Developing a Bulletproof Go-To-Market Strategy. Smiling business man shakes hand of another business man.

Developing a Bulletproof Go-To-Market Strategy

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Whether you’re a start-up company or you’re looking to expand your product or service offering, you’ll need a bulletproof go-to-market strategy to ensure the success of your launch.

Follow this in-depth guide on the benefits of a well-executed plan as well as the things you should consider when creating an effective strategy.

 

What is a go-to-market strategy?

Simply put, a go-to-market strategy is a detailed plan of action an organisation executes to bring a product, brand, feature or location to market.

A well-thought-out strategy helps to uncover profitable customer pain points, target the right audience and integrate the most comprehensive marketing strategies to ultimately maximise your return on investment.

 

What are the benefits of a go-to-market strategy?

A well-constructed and thoughtfully executed go-to-market strategy aims to provide businesses with a competitive advantage over their competition.

Benefits of a well-executed go-to-market strategy include:

  • A reduction in operational costs
  • A reduction in the length of time to market
  • A significant minimisation of risk often associated with product and service launch failures
  • Structured contingency plans to ensure ease of adaptation to change
  • A clearly defined direction for stakeholders

There are many benefits of implementing a go-to-market strategy, however, the strategy should cover all bases to be effective.

 

What should your go-to-market strategy involve?

Listed below are the main points you should consider when forming your go-to-market strategy.

1. Identify your audience and outline buyer personas

Research your desired audience and gain an in-depth understanding of how you will best reach them.

 

2. Craft a value matrix

Map out how you plan to communicate your product or service value across all departments of a business.

For example, an IT consultant will likely care more so about the security of your product or service whereas the CEO of a company will likely care more about the cost versus the benefits.

You should understand each of your customer pain points and customise your messages to suit.

 

3. Choose a suitable marketing strategy

Determine your goals (often brand awareness for start-up companies) and devise a plan to achieve these goals within your target market.

Perform plenty of research into the most suitable channels and content you will use to communicate with your target market.

 

4. Gain an understanding of the buyer journey and define who are the key decision-makers and buyers

Look at both the buyer journey from both the perspective of the seller and the buyer to ensure you cover all possible avenues a buyer might take before deciding to purchase.

 

5. Appoint a suitable sales strategy

Determine how you will introduce your product or service to the market.

You should include plans for sales team training, the resources you will provide for your sales team and a framework for your employees will follow to approach new and existing customers.

 

6. Define success measures

Define what your vision of success is and the appropriate metrics you will use to gauge your success.

 

Finalise your go-to-market strategy with omnichannel payments

Finally, your go-to-market strategy should take into consideration easing the final stages of the buyer journey with a no-fuss omnichannel payment gateway.

When developing your go-to-market strategy consider the customer purchase points. Are they online, in-store or both? 

Does your business model require mobility? 

Do you require subscription payments?

Arguably one of the most important considerations in the mix is your payment functionality.

It needs to be seamless from a customer point of view whilst also manageable for the business.

You don’t want to be tied up with multiple disparate systems that don’t communicate with each other…

Latpay provides a single hub that accepts customer payments through all possible sales channels and devices.

Simplify one of the most important customer touchpoints and ensure a smooth and streamlined checkout process with a reliable online payment gateway.

 

If you liked this article, you might also like Crafting a solid omnichannel strategy for your retail business.

Woman sitting on couch setting up her online store.

Why you need to set up your online store

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COVID-19 has well and truly defined and transformed the year 2020.

Gatherings have dwindled from hundreds of people to single digits and restrictions remain volatile.

Australians have had to adapt quickly to social distancing rules and limit their time spent out and about in the community. 

With these adaptations, we’re seeing consumers changing the way they spend their money to better accommodate more time spent at home.

As a result, merchants have had to adapt to this change and offer new and increasingly supported ways of shopping.

 

How are Australians shopping now?

Australians were forced to adapt and did so very quickly.

So quickly, panic buying began to set in.

Many pharmacies and grocery stores couldn’t keep up with the demand for toilet paper and hand sanitiser.

After panic buying caused concern for close contact in physical stores, a surge of online shopping began to develop.

Since March, Australian eCommerce growth skyrocketed up to over 73% since March 2019 (Aus Post, 2020).

And as conditions in Victoria continue to worsen, eCommerce is gaining momentum and reaching its highest peaks recorded this year.

The three top eCommerce growth categories were:

  1. Home and garden – up 82% since 2019
  2. Food and liquor – up 76% since 2019
  3. Health and beauty – up 71% since 2019

Surprisingly, the biggest shifts in purchases month on month were health and beauty, arts and crafts and books.

Seemingly, consumers are still making more online purchases than ever before and are purchasing things that help preoccupy them whilst they stay home.

There was also an evident shift from overseas orders to local orders.

57% of consumers said their reasons for opting for local stores over international stores was to support local Australian businesses and the economy.

So, with Australian consumers actively searching to support local Australian businesses and when they find them, they are purchasing more from them, should be a motivating enough factor for businesses to set up their online store.

 

Businesses need to respond to consumer demand

Physical businesses without an online store are likely missing out on a significant chunk of exposure and sales opportunity.

And it’s not just a temporary opportunity, with pockets of community transmission still occurring throughout Australia, storefront businesses could be required to close up at any time to stop the spread.

With an online store, businesses will have a safety net.

They will have the ability to continue making sales, no matter whether community transmission takes off in their local area.

In addition to responding to short term demand, there are also a number of benefits of setting up an eCommerce store in the long term including:

  • Diversifies your business and business offering
  • Online shopping appeals to an ever-growing number of Australian shoppers
  • Provides consumers with the added convenience to shop wherever and whenever
  • Gives businesses the opportunity to expand their business scope without incurring the heavy costs of expansion associated with physical storefronts

If you want to continue competing with your competitors and be supported by your fellow Aussies, you’re going to want to listen to consumer demand and respond to it promptly.

 

Set up your online store with LatPay

LatPay is a one-stop-shop payment gateway for online stores.

With LatPay you can enjoy:

  • Merchant services and facilities
  • Real-time payments
  • Direct debit facilities
  • Recurring payments
  • Alternative payments
  • Fraud management 
  • Hosted payment pages
  • Shopping carts
  • Mobile payment solutions
  • Payment links

If you’re ready to take a step in the right direction and set up an online store for your business, follow our helpful guide to setting up your eCommerce business and start reaping the rewards of a secure payment gateway with LatPay.

Alternatively, reach out to our friendly staff, and we’ll get you on your way to achieving greater sales with an online store.

Crafting a solid omnichannel strategy for your retail business

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There is an ever-increasing push from customers to continuously improve customer service efforts and to satisfy their wants and needs as best and as quickly as possible. 

This is especially important for businesses operating in the incredibly competitive retail industry. 

Consumers nowadays want to shop when they want, how they want and where they want and they want you to make that possible.

The good news is that you can satisfy these consumer needs with a simple solution – an omnichannel strategy.

What is an omnichannel strategy?

An omnichannel strategy interconnects a brand across multiple channels in order to ensure a seamless customer journey.

More and more customers are opting to shop on the go and value hassle-free, convenient shopping experiences. 

Introducing an omnichannel strategy within your company will not only offer the service customers are asking for but will also drive sales and ensure positive customer experiences. 

Why you should adopt this approach?

The Harvard Business Review (2017) conducted a study on the impact of omnichannel strategies on businesses.

The results from over 46,000 shoppers showed that 7% shopped exclusively online, 20% were store-only shoppers and 73% used multiple channels.

Moreover, the Harvard Business Review also found that customers offered an omnichannel experience were more likely to spend more online and in-store and continue returning to that company.

An omnichannel strategy is now considered a crucial part of any successful business. 

The strategy offers an overall seamless experience with the protection and enhancement of the customer experience across all channels.

Without an omnichannel strategy, companies can expect to lose customers, customer share and eventually, any power within the market.

How to craft your omnichannel strategy

A solid omnichannel strategy begins with a single hub.

Through that single hub, you should have the ability to accept all customer payments across all possible sales channels.

Possible sales channels include via telephone, mobile payments, in-app purchases, online payments and point-of-sale device (POS).

Not only will a single hub offer your customers the convenience to shop wherever and whenever they want, but it also offers your company single integrated access to a truly global market reach.

Craft your solid omnichannel strategy for your retail business with LatPay

LatPay offers a hassle-free, simple integration that provides your retail business with a sophisticated, bespoke suite of services with a range of local and global payment methods.

The omnichannel payment hub works simply by offering customers the ability to purchase from your business wherever and whenever they choose.

This is made possible with LatPay’s industry-leading security processing and multi-currency gateway which has access to over 90 local and global payment methods.

This payment network then allows for real-time payments in line with PCI certification.

If you’re interested in utilising one simple integration across all sales touchpoints to provide your customers with the ability to shop however they please, LatPay is the solution.

Find out more about LatPay’s omnichannel capabilities and talk to the team today to discuss any queries you might have. 

BENEFITS-OF-A-SUBSCRIPTION-BASED-BUSINESS-MODEL

Benefits of a subscription-based business model

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Recurring billing methods are transforming traditional business models by offering customers a new way to acquire products and services. If you’re looking to boost revenue and streamline sales in the post-COVID climate, consider whether a subscription-based model might be right for your business. 

Benefits of a subscription model 

Minimise missed or late payments with regular customers 

With the ability to automate subscription billing, your business will benefit from greatly reduced missed or late payments. Just set up the recurring payment when the customer signs up and have confidence in that regular payment rolling in. 

Reduce admin costs with subscription billing automation

Spend less time and money chasing payments, creating invoices and completing other administrative tasks with simple payment automation. 

Maximise payment security

Top payment service providers like Latpay utilise tokenisation and comply with PCI DSS Level 1 requirements, meaning you and your customers can rest easy knowing that every payment is protected by industry-leading security. 

Enhance the customer experience  

Take the hassle out of regular, manual payments with a set-and-forget method that requires less time and effort from your customers. 

Attract more customers to your products or services  

Rather than requesting a large, one-off payment, subscription-based models can attract more customers to shop with you by offering a smaller, more manageable fee. This means immediate access to your products or services at a cost that seems more affordable to them. 

Encourage customer retention 

With a payment that’s set up at regular intervals, customers don’t have to make a conscious decision to continue doing business with you. This means they’re more likely to stay on board for longer periods of time. 

Boost your bottom line with predictable revenue

Traditional, one-off payment methods require that you continue reaching and converting new customers to ensure a steady stream of revenue. 

Recurring card payments or direct debits, on the other hand, provide predictable revenue that you can count on. This, in turn, makes it easier to forecast and allows you to acquire only as much stock as you need.

 

Why customers love subscriptions:

  • Gain immediate access to their favourite products and services
  • Minimise the risk of penalty fees for late or forgotten payments
  • Have consistent access to products or services without completing manual top-ups

 

Subscription-based models are great for:

Software as a Service (SaaS)

Software products have been historically expensive, requiring a large, one-off payment for lifetime use of a particular product. Nowadays, many software companies have adopted the SaaS subscription-billing model to make products more accessible to their customers and to ensure continued use over a longer period of time. 

Health and fitness

Consumers, in general, are becoming increasingly health-conscious. With this in mind, many health and fitness brands are now offering monthly subscriptions to ensure consistent access to their latest and greatest wellness products. From vitamins and supplements to health foods and even gym gear, subscription business models are booming within the health and fitness space.

Food & meal plans

People lead busy lives, and that isn’t changing. To help overcome the challenges of a busy lifestyle, many food businesses are now offering a regular delivery using subscriptions. This includes everything from regular groceries to weekly meals and food plans to make planning and cooking meals simple.

Clothing & fashion 

Fashion is another industry that has begun adopting subscription-based models. People love receiving new goods in the mail and retail subscriptions have allowed them to do this on a regular basis without having to trawl through online stores. 

Subscription billing with Latpay

At Latpay, we work with businesses of all shapes and sizes to help them transform their operation and enhance the way they interact with their customers. Whether you’re operating business-to-business or direct to consumer, our subscription billing facilities and batch payments allow for greater automation and control of regular purchases and payments. 

Get in touch to learn more about the power of set-and-forget payments through Latpay.