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Go To Market strategy: Your pathway to a successful 2025

Writer's picture: michellechristinezmichellechristinez

New Years Eve celebrations
Credit: Destination NSW

The sun is setting on the second last day of 2024. The magic window between Christmas and New Year's celebrations is a perfect opportunity to reflect, plan, and set your intentions for a happy and prosperous year ahead.


For small businesses, the return to the office after celebratory rest and relaxation is the perfect opportunity to bring the leadership team together. Creating a safe space to share reflections and revitalise goals can re-energise teams, and help make decisions on what you will change, stop doing or start to do. 


Key focus areas for you to deep dive into include:


  1. What is the Vision, Mission, and Key Priorities for the Organisation?

    • For founders and small businesses, the lean canvas is a brilliant way to bring together all the core elements of your business strategy on one page.

    • For larger or more mature businesses, I recommend the business model canvas which provides more detail and allows for greater complexity.


  1. What is Competitive Positioning?

    • You are likely already familiar with the SWOT analysis, which draws out both your internal and external opportunities and threats, in addition to this, the Porters 5 Forces Model, coined in 1979, is instrumental in understanding how your business operates within a select industry. In particular, the model draws out the buying power of both the consumer and the supplier, the threat or risk potential of new entrants, existing products or services, and finally, the rivalry that exists amongst the current competitors.


  1. Do We Have Internal Alignment?

    • The McKinsey 7s model is an easy-to-use framework to help you assess how well each of your teams are aligned and set up to collaborate and drive successful outcomes. The 7s include Structure, Strategy and Systems, coupled with Skills, Style, Staff, and Shared Values. By setting up an ideal benchmark for each pillar and assessing each team's alignment to the pillars and gaps that exist, it is then possible to work towards a change management plan to drive optimal organisational design.


  1. What are Our Priority Products and are We Focused on Competing in an Existing Market or are We Creating a New Market? 

    • The Boston Growth Matrix is a great way to prioritise products from a portfolio and make decisions on investment. Essentially, products are grouped into 

      • Cash Cows: Low Growth, High Share. These products should be "milked" for all their potential and cash used to reinvest. 

      • Stars: High Growth, High Share. Companies should significantly invest in these “stars” as they have high future potential. 

      • Question Marks: High Growth, Low Share. With these products, there are still questions that need to be addressed urgently. If a roadmap to turn them into a star exists, then reinvest. If there is no roadmap to growth, discard. 

      • Pets: Low Share, Low Growth: These products are often loved however in the case of business, companies should liquidate, divest, or reposition these “pets”.

    • The Blue Ocean Strategy is designed to create new markets, categories, and opportunities. Think Apple iPad, Birds Eye frozen vegetables, and Uber for instance. This is about changing the game for an industry.

    • From a marketing lens, my favourite assessment is always the 4Pcs (Product, Price, Place and Promotion) overlayed with the 4Cs (Consumer, Cost, Convenience and Communication) as it provides clarity on what your customers really want and need, and how your marketing plan is aligned to this.


  1. How will We Go to Market?

The assessment of the channels you harness to take a product to market is ripe for discovery. In this pillar, you are looking to complete 7 key steps:

  • Identify your target audience: Empathy mapping and a customer persona overview are essential at this step.

  • Define your value proposition: My golden rule here is that if you can take out your brand name and substitute any other company for it to ring true, then you are yet to articulate your unique value and advantage.

  • Set clear objectives: The SMART framework is advantageous at this step.

  • Develop your marketing plan: In the marketing plan, you should build clarity on priority communication channels, messaging, content and the customer journey.

  • Build your sales pipeline: This can be difficult at first as you need to be able to agree on what the process will be for identifying and converting leads, the resources needed, and what the exact definitions are for each sales stage. This information will be used to set up your CRM system and engagement across the entire business. This stage takes time and collaboration.

  • Develop your pricing strategy: You can achieve this by including subscription models, one-time-purchase and loyalty programs. 

  • Measure and Optimise: Tracking progress to goals is important and should be reviewed regularly. Building a dashboard and a consistent framework for reporting assessment and course correction will help keep teams aligned and inspired for growth.


There are many more models we could explore and draw upon. I would love to hear from you about your top strategic models and frameworks! And of course, if you need help to build your go-to-market strategy or chat about how a fractional CXO would help your organisation grow, reach out to me in 2025!





From my family to yours, Have the most magical and happy New Year!!



New Years eve celebrations
Credit: Destination NSW

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