer.
Here’s a simple example where someone considering your product sees a different home page than someone who bought it.
Dynamic landing pages aren’t new. What’s changed is the scale and scope of personalization available with new AI-powered techniques, making them more attractive to ecommerce shops with many product and sales pages.
Let’s say you have a website with hundreds of sales and conversion pages. AI can analyze huge amounts of data about your products and customer behavior. Then, generative AI can quickly create conversational copy or calls to action for each of those pages that are more relevant to each segment of your target market.
Most marketers that use personalized landing pages report a lift in engagement compared to static versions. Plus, 91% of customers said they felt more connected with websites featuring dynamic pages, especially those that provided personalized offers and product recommendations.
9. Ecommerce brands will launch more data-gathering campaigns
Many of the trends we’ve discussed require extensive data about your customers. Gathering this information has pros and cons. Some shoppers love the personalization it provides, while others are rightfully concerned about their privacy.
In light of these concerns, lawmakers and big platforms are making it harder to collect data without direct user consent. Google has finally ended the use of third-party cookies. Some US states and European governments require websites to give visitors a choice to opt in or opt out of being tracked by cookies.
With much less third-party data, ecommerce marketers will need to become really good at convincing shoppers to give up their information willingly, also known as zero-party data.
In the coming months and years, we’ll see more creative campaigns designed to collect data from willing website visitors and customers ethically. These may be contests, newsletter subscriptions, surveys, or even discounts and free products.
However it’s done, collecting zero-party data is a big ecommerce marketing trend that almost every retailer and brand needs to be aware of.
What is the future of the ecommerce industry?
To say last year was one of change for ecommerce stores and marketers is a drastic understatement. With the rapid development of new AI marketing tools, customers’ shift to new sales channels, and potential regulations that can change how everyone does business online, it’s nearly impossible to guess the future of ecommerce with 100% clarity.
But if you look at the trends ramping up now, you’ll see a few themes that hint at the future. Customers want in-store experiences from online shopping. They’ll choose lower-friction purchase options over clicking through multiple apps and websites. And they’d prefer personalized interactions as long as their privacy remains protected.
While you mull over what’s to come for ecommerce stores, have a look at these other marketing trends for further insights:
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10 Most Effective Franchise Marketing Strategies
Who doesn’t like a bit of a challenge? While it’s always rewarding to take on new marketing endeavors, certain businesses, like franchises, feel the heat more than others.
Whether you’re a food and beverage franchise, a multi-location dealership, a national real estate group, an enterprise bank, or anything in between, you know that managing marketing efforts across the board can sometimes feel like an uphill battle.
In this guide, we’ll help you address common marketing speedbumps multi-location businesses encounter and share 10 of the most effective franchise marketing strategies.
Contents
What is franchise marketing?
Franchise marketing means promoting your business across all your franchised locations. Essentially, any effort you’re putting into growing your franchise is considered franchise marketing. This can mean marketing efforts at a top branding level all the way down to marketing for specific locations.
Benefits of franchise marketing
Here are a few reasons franchise marketing is so important:
- A new franchise location opens every eight minutes during the course of any given business day. This doesn’t even account for the new businesses opened every day.
- 42% of franchise marketing professionals and multi-location business owners feel traditional marketing channels, like TV placements and PR, are no longer worth the investment.
- 55% of multi-location businesses believe that social media is the leading franchise marketing channel they rely on.
Clearly, there is plenty of competition and opportunity within the franchise and multi-location industries, meaning franchise marketing is crucial to stand out and grow.
However, keeping up with your franchise marketing is easier said than done. Let’s resolve some franchise marketing pain points next.
10 franchise marketing strategies
Managing your franchise marketing can be a juggling act. As the classic saying goes “No pain, no gain!” Let’s dive right into how you can turn 10 major franchise marketing pains into marketing gains:
1. Maintain brand consistency throughout your franchise marketing
It’s no secret that one of the biggest challenges franchise marketers face is location managers or franchisees that go rogue—especially when it comes to branding and brand consistency. But until a teleportation or cloning device gets invented, you’re unfortunately unable to be at all your locations to guide them through their marketing (despite how much you wish you could). This makes maintaining brand consistency across all locations a difficult task.
But brand consistency is extremely important for the success of your franchise marketing. We know that 71% of consumers say they’re more likely to buy a product or service from a brand they recognize. Plus, we can’t forget about the age-old marketing “rule of seven” which states that people need to see information about a business at least seven times before they become a customer.
So brand consistency isn’t just a “nice-to-have” element in your franchise marketing plan, it’s a need-to-have!
How to approach it: The first thing you should do is create a brand style guide. Once you have your style guide in place, you can use it across all locations. If you already have one in place, now is the time to revisit! The more thorough your brand guidelines the better.
Here’s our list of what should go into your brand guidelines:
- Company logo in various sizes and color options (black and white, thumbnail size, banner size etc.)
- Your business’s colors in hex codes
- Your selected fonts in regular, bold, and italics
- Your chosen grammar, mechanics, and style preferences (including punctuation, capitalization, and abbreviation)
- Blog post title preferences
- Image styles and sizes for digital and print materials
- Your business’s boilerplate and mission statement
- Preferred tone and voice
- Social media best practices by platform
An example of brand guidelines.
Brand guidelines will keep your brand consistent and empower your location owners to create their own marketing collateral while knowing they have a cheat sheet to help them along the way.
📚 Free guide >> 12 Secrets to a Higher Click-Through Rate (& Lower Costs!)
2. Identify your customer base across locations
Let’s face it—your local customers’ interests at your Boston location will be different from those in your Houston location which differs from those in your San Diego location, and so on!
If you generalize your target audience without consideration for how their lifestyles differ by location, not only does that lack of inclusivity limit your reach, but it also gives your customers a less personalized marketing experience.
However, 80% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase when brands offer personalized experiences. So identifying your target audience across locations now to deliver a personalized experience at each location later is a marketing tactic you won’t want to miss out on.
How to approach it: Taking time to identify your target audience across all locations when your plate is already full is easier said than done. A more efficient way to execute this is to look at your target audience from a bird’s eye view and zoom in from there.
Once you identify what makes up your target audience at a high level you can take it down to the regional level. From there, you can use free online tools like Google Trends to understand the interest of topics by location to see how your messaging may slightly differ between regions.
Another workaround would be to create marketing collateral that’s diverse enough to speak to all customers regardless of lifestyle. A healthy mix of both, however, will give your customers that localized experience while saving you as much time and resources as possible.
3. Know your solution options (+ which ones your brand needs)
There’s an infinite amount of value your franchise has to offer its customers. Add that on top of your many convenient locations, a diverse range of employees, and audience segments, you’ll find it can be challenging to know how to deliver all this information to your potential customers in the best way.
With so many potential marketing channels to choose from, how do you know which strategies will be most effective? And how can you communicate your chosen strategies’ effectiveness to your franchise managers?
How to approach it: We’ve broken down the top marketing channels for franchise businesses into a few core pillars. Introduce your franchisees to the following and encourage them to try it for their own benefit:
Search engine optimization
SEO is at the core of any strong marketing plan for good reason—it’s free! Not only do clicks from organic search results come at no cost to you, but with 90% of consumers searching online before making a purchase digitally or in-store, SEO can help each of your locations grow sales faster.
Search advertising
With search advertising, there are now more options than ever for dynamic location targeting at the ad copy and campaign setting level, so your chances of pulling in a click from a select location’s local customer is nearly guaranteed.
An example of a search ad for a local Ford dealership.
Search advertising ensures you’re showing to potential customers when it matters—as they’re searching on top search engines like Google and Bing. Plus, paid search ads can increase brand awareness by up to 80%. If you have a location that’s struggling to pull in new customers, paid search ads are the best route for making it known to potential customers that you’re in their area with lots to offer.
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Video/OTT
Video marketing on YouTube or via OTT (over-the-top) streaming allows your franchise or multi-location business to create engaging content for exclusively targeted audiences. Even though you may be juggling various locations and customer bases, you can segment your video marketing in hyper-specific ways to ensure each location gets a piece of the pie.
Plus, video marketing can grow revenue nearly 50% faster and pull in 66% more qualified leads per year than businesses that don’t use video.
Display
Display ads give you a way to target your audience on sites across the web—when they’re not even actively searching for your business. This increases awareness for your brand. If your branch managers notice a dip in sales, display ads could be the solution since consumers who are retargeted via display ads are 70% more likely to convert.
Social
With 3.5 billion active social media users worldwide, it’s no secret that social media marketing is a must if you want to heighten your chances of reaching all the potential customers around each of your locations.
The beauty of social media marketing is that you can get results regardless of whether you decide to go the free or paid route. So if you’re struggling to get all your franchisees on board with one marketing strategy, social media marketing is an accommodating solution with endless options that can fit any locations’ budget (or lack thereof).
Of course, there are additional marketing channels you should consider as part of your strategy. Take a look at all the basics of local marketing to find out what would work for you.
4. Get all locations on board with the right strategy
Speaking of budgets, with multiple franchises, it can be tough to get them on the same page with the marketing spend and strategy that you encourage. Each location has its own needs and budget which you want to accommodate within your recommended marketing plan.
It gets trickier when you want to save yourself time by creating an easily transferrable franchise marketing strategy that can apply store to store but also is flexible enough to not have one set budget applied.
How to approach it: The first thing you’ll want to look at is all the free and low-cost marketing options available. Small businesses have been doing this for years, but for a larger enterprise, this feels counterintuitive. However, the kicker of franchise marketing is it’s the same concept as local marketing—just multiplied.
When you present your location owners with low-cost or free options, they’ll have no reason to not want to implement them. Some examples could be setting them up with a social media account for regular posts or facilitating online workshops to foster their SEO expertise.
With that said, we know that a mix of marketing channels maximizes your chances of results. Ideally, you’ll want your location managers to get on board with allocating some of their revenue toward a marketing budget. The best way to encourage this is to research statistics to display the ROI if they were to go for it and to provide co-op funds from corporate if possible. For example, paid advertising returns $2 for every $1 spent–a 200% ROI.
It’s helpful to keep in mind that marketing budgets don’t have to be huge. It doesn’t always take a lot of money to make a big impact, but a little can go a long way!
5. Evaluate your options for franchise marketing execution
While some franchises are fine with individual locations running their marketing strategies themselves, others opt to streamline marketing from one central team or group for all locations.
Both options present their own sets of challenges. If you’re managing the marketing strategies for all locations, you have a big job—you must not only execute a successful multi-channel marketing strategy that includes optimizing campaigns, writing ad copy, and deploying offers, but you have to do that for different areas and audiences.
If you allow franchisees to run their marketing themselves, you have to worry about brand consistency, optimized spend, and a lack of control around results.
How to approach it: It doesn’t have to feel like a lose-lose situation when you choose which route out of the two you want to take. As mentioned above, both managing marketing for your locations versus letting them manage it comes with pros and cons.
To identify what’s best for your brand, we recommend doing a self-evaluation with the following questions:
- How much extra time do I have to oversee my locations’ marketing strategies?
- How much time do my location owners have to put into marketing?
- Would implementing marketing at the location level require any training?
- What types of marketing channels do I need to have running at each franchise location? Can each location handle those themselves?
- Has my company struggled with brand consistency in the past?
- How would I measure the success if I ran the marketing for all franchise locations? How would those locations measure and report on their own success?
- How frequently would I expect to change up the marketing strategy?
- Is it easy for me to consistently communicate with all of my locations?
Depending on your answers, you’ll end up leaning towards one over the other. However, if you’re still unsure then that’s totally fine! Another option would be to involve a marketing partner to help oversee your franchise marketing strategies along with you. That way you won’t have all the locations’ marketing on your shoulders, and you can leverage a resource that has every marketing tool needed at its fingertips.
Whatever you decide, finding the right tool to track your marketing across locations and channels will be crucial for measuring success. (We’ll talk more about this in a minute!)
6. Create a strong local SEO strategy
You need to focus on SEO that is both national and local. National often comes naturally to many franchise businesses at this point, but without a strong local SEO approach, you won’t be able to show up for searches when and where it counts.
How to approach it: The easiest way to complement your national SEO with a local SEO strategy is to include keywords related to your locations within your content—this can be easily done through location pages on your website. The next quick fix for multi-location SEO is to invest in listings management so local listings are accurate for each location to help drive leads. It may seem minor, but 64% of consumers have used Google Business Profiles to find contact details for a local business.
Additionally, try to position your brand as a partner to each of your locations by creating local-friendly blog content. Brainstorm a blog topic that’s specific to each one of your locations, and you’ll save time on your editorial calendar planning while also staying consistent with local content!
You can also quickly research other local businesses to link to for resources within your content to build trust with your local audiences. That said, maintain a friendly presence in your local communities by encouraging location managers to participate in local events to trigger brand awareness for searches later.
This multi-location business has Google Business Profile listings for each store location to fit local SEO needs.
🔎 Need help finding the right keywords for your local SEO strategy? Try our Free Keyword Tool!
7. Be sure to stand out from the competition (including your own franchisees!)
Franchises have a unique competitor set in that while you compete with other local businesses and large brands, you might also compete with your own locations. For example, you might have two locations down the block from each other that own two completely different territories but could be competing for the same customers. One major hurdle every franchise must jump over is how to run marketing at each location without stepping on one another’s toes—all while stepping on the competition’s toes!
How to approach it: We can’t stress enough how important geo-targeting is to your multi-location or franchise marketing. Geo-targeting is a way to ensure that one location’s marketing collateral doesn’t slip onto the screens of consumers in another location’s territory. When you run ad campaigns with geotargeting you’re maximizing the overall growth of your business by handing out a fair, even slice of the cake (or in this case, audience) to each store.
As for standing out from the competition, geotargeting can also help here if you want to identify and target their locations too. Otherwise, bidding on competitors’ branded keywords will help to ensure your brand shows when folks are looking for your competition. That way you can sweep the competition’s customers away and bring them to your locations.
8. Solidify reporting for all locations, solutions, AND channels
Let’s get this straight: your business has multiple locations, offering multiple products or services, overseen by multiple managers, marketing to multiple different audiences, through multiple different channels. What a handful!
You don’t have time to loop in hundreds of data points into one performance tracking sheet. You need some way to ensure that all your franchise marketing efforts maintain a growth track with proven KPIs.
How to approach it: For this instance, technology is your new best friend! Take advantage of digital tools that aggregate reporting across platforms, locations, and more to report on what matters. A few things you should ask yourself while scouting a reporting solution include:
- Do you want your location managers to have access?
- What performance metrics matter most to your multi-location business?
- What does a positive performance look like for you at the national level? At the local level?
- What channels need to be tracked? How will they be tracked consistently across locations?
- What timeframes will you be looking to run reports on?
- What types of downloadable or shareable files, if any, will you want for your reports?
9. Educate your franchisees on franchise marketing
You and your franchisees are busy running a national brand at the local level—you all don’t have time for in-person pieces of training on all your marketing technology and best practices! Never mind the fact that gathering the resources to help location owners understand your brand’s marketing plan is a feat in and of itself.
How to approach it: Have fun with it and get creative with your training! You can hold training online after hours to make it easy for all your branch managers to attend.
Another way to make marketing education more accessible across locations is to create various training materials. For example, you can shoot or share quick “how-to” YouTube videos for visual learners. For busy location owners short on time, you can write and email training articles that they can read in bits throughout the day.
The more training material, the better. If your schedule is so jam-packed you can’t even begin to think about running training or creating training materials, leveraging a marketing partner to facilitate training for you is another great option.
10. Communicate with your marketing partners
You may have one agency helping with social that has a totally different approach than your in-house team managing paid search. Or each location might be working with their own team or consultant. How do you keep multiple teams and marketing partners aligned?
How to approach it: If you’re struggling to keep track of all your marketing solutions, then it may be worth it to find a marketing partner that can bundle all your needs into one. When you leverage a marketing partner that can house all your channels and reports under one roof it’s easier to maintain consistency and performance tracking.
In the meantime, though, communication is key! Be sure to hold regular meetings with your in-house team, your location managers, and your agencies to maintain consistent cohesion across channels.
This is also another opportunity to distribute your style guide to all marketing partners so that there’s no confusion across agencies, marketing associates, or consultants on what your brand’s voice is.
Solve these franchise marketing puzzles today to decode a brighter tomorrow
If there’s one thing we can take away from all 10 of these franchise marketing tips is that the more you can plan ahead and communicate with your locations, the easier your job will be later. Plus, no matter your goals, channels, or audiences, there’s a solution out there that can work for your franchise.
With a bit of creativity and finesse, you can make your franchise marketing strategy do the heavy lifting for you. Putting in the time to square away your challenges now is worth the time it will save you later.
To recap, here are the top franchise marketing tips we talked about:
- Prioritize brand consistency throughout your franchise marketing
- Get to know your customers across locations
- Consider all your franchise marketing channel options
- Get all your locations on board with your overall franchise marketing strategy
- Evaluate your options for franchise marketing execution
- Ensure your local and national SEO strategies align
- Try to stand out from your franchise marketing competition
- Be sure to have clear reporting in place
- Train your locations on your franchise marketing efforts
- Consistently communicate with your marketing partners
PPC
Biggest Trends, Challenges, & Strategies for Success
Pay per click (PPC) advertising is a big deal in digital marketing, especially in the retail world. As 2024 heats up, we’re not just talking about simple ad placements and bids; it’s all about smart technology, understanding your customers, and getting creative with your strategies.
Whether you’re a pro in digital marketing or just starting to explore ecommerce ads, keeping up with PPC trends is crucial. This guide is here to help you out.
Contents
Biggest trends in PPC for retail
Let’s dive into the PPC scene for retail in 2024. Things are getting exciting with Google’s ad platform evolving rapidly, especially with its use of AI and machine learning.
Increased use of AI and machine learning
Often, we talk about AI as if it’s one big thing, but it’s more nuanced. AI is the broader concept of machines being able to carry out tasks in a way that we’d consider “smart.” Within this, machine learning is a specific subset of AI that trains a machine how to learn. In the PPC world, this distinction is key.
This year, AI will be transitioning away from merely a novelty. It is becoming smarter, a trend we can refer to as Smart AI. This new phase of AI is more targeted and informed, indicating a significant evolution in how AI systems are developed and applied.
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AI in ad targeting
AI’s role in PPC is about understanding and predicting. It sifts through tons of data to figure out what consumers are looking for, then predicts their buying patterns. This means your retail PPC ads are more likely to show up for people who are genuinely interested in what you’re selling.
Machine learning in real-time optimization
Machine learning steps in to continuously improve how your retail ads perform. It adjusts bids, manages budgets, and identifies trends that you might not notice. It’s like having an assistant who’s always optimizing your campaigns, ensuring they reach the right audience effectively.
Mastering these technologies is crucial for digital marketers in retail. It’s not just about using these tools; it’s about understanding them deeply and leveraging their strengths to boost your PPC campaigns.
Top PPC strategies for retail in 2024
Here are four essential PPC strategies for retail digital marketers:
1. Try Demand Gen campaigns
Recently, Discovery Ads campaigns were automatically upgraded to the Demand Gen campaign type in Google Ads.
Demand Gen is more than just an upgrade–it’s a game-changer in winning social budgets for Google. Early testers have shown that Demand Gen campaigns deliver better performance when compared to Discovery Ads. That means more qualified traffic, more conversions, and more growth for your business or clients.
2. Embrace automation and smart bidding with Performance Max
In the realm of PPC, automation is crucial. Performance Max, a feature of Google’s automated bidding system, helps optimize ad placements across various channels. At the same time, new Demand Gen formats on Google platforms are changing the game. By using these engaging and visually appealing ads, you can attract potential customers right at the onset of their search journey.
Combining Performance Max with innovative ad formats ensures your ads are not only seen but also resonate with your target audience.
3. Experiment with AI
AI, specifically through tools like FeedGen, is revolutionizing how product feeds are optimized. By employing Google Cloud’s Large Language Models, like Bard, FeedGen enhances product titles, descriptions, and attributes, offering a unique way to experiment with AI in your marketing strategy. For integration instructions, visit here.
4. Explore ecommerce on diverse platforms with cross-channel and omnichannel strategies
Expand your PPC horizons beyond Google Shopping. Embrace the dynamic advertising opportunities on platforms like TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram. Each of these platforms caters to different audience segments and offers unique ways to engage with potential customers.
Integrating these platforms into your advertising mix, alongside traditional channels, creates a holistic and impactful PPC strategy for retail that aligns with the multifaceted nature of today’s consumer behavior.
Implementing these strategies in your PPC campaigns can lead to more effective and engaging marketing efforts, keeping you ahead in the competitive retail sector of 2024.
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Common challenges and solutions in PPC for retail
Let’s take a look at the common PPC challenges (and the solutions to these challenges) that retail advertisers run into.
Challenge 1: Ad saturation and viewer fatigue
The digital world is awash with ads, making it a challenge for retailers to stand out and capture attention, often leading to viewer fatigue.
Solutions
- Create unique, engaging content: Develop content that answers potential customer queries, positioning your brand as a solution at the top of the funnel. Focus on being helpful and informative.
- Try dynamic ad formats and personalization: Use diverse ad formats and tailor your messaging to connect more effectively with your audience. Personalization can help break through the clutter.
- Experiment and test: Try different creative approaches to discover what resonates best with your audience. Keep your content fresh and engaging.
- Apply the 80/20 rule: Dedicate most of your content to educate and engage (80%) rather than direct selling (20%). This approach can build trust and provide value to your audience.
- Be consistent with content creation: Regular updates and new content can keep your audience engaged and interested.
- Monitor and adapt based on metrics: Regularly check your campaign metrics to understand what’s working. Analyze data like click-through rates, conversion rates, and engagement levels. Double down on strategies and content types that show success. Being data-driven in your approach allows you to refine your tactics continuously and do more of what works best.
Take a look at our search advertising benchmarks to see how your metrics compare.
By combining these strategies, retailers can better navigate the challenges of ad saturation and viewer fatigue, making their PPC campaigns more effective, engaging, and relevant to their target audience.
Challenge 2: Balancing automation and human insight
While automation in PPC is powerful, an over-reliance on it, such as solely depending on Google Ads’ auto-apply settings, can lead to missed opportunities for optimization. Automation can sometimes miss the subtleties that a professional digital marketer can catch.
Solutions
- Think of AI and automation as assistants, not replacements. As a professional digital marketer, your experience and insights are invaluable. Use automation tools for efficiency but maintain control and oversight for strategic decisions.
- Regularly review the performance of your campaigns with a critical eye. Remember, the auto-apply settings in Google Ads might not always align with your unique goals.
Your role is to guide these tools, making manual adjustments and infusing your campaigns with the strategic depth that only human experience can provide.
Challenge 3: Measuring and attributing ROI accurately
Accurately tracking the return on investment (ROI) from PPC campaigns can be complex, especially when dealing with multiple channels and customer touchpoints.
Solution
Invest in advanced analytics tools like Google Analytics 4 (GA4), which is designed with privacy in mind. GA4 offers features such as default IP anonymization, region-specific controls for features like Google Signals, and the ability to mark events as non-personalized ads. Additionally, you can set shorter data retention periods and have more accurate data deletion options, including deleting data for individual users upon request.
These features not only enhance privacy compliance but also provide a clearer understanding of attribution models. This approach allows for more effective tracking of the customer journey and helps in attributing conversions accurately to the right campaigns, all while maintaining user privacy.
Challenge 4: Keeping up with rapid technological changes
The pace of change in PPC tools and algorithms can be overwhelming, especially for smaller retailers with limited resources.
Solution
Stay informed about industry trends and updates. Consider joining online communities, attending webinars, or collaborating with digital marketing experts to keep your strategies current.
Challenge 5: Navigating privacy regulations and data restrictions
Retailers are increasingly challenged by the need to balance effective ad targeting with strict privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA.
Solution
Emphasize transparency and user consent in your advertising strategies. Utilize Google’s Consent Mode and adopt a consent management platform to ensure compliance with privacy laws.
By leveraging contextual targeting and first-party data, you can still deliver personalized experiences while respecting user privacy. Investing in privacy-compliant tools and practices not only builds trust with your audience but also ensures the sustainability of your ad campaigns in a privacy-focused world.
Make the most of your PPC for retail campaigns
Navigating the PPC landscape in 2024, especially in the retail sector, is both challenging and exciting. The key to success lies in striking the right balance between leveraging advanced technology and maintaining the human touch that defines your brand. By focusing on creating unique, engaging content that educates and resonates with your audience, personalizing your messaging, and using dynamic ad formats, you can stand out in a crowded digital space. Remember, it’s not just about catching the eye but also about building lasting relationships with your customers.
Embrace tools like Google’s Performance Max and AI-enhanced solutions like FeedGen for efficiency and effectiveness, but don’t forget the value of your professional insight and experience. Always be ready to adapt, innovate, and refine your strategies based on real data and customer feedback.
In the fast-changing digital marketing world, thriving retailers recognize the need to adapt, embrace new tech, and stay true to customer values.
Here’s to making your PPC retail campaigns impactful, not just successful!
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