Mark Donnigan Startup Marketing Consultant

Mark Donnigan constructs disruptive ingenious startups. Mark's superpower is architecting go-to-market plans and marketing movements that drive genuine company results for technical and product-centric founders. Mark's development and market development experience spans twenty years as a transformative B2B marketing and organization leader, driving demand, brand name advancement, and technique for start-up 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 companies to assist them develop, bootstrap, and scale their marketing and go-to-market actions.

DISCOVER MORE: https://growthstage.marketing

Mark Donnigan has actually managed groups as large as 25, comprising SDRs, AEs, and marketing, producing $29mm/year. Mark brought budget plan commitments 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 startup marketing consultant, Mark Donnigan's incoming and outbound marketing experience include structure and mentoring high-performance teams that execute on demand generation, brand and product marketing, PR, digital, and events where he develops and implements high-impact programs that drive revenue, produce ROI, trigger the marketplace, and provides company results.

Mark Donnigan believes that the finest marketing experts 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 item marketing.

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

Mark has discovered that building a classification must be the top goal for every marketing leader and it is the structure 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 value on team effort. Mark has extensive experience working along with sales, item, operations, and finance to make sure that business and income objectives of the company are always gone beyond.

Development Phase Marketing exists to provide business owners and creators services for:

Architecting the marketplace category that is best matched to the distinct value proposal of your innovation.
High effect marketing assistance so that you can reach your income objectives and scale sustainably.
Attaining go-to-market positioning throughout the sales and marketing companies.
Extracting the highest value from every marketing dollar.
Expert knowledge and insights about the B2B buying journey and how to navigate a significantly fragmented consumer decision hierarchy.
Operationalizing marketing, from system and procedure advancement to making the very first hires.

Ideas on what it requires an effective 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 happy with the work their top Marketing leader is doing. Assessing what the present service reality implies for marketing leaders, I remembered the concept of a Peacetime leader and a Wartime leader from Ben Horowitz's book "The Hard Feature Of Hard Things."

Horowitz described the principle in an article where he made up that the Peacetime CEO "concentrates on the big image and empowers her individuals to make in-depth choices." The Wartime CEO, on the other hand, "appreciates a speck of dust on a gnat's ass if it disrupted the prime instruction."

The Peacetime CEO "understands 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 business has the capability to grow in its core market due to a considerable benefit vs. the competitors. In times of peace, business concentrates on expanding the marketplace and enhancing the organization's strengths. For CMO's, Peacetime is when we are totally free to be creative with our trademark name structure by attending each exhibit with an even larger cubicle than in 2015's and investing exorbitantly on sponsorships, all under the guise of constructing the brand.

Wartime is a various thing totally because, in Wartime, the life and death of our business might be on the line.
As I write this post, the whole world is battling an invisible opponent called COVID-19, which has let loose an aggravating dosage of service uncertainty globally. For CMO's, the COVID-19 pandemic is service equivalent of war. No longer do our 2020 marketing methods make great sense.

This is more than remaining in an area with the light on, and suddenly you find yourself in pitch-black darkness, so you walk tepidly, continuing in the exact same instructions knowing that you were heading toward the door prior to the lights got turned off. No, not just has the pandemic turned the lights out, its blown an enormous crater in our course that was not there previous to, and without light in the space, can not be seen. However we should prevent at all expenses falling under the crater.

No one longs for war, but a Wartime leader does not avoid the battle, instead, they acknowledge that Wartime is the single finest possibility to leapfrog sidetracked rivals and take ground away. What follows is a set of suggestions and concepts to assist you discover your "Wartime CMO battle plan."

How to function as a Wartime CMO.

During Wartime, everyone remains in uncharted waters, but this is where the possibility is for many business who previously had a difficult time to complete against bigger competitors and dominant market forces. Now, for the really first time, you may be on equivalent footing as your more powerful rivals. It's the best possibility to define your future.

In an international decline like what COVID-19 has set off, absolutely nothing makes good sense. And yet, a few of your rivals will continue to perform their usual "tried and genuine" marketing playback, presuming that constructing the trademark name with corporate interactions messages from the CEO is going to add to their organization goals. Now is the best opportunity 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 important presumptions. As the around the world company environment has altered, and the stability of the core organization brought into question, CMO's should be ready to reassess their initial plan.
Consider that less customers will equate to reduced need. And lowered requirement implies markets will not react 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 Company examined the last 6 economic recessions considered that 1950 and found that costs on direct marketing grew throughout the previous economic downturns. Significance, you will wish to consider your mix of trademark 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 companies 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 uniqueness will be a lot more valuable than broad mass-market tasks. Downturns speed up the decrease of interruption-based mass marketing. In its place will be an increased focus on quantifiable and relationship-based methods.

Recessions produce a chance for business that are more efficient at turning marketing monetary investments into revenue. In the middle of a decrease when marketers are cutting their spending is an enjoyable time to take advantage of low CPMs and Licensed public accountants.

The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising finished a study in 2008 that found, "Following a budget cut, a brand will continue to gain from the marketing financial investment made over the previous couple of years. This will lower any short-term service effects, and will result in a precariously misleading boost in short-term success. The longer-term business harm will be more considerable, but will not be discovered in the beginning."

Millward Brown reported in their research study "Marketing During Economic Decline: To Invest or Not to Invest?" that 60% of brand that went 'dark' throughout an economic recession by cutting their TELEVISION marketing invest for 6 months experienced a decline in Brand name Usage by 24% with a 28% reduction in Brand name Image. Brands that cut their advertisement budget plan at a higher rate relative to their rivals were at an even greater risk of share loss.
There are an incredible variety of marketing studies that validate in a decline, brand name names that continue marketing and marketing efforts recover much faster. It takes strong action to invest when the information recommends that ROI is not possible. A Wartime CMO fights to preserve the budget required to continue marketing.

Take complete benefit of the worth of each lead produced.

In a downturn, risk-averse purchasers take even longer to research study purchases, and this uses equally to B2B and B2C buyers. When you initially recognize 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 require this interaction. Marketing ought to make sure not to move a possibility through the funnel too quickly. Remember, the possibility's expert life has actually been turned on its head. What was a concern just a number of weeks or months back, is most likely not top of mind today.

It's tempting in a decrease to tighten your grip on leads given that the rationale is that now more than ever, all leads are necessary. Here is where lead scoring can be an important tool to acknowledge extremely engaged potential customers from those who are not likely to become your clients. Now is the time for Marketers to hang on to MQL's for an extended period so that you can groom the prospect to the maximum possible INFO 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 numerous as 9 out of 10 MQL's who are not yet sales-ready might be lost. They will buy, simply not now. You do not want to miss out on out on the future sale since you didn't keep in contact and consist of worth though the journey. In a "Wartime" economy, you ought to do everything possible to optimize the worth of your MQL's.

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

Focus on your present customers.

It's cheaper to grow earnings with your existing clients. Think of whether now is the time to downsize your mass list building programs and concentrate on structure much deeper relationships with those who already understand your service. This does not indicate to stop your need gen efforts, but it does indicate that you might want to explore with product and sales how you can offer more to your existing customers.

In Peacetime, marketing groups are working on autopilot in pursuit of driving MQL's to please sales reps. For an organization that has actually acquired traction on their way to becoming a classification king or queen, this technique, though costly feels great because of the impressive volume of activity that is being produced. Nevertheless, without careful analysis, the high degree of activity fools numerous CMO's and management groups into thinking that their need generation engine is carefully tuned when, in reality, it's producing enormous contamination, i.e. extremely high CAC, greater than average churn for the classification, low CLTV, and so on.

Marketing must align with sales.

A brand-focused Marketing leader worries business with a remarkable education and pedigree, having really held substantial titles with big companies. There was a time when the marketing group may handle all corporate and item information and messaging with the marketplace. If a purchaser wanted to discover out about a brand-new product or check out whether a solution may fulfill their requirement, they had no option however to call business.

Reactions to issues such as, Who's real and who isn't? - Who's item works, and whose does not? - What's coming? Now where available with a single post on the appropriate online forum or LinkedIn group. As an outcome, the power moved to the buyer.

We know that online marketers are no longer in control of the purchaser's journey. It is essential to define a funnel that details expulsions a possibility should pass on the way to doing business with business. Buyers can get in touch with us on the platform of their choosing. As the buying group has actually expanded to as lots of as two lots individuals, the idea that they will follow our process as we have in fact prescribed is rarely real.

You need a value developer 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 item designers or service business, to digital innovation companies where the product is dispersed as software application or software application as a service through the Web, has reduced the function of marketing. And is the factor a revenue-focused CMO who is a value developer is what all start-ups and disruptive innovation companies require today.

Today, marketing requires greater levels of technical capability as a result of the explosion of digital media and the marketing technologies that are connected with internet marketing. This improvement 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 chauffeurs. Forrester goes on to report that a value developer, revenue-driven Online online marketer, need to be a story maker and not simply a storyteller.

The CMO today ought to be an expert at developing and leading imaginative engagement and organization technique to develop a category for business to control.

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

They will work carefully with the sales group to discover and map the purchaser's journey. Where presumptions do not match what is occurring 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 income if you aren't near to where the sale occurs.

A revenue-focused CMO creates content targeted at each stage of the buyer's journey. Think of the purchaser'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 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 deliver 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 finding from and tweak the procedure so that they can improve the amount and quality of leads that contributed to the pipeline and closed service.
Revenues attribution and marketing ROI designs will show real outcomes, not theorized or "presumed" requirements. This details is crucial for the revenue-focused CMO to fix since get more information 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 earnings and service goals of business. Vanity metrics like traffic, click-thru rates, CPM, and CTA conversions inform just a piece of the story.

What to search for in your next CMO.

In the dynamic state of organization today, dealing with an effective CMO is among the most difficult things to do. Every market, organization, and market area is numerous. Even where you can acknowledge prospects from the same service neighborhood or environment, it's inadequate to merely have a look at years of experience or education. You need to take a look at the motivations and thought patterns of the person. Ask:
Is the CMO a problem solver?

The most considerable danger today is on the marketplace side and not innovation. A marketing leader who isn't a problem solver will struggle to deal with the fast-changing nature of the marketplace and neighborhood structure.

Are they a doer?
In many marketing groups, there will be specific experts 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 demonstrate practical capability in the core areas that the group runs, marketing consulting will be more reputable than a supervisor simply.

Has the CMO held cross-functional positions?

The finest method to ensure that you draw in a CMO who is income and not brand-driven is to work with someone who has shown up through item, sales, and business technique. Having direct exposure to the inner operations of item and sales is especially useful as service method is becoming a more substantial part of the CMO's series of commitments.

Do they believe in systems or approach organization in a structured way?

As digital has actually exploded the number of marketing user interface points, making it possible for purchasers to disaggregate the service from the buying journey, a CMO needs to have the ability to think about systems and structures rather of securely defined marketing lanes. It is no longer sufficient to prepare in regards to the social project, content marketing task, occasions, and PR, all as different activities. The effective CMO will begin with service goal they are serving and be prepared to question everything.

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

To end up being a story-maker, you must be worthy of listening to. A CMO remains in the ideal position to presume the evangelistic function for the service. The most effective CMO's in any market are extremely visible 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 need to be an incentive. To develop a classification needs conversation, settlement, and the ability to search for and reach a contract.

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

A CMO who tries to lead with supreme authority will have a hard time to accomplish organization objectives of the service. Marketing groups today should work as engineering groups operate in a nimble style. Instead of nicely arranged 90-day project cadences, an agile marketing group carries out a constant flow of efforts while maintaining the flexibility to change as the marketplace or company needs identify.

Does the CMO comprehend category design?

I have really made up about category style and why every organization requires to own a classification to accomplish its optimal capacity. There is a structure for carrying out category style. Still, whether an Online marketer follows the summary or methods category design another method, a CMO must be putting routine idea and preparation into how they define the category they imply to dominate. Without input from the CEO and other members of the executive group, there is no other way to complete a right category style.

The Wartime CMO will require to increase the accountability of marketing by revealing the effect of each marketing activity on the pipeline as identified by income contribution.
In a slow down, marketing ought to move the understanding of being a cost center to an earnings vehicle driver. Reporting beyond the variety of marketing certified leads produced to consist of the overall possibility worth for each lead source is an outstanding way to represent the function marketing is playing to drive the financial objectives of organization.

Studies have in fact exposed that a correctly designed landing page can double your conversion rate over sending traffic to your house page, which tends to do not have the correct call to action that matches the ad. Since of this, checking landing pages can increase conversions as much as 50% or more. Together, these strategies can supply a 2.5 X increase 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 understands that winning will not come down to a single strategy or "silver bullet" approach. Rather, many little things carried out well. The CMO, who can not comprehend the interaction of copy, messaging, creative design, and development, will have a hard time to discover and acknowledge quickly where small adjustments can provide better conversions.

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

Now, the content that we develop needs to interest someone trying to discover our service, and it needs to include buyer intent activates like keywords and expressions that a buyer would use as they get near buying choice. A Havas Group research study revealed that 84% of people prepare for brand to produce content, yet 60% of the content produced is of bad quality or get more information unimportant, stopping working to fulfill the requirements of the audience. Regardless of a 71% correlation in between content performance and a brand's influence on individual health, simply 40% of the world's leading 1,500 trademark name produce material that meets this requirement. Brand's are stopping working to produce substantial content.

Stop producing assembly line content that is simply indicated to establish the brand name or introduce the item. Instead, content should target particular personalities to resolve any setbacks avoiding the possibility from carrying on. This material will take longer to produce and need a greater neighborhood and item knowledge level.

CMO's in Wartime ought to have an exceptional understanding of the buyer psyche and their psychological requirements so that they can develop material that relieves worry and addresses the sincere issues 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 choice, putting them in the excellent position to take as much as 76% of the economics from the whole category.

Learn more about Classification Design.

The B2B sales process today is fragmented and complex, with great deals of stakeholders requiring to confirm a purchase choice. This renders basic marketing ROI and attribution strategies less beneficial for anything besides academic research study.

The marketing function today breaks down into 3 practical pillars comprising Item, Need Generation, and Classification Design. Due to the fact that lots of marketing leaders have in fact not totally click here accepted classification design, it's a remarkably easy way to beat an incumbent during a crisis. As quickly as the sector begins to talk about the classification as you have actually defined it, your service will end up being the category and the obvious choice.

To do Category Style needs a different working cadence. Wartime is the best time to embark on Classification Style given that definitely nothing is "typical" throughout a crisis.
To manage the difficulty of building a Category King organization needs a lots of grit, decision, and a steadfast drive to win. For the Wartime CMO, who takes on the difficulty, there can be no larger pot-o-gold if effective.

Check out the book Play Larger to learn everything about category design.