mark donnigan

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

As a professional and virtual marketing leader (fractional-CMO), Mark Donnigan handles startup developers and CEOs from B2B disruptive development technology companies to assist them establish, bootstrap, and scale their marketing and go-to-market actions.

DISCOVER MORE: https://growthstage.marketing

Mark Donnigan has actually handled groups as big as 25, comprising SDRs, AEs, and marketing, producing $29mm/year. Mark carried budget plan responsibilities 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 specialist, Mark Donnigan's incoming and outgoing marketing experience consist of structure and mentoring high-performance teams that execute on need generation, brand name and item marketing, PR, digital, and occasions where he establishes and carries out high-impact programs that drive revenue, produce ROI, activate the market, and delivers company results.

Mark Donnigan believes that the best marketing consultants and marketing leaders are doers. Mark's marketing experience consists of all elements of requirement generation, ABM, SEO, email marketing, paid marketing, events, PR (internal & agency), 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 shown success, building, leading, and mentoring marketing, sales, and business development groups that have actually produced more than $500mm in revenue/shareholder worth.

Mark has found that constructing a classification needs to be the leading goal for each marketing leader and it is the foundation of his approach and approach. Mark Donnigan has substantial B2B marketing experience that includes structure and mentoring high-performance teams.

Mark Donnigan is a systems thinker, and he places a high worth on team effort. Mark has comprehensive experience working alongside sales, product, operations, and finance to guarantee that the company and profits objectives of the company are constantly gone beyond.

Growth Stage Marketing exists to offer entrepreneurs and founders services for:

Architecting the marketplace classification that is best fit 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 throughout the sales and marketing companies.
Extracting the highest worth from every marketing dollar.
Expert understanding and insights about the B2B purchasing journey and how to browse an increasingly fragmented client choice hierarchy.
Operationalizing marketing, from system and procedure development to making the 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 the company, you are not alone. A study completed by the marketing consultancy Fournaise found that 80% of President are not delighted with the work their top Marketing leader is doing. Assessing what today organization fact indicates 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 made up that the Peacetime CEO "concentrates on the huge image and empowers her people to make in-depth choices." The Wartime CEO, on the other hand, "appreciates a speck of dust on a gnat's ass if it interrupted the prime instruction."

The Peacetime CEO "comprehends what to do with a substantial benefit," while the Wartime CEO "is paranoid." Peacetime CEO "works to reduce dispute," and Wartime CEO "increases the contradictions."

Peacetime in business is when a service has the capability to grow in its core market due to a significant advantage vs. the competitors. In times of peace, business concentrates on expanding the marketplace and improving the organization's strengths. For CMO's, Peacetime is when we are completely complimentary to be creative with our trademark name structure by going to each exhibit 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 different thing completely because, in Wartime, the life and death of our company might be on the line.
As I compose this post, the entire world is combating an unnoticeable enemy called COVID-19, which has let loose a frustrating dose of company uncertainty globally. For CMO's, the COVID-19 pandemic is organization equivalent of war. No longer do our 2020 marketing methods make good sense.

This is more than being in a space with the light on, and unexpectedly you discover yourself in pitch-black darkness, so you stroll tepidly, continuing in the very same directions understanding that you were heading towards the door prior to the lights got shut off. No, not just has the pandemic turned the lights out, its blown an enormous crater in our path that was not there prior to, and devoid of light in the space, can not be seen. Nevertheless we need to avoid at all expenditures falling into the crater.

No one wish for war, however a Wartime leader does not diminish from the battle, rather, they acknowledge that Wartime is the single finest possibility to leapfrog sidetracked competitors and take ground away. What follows is a set of suggestions and ideas to help you find your "Wartime CMO combat strategy."

How to serve as a Wartime CMO.

During Wartime, everybody remains in uncharted waters, but this is where the chance is for lots of companies who previously had a hard time to complete versus larger rivals and dominant market forces. Now, for the really first time, you might be on equivalent footing as your more powerful rivals. It's the best possibility to define your future.

In an international decrease 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 "attempted and genuine" marketing playback, presuming that building the trademark name with corporate interactions messages from the CEO is going to contribute to their company objectives. Now is the perfect 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 inspect your important presumptions. As the around the world business environment has actually altered, and the stability of the core service cast doubt on, CMO's needs to be prepared to reassess their preliminary plan.
Consider that less customers will equate to decreased need. And lowered requirement means markets will not respond as they did prior to the crisis.

Believe about it in this way, when individuals buy less, marketers 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:

Financial investment bank Cowen and Business analyzed the last 6 financial downturns considered that 1950 and found that costs on direct marketing grew throughout the previous financial slumps. Significance, you will wish to consider your mix of trademark name marketing carefully compared to sales activation marketing. It's not time to stop marketing. Remember, there will be deals throughout the board as media outlets see business cut their marketing and marketing invests. 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 rapidly. Speed is everything. Marketing initiatives able to be tracked with specificity will be a lot more valuable than broad mass-market tasks. Slowdowns accelerate the reduction of interruption-based mass marketing. In its place will be an increased focus on measurable and relationship-based techniques.

Slumps produce an opportunity for business that are more efficient at turning marketing financial investments into earnings. In the middle of a decrease when advertisers are cutting their spending is an enjoyable time to take advantage of low CPMs and Qualified public accounting professionals.

The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising finished a study in 2008 that found, "Following a budget plan cut, a brand name will continue to get from the marketing investment made over the previous few years. This will reduce any short-term company impacts, and will result in a dangerously misleading increase in short-term success. The longer-term service harm will be more considerable, but will not be seen 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' throughout a financial recession by cutting their TELEVISION marketing invest for 6 months experienced a decline in Brand Usage by 24% with a 28% reduction in Brand name Image. Brands that cut their advertisement budget at a higher rate relative to their rivals were at an even greater threat of share loss.
There are an amazing number of marketing studies that validate in a decrease, trademark name that continue advertising and marketing efforts recuperate much faster. It takes strong action to invest when the information suggests that ROI is not possible. A Wartime CMO fights to maintain the spending plan needed to continue marketing.

Take complete benefit of the worth of each lead produced.

In a downturn, risk-averse purchasers take even longer to research purchases, and this uses equally to B2B and B2C purchasers. When you initially recognize a possibility, 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 force this interaction. Marketing should make sure not to move a prospect through the funnel too rapidly. Keep in mind, the prospect's skilled life has been turned on its head. What was an issue simply a couple of weeks or months ago, is most likely not top of mind today.

It's tempting in a slow down to tighten your grip on leads given that the rationale is that Growth Stage Marketing Consultant now more than ever, all leads are necessary. Here is where lead scoring can be a valuable tool to acknowledge highly engaged prospects from those who are not most likely to become your customers. Now is the time for Online marketers to hold on to MQL's for an extended period so that you can groom the prospect to the optimum possible level 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, simply not now. You don't wish to miss out on the future sale because you didn't keep in contact and include worth though the journey. In a "Wartime" economy, you must do everything possible to enhance 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 definitely once it has passed.

Concentrate on your present consumers.

It's cheaper to grow earnings with your existing clients. Believe about whether now is the time to scale back your mass lead generation programs and focus on building deeper relationships with those who already know your service. This does not suggest to stop your need gen efforts, but it does indicate that you might wish to explore with item and sales how you can offer more to your existing consumers.

In Peacetime, marketing groups are working on auto-pilot in pursuit of driving MQL's to please sales reps. For a company that has actually acquired traction on their way to ending up being a classification king or queen, this approach, though costly feels good considering that of the amazing volume of activity that is being produced. However, without cautious analysis, the high degree of activity fools lots of CMO's and management groups into thinking that their need generation engine is finely tuned when, in reality, it's giving off massive contamination, i.e. exceptionally 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 organization with an exceptional education and pedigree, having actually held considerable mark donnigan marketing consultant titles with huge business. There was a time when the marketing group may handle all corporate and item details and messaging with the marketplace. If a buyer desired to learn about a brand-new product or explore whether a solution may meet their requirement, they had no option however to call business.

Responses to issues such as, Who's authentic 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 forum or LinkedIn group. As a result, the power shifted to the purchaser.

We know that online marketers are no longer in control of the buyer's journey. It is essential to specify a funnel that details expulsions a prospect need to hand down the way to doing business with the company. Purchasers can get in touch with us on the platform of their choosing. As the purchasing group has broadened to as many as 2 lots individuals, the idea that they will follow our procedure as we have in fact recommended is seldom real.

You require a value designer CMO who is revenue-focused.

A revenue-focused CMO will handle the engine behind a CEO's development strategy. The shift from companies being physical item developers or service companies, to digital development companies where the product is dispersed as software or software as a service through the Internet, has decreased the function of marketing. And is the element a revenue-focused CMO who is a value designer is what all start-ups and disruptive innovation business need today.

Today, marketing requires greater levels of technical ability as a result of the explosion of digital media and the marketing technologies that are associated with online marketing. This transformation has been highlighted by Forrester, discussing a 20-year-old shift to digital as the driving force behind CMOs moving from being brand-builders to profits chauffeurs. Forrester goes on to report that a value designer, revenue-driven Online online marketer, need to be a story maker and not just a writer.

The CMO today ought to be a professional at creating and leading creative engagement and service method to develop a category for the business to control.

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

They will work thoroughly with the sales group to discover and map the buyer's journey. Where presumptions do not match what is taking location in the market, a value designer CMO will leave the office 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 produces content targeted at each phase of the buyer's journey. Believe about 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 assessing the success of the end-to-end get more information marketing cycle to deliver the most timely and qualified cause their sellers. A value designer CMO sees marketing as close allies to the sales group.

The revenue-centered CMO is constantly discovering from and fine-tuning the procedure so that they can improve the quantity and quality of leads that contributed to the pipeline and closed service.
Incomes attribution and marketing ROI designs will show real results, not theorized or "presumed" requirements. This details is important for the revenue-focused CMO to resolve considering that they care about marketing's impact on company.

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

What to attempt to find in your next CMO.

In the vibrant state of service today, working with an efficient CMO is among the most hard things to do. Every market, company, and market area is various. Even where you can acknowledge potential customers from the exact same organization community or environment, it's inadequate to merely have a look at years of experience or education. You require to analyze the motivations and believed patterns of the individual. Ask:
Is the CMO a problem solver?

The most substantial danger today is on the market 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 many marketing groups, there will be specific professionals who can work at the highest level throughout the series of abilities needed. It's incumbent for a marketing leader to command consider as a doer. The CMO, who can show practical ability in the core locations that the group runs, will be more trusted than a manager simply.

Has the CMO held cross-functional positions?

The finest way to ensure that you attract a CMO who is income and not brand-driven is to employ somebody who has turned up through product, sales, and business approach. Having direct exposure to the inner workings of product and sales is specifically helpful as service approach is ending up being a more substantial part of the CMO's series of responsibilities.

Do they think in systems or method service in a structured way?

As digital has actually exploded the number of marketing interface points, enabling buyers to disaggregate business from the purchasing journey, a CMO ought to have the capability to think about systems and structures rather of securely defined marketing lanes. It is no longer appropriate to prepare in concerns to the social task, material marketing job, events, and PR, all as separate activities. The successful CMO will start with business objective they are serving and be ready to question everything.

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

To wind up being a story-maker, you ought to be worthy of listening to. A CMO remains in the ideal position to presume the evangelistic function for the company. The most successful 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 make sure that they have placing with item and sales, the marketing head need to be an incentive. To develop a category requires discussion, settlement, and the ability to look for and reach an arrangement.

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

A CMO who attempts to lead with supreme authority will struggle to achieve company goals of the service. Marketing groups today need to work as engineering groups work in an agile style. Rather of perfectly arranged 90-day task cadences, a nimble marketing group performs a constant flow of efforts while preserving the versatility to alter as the market or organization needs determine.

Does the CMO comprehend category style?

I have actually composed about classification style and why every service requires to own a category to achieve its optimal capacity. There is a structure for performing category style. Still, whether an Online marketer follows the summary or techniques classification design another method, a CMO should be putting routine thought 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 chance to finish an appropriate category style.

The Wartime CMO will require to increase the responsibility of marketing by revealing the result of each marketing activity on the pipeline as determined by profits contribution.
In a decrease, marketing should move the understanding of being a cost center to an earnings vehicle driver. Reporting beyond the number of marketing qualified leads produced to consist of the general chance worth for each lead source is an exceptional way to represent the function marketing is playing to drive the economic goals of business.

Studies have actually 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 proper call to action click here that matches the ad. Since of this, inspecting landing pages can increase conversions as much as 50% or more. Together, these techniques can provide a 2.5 X increase for every single single dollar you purchase marketing. Yes, conversion rate optimization makes a difference.

Throughout Wartime, every marketing dollar is valuable, and a Wartime CMO understands that winning will not come down to a single method or "silver bullet" technique. Instead, lots of little things carried out well. The CMO, who can not comprehend the interaction of copy, messaging, imaginative design, and development, will struggle to discover and acknowledge rapidly where small modifications can offer better conversions.

This content approach worked, for a season, sort-of. However with the boost of Google RankBrain, the method has not worked for numerous 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 must count, the method that we do content marketing requires to be upgraded.

Now, the material that we create needs to interest somebody looking for our option, and it needs to consist of buyer intent triggers like keywords and expressions that a buyer would use as they get near buying decision. A Havas Group research study exposed that 84% of individuals prepare for brand to produce material, yet 60% of the content produced is of bad quality or unimportant, stopping working to satisfy the needs of the audience. No matter 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 names produce material that satisfies this requirement. Brand name's are failing to produce considerable material.

Stop producing assembly line content that is simply meant to develop the trademark name or introduce the product. Rather, content needs to target specific personalities to solve any holdups avoiding the prospect from proceeding. This material will take longer to produce and require a greater neighborhood and product understanding level.

CMO's in Wartime need to have an outstanding understanding of the buyer psyche and their mental requirements so that they can create content that relieves fear and addresses the sincere issues they have.

CMO's in Wartime double down on Category Style so that their company will come out as the leader, making them the dominant option, putting them in the enviable position to take as much as 76% of the economics from the whole classification.

Learn more about Classification Design.

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

The marketing function today breaks down into 3 functional pillars comprising Product, Need Generation, and Classification Design. Because many marketing leaders have actually not totally embraced category design, it's a surprisingly easy way to beat an incumbent throughout a crisis. As quickly as the sector starts to discuss the category as you have in fact defined it, your company will end up being the classification and the obvious choice.

To do Classification Style requires a various working cadence. Wartime is the best time to embark on Classification Design considered that absolutely nothing is "normal" during a crisis.
To handle the challenge of building a Category King company requires a lots of grit, determination, and an unfaltering 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 discover everything about category design.