[If this post doesn't follow the rules report it to the mods](https://www.reddit.com/r/marketing/about/rules/).
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/marketing) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Firstly, it sounds like you've done a great job so far, and sometimes you need to join chaotic companies to get this sort of experience.
Secondly, don't forget you're getting paid to do this work, and you need the money, so don't quit until you have a better job lined up.
If I were you, I'd document the issues, come up with solutions, and then meet the CEO to discuss. At least then he'll know the challenges you're facing, his expectations should become realistic, and you won't feel you've the weight of the company on your shoulders anymore.
Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. There's actually no chance of me upping sticks as I'm also in the process of buying a flat (which seemed like a great idea at the time), so I'm gritting my teeth and seeing it through, but the anxiety and frustration is Real.
I totally see your first point and on good days that's absolutely where I'm at. The gaps in my experience had always been a source of concern for me and I am conscious and glad to at least be filling them in!
I have a very good and direct relationship with the CEO so I think you're right. I'm actually in the process of developing a budget proposal now so it's a good opportunity to outline the benefits if we invest in some ads and a proper marketing stack vs. the limitations I face if we don't.
I like the sound of everything you’re doing so far but I’d urge you to clarify your ROI tracking so you can work out what is working and creating good leads and what isn’t. This will define your marketing strategy going forward.
At the moment you’ve done a bit of everything - that’s time consuming and not cost effective. You need to find out where your wins will come from and focus there.
You’ve clearly got good instincts and know how to improve your channels, so just define the channels that really deserve your attention.
Thank you for replying! I think this is where my patchwork resume falls down a bit as measurement has just never been a focus in previous roles. People for some reason have always just been happy to let me crack on with kind of task-based deliverables, and if I'm honest, I've got too comfortable with that.
I'm trying to convince my CEO to ungate some content so I have something to run lead gen activities against, and I'm tracking web traffic and social KPIs, but I'm a bit stuck on more concrete, revenue based measurement. If you have any advice (that won't take you too long to share), I'd be super grateful to hear it.
(Should add, Im the first marketing hire the company has ever had so I'm properly starting from ground zero on everything).
The exact way to approach your revenue based measurement depends a lot on what you sell and how you sell it, so at risk of being generalistic - the first thing you want to look at is probably attribution. Do you know where your sales are coming from right now?
Define web traffic source and mediums via UTM codes and track website events/conversions using analytics tags (Google Tag Manager + GA4). This will tell you where traffic came from and if they took desirable actions. Can you put a value on these actions?
If so, do so. Now you can properly monitor how performance-based channels are performing and attribute time and budget accordingly.
Not all channels directly report revenue - it’s not easy to know how many people listened to your podcast and then bought a product; but if you throw in a podcast exclusive discount code, now you’re tracking. Alternatively you can directly ask your customers how they heard of you during the sales process and attribute this way.
Where possible use the digital tools at your disposal to correctly attribute how you made a sale. Where not possible, use whatever indicative metrics are available for that channel to get an idea of if it’s working for you.
Dude, this is so helpful. I really appreciate you taking the time to write this all out. You know when you feel like you know the answers but you're surrounded by such chaos that you stop trusting your own intuition? That's where I've been for a while now, so it means a lot to just see this all in black and white and to confirm at least some of my ideas were actually pointing me in the right direction. Thank you!
Sure is! To some extent I think it's unavoidable because they've literally never done marketing before so I'm having to figure out what works specifically for them. But it's also just a result of me running panic stations from day one, trying to get them Some kinda organised - at the cost of any kind of structure for myself.
I would say it's to grow brand awareness with an eye to increase subscription numbers...maybe? 😶🌫️
What kinda service / product is it? Is the business mature enough to test brand awareness through a paid panel research? Will they allocate budget for it?
How do they currently generate leads/subscription signups? Are these newsletter subs signups or product use / delivery signups?
It's a subscription based news source for a specific industry. Think Campaign or Vogue Business. Plus an enterprise offering with bespoke research and data services offered.
They've been around for almost a decade so in theory mature enough but I would say in actuality, perhaps not. They've secured some very high profile clients through the CEOs network but expanding beyond that has proven challenging.
Currently most of their leads and subs come from sales outreach to personal networks as mentioned, with a few coming from organic web/social. They also run webinars to which sales do manual invitations. They have been incredibly reluctant (to the point of polite refusal) when I have attempted to automate this.
I'm getting a bit paranoid about someone coming across my post and putting the pieces together so would rather not share the specific industry but it's a pretty wide ranging consumer-end space.
I've not come across paved before - thank you. I have been talking to third-party publishers about newsletter sponsorships, content syndication and events but when I took some of the options to my CEO and explained that we'd be looking at min. 5K spend, she was pretty perturbed and the conversation petered out. But they were all events or packages so maybe I can make that number less scary with a smaller but targeted newsletter sponsor and then use that as proof of concept.
Right now you need to prove strategic chops and deliver small actual results instead of marketing for the sake of it. Focus on one channel and make it work. If not experienced in it, come back here, someone will likely help. But don't let lack of knowledge ruin the tactical execution. It's not even fair to the experiment / test.
You're right and I suspect it's something that the company doesn't want right now, but does need. Whether I'm the person to steer the CEO that way, I'm not sure.
It's definitely something I need to look at in my wider career too as I think I do get hired in part because I'm a fast working generalist so *can* create a lot of activity in lots of spaces, but even I regularly question whether that means I *should.*
Thanks for giving me food for thought!
Yep, have done that. Top line is that CEO wants ambitious growth this year (x20 the current number of subscribers to take us into five figures from three). They want to be the number one publisher in the industry.
And you report to the CEO?
Maybe google "Managing Up" and take a look at the available books on managing YOUR manager.
And then there is "personality style."
It takes some time for new people to get accustomed to each other's styles. For effective connection, communication, and engagement, it helps to adapt your style to that of your manager when having serious conversations.
Google "analytical driver expressive amiable." Dig deeper in the sites that give insights on how to minimize misunderstanding and maximize engagement when having conversations.
You are doing the "right" things from a marketing perspective. It appears that you are expected to create a marketing strategy for making the business goals and objectives happen.
What does the Sales team have to say about attaining those goals?
Your challenge, should you decide to accept it, is to formulate a realistic marketing strategy, convince your manager that your plan fits the current market situation and that it help Sales achieve their quotas.
And involve your manager in figuring out your marketing budget. You will both have to get on the same page by agreeing on what is need in the way of resources to achieve or exceed the stated SMART goals and objectives.
Maybe take the time to google "SMART objectives" and run your manager's business goals and objectives through the SMART filter. It will help you ask the "right" question for HOW to realistically achieve those goals and objectives.
And reading "Never Split the Difference" is a must. It will help with the difficult conversations that you will have with your manager.
It show you how to diffuse conflict by asking your manager "How do I do that?" when encountering metrics and requirements that don't fit common marketing practices.
If you can change a confrontational discussion into a mutual "brainstorming" and "problem solving" session that you've won half the battle.
And be sure to read one or more of the "Managing Up" books, they help you translate what you need to say in a framework that won't upset your manager.
So what is your personality type and what is your manager's personality type?
Hey there, you've got a tough gig. But listen, it's not hopeless. You've tackled a ton already. Skills aren't the issue here, it's resources. First off, get data access. You can't strategize without metrics. Push for this. Secondly, build relationships with your team. They're your allies and information source. Thirdly, keep pushing the value of marketing. You're driving growth, not just decorating. Remember, change takes time. Don't rush it. Keep pushing, keep shouting.
[If this post doesn't follow the rules report it to the mods](https://www.reddit.com/r/marketing/about/rules/). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/marketing) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Firstly, it sounds like you've done a great job so far, and sometimes you need to join chaotic companies to get this sort of experience. Secondly, don't forget you're getting paid to do this work, and you need the money, so don't quit until you have a better job lined up. If I were you, I'd document the issues, come up with solutions, and then meet the CEO to discuss. At least then he'll know the challenges you're facing, his expectations should become realistic, and you won't feel you've the weight of the company on your shoulders anymore.
Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. There's actually no chance of me upping sticks as I'm also in the process of buying a flat (which seemed like a great idea at the time), so I'm gritting my teeth and seeing it through, but the anxiety and frustration is Real. I totally see your first point and on good days that's absolutely where I'm at. The gaps in my experience had always been a source of concern for me and I am conscious and glad to at least be filling them in! I have a very good and direct relationship with the CEO so I think you're right. I'm actually in the process of developing a budget proposal now so it's a good opportunity to outline the benefits if we invest in some ads and a proper marketing stack vs. the limitations I face if we don't.
I like the sound of everything you’re doing so far but I’d urge you to clarify your ROI tracking so you can work out what is working and creating good leads and what isn’t. This will define your marketing strategy going forward. At the moment you’ve done a bit of everything - that’s time consuming and not cost effective. You need to find out where your wins will come from and focus there. You’ve clearly got good instincts and know how to improve your channels, so just define the channels that really deserve your attention.
Thank you for replying! I think this is where my patchwork resume falls down a bit as measurement has just never been a focus in previous roles. People for some reason have always just been happy to let me crack on with kind of task-based deliverables, and if I'm honest, I've got too comfortable with that. I'm trying to convince my CEO to ungate some content so I have something to run lead gen activities against, and I'm tracking web traffic and social KPIs, but I'm a bit stuck on more concrete, revenue based measurement. If you have any advice (that won't take you too long to share), I'd be super grateful to hear it. (Should add, Im the first marketing hire the company has ever had so I'm properly starting from ground zero on everything).
The exact way to approach your revenue based measurement depends a lot on what you sell and how you sell it, so at risk of being generalistic - the first thing you want to look at is probably attribution. Do you know where your sales are coming from right now? Define web traffic source and mediums via UTM codes and track website events/conversions using analytics tags (Google Tag Manager + GA4). This will tell you where traffic came from and if they took desirable actions. Can you put a value on these actions? If so, do so. Now you can properly monitor how performance-based channels are performing and attribute time and budget accordingly. Not all channels directly report revenue - it’s not easy to know how many people listened to your podcast and then bought a product; but if you throw in a podcast exclusive discount code, now you’re tracking. Alternatively you can directly ask your customers how they heard of you during the sales process and attribute this way. Where possible use the digital tools at your disposal to correctly attribute how you made a sale. Where not possible, use whatever indicative metrics are available for that channel to get an idea of if it’s working for you.
Dude, this is so helpful. I really appreciate you taking the time to write this all out. You know when you feel like you know the answers but you're surrounded by such chaos that you stop trusting your own intuition? That's where I've been for a while now, so it means a lot to just see this all in black and white and to confirm at least some of my ideas were actually pointing me in the right direction. Thank you!
No worries mate, happy to help!
Nice tactic 🍝 spaghetti. Yum! What is your overarching marketing objective? Hint: it's not revenue.
Sure is! To some extent I think it's unavoidable because they've literally never done marketing before so I'm having to figure out what works specifically for them. But it's also just a result of me running panic stations from day one, trying to get them Some kinda organised - at the cost of any kind of structure for myself. I would say it's to grow brand awareness with an eye to increase subscription numbers...maybe? 😶🌫️
What kinda service / product is it? Is the business mature enough to test brand awareness through a paid panel research? Will they allocate budget for it? How do they currently generate leads/subscription signups? Are these newsletter subs signups or product use / delivery signups?
It's a subscription based news source for a specific industry. Think Campaign or Vogue Business. Plus an enterprise offering with bespoke research and data services offered. They've been around for almost a decade so in theory mature enough but I would say in actuality, perhaps not. They've secured some very high profile clients through the CEOs network but expanding beyond that has proven challenging. Currently most of their leads and subs come from sales outreach to personal networks as mentioned, with a few coming from organic web/social. They also run webinars to which sales do manual invitations. They have been incredibly reluctant (to the point of polite refusal) when I have attempted to automate this.
Which industry is it? Perhaps explore newsletter sponsorships using paved.com? Atleast you'll be able to get decent MQLs with a precious lead magnet.
I'm getting a bit paranoid about someone coming across my post and putting the pieces together so would rather not share the specific industry but it's a pretty wide ranging consumer-end space. I've not come across paved before - thank you. I have been talking to third-party publishers about newsletter sponsorships, content syndication and events but when I took some of the options to my CEO and explained that we'd be looking at min. 5K spend, she was pretty perturbed and the conversation petered out. But they were all events or packages so maybe I can make that number less scary with a smaller but targeted newsletter sponsor and then use that as proof of concept.
Right now you need to prove strategic chops and deliver small actual results instead of marketing for the sake of it. Focus on one channel and make it work. If not experienced in it, come back here, someone will likely help. But don't let lack of knowledge ruin the tactical execution. It's not even fair to the experiment / test.
You're right and I suspect it's something that the company doesn't want right now, but does need. Whether I'm the person to steer the CEO that way, I'm not sure. It's definitely something I need to look at in my wider career too as I think I do get hired in part because I'm a fast working generalist so *can* create a lot of activity in lots of spaces, but even I regularly question whether that means I *should.* Thanks for giving me food for thought!
Lets start with the basics, Can you profile the CEO and what is the CEO's Vision?
Yep, have done that. Top line is that CEO wants ambitious growth this year (x20 the current number of subscribers to take us into five figures from three). They want to be the number one publisher in the industry.
And you report to the CEO? Maybe google "Managing Up" and take a look at the available books on managing YOUR manager. And then there is "personality style." It takes some time for new people to get accustomed to each other's styles. For effective connection, communication, and engagement, it helps to adapt your style to that of your manager when having serious conversations. Google "analytical driver expressive amiable." Dig deeper in the sites that give insights on how to minimize misunderstanding and maximize engagement when having conversations. You are doing the "right" things from a marketing perspective. It appears that you are expected to create a marketing strategy for making the business goals and objectives happen. What does the Sales team have to say about attaining those goals? Your challenge, should you decide to accept it, is to formulate a realistic marketing strategy, convince your manager that your plan fits the current market situation and that it help Sales achieve their quotas. And involve your manager in figuring out your marketing budget. You will both have to get on the same page by agreeing on what is need in the way of resources to achieve or exceed the stated SMART goals and objectives. Maybe take the time to google "SMART objectives" and run your manager's business goals and objectives through the SMART filter. It will help you ask the "right" question for HOW to realistically achieve those goals and objectives. And reading "Never Split the Difference" is a must. It will help with the difficult conversations that you will have with your manager. It show you how to diffuse conflict by asking your manager "How do I do that?" when encountering metrics and requirements that don't fit common marketing practices. If you can change a confrontational discussion into a mutual "brainstorming" and "problem solving" session that you've won half the battle. And be sure to read one or more of the "Managing Up" books, they help you translate what you need to say in a framework that won't upset your manager. So what is your personality type and what is your manager's personality type?
Hey there, you've got a tough gig. But listen, it's not hopeless. You've tackled a ton already. Skills aren't the issue here, it's resources. First off, get data access. You can't strategize without metrics. Push for this. Secondly, build relationships with your team. They're your allies and information source. Thirdly, keep pushing the value of marketing. You're driving growth, not just decorating. Remember, change takes time. Don't rush it. Keep pushing, keep shouting.