Introducing a new product or service to the market requires meticulous preparation. A go to market strategy template helps streamline the planning process and reduce risk while helping you develop a clear plan of action.
After launching dozens of services, products, and businesses over the years, these are my top recommendations for anyone who needs help getting started.
monday.com: A versatile template for any go to market strategy
monday.com is one of the most flexible project management tools I’ve used. It works for personal use, small teams, and even big brands working on cross-departmental initiatives or managing an entire business.
The free plan includes two seats, unlimited documents, and over 200+ other templates. It’s not the best free plan out there, but it works to try it out.
Alternatively, try any premium plan for free with a 14-day trial to see if it’s right for your team.
More on monday.com: monday.com Review | monday.com vs Wrike | monday.com vs Airtable.
This is actually just a generic marketing strategy template from monday.com. But it can easily be adapted for go-to-market planning and execution.
It works best for long-term planning that requires team collaboration. If just you and one other person are launching a new product in two weeks, then this template is probably overkill. But if you’re working with a complete team and rolling out a new product or service over the next three to six months, it’s the right level of detail.
I like how it takes you through the process of turning a big-picture goal — like a new product or business idea — into smaller, more attainable tasks.
At that point, you can assign work to your team and keep an eye of the overall progress at a high level in real time.
Users can easily switch between Gantt chart views, tables, and other custom visualizations based on what you’re working on. A product owner, for example, may just want to review the Gantt chart to ensure their launch is on track. Someone on the marketing team, however, may prefer to see a weekly view of all upcoming tasks assigned to them.
One drawback of this template is that it doesn’t come pre-loaded with specific tasks for go-to-market planning. You’ll have to add those in yourself, which can take some time depending on the complexity of your strategy.
But it’s a great place to start if you have a general idea of what you want to do.
ClickUp: Go to market strategy templates
ClickUp is also a complete project management solution for teams of all sizes.
While the free forever plan is designed for individual use, you can use it to unlock hundreds of templates, including two excellent go to market templates.
The first template provides everything you need to develop your concept and bring your new product or service to life. The second is better for team alignment in the early planning stages. You could potentially use both, starting with the second template and adding in the first whenever you’re ready to start assigning work.
More on ClickUp: ClickUp Review | ClickUp vs monday.com | ClickUp vs Notion.
Template 1: An advanced option for complex product launches
This template works best if you want to plan and execute your go-to-market strategy from the same platform. ClickUp makes it really easy to start with an idea and validate it before defining all the steps required to launch it.
It works just as well for B2C and B2B, including physical products, services, moving into new markets, or coming up with business ideas.
To start, the template helps you fine-tune product positioning in a way that resonates with your customers and stands out from your competition.
From there, you can break down a six or 12-month plan into simpler, more attainable steps. Complex launches don’t feel quite as intimidating when you segment everything into stages and clearly defined steps like this.
ClickUp has a built-in goal-setting feature that’s included for free with this template.
You can set clear objectives and timelines for every stage, and ClickUp will automatically track your team’s progress along the way.
You’ll benefit from advanced features like dependency warnings and the ability to adjust assignments on the fly. ClickUp also lets you identify KPIs to measure success, like customer acquisition costs and CLV, so you can track key data even after your product hits the market.
Template 2: A simpler choice to ensure high-level team alignment
This ClickUp template is designed to take an idea and put it on paper. It’s a simple way for business leaders and project managers to clearly communicate goals while assigning ownership to different team members.
You can use it for new product launches, new service offerings, and even overhauls of your existing products.
While you have the option to take this template and turn it into a full project within ClickUp, it’s not necessary. It’s more of a one or two-page resource that anyone on your team can reference any time they feel lost or like they’re missing necessary context.
This template can also work well for quick pitches and proposals.
For example, a department head or product manager could use it to present an idea to company executives and other decision-makers.
It’s worth noting that this lacks a competitive analysis section that you’ll find with similar templates. You won’t be able to define major tasks and break everything up into distinct project phases, either.
But you don’t necessarily need both of those things for simpler product rollouts.
Plus, you can start with this template to get your ideas out and ensure everyone involved understands what you’re trying to accomplish before moving on to a more advanced option.
Go to market strategy templates for Excel and Google Sheets
You don’t have to use an all-in-one project management solution to write a go-to-market strategy. Excel or Google Sheets is totally fine if you just want to put your ideas in writing or only have a few tasks to keep track of.
While you’ll miss out on a lot of the big picture tracking and team collaboration features, many teams get by just fine.
Template 1: A flexible go to market budgeting spreadsheet
Promoting your new product or service is a big part of a successful launch. This free template from Smartsheet helps you accomplish two main things — it forces you to plan your promotional strategy while also ensuring costs are under control.
I like this layout because it covers a lot of information without feeling overwhelming.
To start, you’ll define goals and primary target markets for each channel. From there, you can plan everything out, and allocate your budget in different ways.
You may put some of your promotional budget to a trade show or industry event to build awareness before you launch. But you don’t want social media ads to start until the launch happens. This template makes planning all of that a breeze.
One of the most helpful features is the ability to track planned vs actual costs. When you spend money, you can enter the details and it’ll automatically calculate everything for you.
The downside of this template is that it’s fairly limited. It won’t work for running a competitive analysis or creating a valuable proposition. It’s also not intended for team collaboration and ongoing task management.
But you can use it in conjunction with another strategy template, add on to it, or use it in isolation to manage your budget.
Template 2: A simple go to market strategy checklist
This template is a great starting point for anyone who is creating a go-to-market strategy for the first time. It includes a predefined list of tasks and elements your strategy should have — all you have to do is go through the list and make sure everything’s taken care of.
Once you open the template in Excel or Google Sheets, you’ll see everything you need to do right away.
You can add additional tasks, remove the ones that don’t make sense, or edit them so they align with what you’re doing. From there, it’s just a matter of assigning ownership, determining your budget, and setting due dates.
You may find it helpful to delete some of the default columns. Research tools and stakeholders, for example, aren’t necessary for a simple checklist.
The key findings and notes columns could also be consolidated into one if you really want to simplify.
My biggest gripe with this template is that it’s not organized into phases. You can either reorganize it or figure out the most logical order of completion on your own.
Despite potential customizations, this template is incredibly easy to use. You can simply mark the action items as done with a single click.
Asana: A highly structured go to market strategy template
Asana is a more rigid alternative to ClickUp and monday.com. While it comes with the same basic features, it lacks flexibility and ability to handle a lot of data. That said, it’s an excellent option to consider for go-to-market strategy planning.
Especially if you want a tool that works right away without a lot of tweaking.
Asana also has the best free plan of the three — it includes ten teammates, unlimited tasks, unlimited projects, unlimited messages, and over 100+ free integrations.
More on Asana: Asana Review | Asana vs ClickUp | Asana vs Jira.
Asana’s GTM strategy template is great for organizing tasks into sequential phases. It’ll help you plan out a new product release, business idea, or product redesign over several months without feeling overwhelmed.
All while ensuring your team stays aligned.
It’s also great if you need to collaborate with people from different departments. You can easily assign tasks to PR specialists, social media managers, and product engineers with task dependencies so everyone can all work together while adhering to the same processes and release schedule.
If other departments use Asana too, they’ll be able to see all of the work assigned to them across every project so nothing gets missed.
Meanwhile, managers, supervisors, and product owners can see everyone’s work at a glance for full visibility.
One of the best features of Asana is milestones — they’ll help you stay on track, celebrate the wins, and keep an eye on things along the way. They also work really well for planning sprints and keeping stakeholders in the loop.
The biggest downside? Asana’s free plan limits you to list, board, and calendar view. For more advanced options, you’ll have to upgrade to a paid tier.
Trello: A simple go to market Kanban board
Trello is one of my favorite free tools for simple, linear projects. Whether you’re working with a team or by yourself, its simplicity is refreshing and it’s one of those tools that doesn’t get in your way.
You can onboard your entire team for free and collaborate on up to ten Kanban boards without paying a dime.
More on Trello: Trello Review | Trello vs Pipedrive | Trello vs Jira.
The best part of Trello is that it doesn’t take much to get started. You don’t have to spend hours tweaking different views or setting anything up — it just works from day one.
This template comes preloaded with sample go to market tasks you can keep, delete, or edit to match your needs. That plus assigning work to your team and adding due dates are all you need to do to hit the ground running.
Adding new items takes one click and you can keep track of helpful documentation in the first column, making it easy for everyone to find what they need.
When it’s time to move something along, all you have to do is drag and drop it into the appropriate column. It doesn’t get much simpler than that.
Despite its simplicity, there are a few ways you can get more granular if you’d like to. First off, you can add checklist items with their own assignees and due dates. Alternatively, Trello offers power ups that let you create task dependencies, recurring tasks, and other more advanced options.
Trello’s biggest drawback is that all of its other views (timeline, calendar, and list) aren’t great in comparison to other tools. The Kanban board may eventually start to feel cluttered once you have hundreds of tasks moving at the same time.
However, I managed an entire content team publishing dozens of posts per month with it and had no problems.
When to use a go to market strategy template
You can use a go to market strategy template for various situations, including:
- Launching a new offer for your current market.
- Launching an existing offer into new markets.
- Piloting a new or existing offer in a test market.
- Revamping or redesigning an existing offer.
- Starting a new business.
A strong go-to-market strategy can help you establish a clear plan of action while reducing financial risks. Ultimately, they give you the best chance at stopping failures before they start.
They can also help you get your products to market faster and ensure you’re targeting the right audience.
You may not need a go-to-market strategy if you’re releasing a new product skew or slight variation of an existing product. If you already sell t-shirts, you don’t need a GTM strategy each time you come up with a new design, offer tank tops, or add a long sleeves version.
In this case, your offer probably isn’t unique enough to warrant anything special.
If you’re starting a new business, a go to market strategy is not a replacement for a business plan. While your business plan may contain a go-to-market strategy, a GTM strategy alone doesn’t contain everything you need to write a business plan.
How to create a go to market strategy
You can create a go to market strategy from scratch or use something like a template, checklist, or workbook to guide you. Many seasoned product owners know what they need and build their own reusable templates they can fill in any time. Others may need extra guidance the first few times they plan a launch.
Either way, you should end up with at least the following elements:
- A clear definition of your offer.
- Explanation of the problem it solves.
- Ideal customer profiles and buyer personas.
- Competitive research and risk analysis.
- Definition of your unique selling proposition.
- A planned release date and timeline of phases to get you there.
- Pre and post-launch marketing strategies.
You may also need to clean everything up so you can present it to stakeholders or investors too.
