Mark Donnigan - growth stage marketing



Mark Donnigan constructs disruptive ingenious startups. Mark's superpower is architecting go-to-market plans and marketing movements that drive genuine company outcomes for technical and product-centric creators. Mark's growth and market development experience spans 20 years as a transformative B2B marketing and magnate, driving need, brand name development, and technique for startup and growth-stage business.

As a professional and virtual marketing leader (fractional-CMO), Mark Donnigan deals with start-up developers and CEOs from B2B disruptive innovation technology companies to help them develop, bootstrap, and scale their marketing and go-to-market actions.

DISCOVER MORE: https://growthstage.marketing

Mark Donnigan has handled groups as big as 25, comprising SDRs, AEs, and marketing, producing $29mm/year. Mark carried spending plan commitments to $3mm/year for operations and $400k/year for marketing. Deal sizes varying from mid-five figures to mid-six figures every year.

As a startup marketing expert, Mark Donnigan's incoming and outbound marketing experience consist of building and mentoring high-performance teams that carry out on need generation, brand and product marketing, PR, digital, and occasions where he develops and carries out high-impact programs that drive profits, produce ROI, trigger the market, and delivers organization results.

Mark Donnigan thinks that the very best marketing specialists and marketing leaders are doers. Mark's marketing experience consists of all aspects of requirement generation, ABM, SEO, email marketing, paid marketing, occasions, PR (internal & firm), and product marketing.

Mark is a problem solver and a first-principles thinker who is creative and analytical. Mark always works cross-functionally and has shown success, building, leading, and mentoring marketing, sales, and organization advancement groups that have in fact produced more than $500mm in revenue/shareholder value.

Mark has actually found that building a category needs to be the leading objective for each marketing leader and it is the structure of his approach and method. Mark Donnigan has substantial B2B marketing experience that consists of structure and mentoring high-performance groups.

Mark Donnigan is a systems thinker, and he positions a high worth on team effort. Mark has comprehensive experience working along with sales, item, operations, and financing to ensure that the company and revenue objectives of the company are constantly exceeded.

Growth Phase Marketing exists to provide entrepreneurs and founders services for:

Architecting the market category that is best fit to the special value proposition of your technology.
High impact marketing assistance so that you can reach your profits objectives and scale sustainably.
Achieving go-to-market alignment throughout the sales and marketing companies.
Extracting the highest value from every marketing dollar.
Insider understanding and insights about the B2B purchasing journey and how to navigate an increasingly fragmented customer choice hierarchy.
Operationalizing marketing, from system and procedure development to making the first hires.

Ideas on what it requires a successful online marketer and CMO today.

If you are a CEO who feels your B2B marketing does not have a clear connection to business, you are not alone. A study finished by the marketing consultancy Fournaise discovered that 80% of Chief Executives are not pleased with the work their top Marketing leader is doing. Evaluating what today organization truth indicates for marketing leaders, I remembered the principle of a Peacetime leader and a Wartime leader from Ben Horowitz's book "The Hard Feature Of Hard Things."

Horowitz described the concept in an article where he composed that the Peacetime CEO "concentrates on the big image and empowers her individuals to make in-depth decisions." The Wartime CEO, on the other hand, "values a speck of dust on a gnat's ass if it interrupted the prime regulation."

The Peacetime CEO "comprehends what to do with a substantial benefit," while the Wartime CEO "is paranoid." Peacetime CEO "works to decrease conflict," and Wartime CEO "increases the contradictions."

Peacetime in service is when a company has the capability to grow in its core market due to a significant benefit vs. the competition. In times of peace, business focuses on widening the marketplace and improving business's strengths. For CMO's, Peacetime is when we are totally complimentary to be creative with our brand building by participating in each exhibit with an even bigger cubicle than last year's and investing exorbitantly on sponsorships, all under the guise of building the trademark name.

Wartime is a various thing entirely because, in Wartime, the life and death of our organization may be on the line.
As I compose this post, the entire world is fighting an unnoticeable enemy called COVID-19, which has let loose a discouraging dosage of company unpredictability globally. For CMO's, the COVID-19 pandemic is organization equivalent of war. No longer do our 2020 marketing methods make great sense.

This is more than being in an area with the light on, and suddenly you discover yourself in pitch-black darkness, so you stroll tepidly, continuing in the very same instructions knowing that you were heading towards the door prior to the lights got switched off. No, not just has the pandemic turned the lights out, its blown a huge crater in our course that was not there prior to, and devoid of light in the space, can not be seen. Nevertheless we ought to avoid at all expenditures falling into the crater.

No one longs for war, but a Wartime leader does not shrink from the battle, rather, they acknowledge that Wartime is the single finest chance to leapfrog sidetracked competitors and take ground away. What follows is a set of pointers and ideas to assist you find your "Wartime CMO fight plan."

How to act as a Wartime CMO.

Throughout Wartime, everybody is in uncharted waters, but this is where the chance is for numerous companies who formerly had a difficult time to compete versus larger competitors and dominant market forces. Now, for the extremely first time, you may be on comparable footing as your more effective rivals. It's the ideal possibility to specify your future.

In a global decline like what COVID-19 has actually set off, definitely nothing makes sense. And yet, a few of your competitors will continue to perform their typical "tried and genuine" marketing playback, presuming that constructing the brand name with corporate interactions messages from the CEO is going to add to their organization goals. Now is the perfect chance for the Wartime CMO to take ground in the market.

Take strong action.

Creative marketing is needed in Wartime more than ever. Now is the time to check your necessary assumptions. As the around the world company environment has changed, and the stability of the core organization cast doubt on, CMO's ought to be prepared to reassess their preliminary plan.
Consider that less customers will equate to reduced need. And decreased requirement implies markets will not react as they did prior to the crisis.

Believe about it in this manner, when individuals purchase less, marketers invest less. Nevertheless prior to you follow a slash and burn the marketing invest playbook, here are a couple of things to be educated about:

Investment bank Cowen and Business evaluated the last 6 economic slumps considered that 1950 and discovered that spending on direct marketing grew throughout the previous financial downturns. Significance, you will want to consider your mix of brand name marketing thoroughly compared to sales activation marketing. It's not time to stop marketing. Remember, there will be deals throughout the board as media outlets see business cut their marketing and advertising invests. Push marketing and branding drops in a slowdown, however sales activation marketing always increases.

Shift spending to more quantifiable channels so that you can adjust quickly. Speed is whatever. Marketing initiatives able to be tracked with uniqueness will be a lot better than broad mass-market jobs. Downturns speed up the decrease of interruption-based mass marketing. In its location will be an increased focus on quantifiable and relationship-based strategies.

Downturns create a chance for business that are more efficient at turning marketing monetary investments into profits. In the middle of a slow down when advertisers are cutting their spending is an enjoyable time to take advantage of low CPMs and Certified public accountants.

The Institute of Practitioners in Marketing finished a research study in 2008 that found, "Following a budget plan cut, a brand will continue to get from the marketing financial investment made over the previous couple of years. This will decrease any short-term business effects, and will result in a precariously deceptive boost in short-term success. The longer-term organization harm will be more considerable, but will not be seen in the beginning."

Millward Brown reported in their research study "Marketing Throughout Economic Decline: To Invest or Not to Invest?" that 60% of brand that went 'dark' during an economic recession by cutting their TV marketing invest for 6 months experienced a decrease in Trademark name Use by 24% with a 28% decrease in Trademark name Image. Brands that cut their ad budget plan at a higher rate relative to their competitors were at an even higher danger of share loss.
There are an incredible variety of marketing research studies that verify in a decline, trademark name that continue marketing and advertising efforts recuperate faster. It takes strong action to invest when the information suggests that ROI is not possible. A Wartime CMO battles to maintain the spending plan needed to continue marketing.

Maximize the worth of each lead produced.

In a slowdown, risk-averse buyers take even longer to research purchases, and this applies equally to B2B and B2C purchasers. When you initially acknowledge a prospect, they will likely stay in the awareness phase of your funnel and will not be all set to engage with an SDR or BDR. Do not require this interaction. Marketing should make sure not to move a prospect through the funnel too rapidly. Remember, the possibility's professional life has actually been switched on its head. What was an issue simply a couple of weeks or months earlier, is likely not top of mind today.

It's tempting in a decrease to tighten your grip on leads considering that the reasoning is that now more than ever, all leads are important. Here is where lead scoring can be a valuable tool to recognize extremely engaged prospects from those who are not most likely to become your clients. Now is the time for Online marketers to hang on to MQL's for an extended duration so that you can groom the prospect to the optimum possible degree prior to handing them off to sales as a SQL.

Without lead scoring and a perfect prospect tracking system throughout your digital channels, as lots of as 9 out of ten MQL's who are not yet sales-ready might be lost. They will purchase, simply not now. You do not wish to miss out on out on the future sale given that you didn't keep in contact and include worth though the journey. In a "Wartime" economy, you should do everything possible to enhance the worth of your MQL's.

CMO's that do a better task of dealing with leads and establishing early-stage potential customers into sales-ready leads will remain in the finest position to win during the crisis and most absolutely once it has passed.

Concentrate on your present customers.

It's more affordable to grow incomes with your existing consumers. Think of whether now is the time to scale back your mass list building programs and focus on structure much deeper relationships with those who currently know your service. This does not indicate to stop your requirement gen efforts, however it does imply that you may wish to check out with item and sales how you can sell more to your existing clients.

In Peacetime, marketing groups are running on autopilot in pursuit of driving MQL's to please sales reps. For a service that has obtained traction on their method to becoming a classification king or queen, this technique, though pricey feels good given that of the amazing volume of activity that is being produced. However, without cautious analysis, the high degree of activity fools many CMO's and management groups into believing that their requirement generation engine is carefully tuned when, in truth, it's giving off huge contamination, i.e. extremely high CAC, higher than average churn for the category, low CLTV, and so on.

Marketing should align with sales.

A brand-focused Marketing leader concerns business with an exceptional education and pedigree, having really held considerable titles with huge companies. There was a time when the marketing group might handle all corporate and item information and messaging with the market. If a purchaser desired to discover a new item or explore whether an option might satisfy their requirement, they had no alternative however to call the company.

Actions to issues such as, Who's genuine and who isn't? - Who's item works, and whose does not? - What's coming? Now where readily available with a single post on the correct online forum or LinkedIn group. As an outcome, the power shifted to the purchaser.

We understand that online marketers are no longer in control of the buyer's journey. It is necessary to specify a funnel that describes evictions a prospect need to hand down the way to doing service with business. Purchasers can get in touch with us on the platform of their choosing. As the buying group has expanded to as numerous as 2 lots people, the concept that they will follow our procedure as we have in fact prescribed is rarely real.

You require a worth designer CMO who is revenue-focused.

A revenue-focused CMO will manage the engine behind a CEO's development plan. The shift from business being physical product designers or service companies, to digital development companies where the product is dispersed as software or software as a service through the Internet, has decreased the function of marketing. And is the aspect a revenue-focused CMO who is a worth designer is what all start-ups and disruptive development business require today.

Today, marketing requires higher levels of technical capability as a result of the surge of digital media and the marketing technologies that are related to online marketing. This transformation has been highlighted by Forrester, discussing a 20-year-old transition to digital as the driving force behind CMOs moving from being brand-builders to profits chauffeurs. Forrester goes on to report that a worth developer, revenue-driven Online marketer, should be a story maker and not simply a writer.

The CMO today need to be a specialist at developing and leading creative engagement and service technique to develop a classification for business to dominate.

Here are a couple of methods that a revenue-driven CMO requirement to operate:

They will work carefully with the sales group to discover and map the purchaser's journey. Where assumptions do not match what is happening in the market, a value designer CMO will leave the office and hang out in the field. This leader comprehends that you can not drive income if you aren't close to where the sale happens.

A revenue-focused CMO develops content targeted at each stage of the buyer's journey. Think of the buyer's journey as a set of gates where the content reacts to the primary issues a buyer has at each action so that they can finish the purchasing journey.
The new generation CMO will collect engagement metrics for each gate while assessing the success of the end-to-end marketing cycle to provide the most prompt and certified leads to their sellers. A value designer CMO sees marketing as close allies to the sales group.

The revenue-centered CMO is constantly finding from and tweak the procedure so that they can enhance the quantity and quality of leads that contributed to the pipeline and closed business.
Earnings attribution and marketing ROI styles will show real outcomes, not theorized or "presumed" requirements. This details is vital for the revenue-focused CMO to fix since they appreciate marketing's influence on service.

A revenue-focused CMO will focus on how their marketing efforts map to closed/won deals that drive the profits and company objectives of business. Vanity metrics like traffic, click-thru rates, CPM, and CTA conversions tell simply get more information a piece of the story.

What to attempt to find in your next CMO.

In the vibrant state of company today, working with a reliable CMO is among the most hard things to do. Every market, service, and market area is various. Even where you can acknowledge potential customers from the exact same business neighborhood or environment, it's insufficient to simply have a look at years of experience or education. You require to examine the motivations and believed patterns of the individual. Ask:
Is the CMO an issue solver?

The most considerable threat today is on the marketplace side and not innovation. A marketing leader who isn't an issue solver will struggle to manage the fast-changing nature of the marketplace and community structure.

Are they a doer?
In lots of marketing groups, there will specify specialists who can work at the greatest level throughout the series of capabilities required. It's incumbent for a marketing leader to command consider a doer. The CMO, who can show functional capability in the core locations that the group runs, will be more dependable than a manager simply.

Has the CMO held cross-functional positions?

The finest way to ensure that you draw in a CMO who is income and not brand-driven is to hire somebody who has actually turned up through product, sales, and business approach. Having direct exposure to the inner workings of item and sales is particularly beneficial as business technique is ending up being a more substantial part of the CMO's series of obligations.

Do they think in systems or technique service in a structured way?

As digital has exploded the number of marketing interface points, enabling buyers to disaggregate business from the buying journey, a CMO ought to have the ability to consider systems and structures rather of safely specified marketing lanes. It is no longer sufficient to plan in regards to the social project, material marketing project, occasions, and PR, all as different activities. The effective CMO will start with business objective they are serving and be prepared to question whatever.

Can they connect outside the walls of the organization to the marketplace?

To end up being a story-maker, you need to be worthy of listening to. A CMO remains in the ideal position to presume the evangelistic function for business. The most successful CMO's in any market are extremely visible spokespeople for their business.
Are they a motivator?

As the CMO will require to work cross-functionally to make sure that they have placing with product and sales, the marketing head must be an incentive. To develop a category needs conversation, negotiation, and the ability to search for and reach an agreement.

Do they enable their group, or run by command and control?

A CMO who attempts to lead with ultimate authority will have a hard time to achieve company goals of business. Marketing groups today should work as engineering groups work in a nimble style. Instead of perfectly organized 90-day task cadences, a nimble marketing group carries out a consistent flow of initiatives while preserving the flexibility to alter as the market or service needs figure out.

Does the CMO comprehend classification style?

I have in fact made up about classification style and why every organization requires to own a category to accomplish its ideal potential. There is a structure for executing classification style. Still, whether an Online marketer follows the summary or methods classification style another way, a CMO needs to be putting routine idea and preparation into how they define the category they indicate to control. Without input from the CEO and other members of the executive group, there is no chance to complete a proper classification design.

The Wartime CMO will need to increase the accountability of marketing by showing the result of each marketing activity on the pipeline as figured out by earnings contribution.
In a decrease, marketing should move the understanding of being an expenditure center to an income vehicle driver. Reporting beyond the variety of marketing qualified leads produced to consist of the overall chance worth for each lead source is an outstanding way to represent the function marketing is playing to drive the economic goals of service.

Studies have actually exposed that a properly created landing page can double your conversion rate over sending traffic to the home page, which tends to do not have the proper call to action that matches the advertisement. Since of this, inspecting landing pages can increase conversions as much as 50% or more. Together, these techniques can provide a 2.5 X increase for every single dollar you purchase marketing. Yes, conversion rate optimization makes a distinction.

During Wartime, every marketing dollar is important, and a Wartime CMO understands that winning will not come down to a single technique or "silver bullet" method. Instead, many small things carried out well. The CMO, who can not understand the interplay of copy, messaging, imaginative design, and development, will struggle to discover and acknowledge rapidly where small adjustments can offer better conversions.

This content approach worked, for a season, sort-of. However with the increase of Google RankBrain, the method has not worked for several years. Without being in the middle of a crisis, you need to stop this inefficient activity. Now as budget plans are under pressure and every marketing activity need to count, the manner in which we do content marketing requires to be upgraded.

Now, the material that we develop needs to interest someone looking for our service, and it should consist of buyer intent triggers like keywords and expressions that a purchaser would utilize as they get close to buying choice. A Havas Group research study exposed that 84% of people anticipate brand to produce material, yet 60% of the material produced is of bad quality or unimportant, failing to fulfill the requirements of the audience. No matter a 71% correlation in between content effectiveness and a brand's impact on personal health, just 40% of the world's leading 1,500 brand produce content that satisfies this requirement. Brand name's are stopping working to produce considerable content.

Stop producing assembly line material that is just meant to establish the trademark name or introduce the product. Rather, content needs to target specific personalities to resolve any troubles avoiding the prospect from proceeding. This material will take longer to produce and need a greater neighborhood and product knowledge level.

CMO's in Wartime ought to have an outstanding understanding of the buyer psyche and their mental needs so that they can create material that alleviates worry and addresses the genuine issues they have.

CMO's in Wartime double down on Classification Style so that their company will come out as the leader, making them the dominant option, putting them in the excellent position to take as much as 76% of the economics from the whole category.

Find out more about Classification Design.

The B2B sales procedure today is fragmented and complex, with great deals of stakeholders requiring to verify a purchase choice. This renders standard marketing ROI and attribution techniques less helpful for anything besides scholastic research study.

The marketing function today breaks down into three functional pillars comprising Product, Requirement Generation, and Category Style. Since numerous marketing leaders have actually not completely embraced category design, it's a remarkably simple way to beat an incumbent throughout a crisis. As quickly as the sector starts to talk about the classification as you have in fact defined it, your service will end up being the category and the obvious choice.

To do Category Style requires a different working cadence. Wartime is the perfect time to start Classification Design considered that absolutely nothing is "regular" during a crisis.
To deal with the obstacle of constructing a Category King organization needs a lots of grit, decision, and an unfaltering drive to win. For the Wartime CMO, who takes on the obstacle, there can be no bigger pot-o-gold if effective.

Read the book Play Larger to discover out all about category design.

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