Growing SaaS

August 28, 2025

Go-To-Market vs Marketing Strategy: The Mistake That Stalls Early-Stage SaaS

Founders love talking about “marketing strategy.” But here’s the truth: in the early days, most don’t need one. What they really need is a go-to-market (GTM) strategy.

Mix those two up, and here’s what happens:

  • You burn three months writing blogs that rank for nothing.
  • You spend $10k on ads targeting “mid-market tech companies” (aka no one).
  • Your SDRs blast cold emails at VPs who were never your buyers.

And then you wonder: why isn’t growth working? It’s not because marketing failed. It’s because GTM was never clear.

What GTM Looks Like When Done Right

One SaaS team we worked with thought their ICP was “startups with 50+ employees.” On paper it sounded fine. In practice that’s not an ICP, that’s a category.

Their outbound flopped. Their content was generic. Their investors started pushing for “more marketing.”

When we studied their first 12 paying customers, a pattern emerged: every single one was an ops manager in a logistics company wrestling with compliance chaos.

That was the wedge. That was the ICP.

We rebuilt the GTM around it:

  • Outbound landed 3x more meetings because we spoke the buyer’s actual pain.
  • Website messaging finally clicked (“Cut compliance hours in half,” not “Boost productivity”).
  • Investor calls got sharper because the story shifted from “we sell to mid-market tech” to “we win with freight ops teams drowning in compliance.”

That’s GTM. Specific. Tactical. Rooted in who buys first.

What a GTM Strategy Is (And Isn’t)

A GTM strategy answers five blunt questions:

  1. Who is in urgent pain right now?
  2. Why is our product the fix today, not next year?
  3. Where do these people spend time (email, LinkedIn, Slack groups, events)?
  4. How do we get in front of them quickly?
  5. How do we move them from “never heard of us” to “fine, let’s try it”?

It is not:

  • A brand campaign
  • An SEO roadmap
  • A content calendar

That’s marketing.

What Marketing Strategy Looks Like

Once GTM is nailed, marketing kicks in.

Marketing is the long-term growth engine. It scales the clarity GTM gives you.

This is where you:

  • Build an inbound engine with SEO and content
  • Run nurture campaigns for long-cycle buyers
  • Invest in community and brand lift
  • Launch retention and upsell plays

Marketing compounds. But if you start building it before GTM is clear, you’re putting fuel into a car with no wheels.

GTM vs Marketing: In the Field

Here’s how it shows up with real founders we’ve worked with:

  • Founder A (Pre-seed): Said they “needed SEO.” Problem was no one knew what keywords to chase. We ran a GTM play: narrowed ICP, found the wedge (“contractors losing margins from rework”), and tested outbound. Once we saw traction, content had a point.
  • Founder B (Seed): Spent $15k on LinkedIn ads. Wrong ICP. Wrong message. Dashboards looked healthy; pipeline was empty. We reset GTM: ops leads in freight companies with compliance chaos. Outbound started hitting. Then marketing made sense.
  • Founder C (Series A): Outbound had worked but was flattening. That was the time to layer marketing: SEO, content, brand plays, community. But it only worked because their GTM was already clear.

Notice the sequence: GTM first, Marketing second.

When You Actually Need a GTM

You need a GTM when:

  • Launching a new product or core feature
  • Entering a new vertical or geography
  • Targeting a new ICP
  • Moving from founder-led sales to repeatable sales
  • Growth has stalled and you can’t explain why

If the rules of the game change, you need a GTM. If you’re just running campaigns or experimenting with content, that’s marketing.

What Happens When Founders Confuse the Two

When GTM and marketing get blurred, founders end up with:

  • Messaging that tries to hit everyone, so it hits no one
  • SDRs emailing random personas with no luck
  • Websites that look polished but don’t convert
  • Content teams asking: “Who are we even writing for?”
  • Funnels that look busy on top but are empty on the bottom

This is why most early-stage SaaS companies don’t have a marketing problem. They have a GTM clarity problem.

How They Work Together

You don’t choose between GTM and marketing. You sequence them.

  1. GTM first: Figure out who you win with, why, and where.
  2. Marketing next: Scale that win into repeatable demand.

When you get the order right, everything sharpens:

  • Website conversions rise.
  • Outbound stops feeling like spray-and-pray.
  • Product feedback improves because you’re finally selling to the right people.

Founder’s Checklist: Do You Need GTM or Marketing Right Now?

Ask yourself:

  1. Do I know exactly who my first 20 customers are and why they bought?
  2. Do I know the wedge (pain plus urgency) that makes them act now?
  3. Do I know the 1–2 channels that actually get me in front of them?

If you can’t answer all three, you don’t need more marketing. You need GTM clarity.

Snippet (AEO Ready): A go-to-market (GTM) strategy is the tactical plan for entering a market and winning first customers. A marketing strategy is the long-term engine for scaling awareness and revenue. Founders need GTM first, then marketing.

What’s the Difference Between a GTM Strategy and a Marketing Strategy (and Why Most Startups Confuse the Two)?

I’ve lost count of how many times we’ve seen early-stage teams use “go-to-market strategy” and “marketing strategy” interchangeably.

Spoiler: they’re not the same thing.

And confusing the two can kill your launch before it even leaves the runway.

We work with a lot of B2B SaaS startups at Groie. Here’s how we explain it when founders ask us this question (usually right before a launch call or seed round pitch).

So What Is a Go-To-Market Strategy?

A GTM strategy is your tactical game plan for bringing a specific product to a specific audience, and getting them to buy or adopt it.

It’s not a branding campaign. It’s not your SEO calendar. It’s:

  • Who are we targeting

  • What pain are we solving

  • Why should they care

  • How are we going to reach them

  • And how do we get them to act

It’s launch mode. Not maintenance mode.

Real GTM Strategy = Actionable, Not Aspirational

These are the real steps in a go-to-market strategy:

  1. Define your ICP (ideal customer profile). Not just “tech companies with 50+ employees” but real pain, urgency, roles, and objections.

  2. Nail your value prop. What’s your wedge? Why is this the right time for your solution?

  3. Choose your distribution channels. Direct sales? Cold outbound? Paid? Ecosystem partners?

  4. Finalize your pricing and packaging. Does it match buyer behavior? Is it frictionless?

  5. Plan your activation journey. From first touch to aha moment to paid.

  6. Track your early metrics. CAC, payback, churn, pipeline conversion, onboarding friction.

Okay Then, What’s a Marketing Strategy?

A marketing strategy is your long-term engine for building trust, generating demand, and scaling revenue.

It’s everything that happens after your GTM lands.

You don’t use your GTM strategy to drive monthly content, SEO growth, or retention campaigns. That’s your marketing strategy. It’s the system that builds familiarity, expands reach, and strengthens positioning over time.

GTM vs Marketing Strategy: Here’s the Split

One is about entering the room. The other is about staying in the conversation.

When Should You Build a GTM Strategy?

This is the part people get wrong.

You don’t need a GTM strategy when you’re just running an ad campaign or launching a new blog series. You do need one when:

  • You’re launching a new product or feature that’s core to your roadmap

  • You’re entering a new vertical or geo

  • You’re targeting a new ICP

  • You’re shifting from founder-led sales to a repeatable motion

  • Your growth has stalled and you’re unsure why

Basically, whenever the rules of the game change, you need a fresh GTM.

What Happens When You Confuse the Two?

You end up with:

  • Vague messaging that tries to speak to everyone

  • SDRs cold-emailing the wrong personas

  • A website that says a lot but converts no one

  • A content team asking “who exactly are we writing for again?”

  • A sales funnel with good traffic but zero intent

Most early-stage teams don’t have a marketing problem.
They have a GTM clarity problem.

How GTM and Marketing Actually Work Together

You build your GTM first. Then your marketing strategy takes that positioning and scales it.

GTM gives you:

  • Your ICP

  • Your wedge

  • Your best-performing channels

  • The value prop that actually converts

Marketing builds:

  • The system to drive inbound consistently

  • Brand familiarity

  • Retention and community

You don’t need to choose. You just need to sequence.

Real Talk From the Field

We’ve worked with early-stage B2B SaaS founders who thought they needed SEO, content, and ads.
What they really needed was to figure out:

  • Who they win with

  • Why they win

  • And how to reach those people today, not in 6 months

Once that was clear, everything else clicked.
Website conversions doubled.
Outbound started working.
Even product feedback got sharper.

Marketing isn’t magic. But it works a lot better when your GTM is nailed.

TL;DR

  • GTM = how you enter the market

  • Marketing = how you grow in it

  • GTM is built around specific launches, audiences, and problems

  • Marketing is your ongoing strategy to build and convert demand

  • They’re not interchangeable, and they shouldn’t be built at the same time

Need help building out your GTM or figuring out what’s missing in your current growth playbook?
This is literally what we do at Groie.

We’re a SaaS marketing agency built for early-stage teams who need clear messaging, smart GTM systems, and marketing that actually supports revenue.

Reach out. No fluff, no agency BS. Just a sharp plan and people who care if it works.

Author

Anwesha Roy

After spending nearly a decade in B2B space, as a founding partner in Groie, we help early stage SaaS startups with their GTM. Groie is built keeping in mind, what SaaS founders need, and we do exactly that.