"You can create a business, choose a name, but unless people know about it you're not going to sell any products." — Sir Richard Branson
Go-to-Market Strategy
Through the product marketing process you have fine-tuned your messaging and landed your first early adopters. You have turned customer feedback into a solid product offering and have a polished narrative ready for prime time. The next step is to pinpoint the mediums that will yield the highest payback given your unique audience. Here are a few of my go-to channels that have proven to be highly impactful during the early stages of a new product’s lifecycle.
Social Media
It takes a while to build a social media presence so it is important to get a head start. Crank up your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+ pages as soon as you solidify your brand name and start demonstrating your value to the community with the content you share.
Advertising
You don’t have to blow your whole marketing budget on this line item for traditional advertising to be highly effective. Whether online or offline carefully selected niche publications can be cost effective and drive targeted traffic. Build in tracking mechanisms to measure and compare results.
Public Relations
Publishing a press release can have a major impact on the search results for your brand. Being picked up by major news properties provides external validation that your company is worth learning more about. Figure out which journalists cover your industry, respectfully pitch why your story is relevant to their readership, and start building a long-term relationship.
SEM
While search engine marketing (SEM) can be expensive it is a fantastic way to quickly test your messaging, calls to action, and landing pages. Google AdWords keyword tools are also effective for doing reconnaissance on content strategy for search engine optimization (SEO).
SEO
The cornerstone of an effective inbound strategy is Search Engine Optimization. From the title of your images to the copy you write, SEO should be in the forefront of your mind every time you make additions and changes to your website. This free, organic traffic is truly priceless.
Strategic Partnerships
Many entrepreneurs shy away from reaching out to more established industry players for fear of a David vs. Goliath competitive battle. However if your product is sufficiently differentiated these partnerships can catapult your position in the market by providing brand recognition and well-established distribution channels to your nascent product.
Email Newsletters
One of the least expensive and most effective ways to convert prospects into paying customers is by leveraging your email distribution lists. These prospective buyers have proactively asked to be kept informed of your offerings and include your most loyal clients.
Thought Leadership
Your company blog can be a useful tool to build trust in your brand and to capture new customers through organic search on the topics you write about. Expand the influence your executives and product team have in the market by providing opinion pieces for industry blogs and journals.
Events & Tradeshows
Attending, presenting, and sponsoring relevant trade shows and events are excellent ways to get in front of decision makers and meet industry influencers and buyers face to face. Local trade associations can be just as effective as large national or international conferences as word of mouth tends to spread as you conquer various segment of the market.