How to Create a GTM Strategy for Software-as-a-Service Companies
Check out how to design a go-to-market strategy for software-as-a-service companies
Building a successful Software-as-a-Service product is only half the battle.
The real challenge lies in taking your solution to market and convincing people to spend money on it.
That’s where a go-to-market strategy comes in. With smart planning, deep market research, and continuous adaption, your GTM plan can maximize your chances of standing out in a competitive digital landscape.
What’s a go-to-market strategy?
A GTM strategy is your roadmap for introducing your SaaS product to the world and driving sustainable growth. It breaks down your target audience, defines your value proposition, and outlines how to reach out to and convert leads to clients.
While a startup’s go-to-market focuses on finding product-market fit and an SMB’s go-to-market builds on existing traction, an SaaS company’s GTM needs to balance customer acquisition, retention, and recurring revenue from day 1 (especially if they haven’t figured out their product-market fit yet).
A successful SaaS go-to-market strategy touches on several points:
- Who you’re building the product for
- Who you’re selling the product to
- Which pain points your product solves
- Which tactics to use for marketing your SaaS solution
- Which touchpoints to use with customers
SaaS companies have to view their GTM strategy as an ongoing plan that evolves alongside their products.
Who needs a go-to-market strategy?
Every successful business needs a GTM plan, whether it’s launching a new product, entering a new market, and scaling an existing offer.
In the case of traditional businesses selling physical products, they might focus on one-time, repeat, or same-store sales, depending on the product.
But for SaaS companies, they have to rely on recurring revenue. This means attracting the right users and figuring out ways to keep them engaged long-term.
Here’s a closer look at the focus and tasks of an SaaS company’s GTM based on the stage they’re at in their lifecycle.
| Focus | Tasks | |
| Early-stage SaaS (pre-revenue) | Validating product-market fit | Collect extensive feedback to identify customers, continuously iterate, and attract new users. Relying on product-led and community-driven growth |
| Growth-stage SaaS (scaling stage) | Expansion into new markets | Invest in inbound and outbound sales, optimize marketing channels, and experiment with pricing. Using multichannel approaches and partnerships |
| Mature SaaS | Brand strengthening | Prioritize complex enterprise deals that require longer sales cycles and in-depth onboarding programs. Ensuring consistent messaging across regions and channels |
Without a clear GTM strategy, SaaS businesses risk slow adoption, high churn, and inefficient customer acquisition.
How do SaaS companies benefit from a strong GTM strategy?
SaaS companies benefit from a strong GTM strategy by creating a clear plan to attract customers, turn them into paying users, and retain them long-term.
Big-name companies like Slack, Loom, and HubSpot demonstrate how a good GTM approach can drive a company’s growth from its early stages to a mature, thriving enterprise.
Here are some of the key benefits of figuring out your GTM strategy as early as possible (don’t worry though if it’s not fully ironed out as you’ll need to consistently update your GTM based on what’s working and what’s not):
- Helps the product find its market faster – A GTM strategy places research and customer feedback at the core of product development, letting you validate and adjust features more quickly, and find product-market fit faster.
- Promotes efficient conversions to paid customers – A GTM strategy helps you identify the most effective channels and messaging to convert free (trial or freemium) users into paying subscribers.
- Maximizes customer lifetime value (CLV) – GTM strategies help you understand which engagement tactics work best to attract, retain, and upsell users.
- Reduces spending – A GTM plan helps you focus on the demographics, features, and marketing campaigns that yield the highest returns so you don’t waste your budget on ineffective initiatives.
- Facilitates scalability – Your GTM can be repurposed as a success framework, allowing you to use it across different SaaS products and market expansions.
- Builds strong brand presence – A GTM strategy aligns all aspects of your business (from product positioning to customer support) to build trust and differentiate your company from competitors.
- Propels long-term success – A GTM plan helps you capitalize on successful launches, establish long-term customer relationships, and adapt to market demands.
While many of these benefits apply to other types of companies, there are certain factors at play that make a GTM strategy especially critical for SaaS businesses.
What makes a GTM for SaaS businesses unique?
Here are some key factors that differentiate a SaaS GTM plan from plans that a startup or SMB might make.
- Recurring revenue focus – To get profitable, SaaS businesses need to sustain and expand customer relationships long after signing up. This requires the GTM strategy to detail how to engage users, upsell, and reduce churn.
- Retention programs – A SaaS GTM strategy must include retention programs, such as proactive customer-success outreach or loyalty incentives. For example, if you offer a freemium tier, your messaging must provide compelling reasons to upgrade.
- Product-led onboarding – Most SaaS providers with subscription-based pricing depend on post-purchase support to retain customers. The GTM must outline efforts to enhance the user experience with helpful prompts, walkthroughs, and direct support.
- Agile iteration – Shorter development sprints and continuous deployment mean your solution can evolve faster. SaaS GTM strategies should explain how you’ll market new features and help users adopt new functionality.
- Integrated ecosystems – SaaS solutions typically don’t operate in isolation and, instead, integrate with other tools and platforms. SaaS GTM strategies should plan partnerships with major CRMs, productivity suites, and communication platforms.
Elements of an SaaS GTM strategy
A successful SaaS GTM strategy highlights your target market, customer needs, and any additional information needed to position your product.
Target market
Identify competing companies and industry verticals to determine whether your SaaS product fits specific industries. Address compliance requirements, cultural fit, and pricing differences between your product and competitors, as well as across target industries, before entering the market.
Examples
- Dropbox targeted professionals needing a simple way to share files. Its freemium model attracted early adopters, such as remote workers, students, and small businesses, who eventually became brand advocates who helped drive growth through referrals.
- Shopify focused on small and medium-sized e-commerce businesses that wanted an affordable storefront solution.
Buyer persona & ideal customer profile
A SaaS GTM strategy should include an ideal customer profile that forms the foundation of your marketing and development efforts.
SaaS products often serve multiple audience segments with distinct pain points and preferences.
However, in the early days, SaaS companies should determine which segments will lead to the greatest revenue and focus on them. Then as they enter their growth-stage, they’ll start targeting more ICPs.
Examples
- Salesforce appeals to several customer types: sales reps (end users) and senior decision-makers (budget holders).
- Pipedrive markets its solution to sales teams, addressing frustrations such as manual lead tracking and complicated follow-ups.
Unique value proposition & product positioning
A unique value proposition (UVP) answers the question, “Why should customers choose your SaaS product over competitors’?”
It’s more than a feature list though. It should appeal to both emotion and logic as a strong GTM plan describes the unique benefits of your product and the outcomes it will produce for customers.
Examples
- Loom emphasizes fast asynchronous communication, describing its instant video messaging as a major time-saver for remote and hybrid teams.
- DocuSign highlights the exceptional security of its e-signature tool, branding itself as “the most trusted software company in America.”
- Notion combines multiple tools into a single digital workspace, focusing its UVP on keeping teams and individuals organized.
Pricing model
Your SaaS pricing strategy impacts perceived value, accessibility, and profitability. Popular pricing models include flat-rate, freemium, usage-based, and tier-based pricing.
The model you choose will depend on who signs up and how they engage with your product. For instance, free tiers attract small businesses and individuals, who may later upgrade for advanced features, while enterprises often prefer a large suite of tools with management capabilities.
Examples
- Zoom offers a free plan that allows 40-minute video conferences, enticing users to explore Pro features (like longer video calls and more participants).
- Dropbox, Google Drive, and iCloud provide limited free storage tiers, encouraging upgrades as users require more space.
Sales strategy
A GTM plan should outline exactly how to reach your audiences.
Define when to use inbound versus outbound sales strategies, which tactics resonate best with different customer segments, and which communication channels are most effective.
Examples
- Slack leveraged social media and user feedback across multiple channels to grow.
- Workday relied on a partnership program to spread its SaaS solution through co-selling and referrals.
Marketing channels
Specify the tactics and tools you’ll use to engage your audience, educate them about your SaaS solution, and build brand awareness.
Leverage SEO, landing pages, blogs, whitepapers, and research. Strategies can evolve based on engagement metrics.
Examples
- HubSpot combines educational content (e.g. blog posts, e-books, courses) with inbound marketing expertise, establishing itself as a thought leader for inbound strategies.
- Userpilot uses community engagement (e.g. webinars, social media, demos) to showcase value and build brand awareness.
Key performance indicators
Key performance indicators (KPIs) measure how effectively your campaigns drive business outcomes.
KPIs should align with your product, pricing model, and business goals to identify the most profitable channels and strategies and highlight areas for improvement.
Examples
- Dropbox monitors free-to-paid user conversions and average storage consumption and measures its referral program’s success by tracking signups from existing users.
- Vidyard tracks trial-to-paid conversions for different personas (e.g. sales versus marketing teams) to refine features and educational materials.
Budget allocation
Describe how you’ll use your budget for your GTM strategy. Decide how to allocate funds across multiple communication channels, automation tools, and CRM platforms to maximize returns.
Examples
- Salesforce invests heavily in events like Dreamforce to strengthen its ecosystem and maintain authority among enterprise clients.
- Castellum AI allocated funds to AiSDR-powered outreach to their inbound lead lists.
Steps to create a GTM strategy for your SaaS business
To be clear, SaaS companies can approach GTM planning any way they like. However, you will have a much easier time following a solid process and using proven tools, as described below.
Define your target audience
Identify the key audiences who will benefit from your solution. Then, determine the problems and needs of your core segments.
This step requires extensive market research and internal data from testers or active users. You might conduct a series of A/B tests to refine which demographics show the strongest engagement and conversion.
Tools to use
- AiSDR offers a comprehensive prospecting toolkit that finds leads who potentially have an appetite for your solution based on search queries and intent signals.
- ZoomInfo and similar B2B databases can help pinpoint potential partners within defined verticals.
- HubSpot centralizes and analyzes customer data from your services, software, and marketing tools.
Clarify your value proposition
Present your solution as the most effective way to resolve customer pain points and urgent needs. For instance, if your SaaS targets remote teams, emphasize how it fosters seamless communication and project visibility.
Make your statement concise and impactful. Slogans like “Slack is where work happens” or Mailchimp’s “Send better email & sell more stuff” immediately tell potential customers what to expect.
Tools to use
- AiSDR allows you to read the websites of your current customers and refine your messaging to target different audiences and market segments.
- A value proposition canvas graphically maps your product’s value to customer pain points to help you craft a compelling proposition.
Choose a pricing model
Your pricing should reflect its value and generate profit. Decide if you’ll charge per user (seat-based), by data usage (usage-based), or via feature bundles (tiered).
Appropriate pricing is critically important. If a price point is too high, you may struggle to attract customers. However, undervaluing your SaaS product risks leaving revenue on the table.
To strike a balance, research what users gain from your SaaS and what competitors offer. Ensure each plan (or tier) clearly explains what users pay for.
Tools to use
- ProfitWell is a business intelligence solution that helps analyze and gauge tier performance, determine perceived value for subscription types, and survey users.
- Competera helps SaaS companies track competitors and suggest price optimizations based on market data.
Set your KPIs
The metrics you prioritize depends on your business goals. Depending on your strategy, these might include customer acquisition cost, churn rate, or time-to-activation.
One approach is using SMART criteria, i.e. making KPIs specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely. Regularly reviewing metrics helps you adapt your GTM strategy to market changes.
Tools to use
- AiSDR helps you score and qualify leads so you can run targeted GTM plays at them, such as new hires.
- ChartMogul and similar analytical tools let you analyze data about your subscriber base and display results in intuitive dashboards.
Select a marketing approach and messaging
Define how you’ll reinforce your value proposition and make your brand memorable. Decide how to distribute resources between outbound and inbound marketing, and choose tools to personalize your messaging.
Your messaging should remain consistent. Define brand guidelines and core messaging pillars to ensure your company’s story and UVP stay uniform across channels.
Tools to use
- AiSDR personalizes messages and follow-ups using email frameworks and lead data from multiple sources.
- Copy.ai streamlines SEO content production, generates account-specific insights, and codifies GTM practices.
- Mailchimp automates email messaging, drip campaigns, and announcements for your users.
Pick your channels
Use customer analytics, surveys, and other business intelligence to determine the best ways to engage your audience. For example, LinkedIn groups may work well for enterprise SaaS buyers, whereas Twitter and Instagram marketing works better for B2C companies.
Experiment with different platforms to gauge results, but avoid spreading your efforts too thin. Concentrate your investment on marketing channels that yield the best results.
Tools to use
- AiSDR can help you reach leads through email, social media, review platforms, and in-app notifications (using data from LinkedIn, B2B databases, and more).
- Custom ad tools for Google and Facebook can target intent-driven customers and niche leads effectively.
Launch, solicit feedback, and iterate your product
SaaS products require continuous monitoring and refinement, and sometimes multiple launches. Technological advances can shift markets rapidly — it’s crucial to monitor customers and leads so you can respond with timely updates.
We recommend evaluating all customers. Encourage users to share feedback so you’ll know if there are issues with your product’s features, your onboarding process, or your customer service.
Tools to use
- Google Analytics monitors user behavior and statistics across your pages, showing which events lead to conversions.
- SurveyMonkey and ProProfs make it easier to gather user feedback through polls, surveys, or detailed questionnaires.
Common mistakes SaaS companies make with their GTM strategy
Missteps in planning and executing their GTM strategy can lead to SaaS companies burning resources or experiencing slower growth than expected.
Weak value proposition
If the advantages of your SaaS are vague or overly technical, users won’t understand why they need it. Ensure your GTM strategy articulates why your product is superior to competing SaaS solutions (e.g. its usability, features, and price).
Ignoring customer feedback
If your product fails to evolve with your users’ needs, churn will spike because users will seek more responsive alternatives. Your GTM strategy should emphasize how you’ll gather and implement changes based on continuous feedback.
Poor coordination between sales and marketing
Sales and marketing teams operating in silos will deliver inconsistent messaging to prospects. Your GTM strategy should ensure consistent messaging, shared goals, and unified data insights to present a cohesive value proposition.
Lack of innovative marketing
The SaaS market is highly competitive, and competitors may adopt marketing tactics you neglect. Sticking with outdated marketing methods (e.g. overly aggressive outbound emails or outdated website designs) can stifle growth.
Overinvestment in features
More functionality doesn’t always mean more value for customers. Validate new features with beta testing and prioritize updates that directly benefit customers who fit your ideal customer profile.
Overlooking expansion and retention
An SaaS GTM strategy should focus on retaining existing customers as much as acquiring new ones. Track the right KPIs, analyze what’s causing churn, and continuously test new acquisition and re-targeting campaigns.
Underinvesting in onboarding
Customers may decide whether they find value in your SaaS product within the first few days of using it. Design onboarding journeys that highlight key features for each user segment, provide clear tutorials, and invest in robust customer support.
Overly complicated pricing
Complex tiered pricing structures and hidden fees can alienate existing and potential customers. Transparent pricing and refund policies make you much more trustworthy in customer’s eyes.
