Awareness vs go-to-market: which campaign to run first

Two campaigns, two jobs

Both campaign types use the same outreach emails: written for each store, short, plain and stopped on a reply. What differs is the goal, and so the offer and the number of emails.

• Awareness introduces your brand to a new area or kind of store and asks whether they would be interested. Five emails in all. It suits brands that are still deciding what to make, how much, or where to sell first.
• Go-to-market goes to the store types you want to land and offers a sample or a trial. Four emails in all: the first and three follow-ups. It suits brands with product ready to ship.

Awareness: validate demand before you produce

You should not move into a big production run until you know stores want what you are making. An awareness campaign finds out. You describe the product, we email stores that would fit, and the replies tell you who is interested, in which areas and at which kinds of store.

You do not need samples for this. You can even run it before the product exists, as long as you are honest about where it is. Instead of a reply, awareness emails can point to a short interest form made for each store, and a response to the form counts as a reply.

Those replies are worth more than a survey of friends. They are buyers saying they would consider stocking you, and they are useful when you talk to a manufacturer or a distributor.

Go-to-market: get the product in their hands

Once you have stock, go-to-market is the campaign that wins stockists. The ask is a sample or a small trial case, and the stores are the ones you most want to land. The emails talk about the margin, how the product sells and why it suits the store.

Offer samples only to stores that ask. When one does, ask what they would like and where to send it in the same reply, and agree a day to check in. Those replies arrive in your inbox, and you take it from there.

Which one should you run?

Whichever you pick, start narrow: one area and one or two store types, found through store search. For the bigger picture of moving from a first city to wider distribution, see our guide on how to find a distributor.

• No product yet, or deciding on a flavour or a format? Awareness.
• Trying a new city or a new kind of store? Awareness first, then go-to-market where the interest is.
• Product ready and stores in mind? Go-to-market.
• Not sure? Start with awareness in one city. It costs you nothing in samples and tells you where to aim.

What stays the same

Whichever type you run, the emails are personalised to each store and written in your voice. They are short and plain, with no attachments in the first email. They go out from a separate domain we set up for you, at a steady pace. And the moment a store replies, its follow-ups stop and the conversation is yours.

The difference is only the goal: learn where the interest is, or turn interest into stockists.

Reading the replies

On an awareness campaign, every reply is information. Note which store types and areas answer, and what they ask. A cluster of interested delis in one suburb tells you where to run go-to-market next.

On a go-to-market campaign, a sample request is the real yes, but it is not an order yet. Send the sample, agree when you will check in, and keep track of who tried it.