How we built our SaaS go-to-market strategy: 11 Key steps
Alexandra Ilie
- August, 25 2023
Alexandra Ilie
A strong go-to-market strategy is key to successful product launches and prudent resource allocation. As the bridge between innovation and market reality, a GTM strategy navigates the critical path from concept to customer, determining your product or service’s viability and potential success.
Launching a product without a well-defined path to connect with the right customers can lead to expensive errors.
Whether it’s pushing your software to an inappropriate audience, launching it prematurely or tardily in a certain area, or contending with intense competition from similar solutions, you run the risk of investing time and resources into a plan that yields no returns.
At Touchpoint, we recognize the significance of a finely tuned product launch. That is why we’re excited to share a glimpse into our GTM strategy set to unfold in December 2023.
Let’s begin by exploring the theory we’ve used to shape our GTM strategy.
A go-to-market strategy for a SaaS company refers to a strategic plan outlining how it will effectively introduce, promote, and deliver its product to the target market. This strategy focuses on:
Every go-to-market strategy should have these three launch phases:
In the pre-launch phase of a product launch using a GTM strategy, the focus is on market analysis and customer segmentation. This phase involves setting pricing strategies and identifying distribution channels.
Teaser campaigns and targeted marketing tactics generate anticipation and build awareness for the upcoming product.
The launch phase shifts the GTM strategy towards detailed messaging and direct sales approaches. Marketing efforts intensify, leveraging various channels such as content marketing, online advertising, and events.
Customer support ensures a positive user experience, while the sales team communicates the product’s value proposition.
After a successful launch, the strategy transitions to sustaining growth. Marketing efforts continue to attract new customers while upselling and cross-selling strategies enhance revenue.
Customer support remains crucial, and adaptation to changing trends and customer feedback drives ongoing product improvements for market longevity.
The primary goals of a SaaS GTM strategy are to position the product successfully in the market, attract the right customers, drive adoption, and achieve sustainable growth.
Let’s explore the reasons why a well-crafted GTM plan is indispensable for your SaaS:
Think of a go-to-market strategy as a streamlined version of a business plan, focusing on a more specific scope. While a business plan encompasses aspects like funding, investments, and long-term projections, these elements aren’t central to a go-to-market strategy.
A go-to-market strategy is tailored to your immediate market entry needs.
While there’s no universal formula, a typical SaaS go-to-market plan revolves around one or more of these four growth engines:
The effectiveness of each strategy depends on the nature of your SaaS product, target audience, market conditions, and overall business goals.
Launching a new product into the market is a pivotal moment for any organization. It’s a culmination of months, if not years, of hard work, innovation, and anticipation.
With a comprehensive list of activities, we’re gearing up to introduce our latest offering to the world – a lightweight, AI-powered customer service platform tailored for small and medium-sized businesses.
Our business model is PLG (product-led growth), which means that while we think about user acquisition and retention, we always keep the product top of mind.
Even in the early development stage, we knew we wanted our product to be so valuable, easy to use, and effective that customers would naturally want to tell others about it.
However, even a PLG company needs marketing efforts to make it across the finish line – and beyond!
Scheduled for a December 2023 launch, our GTM strategy aligns with industry best practices, as well as with our product’s needs.
In preparation for developing the actual product, we identified our target audience and their pain points, documenting the market window for success and defining our product positioning.
We uncovered that the average company with 200 to 500 employees uses about 120+ SaaS applications these days. Many modern customer engagement tools, especially those that offer advanced features and integrations, come with subscription fees.
When a company accumulates multiple tools for different functions (CRM, ticketing, chat, knowledge base, etc.), the added costs can be significant, especially for SMBs with limited budgets.
Here’s where the Touchpoint platform comes in, with it’s all-in-one approach to customer service, marketing automation and sales enablement, and a fair pay-per-use pricing. The Customer Service offering got the green light first, while the other two solutions will come in the near future.
To test the market fit for the SaaS product we wanted to develop, we conducted customer interviews, engaging directly with our target audience. These interactions validated that the product would accurately reflect customer expectations.
Understanding the market landscape is a cornerstone of successful product launches. For this step, we looked at the competition, which helped us identify unique selling points and opportunities for differentiation.
Since Touchpoint will be launching a customer service platform, we analyzed other SaaS B2B products like Zendesk, Freshworks, Intercom, and Hubspot.
We paid special attention to features, pricing, and messaging. Our competitive analysis equipped us with insights into market trends, allowing us to uniquely position our platform.
A robust GTM strategy starts with internal cohesion and clarity. That’s why we started our GTM approach by defining the product’s features, specifications, and use cases and creating a clear roadmap for product development.
By detailing product features and specifications, we set the stage for effective communication within cross-functional teams.
Clear goals and budgets guide the entire launch process. For Touchpoint, we established targets and KPIs that provide a quantifiable focus depending on the different launch stages.
As for budgets, we made sure to allocate resources appropriately for marketing, events, and promotions to ensure a successful launch.
We assembled a launch team to guarantee smooth project coordination. We defined roles, responsibilities, and action points so that everybody is on the right track. The launch team is cross-functional, spanning Marketing, Product, Finance, and PR departments.
Creating a robust SaaS product requires rigorous software development and testing phases. Here are a few key aspects related to our approach to developing and testing Touchpoint:
Our approach to development is rooted in agile methodologies. We prioritize developing our products in small sprints, ensuring that our focus is on those features and activities that deliver the most value to our customers.
Despite our agile approach to development planning and execution, we cannot make the product available to customers until the basic functionality is fully operational. However, we do pilot specific components (e.g., live chat support) one at a time.
To enhance our efficiency and cater to various facets of product development, we’ve instituted cross-functional sub-teams. Every sub-team is defined by its unique objectives and focus areas, ensuring that every aspect of development aligns with the broader vision of the GTM strategy.
We also scaled our software development team from 5 to 50+, while ensuring that front-end, back-end, and QA teams remain cross-functional.
In our quest to deliver excellence, testing is an integral part of our product development journey. Before any new feature or change is rolled out to the end-users, it undergoes rigorous testing. This ensures that our product remains reliable, secure, and meets all stipulated requirements.
💡 Automated and manual testing methodologies ensure that product functionality and the user experience are top-notch. The testing includes functional testing, performance testing, usability testing, and security testing.
The product launch is planned in stages, and each stage has clear objectives and a target audience. Initially, we plan to pilot the product internally within our company and then move to the beta phase, where we will initially make the product available to selected pilot customers. The public launch is the last stage.
This step-by step approach helps us mitigate risks and deliver a high-quality product.
Moreover, by having regular check-ins and syncs with the marketing team we ensure that they have visibility into these phases. This allows them to plan, execute, and deliver promotional initiatives at the right time.
Developing impactful messaging is essential for a successful market entry. In preparation for the Touchpoint product launch, we created a primary messaging and positioning document.
This involved careful consideration of our product, our target audience, competitive landscape, and unique value proposition — and a lot of research.
We developed clear and concise messages that resonate with the target audience and highlight our main differentiators: Touchpoint’s messaging highlights the platform’s user-friendliness, AI capabilities, and pay-per-use pricing model.
We used Wynter to test the website page copy and make sure our audience understands and resonates with our messaging.
The document is used internally by marketing teams as a main “source of truth” for all other communication materials. It touches upon areas like the mission and vision of the company, the ideal customer profile, buyer personas, and industry verticals.
With the foundational materials and product development in place, we started to gear up for the actual launch. Here are some of the activities related to Touchpoint’s online launch event taking place in December 2023.
Effective marketing amplifies product awareness, especially in the case of a PLG model. We are all about providing high value content to our target audience even before the product is launched.
Therefore, to prepare for the official launch and generate excitement, Touchpoint’s marketing team has been hard at work:
We have planned to have a retrospective meeting in January 2024 to help us evaluate the success of the launch and identify areas for improvement. Having a post-launch analysis is a chance to have a “lessons learned” type of approach to future launches.
Launching Touchpoint is merely the beginning of our journey. After the launch, we will maintain our focus on support and operations with:
Of course, adjusting product positioning, messaging, pricing and customer target segments according to ever evolving customer preferences, market dynamics, and competitive landscapes is also something we’re taking into consideration, when and if the situation arises.
In the SaaS business, launching a new product is a pivotal testament to dedication and innovation. As the countdown to our December 2023 launch gains momentum, our robust go-to-market strategy stands as a testament to our commitment to excellence.
As we approach this significant milestone, we extend an invitation to join us on this transformative journey.
Here are four common go-to-market mistakes that SaaS entrepreneurs (ourselves included) should be mindful of and strive to avoid.
We’ll explore two examples of SaaS companies that have achieved remarkable success through their well-executed GTM strategies. These companies leveraged tailored approaches to stand out and engage with their customers.
Long before Zoom became an indispensable part of work-from-home routines, it achieved significant success in its go-to-market journey. They allowed calls of up to 40 minutes without needing credit card details.
This showcased their confidence in their product and provided a taste of the convenience Zoom could offer. The result? A staggering market valuation exceeded $17 billion, even before the COVID-19 pandemic.
As the world shifted towards remote work, Zoom’s groundwork laid the foundation for its widespread adoption and success.
Zoom’s journey exemplifies the power of understanding customer needs, crafting a compelling user experience, and adopting innovative pricing models to capture the market’s attention.
Image source: ProductPlan
Stewart Butterfield, the CEO and co-founder of Slack, and his team, stumbled upon an innovative concept ─ building a robust platform for internal communication. Their central challenge was persuading brands entrenched in email-based communication to recognize the value of Slack.
Acknowledging that email was the predominant tool for internal team communications, Slack used a GTM approach to strategically position itself as the premier solution for streamlined team interactions.
They showcased its user-friendly attributes ─ voice and video calls for meetings, text messaging, and shared channels across workspaces ─ all designed to eliminate the chaos of lengthy email threads.
Despite the growing landscape of internal team communication platforms, Slack has consistently rolled out customized features to address their target audience’s challenges. As of 2023, Slack has over 20 million active users, with projections anticipating 47.2 million daily active users and 79 million monthly active users by 2025.
Image source: Substack
There isn’t a magical formula for a guaranteed successful go-to-market strategy. It really comes down to understanding your specific business needs and customizing your approach accordingly. The steps we used in our GTM strategy for Touchpoint should give you a solid foundation to set yourself on the right track.
You can also use Touchpoint to handle the customer support component of your GTM strategy. Here is how it contributes to streamlining support in the different phases of the product launch.
When integrating Touchpoint into your GTM strategy, you’re not just deploying a customer service tool ─ you are setting the stage for exceptional customer experiences.
Alex is an ex-journalist with 10+ years of experience in content creation, product communications, and marketing strategy. She has a knack for the SaaS B2B industry, but her T-shaped marketing skills and journalistic background have prepared her to tackle any challenge head-on.
Customer service metrics are tools that help you deliver exceptional support. Learning how to measure them from our latest article.
Find the perfect CRM that fits your needs. Boost customer relationships, streamline operations, and drive growth.