mark donnigan marketing consultant

Mark Donnigan develops disruptive ingenious start-ups. Mark's superpower is architecting go-to-market plans and marketing motions that drive real business results for technical and product-centric founders. Mark's growth and market development experience covers 20 years as a transformative B2B marketing and company leader, driving demand, brand name advancement, and technique for startup and growth-stage companies.

As an expert and virtual marketing leader (fractional-CMO), Mark Donnigan handles startup developers and CEOs from B2B disruptive innovation technology companies to help them develop, bootstrap, and scale their marketing and go-to-market actions.

FIND OUT MORE: https://growthstage.marketing

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

As a start-up marketing consultant, Mark Donnigan's incoming and outgoing marketing experience consist of building and mentoring high-performance teams that perform as needed generation, brand name and product marketing, PR, digital, and occasions where he develops and executes high-impact programs that drive income, produce ROI, trigger the market, and delivers business outcomes.

Mark Donnigan believes that the finest marketing experts and marketing leaders are doers. Mark's marketing experience includes all aspects of need generation, ABM, SEO, email marketing, paid marketing, events, PR (internal & agency), and item marketing.

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

Mark has actually discovered that building a category must be the leading objective for each marketing leader and it is the foundation of his technique and method. Mark Donnigan has comprehensive B2B marketing experience that includes structure and mentoring high-performance teams.

Mark Donnigan is a systems thinker, and he puts a high worth on teamwork. Mark has comprehensive experience working together with sales, product, operations, and financing to make sure that the organization and revenue goals of the company are always gone beyond.

Development Phase Marketing exists to supply business owners and founders services for:

Architecting the market classification that is best suited to the distinct worth proposition of your technology.
High impact marketing support so that you can reach your revenue objectives and scale sustainably.
Attaining go-to-market positioning across the sales and marketing companies.
Drawing out the greatest value from every marketing dollar.
Insider understanding and insights about the B2B purchasing journey and how to navigate a significantly fragmented consumer decision hierarchy.
Operationalizing marketing, from system and process advancement to making the very first hires.

Thoughts on what it takes to be an effective online marketer and CMO today.

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

Horowitz described the principle in a short article where he composed that the Peacetime CEO "concentrates on the big image and empowers her people to make in-depth 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 conflict," and Wartime CEO "increases the contradictions."

Peacetime in service is when an organization has the ability to grow in its core market due to a significant benefit vs. the competitors. In times of peace, business concentrates on widening the market and boosting business's strengths. For CMO's, Peacetime is when we are totally complimentary to be imaginative with our brand building by participating in each exhibition with an even bigger cubicle than last year's and investing exorbitantly on sponsorships, all under the guise of building the trademark name.

Wartime is a different thing entirely because, in Wartime, the life and death of our company might be on the line.
As I write this post, the whole world is combating an undetectable opponent called COVID-19, which has actually let loose an aggravating dose of company 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 unexpectedly you find yourself in pitch-black darkness, so you stroll tepidly, continuing in the same instructions knowing that you were heading towards the door prior to the lights got turned off. No, not just has the pandemic turned the lights out, its blown a huge crater in our path that was not there previous to, and devoid of light in the room, can not be seen. However we should prevent at all expenses falling under the crater.

Nobody longs for war, but a Wartime leader does not diminish from the fight, rather, they acknowledge that Wartime is the single finest possibility to leapfrog sidetracked rivals and take ground away. What follows is a set of pointers and ideas to help you find your "Wartime CMO battle plan."

How to serve as a Wartime CMO.

Throughout Wartime, everyone is in uncharted waters, however this is where the possibility is for many business who formerly had a difficult time to contend against larger rivals and dominant market forces. Now, for the very very first time, you may be on equivalent footing as your more powerful rivals. It's the perfect possibility to define your future.

In an international reduction like what COVID-19 has actually triggered, absolutely nothing makes sense. And yet, a few of your rivals will continue to perform their typical "tried and genuine" marketing playback, assuming that building the brand name with business interactions messages from the CEO is going to add to their business goals. Now is the best chance for the Wartime CMO to take ground in the market.

Take strong action.

Creative marketing is required in Wartime more than ever. Now is the time to inspect your important presumptions. As the worldwide organization environment has altered, and the stability of the core organization brought into question, CMO's needs to be ready to reassess their preliminary strategy.
Think of that less consumers will relate to lowered need. And reduced requirement means markets will not respond as they did prior to the crisis.

Believe about it in this manner, when individuals purchase less, advertisers 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 examined the last 6 financial slumps provided that 1950 and discovered that spending on direct marketing grew during the previous financial downturns. Significance, you will wish to consider your mix of brand marketing carefully compared to sales activation marketing. It's not time to stop marketing. Keep in mind, there will be offers throughout the board as media outlets see business cut their marketing and marketing spends. Push marketing and branding drops in a slowdown, however sales activation marketing always increases.

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

Downturns create an opportunity for companies that are more efficient at turning marketing financial investments into income. In the middle of a decrease when marketers are cutting their spending is an enjoyable time to gain from low CPMs and Qualified public accounting professionals.

The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising finished a study in 2008 that found, "Following a budget cut, a brand will continue to get from the marketing financial investment made over the previous couple of years. This will decrease any short-term service effects, and will lead to a dangerously deceptive boost in short-term success. The longer-term service harm will be more substantial, but will not be noticed in the start."

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

Make the most of the worth of each lead produced.

In a slowdown, risk-averse buyers take even longer to research purchases, and this applies similarly to B2B and B2C purchasers. When you initially acknowledge a prospect, they will likely stay in the awareness phase of your funnel and will not be all set to engage with an SDR or BDR. Do not require this interaction. Marketing ought to make sure not to move a prospect through the funnel too rapidly. Keep in mind, the prospect's professional life has been turned on its head. What was an issue simply a couple of weeks or months back, 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 important. Here is where lead scoring can be a valuable tool to recognize extremely engaged prospects from those who are not most likely to become your customers. Now is the time for Marketers to hang on to MQL's for an extended duration so that you can groom the prospect to the optimum 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 lots of as 9 out of 10 MQL's who are not yet sales-ready may be lost. They will buy, just not now. You do not wish to lose out on the future sale because you didn't keep in contact and consist of worth though the journey. In a INFO "Wartime" economy, you must do everything possible to enhance the worth of your MQL's.

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

Concentrate on your present customers.

It's more affordable to grow earnings with your existing consumers. Think of whether now is the time to downsize your mass list building programs and focus on building deeper relationships with those who already know your organization. This does not suggest to stop your need gen efforts, however it does suggest that you might wish to explore with product and sales how you can sell more to your existing customers.

In Peacetime, marketing groups are working on autopilot in pursuit of driving MQL's to please sales reps. For a company that has actually obtained traction on their way to ending up being a category king or queen, this approach, though expensive feels great because of the impressive volume of activity that is being produced. However, without cautious analysis, the high degree of activity fools numerous CMO's and management groups into believing that their requirement generation engine is carefully tuned when, in reality, it's giving off enormous contamination, i.e. exceedingly high CAC, higher than average churn for the category, low CLTV, and so on.

Marketing should align with sales.

A brand-focused Marketing leader worries the business with an amazing education and pedigree, having in fact held significant titles with big companies. There was a time when the marketing group may manage all corporate and product information and messaging with the market. If a purchaser preferred to find out about a brand-new item or check out whether a service might satisfy their requirement, they had no option but to call the company.

Responses 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 appropriate online forum or LinkedIn group. As a result, the power shifted 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 details evictions a prospect ought to pass on the method to doing company with business. Purchasers can get in touch with us on the platform of their picking. As the buying group has actually expanded to as numerous as 2 lots people, the concept that they will follow our procedure as we have actually recommended is hardly ever real.

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

A Growth Stage Marketing Consultant revenue-focused CMO will handle the engine behind a CEO's advancement strategy. The shift from companies being physical item designers or service business, to digital development companies where the item is dispersed as software application or software as a service through the Internet, has actually 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 development business require today.

Today, marketing requires higher levels of technical capability as a result of the explosion of digital media and the marketing innovations that are related to online marketing. This transformation has actually been highlighted by Forrester, pointing out a 20-year-old transition to digital as the driving force behind CMOs moving from being brand-builders to earnings chauffeurs. Forrester goes on to report that a value designer, revenue-driven Online marketer, must be a story maker and not just a storyteller.

The CMO today must be an expert at developing and leading imaginative engagement and business method to develop a category for the organization to dominate.

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

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

A revenue-focused CMO develops content targeted at each phase of the purchaser's journey. Consider the purchaser's journey as a set of gates where the content reacts to the main concerns a buyer has at each action so that they can complete 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 prompt and licensed leads to 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 procedure so that they can enhance the quantity and quality of leads that contributed to the pipeline and closed company.
Earnings attribution and marketing ROI styles will show real outcomes, not theorized or "presumed" requirements. This details is essential for the revenue-focused CMO to resolve since they appreciate marketing's influence on service.

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

What to try to discover in your next CMO.

In the vibrant state of business today, dealing with a reliable CMO is among the most tough things to do. Every market, company, and market section is different. Even where you can acknowledge prospects from the very same organization community or environment, it's insufficient to simply take a look at years of experience or education. You require to take a look at the motivations and believed patterns of the individual. Ask:
Is the CMO an issue solver?

The most considerable risk today is on the market side and not innovation. A marketing leader who isn't an issue solver will have a hard time to handle the fast-changing nature of the market and neighborhood building.

Are they a doer?
In numerous marketing groups, there will specify professionals who can operate at the highest level throughout the series of abilities required. It's incumbent for a marketing leader to command consider a doer. The CMO, who can show functional capability in the core areas that the group operates, will be more trusted than a manager just.

Has the CMO held cross-functional positions?

The finest method to make sure that you draw in a CMO who is income and not brand-driven is to employ somebody who has turned up through product, sales, and corporate method. Having direct exposure to the inner operations of item and sales is specifically beneficial as business method is becoming a more considerable part of the CMO's series of commitments.

Do they think in systems or approach organization in a structured manner?

As digital has exploded the number of marketing interface points, making it possible for buyers to disaggregate the business from the buying journey, a CMO should have the ability to consider systems and structures rather of firmly defined marketing lanes. It is no longer appropriate to prepare get more information in concerns to the social task, material marketing job, events, and PR, all as separate activities. The successful CMO will start with organization objective they are serving and be ready to question whatever.

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

To wind up being a story-maker, you must deserve listening to. A CMO is in the perfect position to presume the evangelistic function for the organization. The most effective CMO's in any market are highly visible spokespeople for their business.
Are they an incentive?

As the CMO will need to work cross-functionally to ensure that they have positioning with product and sales, the marketing head must be a motivator. To establish a classification needs conversation, settlement, and the ability to search for and reach an agreement.

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

A CMO who tries to lead with supreme authority will have a hard time to accomplish service objectives of business. Marketing groups today ought to work as engineering groups work in a nimble fashion. Rather of well arranged 90-day job cadences, an agile marketing group carries out a consistent flow of initiatives while keeping the versatility to alter as the market or organization requirements determine.

Does the CMO comprehend category style?

I have actually made up about category style and why every service needs to own a classification to accomplish its ideal capacity. There is a framework for carrying out classification style. Still, whether an Online marketer follows the summary or methods category design another way, a CMO needs to 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 way to finish a correct classification design.

The Wartime CMO will require to increase the accountability of marketing by showing the result of each marketing activity on the pipeline as figured out by income contribution.
In a decrease, marketing should move the understanding of being a cost center to an earnings motorist. Reporting beyond the number of marketing qualified leads produced to include the total opportunity worth for each lead source is an outstanding method to represent the function marketing is playing to drive the financial goals of service.

Research studies have actually revealed that a correctly created landing page can double your conversion rate over sending traffic to the house page, which tends to do not have the proper call to action that matches the ad. Due to the fact that of this, checking landing pages can increase conversions as info much as 50% or more. Together, these techniques can supply a 2.5 X boost for every single 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 boil down to a single strategy or "silver bullet" approach. Rather, lots of little things carried out well. The CMO, who can not understand the interaction of copy, messaging, creative style, and innovation, will struggle to find and acknowledge rapidly where little modifications can provide better conversions.

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

Now, the material that we develop needs to interest somebody attempting to discover our service, and it must consist of buyer intent activates like keywords and expressions that a buyer would utilize as they get close to purchasing choice. A Havas Group research study revealed that 84% of people prepare for brand names to produce content, yet 60% of the material produced is of bad quality or unimportant, failing to meet the requirements of the audience. No matter a 71% connection in between content effectiveness and a brand's impact on personal wellness, simply 40% of the world's leading 1,500 brand names produce material that meets this requirement. Trademark name's are failing to produce significant material.

Stop producing assembly line content that is just meant to establish the brand name or present the item. Rather, material should target particular personas to solve any setbacks avoiding the prospect from carrying on. This content will take longer to produce and need a greater neighborhood and item knowledge level.

CMO's in Wartime should have an outstanding understanding of the purchaser psyche and their mental needs so that they can produce material that alleviates worry and addresses the genuine 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 entire classification.

Read more about Classification Design.

The B2B sales process today is fragmented and complex, with great deals of stakeholders requiring to verify a purchase decision. 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 Product, Need Generation, and Classification Style. Due to the fact that many marketing leaders have actually not totally welcomed category design, it's a surprisingly easy way to beat an incumbent during a crisis. As soon as the sector starts to go over the classification as you have really specified it, your organization will end up being the category and the obvious option.

To do Category Style requires a different working cadence. Wartime is the perfect time to embark on Classification Style considered that definitely nothing is "normal" during a crisis.
To deal with the challenge of constructing a Classification King service needs a heap of grit, determination, and an unfaltering drive to win. For the Wartime CMO, who handles the difficulty, there can be no bigger pot-o-gold if effective.

Read the book Play Larger to learn all about category design.