Key questions on GTM strategy:

• Future target markets: What are your future target markets?

• Timeline: When do you plan to reach them?

• Vertical expansion: What verticals do you plan to expand to?

• Marketing channels and growth drivers: What are your main marketing channels and growth drivers?

Main types of GTM strategies:

🌱 Sales-led growth (SLG). Builds a powerful sales team designed to generate revenue - creating more successful salespeople results in more sales, more business, and more revenue. 

Key elements:

• Direct sales: Employing a team of sales professionals to reach out to potential clients.

• Outbound marketing: Cold calls, email outreach, and sales demos.

• Account management: Building long-term relationships with clients.

Attractiveness to investors:

• Pros: Predictable revenue streams, scalable with increased sales force.

• Cons: High cost of sales, slower initial traction, heavily dependent on sales team performance.

🦅 Product-led growth (PLG). Rely on the product itself to drive customer acquisition, conversion and growth. Ash Maurya has said that creating a minimal viable product (MVP) is great, but it’s not the driver of growth. Companies and products need more than just an MVP to scale. They need what Maurya calls a minimal marketable product (MMP), which is the ‘product that is complete enough to drive customer acquisition, conversion and growth’. MVP vs MMP. The product is the center of the flywheel. Deliver value through your product experience.

Key elements:

• Freemium model: Offering basic features for free, with advanced features available for a fee.

• Self-service: Easy onboarding and usage without needing a sales team.

• Viral loop: Users bring in new users through referrals and sharing.

Attractiveness to investors:

• Pros: Lower customer acquisition costs, rapid scalability, organic growth.

• Cons: Requires a highly compelling product, potential for slower revenue generation initially.

👁 Marketing-led growth (MLG). Generates leads to drive sales by using a portfolio of marketing communications that include creating content, executing SEO and PPC campaigns, and utilising social media.

Key elements:

• Content marketing: Creating valuable content to attract and retain customers.

• SEO and PPC: Driving traffic through search engines and paid advertising.

• Social media: Engaging with potential customers on social platforms.

Attractiveness to investors:

• Pros: Scalable, data-driven approach, can create brand awareness.

• Cons: Requires significant upfront investment, results can take time.

🛸 Community-led growth (CLG). Develops a community around the product or service to help it scale. Grows by relying on engagement, word-of-mouth and peer support.

Key elements:

• User communities: Forums, social media groups, user events.

• Advocacy programs: Encouraging users to become brand advocates.

• User-generated content: Leveraging content created by users.

Attractiveness to investors:

• Pros: Strong customer loyalty, organic growth, lower marketing costs.

• Cons: Can be slow to build, requires constant engagement.

🛶 Mixed/hybrid strategies. Blends sales-led, product-led, marketing-led and community-led approaches. Adaptable to the product, market and growth stage.

Key elements:

• Integration of multiple channels: Using sales, marketing, product, and community efforts in tandem.

• Flexibility: Adapting strategies based on performance data and market feedback.

• Synergy: Leveraging the strengths of each approach to maximize growth.

Attractiveness to investors:

• Pros: Balanced approach, mitigates risks, maximizes growth potential.

• Cons: Complex to manage, requires cross-functional alignment.