Mark Donnigan

Mark Donnigan builds disruptive ingenious start-ups. Mark's superpower is architecting go-to-market strategies and marketing motions that drive real organization results for technical and product-centric creators. Mark's development and market development experience spans 20 years as a transformative B2B marketing and organization leader, driving need, brand name advancement, and technique for startup and growth-stage companies.

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

DISCOVER MORE: https://growthstage.marketing

Mark Donnigan has actually handled teams as big as 25, comprising SDRs, AEs, and marketing, producing $29mm/year. Mark brought spending plan obligations to $3mm/year for operations and $400k/year for marketing. Offer sizes varying from mid-five figures to mid-six figures every year.

As a start-up marketing specialist, Mark Donnigan's incoming and outgoing marketing experience include structure and mentoring high-performance teams that perform on demand generation, brand and item marketing, PR, digital, and events where he establishes and implements high-impact programs that drive earnings, produce ROI, activate the marketplace, and provides business outcomes.

Mark Donnigan thinks that the very best marketing experts and marketing leaders are doers. Mark's marketing experience consists of all aspects of requirement generation, ABM, SEO, email marketing, paid marketing, occasions, PR (internal & company), and item marketing.

Mark is an issue solver and a first-principles thinker who is imaginative and analytical. Mark constantly works cross-functionally and has actually proven success, structure, leading, and mentoring marketing, sales, and service development groups that have in fact produced more than $500mm in revenue/shareholder worth.

Mark has discovered that constructing a classification ought to be the leading goal for each marketing leader and it is the structure of his method and approach. Mark Donnigan has comprehensive B2B marketing experience that includes building and mentoring high-performance groups.

Mark Donnigan is a systems thinker, and he places a high worth on teamwork. Mark has substantial experience working alongside sales, product, operations, and financing to ensure that the organization and income objectives of the company are always gone beyond.

Development Stage Marketing exists to supply entrepreneurs and creators services for:

Architecting the marketplace category that is finest suited to the distinct worth proposition of your technology.
High effect marketing assistance so that you can reach your revenue goals and scale sustainably.
Accomplishing go-to-market positioning across the sales and marketing organizations.
Drawing out the highest value from every marketing dollar.
Expert understanding and insights about the B2B purchasing journey and how to navigate a significantly fragmented customer decision hierarchy.
Operationalizing marketing, from system and process development to making the very first hires.

Ideas on what it takes to be a successful online 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 study completed by the marketing consultancy Fournaise discovered that 80% of Chief Executives are not happy with the work their top Marketing leader is doing. Evaluating what the present service fact means for marketing leaders, I remembered the concept 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 "focuses on the big image and empowers her people to make detailed decisions." The Wartime CEO, on the other hand, "appreciates a speck of dust on a gnat's ass if it disrupted the prime directive."

The Peacetime CEO "understands what to do with a huge benefit," while the Wartime CEO "is paranoid." Peacetime CEO "works to reduce dispute," and Wartime CEO "heightens the contradictions."

Peacetime in business is when a business has the capability to grow in its core market due to a significant benefit vs. the competitors. In times of peace, business focuses on broadening the market and enhancing the organization's strengths. For CMO's, Peacetime is when we are absolutely complimentary to be imaginative with our brand name structure by going to each exhibit with an even bigger cubicle than in 2015's and investing exorbitantly on sponsorships, all under the guise of building the brand name.

Wartime is a various thing totally because, in Wartime, the life and death of our business may be on the line.
As I compose this post, the whole world is battling an unnoticeable enemy called COVID-19, which has actually let loose a discouraging dose of business unpredictability globally. For CMO's, the COVID-19 pandemic is service equivalent of war. No longer do our 2020 marketing strategies make great sense.

This is more than remaining in an area with the light on, and all of a sudden you find yourself in pitch-black darkness, so you stroll tepidly, continuing in the same guidelines knowing that you were heading towards the door prior to the lights got turned off. No, not simply has the pandemic turned the lights out, its blown a huge crater in our course that was not there previous to, and lacking light in the space, can not be seen. However we need to avoid at all expenses falling into the crater.

No one longs for war, but a Wartime leader does not diminish from the fight, instead, they acknowledge that Wartime is the single finest chance to leapfrog sidetracked competitors and take ground away. What follows is a set of pointers and ideas to help you discover your "Wartime CMO fight plan."

How to function as a Wartime CMO.

During Wartime, everyone remains in uncharted waters, but this is where the opportunity is for many business who previously had a difficult time to contend versus bigger rivals and dominant market forces. Now, for the really first time, you might be on comparable footing as your more effective rivals. It's the best opportunity to specify your future.

In a worldwide decrease like what COVID-19 has set off, definitely nothing makes good sense. And yet, a few of your rivals will continue to perform their normal "attempted and real" marketing playback, presuming that building the trademark name with business interactions messages from the CEO is going to add to their business goals. Now is the ideal possibility for the Wartime CMO to take ground in the market.

Take strong action.

Imaginative marketing is needed in Wartime more than ever. Now is the time to inspect your essential assumptions. As the worldwide business environment has altered, and the stability of the core company called into question, CMO's must be prepared to reassess their initial plan.
Consider that less customers will relate to lowered requirement. And minimized requirement indicates markets will not react as they did prior to the crisis.

Believe about it in this way, when individuals purchase less, marketers invest less. Nevertheless prior to you follow a slash and burn the marketing invest playbook, here are a couple of things to be experienced about:

Investment bank Cowen and Company analyzed the last 6 financial slumps considered that 1950 and found that spending on direct marketing grew during the previous financial declines. Significance, you will want to consider your mix of brand marketing carefully compared to sales activation marketing. It's not time to stop marketing. Remember, there will be offers throughout the board as media outlets see business cut their marketing and advertising invests. Press marketing and branding drops in a slowdown, but sales activation marketing always increases.

Shift costs to more measurable channels so that you can adapt rapidly. Speed is whatever. Marketing initiatives able to be tracked with specificity will be a lot more important than broad mass-market jobs. Slowdowns speed up the reduction of interruption-based mass marketing. In its place will be an increased focus on quantifiable and relationship-based techniques.

Declines produce a chance for business that are more effective at turning marketing financial investments into earnings. In the middle of a decrease when marketers are cutting their spending is a fun time to take advantage of low CPMs and Certified public accounting professionals.

The Institute of Practitioners in Marketing finished a research study in 2008 that found, "Following a spending plan cut, a brand will continue to gain from the marketing financial investment made over the previous few years. This will lower any short-term company effects, and will result in a precariously deceptive increase in short-term success. The longer-term business harm will be more substantial, but will not be observed 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 TV marketing invest for 6 months experienced a decrease in Brand name Use by 24% with a 28% decrease in Brand name Image. Brands that cut their advertisement spending plan at a higher rate relative to their competitors were at an even greater threat of share loss.
There are an extraordinary variety of marketing studies that confirm in a decline, trademark name that continue marketing and advertising efforts recover much faster. It takes strong action to invest when the information recommends that ROI is not possible. A Wartime CMO fights to preserve the spending plan needed to continue marketing.

Take full benefit of the worth of each lead produced.

In a downturn, risk-averse buyers take even longer to research study purchases, and this applies equally to B2B and B2C purchasers. When you first recognize a prospect, they will likely remain in the awareness stage of your funnel and will not be all set to engage with an SDR or BDR. Do not require this interaction. Marketing should take care not to move a prospect through the funnel too quickly. Remember, the prospect's expert life has been turned on its head. What was a concern just a couple of weeks or months ago, is likely not top of mind today.

It's tempting in a decrease to tighten your grip on leads considering that the reasoning is that now more than ever, all leads are vital. Here is where lead scoring can be an important tool to acknowledge highly engaged prospects from those who are not likely to become your customers. 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 level prior to handing them off to sales as a SQL.

Without lead scoring and an ideal possibility tracking system throughout your digital channels, as numerous as 9 out of ten MQL's who are not yet sales-ready might be lost. They will purchase, simply not now. You don't wish to lose out on the future sale given that you didn't keep in contact and consist of worth though the journey. In a "Wartime" economy, you must do everything possible to optimize the worth of your MQL's.

CMO's that do a far better job of managing leads and developing early-stage prospects into sales-ready leads will stay in the finest position to win during the crisis and most definitely once it has actually passed.

Concentrate on your present customers.

It's cheaper to grow earnings with your existing clients. Consider whether now is the time to downsize your mass lead generation programs and focus on building deeper relationships with those who currently know your organization. This does not suggest to stop your need gen efforts, however it does indicate that you may want to explore with product and sales how you can sell more to your existing consumers.

In Peacetime, marketing groups are operating on autopilot in pursuit of driving MQL's to please sales reps. For a service that has actually acquired traction on their method to becoming a classification king or queen, this technique, though costly feels great given that of the remarkable 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 truth, it's giving off enormous contamination, i.e. exceptionally high CAC, higher than typical churn for the category, low CLTV, and so on.

Marketing must line up with sales.

A brand-focused Marketing leader worries business with a remarkable education and pedigree, having really held substantial titles with huge companies. There was a time when the marketing group might manage all business and product details and messaging with the market. If a buyer desired to discover a brand-new product or explore whether a service may meet their requirement, they had no option however to call business.

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 readily available with a single post on the proper forum or LinkedIn group. As a result, the power moved to the buyer.

We understand that online marketers are no longer in control of the buyer's journey. It is very important to specify a funnel that lays out evictions a prospect should pass on the method to doing business with business. Buyers can get in touch with us on the platform of their choosing. As the Growth Stage Marketing Consultant buying group has expanded to as many as two lots people, the concept that they will follow our process as we have really recommended is hardly ever genuine.

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

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

Today, marketing requires greater levels of technical ability as a result of the explosion of digital media and the marketing innovations that are related to internet marketing. This transformation has actually been highlighted by Forrester, discussing a 20-year-old transition to digital as the driving force behind CMOs moving from being brand-builders to revenue drivers. Forrester goes on to report that a worth developer, revenue-driven Online marketer, need to be a story maker and not simply a storyteller.

The CMO today need to be a specialist at producing and leading creative engagement and company method to establish a category for the business to control.

Here are a couple of methods that a revenue-driven CMO requirement to operate:

They will work thoroughly with the sales group to find 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 work environment and hang out in the field. This leader understands that you can not drive profits if you aren't close to where the sale takes location.

A revenue-focused CMO develops content targeted at each phase of the buyer's journey. Believe about the purchaser's journey as a set of gates where the material reacts to the main concerns a buyer has at each action so that they can complete the purchasing journey.
The brand-new generation CMO will collect engagement metrics for each gate while evaluating the success of the end-to-end marketing cycle to provide the most prompt and licensed cause their sellers. A value developer CMO sees marketing as close allies to the sales group.

The revenue-centered CMO is constantly finding from and fine-tuning the procedure so that they can enhance the quantity and quality of leads that contributed to the pipeline and closed business.
Profits attribution and marketing ROI styles will reflect real outcomes, not theorized or "presumed" requirements. This details is essential for the revenue-focused CMO to resolve given that they care about marketing's influence on organization.

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

What to search for in your next CMO.

In the vibrant state of business today, working with a reliable CMO is among the most challenging things to do. Every get more information market, business, and market section is different. Even where you can acknowledge potential customers from the very same company community or environment, it's insufficient to simply take an appearance at years of experience or education. You need to analyze the motivations and believed patterns of the person. Ask:
Is the CMO an issue solver?

The most substantial danger today is on the market side and not innovation. A marketing leader who isn't an issue solver will struggle to handle the fast-changing nature of the market INFO and neighborhood structure.

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

Has the CMO held cross-functional positions?

The finest way to guarantee that you attract a CMO who is revenue and not brand-driven is to hire someone who has actually turned up through product, sales, and business technique. Having direct exposure to the inner workings of product and sales is particularly beneficial as business approach is ending up being a more significant part of the CMO's series of obligations.

Do they believe in systems or method company in a structured way?

As digital has actually blown up the number of marketing interface points, making it possible for buyers to disaggregate business from the buying journey, a CMO should have the ability to consider systems and structures instead of firmly specified marketing lanes. It is no longer adequate to prepare in regards to the social task, content marketing task, events, and PR, all as different activities. The successful CMO will start with company objective they are serving and be prepared to question whatever.

Can they communicate outside the walls of the organization to the marketplace?

To end up being a story-maker, you need to deserve listening to. A CMO is in the perfect position to presume the evangelistic function for the company. The most effective CMO's in any market are highly noticeable spokespeople for their business.
Are they a motivator?

As the CMO will require to work cross-functionally to ensure that they have positioning with product and sales, the marketing head ought to be an incentive. To establish a category requires discussion, settlement, and the capability to search for and reach an arrangement.

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

A CMO who attempts to lead with supreme authority will struggle to accomplish organization goals of business. Marketing groups today need to work as engineering groups work in an agile fashion. Rather of perfectly organized 90-day project cadences, an agile marketing group carries out a constant circulation of initiatives while preserving the adaptability to alter as the market or company needs identify.

Does the CMO comprehend category design?

I have in fact composed about classification style and why every company needs to own a category to achieve its optimal potential. There is a framework for carrying out classification design. Still, whether an Online marketer follows the summary or methods classification style another way, a CMO needs to be putting routine idea and preparation into how they specify the category they mean to dominate. Without input from the CEO and other members of the executive group, there is no way to complete a correct category design.

The Wartime CMO will need to increase the accountability of marketing by showing the effect of each marketing activity on the pipeline as determined by income contribution.
In a slow down, marketing must move the understanding of being an expense center to an earnings motorist. Reporting beyond the number of marketing qualified leads produced to include the total possibility worth for each lead source is an exceptional way to represent the function marketing is playing to drive the economic objectives of organization.

Studies have actually revealed that a properly created landing page can double your conversion rate over sending out traffic to the house page, which tends to do not have the appropriate call to action that matches the advertisement. Due to the fact that of this, examining landing pages can increase conversions as much as 50% or more. Together, these techniques can offer a 2.5 X increase for each single dollar you invest in marketing. growth stage marketing Yes, conversion rate optimization makes a distinction.

Throughout Wartime, every marketing dollar is valuable, and a Wartime CMO comprehends that winning will not boil down to a single method or "silver bullet" method. Rather, lots of small things carried out well. The CMO, who can not comprehend the interplay of copy, messaging, imaginative design, and development, will struggle to find and acknowledge quickly where little modifications can provide much better conversions.

This material technique worked, for a season, sort-of. Nevertheless with the boost of Google RankBrain, the technique has not worked for numerous years. Without remaining in the middle of a crisis, you require to stop this ineffective activity. Now as budget plans are under pressure and every marketing activity ought to count, the way that we do content marketing needs to be updated.

Now, the material that we produce requirements to interest someone searching for our option, and it should include buyer intent activates like keywords and expressions that a buyer would utilize as they get near to acquiring decision. A Havas Group research study exposed that 84% of individuals anticipate trademark name to produce material, yet 60% of the material produced is of bad quality or unimportant, failing to fulfill the needs of the audience. Regardless of a 71% connection in between content efficiency and a brand's impact on personal health, just 40% of the world's leading 1,500 brand produce content that meets this requirement. Trademark name's are failing growth stage marketing consultant to produce significant material.

Stop producing assembly line content that is just meant to establish the brand or present the item. Instead, content needs to target specific personas to solve any troubles preventing the possibility from proceeding. This material will take longer to produce and require a higher neighborhood and product understanding level.

CMO's in Wartime need to have an outstanding understanding of the purchaser mind and their psychological requirements so that they can produce material that eases worry and addresses the genuine issues they have.

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

Learn more about Category Design.

The B2B sales process today is fragmented and complicated, with great deals of stakeholders requiring to verify a purchase choice. This renders standard marketing ROI and attribution methods less helpful for anything besides scholastic research study.

The marketing function today breaks down into 3 functional pillars comprising Product, Requirement Generation, and Classification Design. Since numerous marketing leaders have actually not entirely accepted classification design, it's a surprisingly simple way to beat an incumbent throughout a crisis. As soon as the sector begins to talk about the category as you have actually defined it, your company will wind up being the classification and the obvious option.

To do Classification Style requires a different working cadence. Wartime is the ideal time to start Classification Style considered that definitely nothing is "regular" during a crisis.
To deal with the challenge of constructing a Category King organization needs a lots of grit, decision, and an unfaltering drive to win. For the Wartime CMO, who takes on the difficulty, there can be no bigger pot-o-gold if effective.

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