mark donnigan marketing consultant

Mark Donnigan constructs disruptive innovative start-ups. Mark's superpower is architecting go-to-market strategies and marketing motions that drive real business outcomes for technical and product-centric founders. Mark's growth and market advancement experience spans 20 years as a transformative B2B marketing and magnate, driving need, brand advancement, and technique for startup and growth-stage business.

As an expert and virtual marketing leader (fractional-CMO), Mark Donnigan deals with startup creators and CEOs from B2B disruptive development technology companies to assist them develop, bootstrap, and scale their marketing and go-to-market actions.

FIND OUT MORE: https://growthstage.marketing

Mark Donnigan has handled teams as big as 25, comprising SDRs, AEs, and marketing, producing $29mm/year. Mark brought budget obligations 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 specialist, Mark Donnigan's incoming and outbound marketing experience include structure and mentoring high-performance groups that carry out on need generation, brand name and item marketing, PR, digital, and events where he establishes and implements high-impact programs that drive earnings, produce ROI, activate the marketplace, and delivers business results.

Mark Donnigan thinks that the finest 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 a problem solver and a first-principles thinker who is imaginative and analytical. Mark always works cross-functionally and has actually proven success, building, leading, and mentoring marketing, sales, and organization development groups that have in fact produced more than $500mm in revenue/shareholder worth.

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

Mark Donnigan is a systems thinker, and he places a high value on team effort. Mark has extensive experience working together with sales, item, operations, and finance to guarantee that the organization and earnings objectives of the business 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 distinct value proposition of your technology.
High impact marketing assistance so that you can reach your revenue goals and scale sustainably.
Accomplishing go-to-market alignment throughout the sales and marketing organizations.
Extracting the highest worth from every marketing dollar.
Expert knowledge and insights about the B2B purchasing journey and how to navigate a significantly fragmented consumer decision hierarchy.
Operationalizing marketing, from system and procedure advancement to making the first hires.

Thoughts 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 business, you are not alone. A research study completed by the marketing consultancy Fournaise found that 80% of Chief Executives are not delighted with the work their leading Marketing leader is doing. Examining what the present organization reality 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 explained the principle in a post where he composed that the Peacetime CEO "concentrates on the big image and empowers her individuals to make comprehensive decisions." The Wartime CEO, on the other hand, "appreciates a speck of dust on a gnat's ass if it interfered with the prime instruction."

The Peacetime CEO "comprehends what to do with a big benefit," while the Wartime CEO "is paranoid." Peacetime CEO "works to minimize disagreement," and Wartime CEO "heightens the contradictions."

Peacetime in organization is when a company has the ability to grow in its core market due to a substantial benefit vs. the competition. In times of peace, the business focuses on expanding the marketplace and enhancing the organization's strengths. For CMO's, Peacetime is when we are completely free to be imaginative with our brand building by going to each exhibit with an even bigger cubicle than last year's and investing exorbitantly on sponsorships, all under the guise of building the brand name.

Wartime is a different thing totally because, in Wartime, the life and death of our organization might be on the line.
As I write this post, the entire world is combating an unnoticeable enemy called COVID-19, which has let loose a discouraging dosage of service unpredictability 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 unexpectedly you find yourself in pitch-black darkness, so you walk tepidly, continuing in the same guidelines knowing that you were heading towards 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 without light in the space, can not be seen. However we ought to prevent at all expenditures falling into the crater.

Nobody wish for war, however a Wartime leader does not avoid the fight, rather, they acknowledge that Wartime is the single finest opportunity to leapfrog sidetracked rivals and take ground away. What follows is a set of suggestions and ideas to assist you discover your "Wartime CMO fight plan."

How to function as a Wartime CMO.

Throughout Wartime, everybody remains in uncharted waters, but this is where the chance is for lots of companies who formerly had a difficult time to compete versus bigger competitors and dominant market forces. Now, for the extremely first time, you may be on comparable footing as your more powerful rivals. It's the perfect opportunity 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 normal "attempted and genuine" marketing playback, presuming that constructing the trademark name with business interactions messages from the CEO is going to contribute to their organization goals. Now is the best opportunity 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 around the world service environment has actually modified, and the stability of the core organization called into question, CMO's must be prepared to reassess their initial strategy.
Think about that less consumers will correspond to decreased need. And reduced 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 number of things to be well-informed about:

Investment bank Cowen and Company evaluated the last 6 economic downturns offered that 1950 and discovered that costs on direct marketing grew during the previous economic slumps. Significance, you will wish to consider your mix of brand 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 business cut their marketing and advertising invests. Press marketing and branding drops in a downturn, but sales activation marketing always increases.

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

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

The Institute of Practitioners in Marketing ended up a study in 2008 that found, "Following a budget plan cut, a brand will continue to acquire from the marketing financial investment made over the previous couple of years. This will decrease any short-term company impacts, and will result in a precariously misleading boost in short-term success. The longer-term company harm will be more significant, 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 names that went 'dark' during a financial recession by cutting their TELEVISION marketing invest for 6 months experienced a decline in Brand name Usage by 24% with a 28% decrease in Brand name Image. Brand names that cut their ad budget at a greater rate relative to their rivals were at an even greater risk of share loss.
There are an unbelievable variety of marketing research studies that confirm in a decrease, brand that continue advertising and marketing efforts recover quicker. It takes strong action to invest when the data advises that ROI is not possible. A Wartime CMO battles to maintain the spending plan required to continue marketing.

Make the most of the worth of each lead produced.

In a downturn, risk-averse purchasers take even longer to research study purchases, and this uses similarly to B2B and B2C buyers. When you first acknowledge a possibility, they will likely remain in the awareness phase of your funnel and will not be all set to engage with an SDR or BDR. Do not require this interaction. Marketing must take care not to move a possibility through the funnel too quickly. Remember, the possibility's expert life has actually been switched on its head. What was an issue just a couple of weeks or months earlier, is most likely not top of mind today.

It's appealing in a sluggish down to tighten your grip on leads given that 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 potential customers from those who are not likely to become your consumers. Now is the time for Marketers to hold on to MQL's for an extended period so that you can groom the prospect to the maximum possible degree prior to handing them off to sales as a SQL.

Without lead scoring and an ideal 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, just not now. You don't want to miss out on the future sale considering that you didn't keep in contact and consist of worth though the journey. In a "Wartime" economy, you need to do everything possible to optimize the worth of your MQL's.

CMO's that do a better task 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.

Concentrate on your present consumers.

It's cheaper to grow incomes with your existing consumers. Believe about whether now is the time to downsize your mass list building programs and focus on structure much deeper relationships with those who currently know your company. This does not indicate to stop your requirement gen efforts, but it does suggest that you may wish to explore with item and sales how you can sell more to your existing consumers.

In Peacetime, marketing groups are working on autopilot in pursuit of driving MQL's to please sales reps. For a business that has actually acquired traction on their method to becoming a classification king or queen, this method, though pricey feels excellent 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 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 needs to line up 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 might manage all business and product details and messaging with the market. If a purchaser wanted to find out about a brand-new item or check out whether a solution might fulfill their requirement, they had no alternative but to call business.

Actions to concerns such as, Who's genuine and who isn't? - Who's item 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 moved to the buyer.

We know that online marketers are no longer in control of the purchaser's journey. It is necessary to define a funnel that lays out expulsions a possibility must hand down the method to doing organization with business. Purchasers can get in touch with us on the platform of their picking. As the purchasing group has expanded to as many as two lots individuals, the idea that they will follow our procedure as we have really prescribed is rarely real.

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

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

Today, marketing needs greater levels of technical capability as a result of the explosion of digital media and the marketing innovations 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 profits drivers. Forrester goes on to report that a value developer, revenue-driven Online online marketer, should be a story maker and not simply a storyteller.

The CMO today need to be a professional at developing and leading imaginative engagement and organization technique to establish a classification for business to control.

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

They will work carefully with the sales group to discover and map the buyer's journey. Where assumptions do not match what is taking location in the market, a value designer CMO will leave the workplace and hang out in the field. This leader understands that you can not drive revenue 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 buyer's journey as a set of gates where the content reacts to the main issues a buyer has at each action so that they can finish the buying journey.
The 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 timely and licensed result in 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 enhance the amount and quality of leads that contributed to the pipeline and closed service.
Incomes attribution and marketing ROI designs will reflect genuine outcomes, not theorized or "presumed" requirements. This information is essential for the revenue-focused CMO to solve because they appreciate marketing's impact on service.

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

What to try to find in your next CMO.

In the dynamic state of company today, dealing with an efficient CMO is amongst the most tough things to do. Every market, organization, and market area is various. Even where you can recognize prospects from the exact same organization neighborhood or environment, it's insufficient to simply have a look at years of experience or education. You require to take a look at the motivations and thought patterns of the individual. Ask:
Is the CMO a problem solver?

The most substantial threat 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 market and community structure.

Are they a doer?
In lots of marketing groups, there will be specific specialists who can operate at the highest level throughout the series of abilities needed. It's incumbent for a marketing leader to command consider a doer. The CMO, who can show functional ability in the core locations that the group operates, will be more trusted than a manager just.

Has the CMO held cross-functional positions?

The finest way to make sure that you draw in a CMO who is income and not brand-driven is to work with someone who has come up through product, sales, and corporate approach. Having direct exposure to the inner functions of product and sales is particularly advantageous as organization technique is becoming a more considerable part of the CMO's series of commitments.

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

As digital has actually blown up the variety of marketing user interface points, enabling purchasers to disaggregate the organization from the buying journey, a CMO should have the capability to consider systems and structures instead of firmly specified marketing lanes. It is no longer appropriate to plan in concerns to the social project, content marketing task, occasions, and PR, all as separate activities. The successful CMO will start with service goal they are serving and be prepared to question whatever.

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

To wind up being a story-maker, you ought to be worthy of listening to. A CMO remains in the perfect position to presume the evangelistic function for the business. The most successful CMO's in any market are highly noticeable spokespeople for their company.
Are they an incentive?

As the CMO will need to work cross-functionally to ensure that they have positioning with item and sales, the marketing head ought to be a motivator. To develop a category requires discussion, negotiation, and the capability to look for and reach an arrangement.

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

A CMO who tries to lead with ultimate authority will have a hard time to accomplish business objectives of the business. Marketing groups today should work as engineering groups work in a nimble fashion. Instead of well arranged 90-day job cadences, a nimble marketing group performs a constant flow of initiatives while keeping the flexibility to alter as the marketplace or business requirements identify.

Does the CMO comprehend classification design?

I have actually composed about classification design and why every service requires to own a category to accomplish its optimum capacity. There is a framework for carrying out category design. Still, whether a Marketer follows the summary or methods classification design another way, a CMO must be putting regular idea and preparation into how they define the classification they indicate to dominate. Without input from the CEO and other members of the executive group, there is no chance to finish a proper category style.

The Wartime CMO will need to increase the responsibility of marketing by showing the effect of each marketing activity on the pipeline as determined by earnings contribution.
In a sluggish down, marketing must move the understanding of being a cost center to an income vehicle driver. Reporting beyond the variety of marketing qualified leads produced to include the general chance worth for each lead source is an outstanding way to represent the function marketing is playing to drive the financial goals of business.

Research studies have really exposed that an effectively developed landing page can double your conversion rate over sending out traffic to your home page, which tends to do not have the correct call to action that matches the advertisement. Since of this, checking landing pages can increase conversions as much as 50% or more. Together, these strategies can supply a 2.5 X boost for every single single dollar you purchase marketing. Yes, conversion rate optimization makes a distinction.

During Wartime, every marketing dollar is important, and a Wartime CMO comprehends that winning will not boil down to a single technique or "silver bullet" approach. Instead, lots of small things carried out well. The CMO, who can not comprehend the interaction of copy, messaging, creative style, and development, will have a hard time to find and acknowledge rapidly where small adjustments can offer better conversions.

This material method worked, for a season, info sort-of. However with the boost of Google RankBrain, the technique has not worked for lots of years. Without remaining in the middle of a crisis, you require to stop this inefficient 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 content that we produce requirements to interest somebody trying to discover our option, and it needs to include purchaser intent triggers like keywords and expressions that a buyer would utilize as they get close to purchasing decision. A Havas Group research study exposed that 84% of individuals prepare for brand name names to produce content, yet 60% of the material produced is of bad quality or unimportant, stopping working to meet the needs of the audience. Regardless of a 71% correlation in between content effectiveness and a brand name's impact on individual health, simply 40% of the world's leading 1,500 brand name names produce material that meets this requirement. Brand name's are failing to produce significant content.

Stop producing assembly line content that is just implied to develop the trademark name or introduce the product. Instead, material needs to target specific personalities to fix any setbacks avoiding the possibility from moving on. This material will take longer to produce and need a higher neighborhood and product knowledge level.

CMO's in Wartime need to have an exceptional understanding of the purchaser mind and their psychological requirements so that they can develop material that eliminates 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 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 procedure today is fragmented and complicated, with great deals of stakeholders requiring to verify a purchase decision. This renders standard marketing ROI and attribution methods less beneficial for anything besides academic research study.

The marketing function today breaks down into 3 practical pillars making up Item, Need Generation, and Category Design. Because lots of marketing leaders have in fact not entirely embraced category design, it's a remarkably simple way to beat an incumbent during a crisis. As quickly as the sector begins to go over the category as you have really specified it, your business will wind up being the classification and the apparent choice.

To do Category Style requires a different working cadence. Wartime is the best time to embark on Category Style considered that absolutely nothing is "regular" during a crisis.
To manage the challenge of building a Category King service requires a lots of grit, determination, and an unfaltering drive to win. For the Wartime CMO, who handles the obstacle, there can be no bigger pot-o-gold if effective.

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