Growth Stage Marketing Consultant - Mark Donnigan

Mark Donnigan develops disruptive ingenious start-ups. Mark's superpower is architecting go-to-market strategies and marketing motions that drive genuine service results for technical and product-centric founders. Mark's growth and market development experience covers twenty years as a transformative B2B marketing and company leader, driving need, brand advancement, and method for startup and growth-stage companies.

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

DISCOVER MORE: https://growthstage.marketing

Mark Donnigan has actually managed teams as large as 25, making up SDRs, AEs, and marketing, producing $29mm/year. Mark carried spending plan responsibilities to $3mm/year for operations and $400k/year for marketing. Offer sizes differing from mid-five figures to mid-six figures every year.

As a start-up marketing consultant, Mark Donnigan's incoming and outbound marketing experience include structure and mentoring high-performance groups that execute as needed generation, brand and product marketing, PR, digital, and occasions where he establishes and carries out high-impact programs that drive profits, produce ROI, trigger the market, and provides service results.

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

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

Mark has found that constructing a classification must be the leading objective for each marketing leader and it is the foundation of his approach and approach. Mark Donnigan has comprehensive 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 teamwork. Mark has comprehensive experience working along with sales, item, operations, and finance to make sure that business and income objectives of the company are constantly gone beyond.

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

Architecting the market category that is finest fit to the unique worth proposal of your innovation.
High impact marketing assistance so that you can reach your profits goals and scale sustainably.
Attaining go-to-market positioning throughout the sales and marketing organizations.
Drawing out the highest value from every marketing dollar.
Expert knowledge and insights about the B2B purchasing journey and how to navigate a progressively fragmented customer decision hierarchy.
Operationalizing marketing, from system and procedure development to making the first hires.

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

If you are a CEO who feels your B2B marketing does not have a clear connection to the service, you are not alone. A study finished by the marketing consultancy Fournaise discovered that 80% of Chief Executives are not happy with the work their top Marketing leader is doing. Examining what the present service reality suggests for marketing leaders, I remembered the concept of a Peacetime leader and a Wartime leader from Ben Horowitz's book "The Hard Aspect Of Hard Things."

Horowitz explained the concept in a post where he composed that the Peacetime CEO "focuses on the huge image and empowers her individuals to make in-depth decisions." The Wartime CEO, on the other hand, "appreciates a speck of dust on a gnat's ass if it interrupted the prime directive."

The Peacetime CEO "understands what to do with a huge advantage," while the Wartime CEO "is paranoid." Peacetime CEO "works to minimize disagreement," and Wartime CEO "heightens the contradictions."

Peacetime in service is when a business has the ability to grow in its core market due to a significant benefit vs. the competition. In times of peace, business focuses on expanding the marketplace and enhancing the business's strengths. For CMO's, Peacetime is when we are absolutely free to be creative with our brand building by participating in each exhibition with an even larger cubicle than last year's and investing exorbitantly on sponsorships, all under the guise of building the brand.

Wartime is a different thing entirely because, in Wartime, the life and death of our service may be on the line.
As I write this post, the whole world is fighting an undetectable enemy called COVID-19, which has let loose a frustrating dosage of business uncertainty globally. For CMO's, the COVID-19 pandemic is company equivalent of war. No longer do our 2020 marketing techniques make great sense.

This is more than remaining in a space with the light on, and unexpectedly you discover yourself in pitch-black darkness, so you walk tepidly, continuing in the exact same guidelines knowing that you were heading toward the door prior to the lights got shut off. No, not just has the pandemic turned the lights out, its blown a huge crater in our path that was not there prior to, and devoid of light in the space, can not be seen. However we ought to avoid at all expenditures falling into the crater.

No one wish for war, however a Wartime leader does not avoid the fight, instead, they recognize that Wartime is the single finest chance to leapfrog sidetracked competitors and take ground away. What follows is a set of pointers and concepts to help you find your "Wartime CMO fight strategy."

How to act as a Wartime CMO.

Throughout Wartime, everyone remains in uncharted waters, however this is where the possibility is for numerous companies who formerly had a difficult time to complete against larger rivals and dominant market forces. Now, for the really very first time, you might be on comparable footing as your more effective competitors. It's the best possibility to specify your future.

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

Take strong action.

Imaginative marketing is required in Wartime more than ever. Now is the time to examine your vital presumptions. As the worldwide organization environment has modified, and the stability of the core company brought into question, CMO's ought to be all set to reassess their initial plan.
Consider that less customers will equate to lowered need. And minimized requirement implies markets will not react as they did prior to the crisis.

Think about it in this manner, when people purchase less, marketers invest less. However prior to you follow a slash and burn the marketing invest playbook, here are a couple of things to be knowledgeable about:

Investment bank Cowen and Company evaluated the last 6 financial recessions provided that 1950 and discovered that costs on direct marketing grew during the previous economic recessions. Significance, you will want to consider your mix of trademark name marketing thoroughly compared to sales activation marketing. It's not time to stop marketing. Keep in mind, there will be deals throughout the board as media outlets see companies cut their marketing and advertising spends. Press marketing and branding drops in a downturn, but sales activation marketing always increases.

Shift spending to more quantifiable channels so that you can adjust rapidly. Speed is everything. Marketing initiatives able to be tracked with uniqueness will be a lot more valuable than broad mass-market projects. Slowdowns accelerate the decline of interruption-based mass marketing. In its place will be an increased concentrate on quantifiable and relationship-based strategies.

Declines produce a chance for business that are more efficient at turning marketing financial investments into earnings. In the middle of a decrease when advertisers are cutting their spending is a fun time to take advantage of low CPMs and Certified public accountants.

The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising finished a study in 2008 that found, "Following a spending plan cut, a brand name will continue to gain from the marketing financial investment made over the previous couple of years. This will decrease any short-term company impacts, and will result in an alarmingly misleading increase in short-term success. The longer-term service damage will be more considerable, but will not be discovered in the start."

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 a financial recession by cutting their TELEVISION marketing invest for 6 months experienced a decrease in Brand Usage by 24% with a 28% reduction in Trademark name Image. Brands that cut their ad budget at a higher rate relative to their rivals were at an even higher threat of share loss.
There are an unbelievable variety of marketing research studies that confirm in a decline, brand that continue advertising and marketing efforts recover quicker. It takes strong action to invest when the data suggests that ROI is not possible. A Wartime CMO fights to maintain the spending plan needed to continue marketing.

Take full benefit of the worth of each lead produced.

In a slowdown, risk-averse buyers take even longer to research study purchases, and this uses equally to B2B and B2C buyers. When you first acknowledge a prospect, they will likely stay in the awareness stage of your funnel and will not be all set to engage with an SDR or BDR. Do not force this interaction. Marketing needs to take care not to move a possibility through the funnel too quickly. Remember, the possibility's skilled life has been turned on its head. What was a concern just a number of weeks or months ago, is likely not top of mind today.

It's appealing in a decrease to tighten your grip on leads because the rationale is that now more than ever, all leads are essential. Here is where lead scoring can be a valuable tool to acknowledge extremely engaged prospects from those who are not likely to become your consumers. Now is the time for Online marketers to hold on to MQL's for a prolonged period so that you can groom the possibility to the maximum possible degree prior to handing them off to sales as a SQL.

Without lead scoring and a perfect possibility tracking system throughout your digital channels, as numerous as 9 out of 10 MQL's who are not yet sales-ready might be lost. They will buy, just not now. You don't want to lose out on the future sale given that you didn't keep in contact and include worth though the journey. In a "Wartime" economy, you ought to do whatever possible to enhance the worth of your MQL's.

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

Focus on your present clients.

It's more affordable to grow incomes with your existing customers. Believe about whether now is the time to scale back your mass lead generation programs and concentrate on building much deeper relationships with those who currently know your service. This does not imply to stop your need gen efforts, however it does imply that you might want to check out with product and sales how you can offer more to your existing clients.

In Peacetime, marketing groups are operating on autopilot in pursuit of driving MQL's to satisfy sales reps. For an organization that has gotten traction on their method to ending up being a category king or queen, this method, though expensive feels great since of the exceptional volume of activity that is being produced. However, without cautious analysis, the high degree of activity fools lots of CMO's and management groups into believing that their requirement generation engine is finely tuned when, in reality, it's giving off enormous contamination, i.e. exceptionally high CAC, higher than typical churn for the classification, low CLTV, and so on.

Marketing should align with sales.

A brand-focused Marketing leader concerns the organization with an impressive education and pedigree, having in fact held significant titles with big business. There was a time when the marketing group might handle all corporate and product details and messaging with the market. If a buyer desired to learn about a new product or explore whether a solution may fulfill their requirement, they had no option but to call business.

Reactions to concerns such as, Who's authentic and who isn't? - Who's product works, and whose does not? - What's coming? Now where offered with a single post on the proper online forum or LinkedIn group. As a result, the power moved to the purchaser.

We understand that online marketers are no longer in control of the buyer's journey. It is essential to define a funnel that describes expulsions a prospect need to pass on the way to doing organization with business. Purchasers can link with us on the platform of their choosing. As the buying group has actually expanded to as numerous as 2 lots individuals, the notion that they will follow our process as we have really recommended is rarely genuine.

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

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

Today, marketing needs greater levels of technical ability as a result of the surge of digital media and the marketing technologies that are associated with internet marketing. This improvement has been highlighted by Forrester, mentioning a 20-year-old shift to digital as the driving force behind CMOs moving from being brand-builders to earnings motorists. Forrester goes on to report that a value designer, revenue-driven Online marketer, must be a story maker and not simply a writer.

The CMO today must be a specialist at creating and leading creative engagement and organization approach to develop a classification for business to dominate.

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

They will work thoroughly with the sales group to find and map the purchaser's journey. Where assumptions do not match what is taking place in the market, a worth designer CMO will leave the workplace and hang out in the field. This leader comprehends that you can not drive profits if you aren't near to where the sale occurs.

A revenue-focused CMO develops content targeted at each phase of the purchaser's journey. Think of the purchaser's journey as a set of gates where the material reacts to the primary issues a purchaser has at each action so that they can finish the purchasing journey.
The new generation CMO will gather engagement metrics for each gate while evaluating the success of the end-to-end marketing cycle to deliver the most timely and qualified cause their sellers. A worth developer CMO sees marketing as close allies to the sales group.

The revenue-centered CMO is constantly discovering from and tweak the process so that they can enhance the amount and quality of leads that included to the pipeline and closed business.
Revenues attribution and marketing ROI designs will reflect genuine results, not theorized or "presumed" requirements. This details is essential 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 offers that drive the revenue and organization goals of business. Vanity metrics like traffic, click-thru rates, CPM, and CTA conversions tell simply a piece of the story.

What to attempt to discover in your next CMO.

In the vibrant state of organization today, dealing with an effective CMO is amongst the most tough things to do. Every market, company, and market area is different. Even where you can recognize potential customers from the exact same organization community or environment, it's not sufficient to simply take a look at years of experience or education. You require to examine the motivations and thought 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 lots of marketing groups, there will be specific experts who can operate at the highest level throughout the series of capabilities needed. It's incumbent for a marketing leader to command regard as a doer. The CMO, who can show functional ability in the core areas that the group runs, will be more reliable than a supervisor just.

Has the CMO held cross-functional positions?

The finest way to guarantee that you attract a CMO who is earnings and not brand-driven is to hire somebody who has come up through product, sales, and business method. Having direct exposure to the inner functions of item and sales is especially beneficial as business method is becoming a more significant part of the CMO's series of commitments.

Do they believe in systems or technique business in a structured manner?

As digital has blown up the number of marketing interface points, making it possible for purchasers to disaggregate the service from the purchasing journey, a CMO ought to have the capability to think about systems and structures rather of securely defined marketing lanes. It is no longer appropriate to plan in concerns to the social project, content marketing project, events, and PR, all as different activities. The successful CMO will begin with business goal they are serving and be ready to question everything.

Can they communicate outside the walls of the service to the marketplace?

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

As the CMO will need to work cross-functionally to ensure that they have placing with item and sales, the marketing head must be an incentive. To develop a category requires conversation, settlement, and the capability to search for and reach a contract.

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

A CMO who tries to lead with supreme authority will have a hard time to achieve service goals of the business. Marketing groups today should work as engineering groups operate in a nimble fashion. Instead of perfectly arranged 90-day job cadences, an agile marketing group carries out a constant circulation of efforts while preserving the versatility to alter as the marketplace or service needs figure out.

Does the CMO comprehend category design?

I have actually made up about classification design and why every service needs to own a classification to achieve its optimal capacity. There is a framework for executing classification style. Still, whether an Online marketer follows the summary or approaches classification design another method, a CMO should be putting routine idea and preparation into how they specify the category they suggest to dominate. Without input from the CEO and other members of the executive group, there is no chance to complete a right classification style.

The Wartime CMO will need to increase the responsibility of marketing by revealing the result of each marketing activity on the pipeline as determined by profits contribution.
In a sluggish down, marketing ought to move the understanding of being a cost center to an income driver. Reporting beyond the variety of marketing certified leads produced to include the general possibility worth for each lead source is an exceptional way to represent the function marketing is playing to drive the financial goals of company.

Studies have really revealed that an appropriately designed landing page can double your conversion rate over sending out traffic to the house page, which tends to do not have the proper call to action that matches the advertisement. Because of this, inspecting landing pages can increase conversions as much as 50% or more. Together, these techniques can offer a 2.5 X boost for each single dollar you buy marketing. Yes, conversion rate optimization makes a distinction.

Throughout Wartime, every marketing dollar is important, and a Wartime CMO comprehends that winning will not come down to a single technique or "silver bullet" technique. Rather, lots of small things performed well. The CMO, who can not comprehend the interplay of copy, messaging, imaginative design, and innovation, will have a hard time to discover and acknowledge rapidly where little adjustments can provide better conversions.

This material method worked, for a season, sort-of. Nevertheless with the boost of Google RankBrain, the approach has actually not worked for lots of years. Without remaining in the middle of a crisis, you require to stop this inefficient activity. Now as budgets are under pressure and every marketing activity ought to count, the manner in which we do content marketing needs to be upgraded.

Now, the material that we develop requirements to interest somebody searching for our option, and it should include purchaser intent triggers like keywords and expressions that a purchaser would use as they get near buying decision. A Havas Group research study revealed that 84% of individuals prepare for trademark name to produce content, yet 60% of the material produced is of bad quality or unimportant, stopping working to fulfill the needs of the audience. Despite a 71% connection in between content effectiveness and a brand's influence on individual health, simply 40% of the world's leading 1,500 trademark name produce content that satisfies this requirement. Brand's are stopping working to produce considerable material.

Stop producing assembly line material that is simply implied to develop the brand name or present the item. Instead, material needs to target particular personas to solve any holdups 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 should have an exceptional understanding of the buyer psyche and their mental requirements so that they can develop content that relieves fear and addresses the sincere issues they have.

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

Find out more about Category Design.

The B2B sales process today is fragmented and complex, with lots of stakeholders needing to validate a purchase decision. This renders basic marketing ROI and attribution strategies less helpful for anything besides academic research study.

The marketing function today breaks down into 3 functional pillars making up Product, Requirement Generation, and Classification Design. Because lots of marketing leaders have in fact not entirely embraced category style, it's a surprisingly easy way to beat an incumbent throughout a crisis. As quickly as the sector begins to discuss the get more information classification as you have really specified it, your service will wind up being the category and the apparent choice.

To do Classification Style needs a different working cadence. Wartime is the perfect time to start Category Style given that absolutely nothing is "typical" throughout a crisis.
To handle the challenge of building a Classification King business requires a lot of grit, decision, and a steadfast drive to win. For the Wartime CMO, who takes on the challenge, there can be no bigger pot-o-gold if successful.

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