The Recession-Proof Marketer: Advice I Wish I Knew Back In 2022

In the dynamic world of marketing, success often hinges on mastering three critical objectives:

1. Acquiring New Customers

2. Retaining Current Customers

3. Monetizing Existing Customers

Reflecting on my past experiences as a marketer, including the first time I got fired for not meeting the CEO’s expectations at a SaaS startup, I’ve gathered invaluable insights. Here, I share what I’ve learned and how it can help you navigate your marketing career.

There’s a trap to avoid when it comes to doing good marketing work…you have to make sure you tie it back to making revenue. This can be done either by getting new customers, keeping them, or making more sales from them. It sounds simple but, we can often get “lost in the sauce’ when it comes to our daily tasks.

To make these concepts more relatable, we’ll use a fictional SaaS startup called VoiceTech, which sells AI-voice avatar software to replace call centers, as an example throughout this article. This will help illustrate how various marketing principles and metrics apply to how you’re supposed to market a business..

Learning from My Past

Before diving into the role of “marketer” it’s important to start off by talking about opportunities. Whenever you take a new marketing job, ensure that your vision of what the marketing team does aligns with the CEO’s expectations. Misalignment can lead to frustration and unmet goals. Always clarify what success looks like from the CEO’s perspective. If you’re directly reporting to the CMO, the principles still apply. This should be done during the interview process.

What to Focus On At the Start: The Listening Tour

One of the best pieces of advice I’ve received is from Mark Stouse, which I discussed in a podcast interview. A listening tour involves understanding company alignment and strategy first, followed by marketing strategy, and then channels and tactics. This helps ensure you’re on the right path from the get-go. And this isn’t something you should begin doing when you’re in senior-level positions. Get used to doing this early in your career.

Take your time, but be intentional in learning what the executive team expects from you. Here’s a guide:

• CEO: What are their priorities and vision for the company?

• CFO: Understand the financial health and budget constraints of the team.

• Sales: Know what drives sales and how marketing can support.

• Customer Care: Learn about customer pain points and feedback that aren’t being addressed.

• HR: (Optional) Understand company culture and hiring needs, the earlier you can become an advocate for the company’s employer branding, the more brownie points you score with HR.

Financial Statements

Understanding the financial health of the company is critical. This includes profit and loss statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements. A marketer who can read a balance sheet is a unicorn in the startup ecosystem.

The Industry

Tap into the knowledge of your CEO and investors. Study the competition to see who’s succeeded, who’s failed, and why. If you weren’t an expert on the industry prior to joining the team, you better become one…fast.

Understanding Company Strategy

During your listening tour, you should be getting a sense of where the company is headed. When you know what the executives see as the finish line (or at least the next one before the race starts again) then you can get a sense of the goals that the marketing team has…

Internal Marketing

Baking in internal marketing to your plans ensures you get buy-in and support from the team. It doesn’t have to be a massive effort. As Daniel Murray, Creator of The Marketing Millennials, says, “A 62-second video you can embed in Slack, a few bullet points, or even just having your end-of-week summary in Notion that you can share with the team, makes a massive difference.”

Now let’s dive into some more technical stuff…

Concepts To Wrap Your Head Around

Everyone has their own definition of the terms listed below. What’s important is that you know that these terms exist and that you find time to define them in your own words. Here are my definitions and how I believe they should be “digested” so that you can be the best marketer possible: 

Acquisition

Acquiring new customers is the lifeblood of any growing business. Effective acquisition strategies involve a deep understanding of your target audience, creating compelling value propositions, and utilizing various channels to reach potential customers. Tracking metrics like Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) and conversion rates helps optimize your efforts and ensure sustainable growth. It’s all about growing that top-line revenue and new user count.

Retention

Retaining existing customers is often more cost-effective than acquiring new ones. Strategies for retention include providing excellent customer service (believe it or not, marketing influences this with the promises we make), personalizing customer interactions, and continuously engaging customers through email marketing, loyalty programs, and regular updates. Key metrics to monitor are churn rate and customer lifetime value (LTV), which provide insights into customer satisfaction and long-term profitability. And when it doubt…read the NPS surveys.

Monetization

Monetization focuses on increasing the revenue generated from existing customers. This can be achieved through cross-selling, up-selling, and creating subscription models or premium offerings. Understanding customer behavior and preferences is crucial for tailoring your monetization strategies. Metrics like average revenue per user (ARPU) and upsell success rates can guide your efforts.

Advocacy (Referrals)

Encouraging satisfied customers to refer others is a powerful growth strategy. Referral programs incentivize customers to share their positive experiences, leveraging word-of-mouth marketing. Creating easy-to-use referral systems and offering rewards can significantly boost referral rates. Tracking the number of referrals and the resulting conversions helps measure the success of your advocacy efforts. 

Note: some people like to bucket Advocacy/Referrals with Monetization…that’s ok. I like to keep the two concepts separate because they require separate skills to do the work well.

Now On To The Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Understanding and optimizing KPIs can drive substantial growth and value for your company’s growth:

Numbers to care about if you work as a growth marketer:

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): This metric measures the total cost of acquiring a new customer, including marketing and sales expenses. Daily work in growth marketing involves optimizing campaigns to lower CAC by improving targeting, refining ad creatives, and choosing cost-effective channels.

Example: At VoiceTech, you might run A/B tests on Facebook ads to determine which creatives attract more potential clients at a lower cost. Adjusting your targeting based on user engagement data helps you refine your approach and lower CAC.

Lifetime Value (LTV): LTV estimates the total revenue a business can expect from a customer over their entire relationship. Growth marketers focus on acquiring high-value customers and designing campaigns that attract long-term clients.

Example: By analyzing user behavior data, you identify that clients from the healthcare sector tend to have higher LTV. You then tailor your acquisition strategies to target similar businesses, ensuring a steady stream of high-value customers.

CAC Payback: This measures the time it takes for the revenue from a customer to cover the cost of acquiring them. Daily tasks include analyzing and adjusting campaigns to shorten the payback period.

Example: Implementing a free trial period for VoiceTech’s AI-voice avatar software helps convert leads faster, reducing the CAC payback period. Monitoring trial-to-paid conversion rates helps you optimize this strategy.

CAC Ratio: This ratio compares the cost of acquiring customers to the revenue they generate, guiding budget allocation and efficiency. Marketers use this metric to evaluate the ROI of different acquisition strategies.

Example: By comparing the CAC ratio across different channels, you determine that LinkedIn ads provide better ROI than Google Ads for acquiring enterprise clients. This insight allows you to allocate more budget to LinkedIn.

Monthly Growth Rate (MoM): This metric tracks the monthly growth of key performance indicators such as users, revenue, or sign-ups. Growth marketers constantly test and iterate strategies to maintain or accelerate growth rates.

Example: You implement a content marketing strategy focused on publishing case studies and whitepapers. By tracking MoM growth in website traffic and sign-ups, you adjust your content topics to maintain a steady growth rate.

Numbers to care about if you work as a product marketer:

Churn Rate / Retention Rate: Churn rate measures the percentage of customers who stop using a product within a given period. Daily work involves analyzing user feedback and behavior to identify pain points and improve retention strategies.

Example: Analyzing churn data reveals that users often leave after a month due to a steep learning curve. You develop a series of onboarding tutorials and webinars to help new users understand and effectively use VoiceTech’s AI-voice avatar software.

Feature Adoption (Time-to-Value): This tracks how quickly customers realize the value of a new feature. Product marketers focus on onboarding processes and user education to enhance feature adoption.

Example: After launching a new integration with popular CRM systems, you create detailed guides and video tutorials to help users quickly adopt and benefit from the new feature, reducing Time-to-Value.

Cross-sells, Up-sells, Down-sells: These metrics measure the effectiveness of selling additional products or upgrades to existing customers. Daily tasks include creating and optimizing personalized offers and communication strategies.

Example: You notice that customers using the basic plan frequently request advanced analytics. You develop a targeted email campaign offering an upgrade to the premium plan with advanced features, driving up-sell success rates.

Numbers to care about if you work as a brand marketer:

Brand Mentions: This metric tracks how often a brand is mentioned across various channels. Brand marketers work on increasing visibility through PR, content marketing, and social media engagement.

Example: You launch a PR campaign highlighting successful case studies of clients who have significantly reduced their call center costs using VoiceTech’s AI-voice avatars. Monitoring brand mentions helps you gauge the campaign’s reach and effectiveness.

Referrals: Referrals measure the number of new customers acquired through word-of-mouth. Brand marketers develop and promote referral programs to encourage existing customers to refer others.

Example: You implement a referral program offering customers a discount on their next subscription renewal for every successful referral. Tracking referrals and resulting conversions helps measure the program’s impact on customer acquisition.

Total Impressions (Omni-channel): This metric tracks the total number of times a brand’s content is seen across all channels. Daily work involves ensuring consistent and widespread brand presence through integrated marketing campaigns.

Example: Coordinating a campaign across social media, email, and industry blogs, you ensure VoiceTech’s message is consistently seen by your target audience. Tracking total impressions helps you understand the campaign’s reach and effectiveness.

Growth and brand marketing also track revenue growth and sales pipeline growth, while product and brand marketing monitor sustained revenue.

I’m still learning…

Building a successful marketing career is a journey of continuous learning and adaptation. Develop a diverse skill set across different marketing domains, network with industry professionals, and stay updated with the latest trends. Pursuing certifications, attending workshops, and seeking mentorship can also enhance your career prospects and open up new opportunities.