growth stage marketing consultant Mark Donnigan

Mark Donnigan builds disruptive ingenious start-ups. Mark's superpower is architecting go-to-market plans and marketing movements that drive genuine service outcomes for technical and product-centric creators. Mark's growth and market advancement experience spans twenty years as a transformative B2B marketing and magnate, driving need, brand development, and method for startup and growth-stage companies.

As a specialist and virtual marketing leader (fractional-CMO), Mark Donnigan deals with startup creators and CEOs from B2B disruptive innovation technology business to assist them establish, bootstrap, and scale their marketing and go-to-market actions.

FIND OUT MORE: https://growthstage.marketing

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

As a start-up marketing consultant, Mark Donnigan's inbound and outgoing marketing experience consist of structure and mentoring high-performance groups that carry out on need generation, brand name and item marketing, PR, digital, and occasions where he develops and carries out high-impact programs that drive income, produce ROI, activate the market, and delivers company outcomes.

Mark Donnigan thinks that the very best marketing consultants and marketing leaders are doers. Mark's marketing experience consists of all elements of need generation, ABM, SEO, e-mail marketing, paid marketing, events, PR (internal & company), and product marketing.

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

Mark has actually discovered that building a classification ought to be the leading objective for every marketing leader and it is the structure of his approach and method. Mark Donnigan has substantial B2B marketing experience that includes structure and mentoring high-performance groups.

Mark Donnigan is a systems thinker, and he positions a high worth on teamwork. Mark has extensive experience working along with sales, item, operations, and finance to guarantee that business and revenue goals of the company are constantly exceeded.

Development Phase Marketing exists to supply entrepreneurs and founders services for:

Architecting the marketplace classification that is finest matched to the special worth proposal of your innovation.
High impact marketing support so that you can reach your income goals and scale sustainably.
Accomplishing go-to-market positioning across the sales and marketing companies.
Drawing out the greatest value from every marketing dollar.
Insider knowledge and insights about the B2B buying journey and how to navigate an increasingly fragmented consumer decision hierarchy.
Operationalizing marketing, from system and process advancement to making the very 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 the business, you are not alone. A study completed by the marketing consultancy Fournaise found that 80% of Chief Executives are not pleased with the work their top Marketing leader is doing. Examining what the present organization fact indicates for marketing leaders, I remembered the principle of a Peacetime leader and a Wartime leader from Ben Horowitz's book "The Hard Aspect Of Hard Things."

Horowitz explained the concept in an article where he made up that the Peacetime CEO "concentrates on the big image and empowers her individuals to make comprehensive choices." The Wartime CEO, on the other hand, "values a speck of dust on a gnat's ass if it interrupted the prime instruction."

The Peacetime CEO "understands what to do with a substantial advantage," while the Wartime CEO "is paranoid." Peacetime CEO "works to minimize dispute," and Wartime CEO "increases the contradictions."

Peacetime in service is when a business has the capability to grow in its core market due to a considerable advantage vs. the competition. In times of peace, business focuses on widening the market and enhancing business's strengths. For CMO's, Peacetime is when we are completely complimentary to be imaginative with our trademark name structure by attending each exhibition with an even larger cubicle than in 2015's and investing exorbitantly on sponsorships, all under the guise of building the trademark name.

Wartime is a various thing totally because, in Wartime, the life and death of our organization may be on the line.
As I compose this post, the whole world is battling an invisible enemy called COVID-19, which has let loose an aggravating dose of organization uncertainty internationally. For CMO's, the COVID-19 pandemic is business equivalent of war. No longer do our 2020 marketing strategies make great sense.

This is more than being in a space with the light on, and suddenly you find yourself in pitch-black darkness, so you stroll tepidly, continuing in the very same directions understanding that you were heading toward the door prior to the lights got switched off. No, not simply 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 room, can not be seen. However we ought to prevent at all expenditures falling into the crater.

No one wish for war, however a Wartime leader does not avoid the fight, rather, they recognize that Wartime is the single finest chance to leapfrog sidetracked rivals and take ground away. What follows is a set of tips and ideas to help you discover your "Wartime CMO fight plan."

How to act as a Wartime CMO.

Throughout Wartime, everybody is in uncharted waters, but this is where the opportunity is for many companies who formerly had a tough time to complete against bigger competitors and dominant market forces. Now, for the extremely very first time, you might be on equivalent footing as your more powerful rivals. It's the best opportunity to define your future.

In a worldwide reduction like what COVID-19 has actually activated, definitely nothing makes good sense. And yet, a few of your competitors will continue to perform their usual "tried and genuine" marketing playback, presuming that building the trademark name with business interactions messages from the CEO is going to contribute to their company goals. Now is the ideal possibility 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 inspect your essential presumptions. As the around the world service environment has altered, and the stability of the core company brought into question, CMO's should be ready to reassess their initial strategy.
Think of that less consumers will equate to reduced requirement. And minimized requirement implies markets will not react as they did prior to the crisis.

Think about it in this way, when individuals buy less, advertisers invest less. However prior to you follow a slash and burn the marketing invest playbook, here are a number of things to be educated about:

Investment bank Cowen and Company analyzed the last 6 financial slumps considered that 1950 and found that spending on direct marketing grew throughout the previous financial 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 offers throughout the board as media outlets see business cut their advertising and marketing spends. Push marketing and branding drops in a downturn, but sales activation marketing always increases.

Shift spending to more measurable channels so that you can adjust rapidly. Speed is everything. Marketing initiatives able to be tracked with specificity will be a lot more valuable than broad mass-market jobs. Downturns speed up the decrease of interruption-based mass marketing. In its place will be an increased concentrate on quantifiable and relationship-based methods.

Slumps create a chance for companies that are more efficient at turning marketing monetary investments into income. In the middle of a slow down when advertisers are cutting their spending is an enjoyable time to benefit from low CPMs and Certified public accountants.

The Institute of Practitioners in Marketing completed a research study in 2008 that discovered, "Following a spending plan cut, a brand name will continue to acquire from the marketing financial investment made over the previous few years. This will decrease any short-term business effects, and will lead to a dangerously misleading boost in short-term success. The longer-term company damage will be more significant, however will not be seen in the beginning."

Millward Brown reported in their research study "Marketing Throughout Economic Slump: To Invest or Not to Invest?" that 60% of brand that went 'dark' throughout an economic recession by cutting their TV marketing invest for 6 months experienced a decline in Trademark name Usage by 24% with a 28% reduction in Trademark name Image. Brand names 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 unbelievable number of marketing research studies that verify in a decrease, brand that continue advertising and marketing efforts recover faster. It takes strong action to invest when the data advises that ROI is not possible. A Wartime CMO battles to maintain the budget plan needed to continue marketing.

Maximize the worth of each lead produced.

In a downturn, risk-averse buyers take even longer to research purchases, and this uses equally to B2B and B2C purchasers. When you initially acknowledge a prospect, they will likely remain 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 ought to make sure not to move a possibility through the funnel too rapidly. Remember, the possibility's professional life has been switched on its head. What was a concern simply a number of weeks or months earlier, is most likely not top of mind today.

It's appealing in a decrease to tighten your grip on leads given that the reasoning is that now more than ever, all leads are necessary. Here is where lead scoring can be an important tool to recognize extremely engaged prospects from those who are not likely to become your customers. Now is the time for Marketers to hold on to MQL's for an extended duration so that you can groom the possibility to the maximum possible extent prior to handing them off to sales as a SQL.

Without lead scoring and a perfect possibility tracking system throughout your digital channels, as many as 9 out of ten MQL's who are not yet sales-ready may be lost. They will buy, simply not now. You don't want 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 must do everything possible to optimize the worth of your MQL's.

CMO's that do a far better task of dealing with 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 actually passed.

Focus on your present customers.

It's less expensive to grow incomes with your existing clients. Think about whether now is the time to downsize your mass lead generation programs and focus on building deeper relationships with those who currently know your service. This does not indicate to stop your need gen efforts, however it does imply that you may wish to check out with product and sales how you can offer more to your existing consumers.

In Peacetime, marketing groups are operating on auto-pilot in pursuit of driving MQL's to please sales reps. For a service that has actually gotten traction on their method to ending up being a category king or queen, this technique, though expensive feels great given that of the exceptional volume of activity that is being produced. However, without mindful analysis, the high degree of activity fools numerous CMO's and management groups into believing that their requirement generation engine is finely tuned when, in truth, it's releasing huge contamination, i.e. extremely high CAC, higher than typical churn for the category, low CLTV, and so on.

Marketing needs to align with sales.

A brand-focused Marketing leader worries business with a remarkable education and pedigree, having actually held significant titles info with big business. There was a time when the Mark Donnigan Startup Marketing Consultant marketing group may manage all corporate and product details and messaging with the market. If a buyer preferred to discover out about a new product or explore whether a solution might fulfill their requirement, they had no option but to call business.

Actions to issues such as, Who's genuine and who isn't? - Who's product works, and whose does not? - What's coming? Now where available with a single post on the proper forum or LinkedIn group. As a result, the power moved to the buyer.

We understand that online marketers are no longer in control of the purchaser's journey. It is essential to specify a funnel that outlines evictions a prospect must pass on the way to doing service with business. Buyers can connect with us on the platform of their choosing. As the buying group has expanded to as numerous as two lots individuals, the concept that they will follow our process as we have actually 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 advancement plan. The shift from business being physical product developers or service companies, to digital innovation business where the product is dispersed as software application or software as a service through the Internet, has actually decreased the function of marketing. And is the factor a revenue-focused CMO who is a value designer is what all start-ups and disruptive innovation companies require today.

Today, marketing needs greater levels of technical ability as an outcome of the explosion of digital media and the marketing technologies that are related to internet marketing. This change has actually been highlighted by Forrester, mentioning a 20-year-old transition to digital as the driving force behind CMOs moving from being brand-builders to profits motorists. Forrester goes on to report that a value developer, revenue-driven Online online marketer, need to be a story maker and not just a writer.

The CMO today should be a professional at producing and leading creative engagement and company approach to develop a classification for the organization to dominate.

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

They will work carefully with the sales group to find and map the buyer's journey. Where presumptions do not match what is happening in the market, a value developer CMO will leave the office and hang out in the field. This leader understands that you can not drive profits if you aren't near to where the sale takes place.

A revenue-focused CMO creates 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 main issues a purchaser has at each action so that they can complete 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 licensed result in their sellers. A worth developer CMO sees marketing as close allies to the sales group.

The revenue-centered CMO is constantly finding from and fine-tuning the process so that they can improve the amount and quality of leads that included to the pipeline and closed service.
Incomes attribution and marketing ROI designs will show real outcomes, not extrapolated or "presumed" requirements. This details is essential for the revenue-focused CMO to fix since they appreciate marketing's influence on company.

A revenue-focused CMO will focus on how their marketing efforts map to closed/won offers that drive the profits and company objectives of the organization. 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 vibrant state of company today, working with an effective CMO is among the most difficult things to do. Every market, organization, and market section is different. Even where you can recognize potential customers from the same business neighborhood or environment, it's inadequate to simply have a look at years of experience or education. You require to examine the inspirations and thought patterns of the person. Ask:
Is the CMO an issue solver?

The most considerable risk today is on the marketplace side and not development. A marketing leader who isn't an issue solver will struggle to deal with the fast-changing nature of the marketplace and community building.

Are they a doer?
In numerous marketing groups, there will be particular specialists 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 demonstrate functional ability in the core locations that the group runs, will be more trustworthy than a manager just.

Has the CMO held cross-functional positions?

The finest method to make sure that you bring in a CMO who is earnings and not brand-driven is to hire somebody who has actually come up through product, sales, and business method. Having direct exposure to the inner operations of item and sales is especially helpful as organization method is ending up being a more significant part of the CMO's series of responsibilities.

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

As digital INFO has actually blown up the variety of marketing interface points, allowing buyers to disaggregate business from the buying journey, a CMO must have the ability to think about systems and structures instead of securely defined marketing lanes. It is no longer adequate to plan in concerns to the social task, material marketing project, occasions, and PR, all as separate activities. The successful CMO will begin with company goal they are serving and be all set to question everything.

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

To wind up being a get more information story-maker, you must deserve listening to. A CMO is in the ideal position to presume the evangelistic function for business. The most successful CMO's in any market are extremely noticeable spokespeople for their organization.
Are they a motivator?

As the CMO will require to work cross-functionally to guarantee that they have placing with product and sales, the marketing head need to be an incentive. To establish a category requires conversation, settlement, and the ability to try to find and reach an agreement.

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

A CMO who tries to lead with ultimate authority will struggle to accomplish business goals of business. Marketing groups today need to work as engineering groups operate in an agile fashion. Rather of perfectly organized 90-day project cadences, a nimble marketing group performs a consistent circulation of initiatives while preserving the adaptability to change as the market or organization needs determine.

Does the CMO comprehend classification design?

I have actually made up about classification style and why every organization requires to own a category to accomplish its optimum capacity. There is a structure for executing category design. Still, whether a Marketer follows the summary or methods category design another way, a CMO needs to be putting regular thought and preparation into how they define the category they mean to control. Without input from the CEO and other members of the executive group, there is no method to complete a right category style.

The Wartime CMO will need to increase the accountability of marketing by revealing the result of each marketing activity on the pipeline as identified by earnings contribution.
In a decrease, marketing should move the understanding of being a cost center to an income driver. Reporting beyond the number of marketing qualified leads produced to consist of the total possibility worth for each lead source is an excellent way to represent the function marketing is playing to drive the financial objectives of organization.

Research studies have in fact exposed that a correctly developed 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. Since of this, inspecting landing pages can increase conversions as much as 50% or more. Together, these strategies can offer a 2.5 X increase for every single single dollar you buy marketing. Yes, conversion rate optimization makes a difference.

During Wartime, every marketing dollar is valuable, and a Wartime CMO understands that winning will not boil down to a single strategy or "silver bullet" approach. Instead, many little things carried out well. The CMO, who can not comprehend the interplay of copy, messaging, imaginative style, and innovation, will struggle to discover and recognize rapidly where small modifications can offer much better conversions.

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

Now, the material that we create requirements to interest someone searching for our solution, and it should consist of buyer intent activates like keywords and expressions that a buyer would utilize as they get close to acquiring decision. A Havas Group research study exposed that 84% of people expect trademark name to produce content, yet 60% of the content produced is of bad quality or unimportant, failing to satisfy the requirements of the audience. Despite a 71% correlation in between content effectiveness and a brand name's influence on personal health, just 40% of the world's leading 1,500 brand produce material that meets this requirement. Trademark name's are stopping working to produce considerable material.

Stop producing assembly line material that is simply implied to develop the trademark name or introduce the item. Instead, material needs to target particular personalities to deal with any troubles avoiding the possibility from moving on. This material will take longer to produce and require a higher neighborhood and product understanding level.

CMO's in Wartime should have an outstanding understanding of the buyer mind and their mental requirements so that they can develop content that eliminates fear and addresses the sincere concerns they have.

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

Learn more about Category Design.

The B2B sales procedure today is fragmented and intricate, with lots of stakeholders requiring to verify a purchase decision. This renders basic marketing ROI and attribution techniques less useful for anything besides academic research study.

The marketing function today breaks down into 3 practical pillars comprising Item, Need Generation, and Classification Style. Because many marketing leaders have in fact not entirely welcomed category design, it's a surprisingly simple way to beat an incumbent throughout a crisis. As quickly as the sector starts to discuss the classification as you have in fact specified it, your company will end up being the category and the obvious option.

To do Category Style needs a various working cadence. Wartime is the perfect time to start Category Style given that definitely nothing is "typical" during a crisis.
To deal with the challenge of building a Category King business requires a lots of grit, determination, and an unfaltering drive to win. For the Wartime CMO, who takes on the obstacle, there can be no bigger pot-o-gold if successful.

Check out the book Play Bigger to discover all about category design.