Want the short version?

Going full-in on a GTM launch when you’re a startup is like going all-in on the number 1 in roulette. You might win, but the odds are overwhelmingly against you.

Instead, adopt our two-pass approach to GTM, where you launch micro campaigns to gather information (i.e., find out which numbers the roulette is rigged for, because in business it’s always rigged) and only then go all-in on the information you know will increase your success.

We don’t often start our articles with riddles, but this time I’ll make an exception.

Suppose you’re stuck in a cave and you have a small pouch of coins. (Don’t worry about how we got here, just go with it for now.)

Naturally you want to leave the cave, but there’s no one way out. Instead, in front of you, there are 5 or so different tunnels, each of which is locked by a gate that takes in coins.

The rules of the game are, presumably, feed coins into gate, it will open, and you’ll be freed.

The problem is…

You don’t know which tunnel is the right one that leads out the cave, and you also don’t know how many coins you should feed into a gate to get it to open.

Sound like a conundrum?

Well, I’m sure we could all spend hours debating what’s the best strategy to solve the puzzle and maximize your chances of success.

But here’s something we can all most definitely agree on: Step 1 is NOT to pick the gate closest to you and feed it all your coins.

And yet, as ridiculous as that may sound, it’s a mistake that we’ve seen so many entrepreneurs make. So, we’re writing this post as the beginning of our official startup marketing playbook—a living library that’s designed for startups specifically, not reworked from templates that big brands use.

If you’re looking for something that’s tailored for you, built in the trenches, and designed to accompany you on the road from absolute 0 to your first few million dollars in revenue (whether you’re VC-backed or bootstrapped), then you’re in the right place.

Let’s begin.

Welcome to Entrepreneurship

You’re officially in a dark cave, with a pouch of coins, and 5 (sometimes more) gated tunnels in front of you.

You want to get out of the dark cave and step into the light of profits, glory, and achievement.

But, alas, you find yourself in a pickle.

As a startup, whether your pouch is on the smaller (bootstrapped) or larger (VC-backed) side, you’re always starting from 0.

Because it doesn’t matter how many coins you have. You still don’t know two very important things:

• which tunnel leads out of the cave
• how many coins you need to feed into a gate to get it to open

Except in the real world, it’s not about actual tunnels and gates. It’s about target audiences. And here’s what we mean by this.

GTM Debunked

Most startups start their marketing journey with a go-to-market (GTM) strategy.

That is, a detailed document that explains:

• who you’re going after (ideal buyer persona)
• what your messaging is (ideally with hooks and offers, too)
• how you’re going to reach your audience (media mix, content plan, etc.)

They add on content calendars and planners, social media managers, maybe paid ads—and start the journey.

The problem is, when you’re a new business, you don’t actually know who you’re going after, what messaging works, and how to reach your audience.

Everything in that document is 100% a guess. It might be an educated guess, based on research, other peoples’ experiences, competitors, etc., but it’s still a guess.

And that means that there’s no guarantee of success, because:

• you might be going after the wrong audience
• you might be going after the right audience with the wrong messaging
• you might be going after the right audience with the right messaging and on the wrong platform

And going all-in on your GTM strategy at this stage is exactly like using all your coins on one gate in the tunnel riddle.

You have no real information, and you’re essentially relying on luck to succeed.

Does this mean that GTM strategies are useless?

No, of course not.

What we’re saying is that, if you’re a startup, a GTM strategy is premature.

Unless you’ve done the work to actually know and identify who your target audience of paying clients is, and you have at least a basic idea of how to reach them and what to say—then you’re not ready for a GTM strategy.

What you need is a pre-GTM strategy, or what we at GBB Media like to call the “first-pass” layer of your entry to market.

The First Pass

Come back to the cave with me for a second.

You still have all your coins, there are still 5 gates in front of you. But now, you have a different approach.

Having counted your coins, you realize they’re 15. So, what would happen if you used up 1-2 on each gate, just to see what happens?

The possibilities are these:

• all 5 gates open up
• none of the 5 gates open up
• some of the 5 gates open up

If none of the gates opens up, then you’ll need to rethink your life choices with your remaining coins at hand.

But if one or more of the gates opens up, then you’ll have the opportunity to explore the tunnels until you find the right one.

In your business’s case, the chances are overwhelmingly more in favor of at least one gate opening up—or one target audience actually being receptive and responsive to you. (We’re assuming, of course, that you pick target audiences that would be interested in your business, which is a perfectly reasonable assumption.)

So, by doing the “first pass” of coins, in which you test for a reaction with fewer resources than your maximum, you’re able to get much more information that can inform your next steps.

And that’s what we recommend to all startups.

Your New GTM Approach

First, do a first pass (aka pre-GTM) on your potential audiences.

1. Make a list of several different potential target audiences. Start from your total addressable market and niche down into groups. Consider niching down even further to find segments within groups that are more likely to buy than others.
2. Execute short (2-4 week), targeted campaigns on those target audiences. You can do one at a time or several at once, depending on your budget or runway. You can also choose to do organic only, or both organic and paid. But in order for your test to generate useful data, you must invest in volume—we’ll cover this in more detail in a later post.
3. Collect and analyze data from your micro-tests. Identify who converted, what converted them, and where to focus more of your resources. Note that a conversion isn’t necessarily a sale; it’s a reaction or expression of interest. (You’re rarely going to get anything more than that for these kinds of short bursts, especially in B2B.)

Then, with the information from your first-pass, you can build your full-scale GTM strategy. The only difference between before and now is, you’re not guessing. You have actual data that you’ve tested, and you know that investing your coins in this gate will lead to a result you want.

By the By

Even though startups are the main focus of this post, even if you’re an established company with consistent revenue, this approach still applies to you.

If you’ve been generating business through referrals, in-person events, or other methods that don’t have to do with reaching out to a cold audience, then you’re in the same boat as startups entering the market when you do begin the cold audience nurture process.

Coming Up

We’ll be sharing exactly how we undergo the process we shared for a fictionalized version of one of our cybersecurity clients. Follow our series and the journey of Talon Consulting here.

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