Go-to-Market Strategy examples startups can inherit

GTM strategy examples show how a startup can carve out its niche and break into a competitive market. GTM strategy evolves together with the product as a startup aligns its product-market fit.

• For instance, PhoneWagon is an example of just such a startup that managed to enter an already saturated market. Its aggressive cold phone calls strategy matured later into a more sophisticated sales channel. However, it played an important role in refining PhoneWagon’s value proposition for the target user. As a result, they managed to create a scalable marketing messaging and apply it across several channels.
• In contrast, Via Transportation, labeled as ‘another cheap Uber’, managed to strategically switch to a completely new and different product niche at that time. As a result, Uber’s and Via’s GTM strategies have almost nothing in common.
• UpScope represents GTM strategy examples where a mix of digital marketing channels manages to address the needs of the entire Buyer Center to effectively close a sale. 

In this blog post, we’ll discuss go-to-market strategy examples that your business can try to bring your product to the market.

Via Transportation: GTM strategy examples of strategic differentiation

In 2011, Uber launched as UberCab in New York City, opening new on-demand rides via app market opportunity. In 2012, Via launched its ridesharing offering in New York City. One would think they would be competitors. But Via Transportation quickly carved out its specialized market. Now, its GTM strategy has moved it away from competing with Uber or Lyft. Now its competitors are Ecolane, TripMaster, and PtMS while Uber trying to get into public transit partnership is at the bottom of the list.

Target Audience Differentiation

Taking the problem-solution approach, Uber focused on solving the problem of finding an affordable ride. In contrast, Via saw a bigger problem of congestion in cities, unsustainable transportation networks, and inaccessible transportation for disabled people. So, at the first stage of GTM strategy, Uber and Via target completely different audiences. 

Value Proposition: Strategic Positioning as One of the Go-to-Market strategy examples

Even when, for instance, ViaVan (a collaboration between Mercedes-Benz and Via) launched in London in 2018, news outlets were quick to label it as ‘Another cheap new Uber rival’. But underneath that nickname, there is a completely different approach to solving a transportation problem. 

• After all, Via users cannot get an individual ride, they always share a ride. 
• Users cannot get a ride to their exact pick-up location or destination. Instead, Via gives are given a nearby location where they can wait and a drop-off point in proximity to their destination. 

Single rides are bad for cities while sharing a ride is a sustainable solution for both cities and passengers. 

• Via’s business offering also includes a SaaS solution, whose software can be white-labeled to the customer’s needs. 

Overall, they provide transit solutions to schools, healthcare institutions, corporations, and cities.

Marketing Channels: GTM strategies complete divergence

Via is one of the most innovative GTM strategy examples. Due to its focus on how technology can make cities and commutes better, it carved out a unique market for itself. Also, one can say that Via’s GTM strategy is one of the most strategic go-to-market strategy examples. Via managed to position itself at a uniquely expert level creating a very hard-to-copy value proposition. 

So, if one compares Uber or Lyft vs. Via’s marketing channels, there is likely to be little to no overlap. For instance, Uber and Lyft would focus on social media ads, google ads, and referral programs. For Via, its business development team would opt for personalized pitches when directly approaching customers, seeking out public tenders or Request for Proposals from governments, and participating in industry events. 

UpScope: GTM strategy examples based on modern MarTech

UpScope is an example of quite a comprehensive go-to-market strategy. The initial pain point it aimed to address was allowing support teams to securely connect to customers’ screens and solve their issues. Later, it expanded to onboarding and sales.

Developing Marketing Materials for the Buyer Center

Once UpScope launched and started receiving its first sales, they realized how important it would be to develop marketing materials for the entire Buyer Center. As it turned out, it was not the end user who went to UpScope and signed up for the services, it was the manager. For B2B companies, it is vital to consider the Buyer Center in its GTM strategy. This makes UpScope one of the most valuable go-to-market strategy examples.

UpScope developed a variety of marketing materials for each:

• Blog posts primarily target the Initiator;
• Integration listings aim to attract the Initiator;
• Product walkthroughs are created for the End User;
• Testimonials are useful for the Initiator, Decision-maker, Buyer, and Final Approver;
• Pricing is designed for the Decision-maker and Buyer;
• Demos and live chat are created to address the pain points of the End User, Influencer, and Final Approver.

Marketing Materials Stats – Blog

As you can see the majority of the marketing materials target the Initiator – a manager. The heart of UpScope’s GTM strategy is its blog. Its stats for converting from visitors to sign-ups per day are as follows:

• Total 573 visitors to the blog;
• 26 redirected to the main page with sign up option;
• 3 out of 26 signed up;
• 1 out of 3 will become a Buyer.

So, the conversion from blog to sign-up page at around 4.54%. Out of that, the conversion to Buyer is at around 3.85%. If we look at things globally – conversion from blog visitor to Buyer is 0.17%. 

Now as for purchase size. UpScope is a B2B company and it prices by seats. So, one manager can represent a company with dozens of seats. 

In addition, blogs are a little tricky to track because some visitors would make a couple more returns and sign up later. 

Overall, UpScope used a user journey tracker (oribi.io) to make sense of how its blog generates sales. They realized it was more efficient than they had thought. As for the beginning of 2025, their blog contains slightly over 250 articles. The most interesting part is that the articles that attract the most traffic (twenty of them) are not the ones that make conversions.

Considering the Entire Funnel – Channel Cooperation

Overall, visitors do the target action – the sign-ups – via the main landing page. Several other channels lead to it:

• Google search (terms like co-browsing);
• Integration listings;
• Referrals;
• Third-party posts.

One of the rules of the GTM strategy is to create channel cooperation rather than trying to avoid channel conflict. For instance, a ‘co-browsing’ search query must directly lead to the landing page. However, blog articles can still use this keyword; however, it must be an anchor text leading to the landing page too. As such, the company’s blog helps to establish authority within the search engine that generally ensures higher rankings. 

Further, by plugining integrations into the equation, UpScope integrates with such apps as Zendesk, Amazon Connect, Salesforce, and others. Therefore, imagining a query search ‘co-browsing for Zendesk’, this boosts UpScope’s domain authority as it associates with this query.

Importantly, on-page optimizations can be quite powerful too. The CTR (click-through rate) was increased by improving the landing page by placing a first-person explainer video instead of just a link. The CTR jumped from 4% to 23%.

Targeting the Use Cases and Creating a Sales Narrative

A good GTM strategy always aligns messaging with the customer’s pain points and value proposition. However, it is common in the B2B sector that tool use cases differ from the intended. For UpScope, the solution was developed for support teams. However after launch, the company realized that this tool is also used for online sales and onboarding. So, all marketing materials contain something for each use case. 

Competitors also adopted this strategy due to its effectiveness. For instance, UpScope’s now competitor GlanceCX also aligned its offering with these three use cases and created materials for each. 

PhoneWagon: Cold Phone Calls for a digital B2B startup

UpScope built its marketing around digital tools (google search, blog, etc). In contrast, PhoneWagon’s cold calls are actually still a go-to method for many digital startups. PhoneWagon entered a market that already had a well-established company CallRail. Both companies’ value proposition focused on tracking sales calls. However, while CallRail was a complex and comprehensive offer, PhoneWagon was simple, intuitive, and flexibly priced. 4 years after PhoneWagon’s launch, CallRail negotiated the acquisition deal with them. 

So clearly PhoneWagon’s dynamic GTM strategy entering a competitive market is an example worthy of consideration for your startup. As a side note, CallRail’s marketing is quite similar to UpScope. It focuses on blogs and thought leadership. CallRail does uphold a strong market position, though cold calls have proven to be a powerful break-in strategy.

2,000 cold calls to kick-off your GTM strategy

Here is the founder Rayan Shank who breaks down the first month of launching PhoneWagon.

• He and 1 sales development representative made 2,000 cold calls. These 2,000 are just the dials.
• It translates into about 100 calls per day. 
• Remembering about B2B sales, there is a Buyer Center with different roles. So, out of those 100 daily dials, only 14 would be conversations with Decision-Makers. 
• With Phone Wagon, their phone pitches often resulted in 4 demos scheduled. After all, you need a Decision-Maker to devote more time to see the value of the proposal. 
• Generally, some of the demos are a no-show, so the company will actually conduct 75% of scheduled demos. 
• The close rate is around 30-35%, so they would on average close 1 deal out of 3. 
• The average sale is at 200 US dollars. But it is a subscription model, so it is a Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) of 200 US dollars.

With these metrics, the founder and 1 SDR manager generated $4,000 of MRR. 

Now as for the costs. These numbers are generated by 2 SDRs with a salary of 150,000 US dollars for both of them. So, monthly, PhoneWagon pays $12.5k in salaries to generate $4k in MRR. Therefore, the payback period is slightly over 3 months. After three months, it becomes a positive ROI. 

With some businesses, the payback period is on average around 6 to 12 months. 

GTM strategy maturation

PhoneWagon as one of GTM strategy examples showcased the efficiency of cold calling. Cold calls are a great start for generating first sales. In addition, having personal contact with target users gives a company valuable feedback. SaaS businesses often can effectively utilize cold calls as a part of their Discovery Phase and adjust their product-market fit. Some other companies that used cold calls as part of their Discovery Phase are HubSpot, Stripe, Slack, SalesForce, Calendly, and many others. It is always useful to ensure your startup gets to have a lean Discovery Phase.

Later, the company will refine its offering and diversify its marketing channels to inbound marketing, partnerships, and digital advertising. These channels are easily scaled which is why they are great at a growth stage. However, these channels are ‘blind’ compared to cold calls. They offer little to no insight into why some customers would not convert or how the target customer perceives the product value. This is why these channels need to be backed by a personal direct marketing approach. It ensures the offer is refined for scaling to avoid wasting resources.  

Overall, a mature GTM strategy includes a collection of channels as shown in the picture below. Notably, there is also a distinction between cold calling and warm calling. In addition, there is a negative connotation with cold calling if utilized by mature companies. This is why cold calling is thought of more as a starter/launcher technique. Next, a great recommendation is to personalize these calls as much as possible, moving them effectively into the warm calling category.

Final Thoughts

GTM strategy examples can help your startup navigate the myriad of choices available today. In our article “What is a GTM (Go To Market) strategy and how startups can use it?”, we outlined general principles. However, it is always useful to see how the GTM strategy is implemented in practice. 

Some go-to-market strategy examples showcased how cold calling can be effective in launching a startup. However, it was also quite aligned with the nature of the PhoneWagon value proposition. They offered services for managing sales calls and they did them to step into target customer’s shoes. But yet, calling target customers is often a great way to refine product-market fit during the Discovery Phase. 

Other go-to-market strategy examples start with strategically selecting the value proposition. This automatically changes the target audience and calls for completely different marketing channels. Via Transportation chose to differentiate from Uber and similar companies and entered a specialized expert market working with businesses and governments instead of individual riders. 

More GTM strategy examples utilize more modern martech opting for blog and thought leadership along with other channels. UpScope effectively implements an example of such a GTM strategy.

FAQ: Go-to-Market Strategy Examples for Startups