Over the past eight years, I have worked in marketing roles across a diverse range of industries and business models, including B2B, B2C, B2B2C, and e-commerce.

During my early days at Brainboard.co, my focus was primarily on marketing metrics rather than business metrics. This approach gave me a sense of security during each quarter's retrospective:

• I had complete control over my OKRs.
• My growth actions directly influenced improvements.
• Collaboration with sales teams wasn't necessary.
• AI efficiently optimized our existing content.

However, this strategy had its drawbacks.

• I realized that I wasn't paying enough attention to crucial aspects like revenue generation and client acquisitions.
• My limited interaction with the sales team led to a misalignment with the company's business objectives.
• I lacked insight into which sales funnels were bringing in quality leads and which ones were underperforming in terms of revenue.

Recognizing this, I shifted my focus to prioritize business metrics over marketing metrics. This transition marked a significant turning point in my career, transforming me into a real asset for the team.

Here are the 10 steps you should absolutely implement now:

These strategies were proven to work with Webflow, OpenAI, Spline, MixPanel, Jasper AI, Figma, Retool, Front, Outverse, Miro, Tome, Resend, Kubernetes, Eraser and other similar tools.

Understand the Business Objectives

• Engage Early Adopters to Prove Traction: Foster robust communication between the product, marketing, and sales teams. This collaboration is crucial for assessing the impact of feature development on existing customers, leads, and visitors.
• Focus on Increasing Revenue through Land & Expand: This strategy is highly effective for boosting revenue without seeking new clients and leads. It benefits from shorter sales cycles, particularly if the product resonates with current paid users and can be recommended within organizational or partner networks. This approach is distinct from a Referral strategy.
• Data is Crucial: Establish a product and sales dashboard if you haven't already. Progress without measurable, factual data is like walking in the dark.

Ask the Right Questions:

• What are our objectives for this year? Are we aiming to increase notoriety, revenue, or raise funds? Each goal requires a different strategy. For instance, stability in growth is crucial when raising funds.
• Do we need to demonstrate traction for specific features? Consider beta testing key features before full release. First impressions are vital.
• Who is our target persona this quarter? Decide on a top-down or bottom-up approach.
• Is acquiring clients more crucial than achieving a high Return on Investment (ROI)?

Reverse Engineer from Objectives to Tactics:

• Align with business objectives. Keep an eye on the entire funnel and understand the cause-and-effect relationship. For example, choose the right CTAs on your website – should it be 'Book a Demo', 'Sign Up', or 'Trial'?
• Stay realistic in relation to market dynamics. The market might demand more or face decreasing competition. These factors are crucial for strategy adjustments. For instance, should you integrate AI into your product, or is it just a passing trend like Meta?
• Don't Just Imitate Competitors: Just because competitors with big budgets are doing something doesn't mean it's the right approach. Innovation often trumps imitation.
• Emphasize Customer Support: Beyond AI support, automated emails, and chatbots, personal interaction can be incredibly effective, especially during initial customer engagements.

Focus on North Star Metrics to Guide your Day-to-Day Work

• Understand that the Growth Funnel isn't the only or always the best path. The journey from awareness to referral can vary, and collaboration with sales is essential to understand effective strategies.Top of the funnel → Awareness → Acquisition → Retention → Revenue → Referral
• Understand the Customer Journey: Recognize that customers can enter and leave the funnel at any point, and pricing isn't the only factor influencing churn.

Filter out the "trash" bucket

• Adapt your growth model to the evolving market and customer needs. Understand different customer cohorts, like those who quickly become high MQLs or those who need a longer sales cycle.Views → clicks → visits → leads → ICP leads → Deals → RevenueMarket → First touch → Onboard → Filter → Win → Scale

In analyzing customer engagement, four distinct cohorts can emerge:

1. The Short Marketing Cycle: Here, leads rapidly evolve into High MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads) and contribute to MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue), often bypassing the need for a traditional sales team. This cycle is marked by its speed and efficiency in converting leads.
2. The Community Cycle: This involves leads who frequently use the product, becoming active users. These leads then transition into PQLs (Product Qualified Leads) and eventually become advocates for your brand. They play a pivotal role in word-of-mouth marketing strategies. This cycle leverages community engagement, loyalty and product adoption.
3. The Extended Sales Cycle: This cycle is characterized by SQLs (Sales Qualified Leads) – users who have a genuine need or issue that your product addresses. The primary goal here is ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue), focusing on a longer-term, more in-depth sales process.
4. Non-Targeted Traffic: Often, a significant portion of website traffic (around 60-80%) falls outside these categories. This segment, often referred to as 'trash', does not actively engage or convert and is not aligned with the targeted customer profiles.

Understanding these cohorts helps in tailoring marketing and sales strategies to more effectively address each group's unique characteristics and needs.

Align with your team to avoid working in silos

• Communication becomes easier and more effective when team members are aligned and working together.
• Collaboration is smoother and more efficient when team members understand and share common goals.
• The incentives program is straightforward and easy to understand, encouraging team participation and engagement.
• Aligning with the team fosters a cooperative environment, reducing selfish behaviors and promoting mutual support.
• Overall, results are significantly better when the team works in unison, leveraging each member's strengths and expertise.

Work Collaboratively and Transparently

Encourage teamwork and transparency in your strategies. Share both successes and failures openly, and use the North Star metrics to guide your experiments and decisions.

• Good results? Double down
• Bad results? Communicate
• Wrong tactics? Analyse and iterate
• Misalignment? Fix it over a lunch or a sync

Be Adaptable with Marketing KPIs

Marketing KPIs can shift rapidly, necessitating a flexible and nuanced approach:

• Viewing sign-ups as a broad category can be misleading. Instead, focusing on ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) sign-ups offers a more accurate and realistic measure against market trends and customer preferences.
• Securing a deal should not be equated with a closed lead. It's merely a midpoint in the journey. True business growth and success are reflected in the revenue generated, which is the real asset of any enterprise.No Revenue → No Product Development → No Marketing budget → Fail

Foster a Team-Oriented Culture

Treat your team like a sports team where everyone's success is interconnected. Establish a culture of feedback, assistance, and continuous improvement.

Your success depends on your teammate

1. Install feedback loop
2. Help others or Ask for help
3. Ask for precise feedback
4. State exactly what to expect.

Iterate and Improve

Regularly experiment, analyze results, provide feedback, and refine strategies. Stay agile and responsive to the market and internal team dynamics.

Experiment → Analyse → Give feedback → Improve → Ideate

Extra tips, if you are targeting engineers:

By incorporating these insights into your marketing and product strategies, you can effectively engage with the engineering community and stand out in the competitive tech market.

1. Stay Ahead of Trends and Experimentation: Engineers often value cutting-edge technology and are keen on exploring new frontiers like AI and Quantum Computing. Being at the forefront of these trends is crucial.
2. Challenges of Market Dynamics: Recognize that large companies often dominate the tech landscape, overshadowing smaller innovators. This competitive environment requires a nimble and innovative approach to stand out.
3. Freemium Model for User Onboarding: Offering a free, basic version of your product or service is an effective way to attract engineers. This allows them to explore your offerings at their own pace without upfront costs.
4. Content Creation and Open Source Community Engagement: Producing high-quality, free content is vital. Being actively involved in the open-source community can establish credibility and trust among engineers.
5. Using Niche SEO for Scalability: Traditional advertising methods like tech press can be costly and less effective. Focusing on niche SEO helps in reaching the specific demographic of engineers more efficiently.
6. Micro-targeting and Programmatic SEO: Since engineers have diverse needs, tailoring your content and SEO strategy to address these specific requirements is essential for attracting high-quality traffic.
7. Meeting High Expectations: The engineering field often involves complex and automated development processes. Therefore, precision and reliability in your product or service are crucial to meet their high standards.
8. Emphasis on Security: Security is a paramount concern, especially in enterprise solutions. Ensuring robust security measures in your offerings is key to gaining trust and acceptance.
9. Understanding Sales Cycles: Sales cycles in this domain can be lengthy and involve various administrative and political factors. Being prepared for these complexities is important for successful engagements.