Growth Stage Marketing Consultant - Mark Donnigan

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

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

DISCOVER MORE: https://growthstage.marketing

Mark Donnigan has managed groups as big as 25, making up SDRs, AEs, and marketing, producing $29mm/year. Mark brought budget plan obligations to $3mm/year for operations and $400k/year for marketing. Offer sizes varying from mid-five figures to mid-six figures every year.

As a start-up marketing specialist, Mark Donnigan's incoming and outbound marketing experience consist of building and mentoring high-performance groups that perform as needed generation, brand and item marketing, PR, digital, and events where he develops and carries out high-impact programs that drive revenue, produce ROI, trigger the marketplace, and delivers service results.

Mark Donnigan believes that the very best marketing specialists and marketing leaders are doers. Mark's marketing experience consists of all elements of requirement generation, ABM, SEO, e-mail 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 actually proven success, building, leading, and mentoring marketing, sales, and business advancement groups that have in fact produced more than $500mm in revenue/shareholder worth.

Mark has actually found that building a category should be the top objective for every marketing leader and it is the foundation of his technique and approach. Mark Donnigan has extensive B2B marketing experience that consists of structure and mentoring high-performance teams.

Mark Donnigan is a systems thinker, and he puts a high worth on team effort. Mark has extensive experience working alongside sales, product, operations, and financing to guarantee that the organization and income objectives of the business are constantly gone beyond.

Growth Phase Marketing exists to supply entrepreneurs and creators services for:

Architecting the market category that is best suited to the unique value proposition of your technology.
High effect marketing support so that you can reach your income objectives and scale sustainably.
Achieving go-to-market positioning across the sales and marketing companies.
Extracting the greatest value from every marketing dollar.
Insider understanding and insights about the B2B buying journey and how to browse a significantly fragmented consumer choice hierarchy.
Operationalizing marketing, from system and process development to making the first hires.

Thoughts on what it takes to be a successful marketer and CMO today.

If you are a CEO who feels your B2B marketing does not have a clear connection to the organization, you are not alone. A research study finished by the marketing consultancy Fournaise discovered that 80% of President are not pleased with the work their top Marketing leader is doing. Examining what today company truth implies for marketing leaders, I kept in mind the principle of a Peacetime leader and a Wartime leader from Ben Horowitz's book "The Hard Thing About Hard Things."

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

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

Peacetime in organization is when an organization has the capability to grow in its core market due to a substantial advantage vs. the competitors. In times of peace, business focuses on widening the marketplace and boosting the company's strengths. For CMO's, Peacetime is when we are absolutely free to be imaginative with our brand structure by participating in each exhibition with an even bigger cubicle than in 2015's and investing exorbitantly on sponsorships, all under the guise of building the brand.

Wartime is a different thing totally because, in Wartime, the life and death of our company might be on the line.
As I write this post, the entire world is combating an undetectable enemy called COVID-19, which has actually let loose an aggravating dosage of business uncertainty internationally. For CMO's, the COVID-19 pandemic is organization equivalent of war. No longer do our 2020 marketing strategies make great sense.

This is more than being in an area with the light on, and unexpectedly you discover yourself in pitch-black darkness, so you walk tepidly, continuing in the very same guidelines knowing that you were heading towards the door prior to the lights got shut off. No, not simply has the pandemic turned the lights out, its blown an enormous crater in our course that was not there prior to, and lacking light in the room, can not be seen. Nevertheless we should avoid at all costs falling under the crater.

No one longs for war, but a Wartime leader does not diminish from the battle, instead, they recognize that Wartime is the single finest possibility to leapfrog sidetracked rivals and take ground away. What follows is a set of pointers and concepts to help you find your "Wartime CMO combat strategy."

How to act as a Wartime CMO.

Throughout Wartime, everybody is in uncharted waters, but this is where the opportunity is for lots of business who formerly had a difficult time to compete against bigger competitors and dominant market forces. Now, for the very first time, you might be on comparable footing as your more powerful rivals. It's the ideal possibility to define your future.

In a global decrease like what COVID-19 has triggered, definitely nothing makes good sense. And yet, a few of your rivals will continue to perform their normal "tried and genuine" marketing playback, presuming that building the brand with corporate interactions messages from the CEO is going to contribute to their business goals. Now is the best opportunity for the Wartime CMO to take ground in the market.

Take strong action.

Creative marketing is required in Wartime more than ever. Now is the time to inspect your vital presumptions. As the worldwide service environment has actually altered, and the stability of the core business called into question, CMO's needs to be ready to reassess their initial strategy.
Consider that less consumers will relate to decreased requirement. And minimized requirement indicates markets will not respond as they did prior to the crisis.

Believe about it in this way, when people 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 well-informed about:

Investment bank Cowen and Business evaluated the last 6 economic recessions considered that 1950 and discovered that spending on direct marketing grew during the previous economic slumps. Significance, you will want to consider your mix of brand marketing carefully compared to sales activation marketing. It's not time to stop marketing. Keep in mind, there will be offers throughout the board as media outlets see companies cut their marketing and marketing spends. Push marketing and branding drops in a slowdown, but sales activation marketing constantly increases.

Shift spending to more measurable channels so that you can adapt quickly. Speed is everything. Marketing initiatives able to be tracked with uniqueness will be a lot more valuable than broad mass-market tasks. Slowdowns speed up the decrease of interruption-based mass marketing. In its location will be an increased focus on quantifiable and relationship-based methods.

Downturns produce an opportunity for business that are more effective at turning marketing financial investments into profits. In the middle of a slow down when advertisers are cutting their spending is an enjoyable time to benefit from low CPMs and Qualified public accounting professionals.

The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising ended up a research study in 2008 that found, "Following a budget plan cut, a brand will continue to get from the marketing investment made over the previous couple of years. This will decrease any short-term business impacts, and will lead to a dangerously deceptive increase in short-term success. The longer-term company harm will be more considerable, however will not be seen in the beginning."

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

Maximize the worth of each lead produced.

In a slowdown, risk-averse purchasers take even longer to research purchases, and this applies equally to B2B and B2C buyers. When you initially recognize 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 force this interaction. Marketing must make sure not to move a possibility through the funnel too quickly. Keep in mind, the possibility's professional life has been turned on its head. What was an issue simply a couple of weeks or months ago, 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 acknowledge highly engaged prospects from those who are not likely to become your consumers. Now is the time for Online marketers to hang on to MQL's for an extended period so that you can groom the prospect to the optimum possible level 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 10 MQL's who are not yet sales-ready might be lost. They will purchase, just not now. You do not want to lose out on the future sale because you didn't keep in contact and include worth though the journey. In a "Wartime" economy, you must do whatever possible to optimize the worth of your MQL's.

CMO's that do a better job of managing leads and establishing early-stage potential customers into sales-ready leads will remain in the finest position to win throughout the crisis and most certainly once it has passed.

Concentrate on your present customers.

It's more affordable to grow incomes with your existing clients. Think of whether now is the time to scale back your mass list building programs and focus on building much deeper relationships with those who already understand your organization. This does not imply to stop your requirement gen efforts, but it does imply that you may want to explore with item and sales how you can offer more to your existing consumers.

In Peacetime, marketing groups are working on auto-pilot in pursuit of driving MQL's to please sales reps. For a service that has actually obtained traction on their method to becoming a category king or queen, this technique, though expensive feels great considering that of the remarkable volume of activity that is being produced. However, without mindful analysis, the high degree of activity fools lots of CMO's and management groups into thinking that their requirement generation engine is carefully tuned when, in truth, it's emitting massive contamination, i.e. extremely high CAC, greater than typical churn for the classification, low CLTV, and so on.

Marketing must align with sales.

A brand-focused Marketing leader concerns the organization with an amazing education and pedigree, having really held significant titles with huge business. There was a time when the marketing group may handle all business and product information and messaging with the marketplace. If a buyer desired to learn about a new item or explore whether a solution might satisfy their requirement, they had no alternative but to call the service.

Actions to issues such as, Who's real and who isn't? - Who's product works, and whose does not? - What's coming? Now where offered with a single post on the appropriate online forum or LinkedIn group. As a result, the power shifted to the purchaser.

We understand that online marketers are no longer in control of the buyer's journey. It is very important to define a funnel that lays out expulsions a possibility must hand down the way to doing company with business. Buyers can get in touch with us on the platform of their choosing. As the purchasing group has actually expanded to as numerous as 2 lots people, the concept that they will follow our process as we have in fact recommended is rarely genuine.

You require a value developer CMO who is revenue-focused.

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

Today, marketing needs higher levels of technical ability as a result of the explosion of digital media and the marketing technologies that are connected with online marketing. This transformation has actually been highlighted by Forrester, mentioning a 20-year-old shift to digital as the driving force behind CMOs moving from being brand-builders to income motorists. Forrester goes on to report that a value designer, revenue-driven Online marketer, need to be a story maker and not just a storyteller.

The CMO today should be a professional at producing and leading creative engagement and business method to develop a category for the company to dominate.

Here are a number of techniques that a revenue-driven CMO requirement to run:

They will work thoroughly with the sales group to discover and map the purchaser's journey. Where assumptions do not match what is taking place in the market, a value developer CMO will leave the work environment and hang out in the field. This leader understands that you can not drive earnings if you aren't near where the sale takes place.

A revenue-focused CMO produces content targeted at each phase of the purchaser's journey. Think of the purchaser's journey as a set of gates where the content reacts to the primary concerns a purchaser has at each action so that they can finish the buying journey.
The brand-new generation CMO will gather engagement metrics for each gate while examining the success of the end-to-end marketing cycle to provide the most prompt and qualified cause their sellers. A worth designer CMO sees marketing as close allies to the sales group.

The revenue-centered CMO is always discovering from and fine-tuning the process so that they can improve the quantity and quality of leads that added to the pipeline and closed business.
Earnings attribution and marketing ROI styles will show real results, not extrapolated or "presumed" requirements. This information is crucial for the revenue-focused CMO to fix given that they appreciate marketing's influence on organization.

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 inform just a piece of the story.

What to look for in your next CMO.

In the dynamic state of business today, dealing with a reliable CMO is amongst the most challenging things to do. Every market, business, and market area is numerous. Even where you can acknowledge prospects from the very same company community or environment, it's not adequate to merely have a look at years of experience or education. You need to take a look at the inspirations and believed patterns of the individual. Ask:
Is the CMO an issue solver?

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

Are they a doer?
In many marketing groups, there will specify specialists who can work at the greatest level throughout the series of capabilities needed. It's incumbent for a marketing leader to command consider a doer. The CMO, who can show practical 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 method to ensure that you draw in a CMO who is profits and not brand-driven is to work with someone who has turned up through item, sales, and business approach. Having direct exposure to the inner operations of product and sales is especially advantageous as service approach is ending up being a more considerable part of the CMO's series of obligations.

Do they believe in systems or method business in a structured way?

As digital has actually exploded the variety of marketing interface points, making it possible for buyers to disaggregate the organization from the purchasing journey, a CMO needs to have the capability to think about systems and structures instead of firmly specified marketing lanes. It is no longer sufficient to prepare in regards to the social project, content marketing project, occasions, and PR, all as different activities. The successful CMO will begin with company goal they are serving and be all set to question whatever.

Can they engage outside the walls of the company to the market?

To wind up being a story-maker, you need to be worthy of listening to. A CMO is in the ideal position to presume the evangelistic function for the organization. The most effective CMO's in any market are extremely noticeable spokespeople for their organization.
Are they an incentive?

As the CMO will require to work cross-functionally to make sure that they have positioning with product and sales, the marketing head ought to be an incentive. To establish a category requires conversation, negotiation, and the ability to search for and reach a contract.

Do they allow their group, or operate by command and control?

A CMO who tries to lead with ultimate authority will have a hard time to accomplish organization goals of business. Marketing groups today must work as engineering groups operate in an agile fashion. Instead of perfectly organized 90-day project cadences, a nimble marketing group performs a constant flow of initiatives while keeping the flexibility to alter as the market or business requirements determine.

Does the CMO comprehend category style?

I have in fact composed about category style and why every service needs to own a category to achieve its optimum potential. There is a structure for executing category design. Still, whether a Marketer follows the summary or techniques classification design another way, a CMO needs to be putting regular thought and preparation into how they define the classification they indicate to control. Without input from the CEO and other members of the executive group, there is no way to finish an appropriate category design.

The Wartime CMO will need to increase the accountability of marketing by revealing the result of each marketing activity on the pipeline as determined by profits contribution.
In a sluggish down, marketing should move the understanding of being an expenditure center to an income driver. Reporting beyond the variety of marketing certified leads produced to consist of the overall opportunity worth for each lead source is an outstanding method to represent the function marketing is playing to drive the financial objectives of organization.

Studies have actually revealed that an effectively designed landing page can double your conversion rate over sending out traffic to the home page, which tends to do not have the appropriate call to action that matches the ad. Due to the fact that of this, examining landing pages can increase conversions as much as 50% or more. Together, these strategies can provide a 2.5 X increase for each single dollar you purchase marketing. Yes, conversion rate optimization makes a distinction.

During Wartime, every marketing dollar is valuable, and a Wartime CMO comprehends that winning will not come down to a single technique or "silver bullet" method. Rather, lots of little things carried out well. The CMO, who can not understand the interplay of copy, messaging, imaginative style, and development, will have a hard time to discover and recognize quickly where little adjustments can use better conversions.

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

Now, the material that we create requirements to interest someone looking for our option, and it must consist of buyer intent activates like keywords and expressions that a purchaser would utilize as they get near purchasing choice. A Havas Group research study exposed that 84% of individuals anticipate brand to produce material, yet 60% of the material produced is of bad quality or unimportant, failing to satisfy the requirements of the audience. Despite a 71% connection in between content effectiveness and a brand name's impact on personal wellness, just 40% of the world's leading 1,500 brand produce material that fulfills this requirement. Trademark name's are stopping working to produce significant content.

Stop producing assembly line content that is just indicated to develop the brand or present the item. Instead, material needs to target particular personalities to solve any troubles avoiding the possibility from proceeding. This material will take longer to produce and require a greater community and product understanding level.

CMO's in Wartime need to have an excellent understanding of the purchaser mind and their psychological needs so that they can create content that eases worry and addresses the sincere concerns they have.

CMO's in Wartime double down on Category Design so that their organization 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 entire category.

Learn more about Classification Style.

The B2B sales procedure today is fragmented and complicated, with lots of stakeholders needing to verify a purchase decision. This renders basic marketing ROI and attribution methods less advantageous for anything besides scholastic research study.

The marketing function today breaks down into three functional pillars comprising Item, Requirement Generation, and Classification Design. Due to the fact that numerous marketing leaders have in fact not entirely accepted category style, it's a remarkably easy method to beat an incumbent during a crisis. As quickly as the sector starts to talk about the classification as you have really specified it, your service will end up being the category and the obvious option.

To do Classification Design requires a different working cadence. Wartime is the best time to embark on Classification Design considered that definitely nothing is "regular" during a crisis.
To deal with the obstacle of constructing a Category King organization needs a load of grit, decision, and an unfaltering drive to win. For the Wartime CMO, who handles the difficulty, there can be no larger pot-o-gold if effective.

Read the book Play Bigger to find out everything about category design.