Vice President of Marketing at Loxo | Helping companies recruit more intelligently and effectively
It's easy to say at a high level that "a good marketing strategy takes a few quarters to see results" But how do you explain this to your execs or board when they're asking you where the results are 2-4 months in? You need to communicate two critical things: ☝️ WHY it takes time for prospects to come to you We're talking about a comprehensive marketing strategy here, *not* a singular marketing tactic (demand gen ≠ paid ads) This is not a "lightswitch" you turn on/off as you want to bring in new business The biggest thing that companies/execs/the board needs to do is to take off their "hat" and place themselves in the shoes of their prospects When you do this, you can better understand why it takes time to see meaningful business results Some of those reasons? - In a 6/12/24/36 month contract with another company - Don't have the budget available until the next fiscal year - Have to get internal buy in - Simply don't know your brand/trust you yet - Don't want to change platforms/processes You really can't do much about those first two reasons But you can create content that helps them with the last three And this is where you bridge the gap to point 2 ✌️ HOW you're tracking early indicators to ensure the strategy is working You need to set expectations early on around what you'll be doing when and how you're measuring progress There are three "phases" we often recommend you look at here: 1️⃣ Setting the foundation (3-6 weeks) This is when you're auditing historical performance, building the reports/dashboard you'll use moving forward, and overhauling your existing tactics to align to the new strategy Indicators: - You aren't changing execution yet, performance will remain constant to what's been done historically 2️⃣ Launch + validate (1-2 quarters) This is when you've updated your search campaigns, launched your new social campaigns, have started/enhanced your organic tactics (podcast, blog, content, SMEs joining social conversations, etc.) Indicators in the first 30-60 days: - # new users to website (direct + organic) - # visits to high-intent pages such as pricing, get a demo, etc. (direct + organic) - Increased ICP engagement on social (CTR/view rates + GA data such as time on site, # pages viewed, bounce rates, etc.) - More efficient search campaigns as you've stopped spending on keywords that didn't convert or converted but never to pipeline Indicators as you near 90-180 days: - # of high-intent handraisers - # of meetings booked - Increase in handraiser --> meeting booked rate - Increase in the meeting attended rate 3️⃣ Scale (2+ quarters) This is when you have a good understanding of what's working across tactics and have started pushing harder on those while adding in new levers to support continued growth. Indicators: - Increase in HIRO pipeline (count/higher ACVs) - ACCOUNT FOR SALES CYCLE LENGTH - Increase in revenue - Higher win rate - Higher ACV - Faster sales cycle #marketing
🔥🔥🔥“The biggest thing that companies/execs/the board needs to do is to take off their "hat" and place themselves in the shoes of their prospects” And that’s really the only way to understand what will earn their trust. Love the early indicators you offer, especially pricing page visits. You can also look at features page and case study pages. Collectively, they answer the questions, “is curiousity in what we sell and what it costs increasing?” Have you ever looked at comparing % visits to these higher intent pages? I’m guessing there’s a ratio we could learn from hiding in there somewhere.
How do you get buy-in for the first 3-6 weeks when execution is remaining the same?
Love this... literally sitting down and putting together a slide that talks about it. Although now it seems there's lots I need to add to here 😅 A key point you touched on is ICP engagement. Best tip I got from your podcast is to make sure a high % of my inbounds fit my ICP. All your metrics go up if you do this well....
Great post. You’re describing #TimeLag, which is the time between X is done and when effects on Y or Z are visible. This is commonly computed as part of Marketing Mix Modeling as created by Procter & Gamble some 35 years ago. It’s one of the biggest impediments to seeing Marketing impact and optimizing it.
I typically log in to social media with my credit card, ready to buy a 100K ACV solution for a brand I never heard of and not have to justify my decision to the rest of the management team. I think this is the norm and not the exception.
It's a long game, especially when organic content is a key part of the mix. I always try to manage client expectations that traction can take a long time (months) to materialize. And then remind them as we go. If I get pushback on the fact that there's always a discovery period followed by a slow build of momentum, it's a major red flag. Clients who are in a panic to get results will want to be switching things up all the time and never experience that nirvana that's possible when it all begins to fall into place.
Great post Sam! While we preach many times how long marketing takes to work. Executives often don't understand *why* it takes a lot of time to work. The last reason you mentioned is crucial and seen it in almost every SaaS company I interacted with. Our target audience probably has a software for doing everything in their job, regardless of how good it may be. So one of our main jobs as marketers is not only showing wht our solution is the ideal alternative, but we also have to show how quick and easy the transition will be. And if we have roadmaps with clear steps, even better. One of the biggest enemy to a sale, is the cost of inaction.
It's crazy how many people overlook the reasons why their prospects can't move forward right away. That's why a brand strategy is so essential. They may be in a contract right now, but eventually that contract will end. If you've helped them along that journey even while they were in the contract, you'll be the one they want to turn to when that contract ends.
Getting inside the mind of the customer should always be a top priority.
Founder @Gain | GTM Strategy and Recurring Revenue Consultant | Podcast Host @Solopreneur Stories
1y1️⃣ Setting the foundation - Also helps to run a scenario at this stage that shows how NOT doing this will play out. It's usually some form of marketing economics getting unwieldy as you're just shoveling ad dollars to the engines in hopes of capturing someone else's demand. Not to take the position of I-told-you-so'ism, but oftentimes the reason the board or leadership needs those results in the immediate term is because the advice you're sharing wasn't taken earlier. When teams start getting frantic with 'quick win' tactics (that aren't always quick and are no guarantee of wins) you're in the spiral of desperation that burns out teams and clients and, at best, moves the needle in a trivial way (or results in a Pyrrhic victory that no one is proud of).