Nobody in business questions the importance of growth. It’s a top priority, board-level agenda item, every month and all year long. In some parts of the world, marketing is perceived to be full of buzzwords, acronyms and platitudes. But when it is done well, marketing is a significant growth driver.
If it isn’t then you’re doing it wrong. Equally significant is understanding that it doesn’t work on its own. The key to success is collaboration and aligned execution between marketing and sales, product, finance and executive teams.
This toolkit outlines some of the most common mistakes, maps out best practice depending on what stage your business is at, then outlines the key areas to focus on so that marketing becomes the growth driver that it really should be.
In Planning it is essential to establish where you are starting from. Our marketing maturity matrix helps you evaluate what stage you are at and how to approach the next stages. We then look at the importance of marketing and brand strategy, getting the right team in place and the interplay between revenue operations and unit economics. Finally we review the MarTech stack, balancing what you need and what is optional.
In Execution we focus on the day to day winning, onboarding and serving customers, optimising conversion through the customer journey and content production.
In Resilience we focus on the levers that make the difference in the long term. We look at how pivotal pricing is and cover the overall sustainability of business, balancing growth and profitability. Lastly, we concentrate on marketing’s role in value creation and communicating why you do what you do.
About the author
Nick Eades is a long-standing friend of Frog, introduced by operating partner, James Bagan, having worked together at a private equity backed business. In June 2019 he hosted a dinner at Frog and spoke about sales and marketing alignment and has since advised several of our portfolio companies.
