Your marketing communication is directly linked to how your audience sees you and has the ability to form opinions about your business – both, positive and negative, even before you directly engage with your clients. The traditional go-to-market strategy looks at the link between product and customers, product features, price and promotion techniques – but if you are looking to make your go-to-market strategy a competitive advantage for your business, here are a few questions that can help you define it:

Who is your customer?

Before you do anything, be clear on who are you communicating with. Define the key demographic criteria and the interests of your audience. Consider defining factors such as their key pain points, look at what motivates them and how do they communicate. These factors will impact the messaging you use and the way you distribute the message.

Equally important is the stage of their buying journey as it impacts the level of education required about your products and services. You will be able to establish that through their interaction with your business and their role. Defining your key buyer personas and their standard behaviours and interests can enable you to create targeted communication strategies.

What is the value proposition?

In order to be understood by your audience, you will need to be clear on your value proposition and how your business affects the prospective client. It’s not just about the features of your services, but the impact it has and the difference between your business and your competitors. This is what makes you stand out and proves to your potential clients that they should stop looking any further. Be clear, easy to understand and link your value proposition to their key issues and interests.

Once you defined your value proposition, tell everyone. Include it in all your communication, social media, your website – where ever you can. It will educate those who don’t know you and remind those who do.

What results can you show?

Trust sells. If you can demonstrate that you have a proven track record of delivering results, this will add credibility and build trust with potential clients. Your audience will form their views based on the success of your business and its reputation. Collect data, feedback, testimonials, ask for recommendations and connect your potential clients with existing ones. Nothing sells better than a recommendation.

Put together a portfolio of successful projects that you delivered and speak up about all the success you had. If you are unable to list client names, explain it, but still showcase the work you have done.

What stories can you tell?

Storytelling is a very effective communication tool. Everyone loves a good story. As you are sharing real life scenarios, your audience will be able to relate to the aspects of the story and learn through your experience. Even better if you can link them to real names and numbers. Stories are also more likely to be remembered as well as shared, which means you will be able to get and keep your client’s interest for longer.