How to Transform Marketing Into a Growth Engine

#Amazon Growth Isn’t About Spending More, It’s About Spending Smarter. We recently completed a full-scale Amazon audit for a retail brand, and what we uncovered echoes what we’ve seen time and again: Many brands treat Amazon like a media platform. The winning brands treat it like a growth engine. 1. Ad Efficiency ≠ Account Efficiency Many brands have healthy ROAS on paper and think they are doing "great", but are unknowingly cannibalizing organic sales or overspending on branded terms. We deploy a layered campaign architecture that separates acquisition from retention, brand defense from conquesting, so every dollar has a distinct job and measurable impact. 2. Smart Media Spend Should Build Organic Equity Media shouldn’t be a crutch! In most audits, we find that ad budgets are overly concentrated on driving short-term ROAS, with little consideration for long-term keyword rank. Our approach strategically uses paid media to lift visibility on high-opportunity keywords, driving sustained organic growth. This way, over time, you reduce dependency on paid spend as your products begin to win share of voice organically. 3. Product Investment Should Match Lifecycle, Not Just Performance Too often, budgets are allocated based on yesterday’s result, not tomorrow’s opportunity. We utilize a quadrant model to assess each SKU’s role in the portfolio and allocate investment to products with headroom, seasonality, and strategic significance. 4. Content = Conversion Power Every asset (title, bullet, image) either builds trust or creates friction, and with Amazon’s shift to AI-driven and semantic search (hello, #Rufus), PDP content isn’t just SEO, it’s how your brand shows up and gets discovered. Optimizing titles, bullets, and imagery for consumer psychology and Amazon’s evolving algorithm increases visibility, click-through, and conversion in one unified motion. 5. Retail Media Should Power a Full-Funnel Strategy If your strategy begins and ends with Sponsored Products, you're leaving growth on the table. We connect #AMC, DSP, and real-time bidding to move beyond #ROAS, targeting new-to-brand customers, building loyalty loops, and optimizing to LTV, not just last click. Oh, and we track profit like a hawk! Top-performing Amazon programs are integrated, not siloed. They align retail readiness, media, creative, and data into one feedback loop that compounds over time. If you're rethinking how Amazon fits into your broader marketing strategy, I'm happy to have a conversation. If you know me, then you know - no pitch, just perspective.

The first thing I’d fix in any marketing plan? It’s not what you think. I see brands jump to tactics. More ads. New funnels. Flashy creatives. But none of that matters if you miss the real problem. Here’s what I’ve learned after 15+ years in growth marketing: Hope isn’t a strategy. Marketing isn’t about doing more. It’s about doing it right. Every high-growth campaign I’ve led-startup or scale-up-started here: → Find the core problem your customer faces. Not your product. Not the latest trend. Not what you *wish* the problem was. The REAL pain. The one that keeps them up at night. How do you do this? I use the same 3 steps every time: 1. Conduct deep research • Ask real customers about their biggest headaches • Look at data and analytics (what are they struggling with?) • Listen more than you speak 2. Align your message with their problem • Speak their language (not your jargon) • Show you understand what hurts • Position your offer as the fix 3. Iterate with feedback • Test your message in the wild • Watch what gets a reaction (good or bad) • Adjust fast-market needs change all the time When you focus your marketing on the problem, you do more than sell. You build trust. You make people feel seen. Remember: - Problem-first beats solution-first every time. - You can’t fix what you don’t understand. - Hope is not a strategy. What’s one problem your audience faces that you need to dig deeper on? #MarketingStrategy #GrowthMarketing #LeadGeneration #DigitalStrategy #ProblemFirst

How I Align Strategy with Vision to Achieve Exponential Growth In a world where disruption is the norm, vision without strategy is wishful thinking—and strategy without vision is just busywork. Over the years, I’ve helped financial services, FinTech, and mid-sized companies unlock exponential growth by tightly aligning long-term vision with executional strategy. Here's how I consistently turn bold ideas into measurable business impact: 1.) Craft a Vision That Inspires Action A vision isn’t a corporate tagline—it’s a vivid, motivating picture of the future. It must resonate with internal teams and customers alike. I always ask: Does this vision excite, focus, and direct decisions? If not, we refine it until it does. 2.) Build a Strategy That Bridges the Gap Turning vision into reality requires a strategic roadmap: --Clear objectives tied to business outcomes --Prioritized initiatives that drive momentum --KPIs that align cross-functional teams Results follow when every team knows how their work ladders up to the big picture. 3.) Operationalize for Scale Sustainable growth comes from systems, not scattered wins. I design growth engines using: --Omni-channel demand gen --Smart segmentation & personalization --AI-driven marketing automation These systems allow companies to scale efficiently, without sacrificing agility. 4.) Inspire Teams with Purpose People perform better when they believe in the “why.” I connect the vision to each role, creating a culture of ownership and high performance. Purpose drives performance, and performance drives results. 5.) Iterate Relentlessly Markets shift. Customers evolve. That’s why I build feedback loops and foster a test-and-learn culture. Strategy isn’t static—it’s living, breathing, and always improving. Bottom line: When strategy and vision are aligned, marketing stops being a cost center and starts driving exponential, repeatable growth. If your business is at a critical inflection point or seeking scalable momentum, I’d love to connect. Let’s talk growth, strategy, and what’s possible when vision leads the way. #GrowthStrategy #VisionToExecution #FinTechMarketing #StrategicLeadership #CMOInsights #ExponentialGrowth

The hardest part of my job isn't building the marketing engine—it's getting leadership to invest in the foundation that makes it all work. I've been in situations where I've walked into leadership meetings with declining pipeline numbers, pointing to brand awareness gaps as the culprit. The response? "Show me the direct ROI on that brand spend." Here's what I've learned after rebuilding marketing orgs at 6 different companies: Performance metrics don't exist in a vacuum. When I joined Anomalo, organic traffic was stagnant and non-branded keyword traffic was at 1%. Instead of just pushing more performance ads, I took a step back. What was happening in our category? How visible were we compared to competitors in the data quality space? Were prospects even aware we existed when they had a problem to solve? The breakthrough came when I started layering external market context onto our internal metrics. Competitor analysis showed we were invisible in conversations where we should have been leading. Keyword research revealed prospects were searching for solutions using terms we weren't even ranking for. Within 8 months, we grew non-branded traffic from 1% to 23% and drove 68% growth in organic traffic overall. But here's the kicker—this foundation is what enabled our performance campaigns to work. You can't optimize conversion rates if people don't know you exist. The most impactful insight I get isn't always from our attribution tools. It's from our sales team saying "prospects are mentioning competitors more often" or "deals are taking longer because we're not in the initial consideration set." By the time those signals reach sales, you're already months behind. Marketing's job is to have eyes on the market before problems become pipeline issues. The lesson? Performance marketing accelerates demand, but brand marketing creates it. You need both engines running, and you need the data to prove why both matter. #MarketingStrategy #BrandMarketing #B2BMarketing #GrowthMarketing

Want to know the secret growth strategy that built Glossier, Warby Parker, and Away into billion-dollar brands? Everyone's chasing viral TikTok moments and influencer collabs, but the most successful DTC brands are quietly doing something completely different. It's called Customer Value Optimization (CVO), and after consulting with hundreds of brands, I can tell you: it's the most reliable path to sustainable growth. Here's the simple 2-step framework that's working right now: 1. Identify your most valuable customers (the ones who buy more, return less, and spread the word) 2. Align EVERYTHING - your products, marketing, and service - to attract more of these dream customers Look at how the top DTC brands do it: • Glossier turned beauty blog readers into super-fans who buy every launch. Their "Into The Gloss" community members spend 40% more per year than regular customers. • Away found that customers who bought their smaller "Carry-On" first were 3x more likely to return for bigger purchases. They made it their hero product. • Warby Parker discovered their highest-value customers came through their "Home Try-On" program. They doubled down on it, even though it cost more upfront. Real talk: I watched a skincare brand waste $500K on Instagram ads targeting everyone... when their data showed their best customers all came from dermatologist referrals. Don't make that mistake. The magic of CVO? Every dollar you spend doesn't just retain great customers - it helps you acquire more of them. This isn't about quick wins. It's about building a sustainable growth engine. 👇 What's your "hero product" that turns first-time buyers into loyal customers? Share below - I'd love to hear your examples. #DTCBrands #CustomerStrategy #BusinessGrowth #Marketing #CustomerValue

🧃 When JUICE first launched in 2017, it felt like we’d struck gold. The demand for digital marketing was booming, and it felt like every dollar we spent brought in high RoAS and significant growth. It was a marketer’s dream. But as time passed and CPMs went up, we faced a new challenge: sustaining growth as client ad spend crossed six and seven figures per month. Looking at the metric we once celebrated in isolation—RoAS—started to show its limitations. Over the past 7 years, we've helped companies of all sizes scale and navigate the complexities of digital marketing. One recurring lesson stands out: focusing solely on campaign RoAS is a double-edged sword. 💡 The RoAS Mirage RoAS is seductive. CFO's love it! A high return on ad spend sounds impressive and looks great on reports. But here’s the hard truth: focusing solely on RoAS can be misleading. It’s a metric that’s easy to inflate without necessarily driving real growth. 🔍 The Real Impact of a RoAS-Only Strategy When agencies and execs fixate *only* on RoAS, they often fall into three traps: 1️⃣ Short-term Wins, Long-term Ceiling: Prioritizing high RoAS campaigns like retargeting and brand keywords only engages a relatively smaller audience you've already warmed up. It’s efficient, but it doesn't expand your customer base and will lead to an audience being burnt out. Eventually, this means your RoAS will tank and your scale will stall. 2️⃣ Discount Addiction: Heavy discount campaigns can boost ROAS quickly, but they train customers to wait for sales, lowering the overall customer lifetime value (LTV). 3️⃣ Neglecting Incremental Growth: By focusing on what’s easy, like high ROAS tactics, we miss opportunities to invest in strategies that drive new, top-of-funnel demand and sustainable growth. 🌟 Evolving Beyond RoAS At JUICE, we believe in a balanced approach. Here’s what we recommend: - Measure Incremental Impact: Look beyond ROAS. Focus on metrics that measure incremental growth, such as new customer acquisition cost (CAC) and customer lifetime value (LTV). - Invest in Demand Generation: Don’t just tap into existing demand. Create new demand through creative campaigns, compelling content, and targeted outreach. - Prioritize Quality Over Quantity: It’s not just about acquiring new customers, but acquiring the right customers. Focus on strategies that attract high-value customers who will stay loyal without waiting for discounts (e.g. no get your first one free offers without payment). Efficiency metrics like RoAS are important, but they shouldn't be the only metrics guiding your strategy. Balancing efficiency with effectiveness is crucial for long-term, sustainable growth. At JUICE, we’re committed to helping our clients navigate these complexities, ensuring that every dollar spent not only looks good on a report but also drives meaningful, sustainable growth.

The catalyst for growth isn't the new tech stack (2024 more than ever), a shiny media buy, or even keyword expansion. Growth is catalyzed by a laser-focused ICP, a seamless user journey, refined messaging, and consistent engagement with an audience in an organic manner. When marketers force growth, it's often because: →We execute poor marketing strategies →We overcomplicate brand messaging →We stifle feature development and releases →We create copy for the board instead of the prospect →We measure success in volume rather than quality →We analyze TOFU versus pipeline sources For each client, I focus on 3 analysis pillars: 𝟭. 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝗶𝘀 𝘖𝘣𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦: 𝘛𝘰 𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴. 𝘈𝘯𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨: → What are the baseline business details: ACV, ARR, and the sales cycle? → Which sources drive pipeline and revenue? → Which industries contribute to pipeline and revenue? → What industries are consistently lost, and why? 𝟮. 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲/𝗖𝗥𝗢 (𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗢𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻) 𝘖𝘣𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦: 𝘛𝘰 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘨𝘢𝘱𝘴. 𝘈𝘯𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨: → Map the current user journey on the website → Evaluate speed from lead to demo and first activity from SDR/BDR → Analyze the value brought by the Thank You page. → Measure the value yielded by follow-up emails. 𝟯. 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝘖𝘣𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦: 𝘛𝘰 𝘪𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘵𝘩𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘬𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴. 𝘈𝘯𝘴𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨: → Listen to 3-5 sales calls with lost and won opps (by priority industries) → Group sentiments and questions into themes →Identify if issues are related to pricing, features, or poor selling → Map themes to existing content: What's lacking? What's strong? Understanding these pillars sets you up for future success and the right data to influence change. I've personally executed this framework with 15 SaaS clients and consulted 35 to date setting the stage for comprehensive optimizations from the ground up. It's a long marathon, but when fueled correctly, it feels less painful. #demandgen #growthmarketing #b2b #saas

Many agencies are stuck in a cycle of client churn and misaligned execution. Why? Because they jump straight to tactics without building a strong strategic foundation. The Marketing Strategy Pyramid by Duct Tape Marketing is the framework that changes everything. Instead of chasing short-term wins, it connects business goals to brand identity, marketing systems, customer experience, and internal team alignment. It's how you build a growth engine that's sustainable, scalable, and built to last. At its base, the pyramid starts with Business Strategy, focusing on clarity around revenue goals, vision, and positioning. Building upon this foundation, the next layer is Brand Strategy, where you identify your ideal clients and craft messaging that resonates with their needs. The Growth Strategy layer involves implementing scalable marketing systems to attract and convert the right leads. Following this, the Customer Strategy focuses on retaining clients through exceptional post-sale experiences, strategic upsells, and referrals. At the top, Team Strategy ensures your internal team is aligned to consistently deliver on your brand promise. When all five levels of the pyramid work in harmony, you're not just executing isolated marketing tactics; you’re building a high-performing growth engine designed for long-term success.

When we launched Marketo in 2008, we made marketing measurable. In 2025, we need to make it meaningful! Our goal at Marketo was noble: help marketing earn that elusive "seat at the revenue table" by connecting marketing activities to business outcomes. And it worked; MQLs became the standard way to judge marketing everywhere. But somewhere along the way, something vital got lost. MQLs became more than a metric — they became a mindset. One that reduced marketing's role from market leadership to lead generation. From strategic impact to tactical execution. From meaningful relationships to mechanical processes. The consequences: ❌ Marketing wastes budget on tactics that drive MQLs but not revenue ❌ Sales teams ignore "qualified" leads that don’t represent true buying intent ❌ Customer relationships suffer from aggressive campaign follow-up ❌ Pipeline becomes less predictable as quantity trumps quality ❌ CMO tenures shrink as strategic impact remains unclear ❌ Market understanding dulls as we focus on leads over accounts MAKING MARKETING MEANINGFUL Marketing leaders face a choice: continue optimizing for short-term metrics, or redefine marketing as a strategic force that drives sustainable growth. Real impact comes from the fundamentals we've come to neglect: deep market understanding, strong brand and reputation, genuine customer relationships, unique experiences, and creative impact. These aren’t new ideas, but we’ve lost them in the relentless pursuit of the holy MQL. And these foundational elements don't just drive long-term revenue — they make our short-term campaigns more effective too. When target accounts know who we are, understand our value, and trust our expertise, every marketing (and sales) touch resonates better. Meaningful marketing means: ✅ Investing in long-term brand and reputation ✅ Shaping markets rather than serving them ✅ Building relationships that transcend transactions ✅ Creating experiences worth remembering ✅ Developing market insights that guide company strategy ✅ Earning trust through consistent value delivery NEW METRICS FOR A NEW ERA I’m not saying marketing shouldn't be measurable — no CFO or board would trust us with millions in discretionary budget without accountability. But the way we measure marketing needs to tie to our meaningful impact.   ★ How do the people and accounts we care about think and feel about us?  ★ Do they know who we are?  Do they engage with us?   ★ How do our marketing efforts help sales close deals more efficiently? (Way better than wasting energy trying to assign credit to marketing vs sales!) We earned our seat at the revenue table. Now we must use that position to elevate marketing's strategic impact — delivering measurable results while building the brand strength, market understanding, and customer relationships that drive lasting success. PS: recipe for the BuzzFree cocktail in the comments! #B2BMarketing #MarketingStrategy #RevenueMarketing #MarketingOnTheRocks

I talk to 7–10 marketing leaders every week Most of them are under pressure to drive more growth with less budget Here’s what I’m hearing on repeat: “We need to 2-3X growth, but we don’t know where to invest for the best ROI.” “We’re spending on paid media, but can’t prove it’s working.” “Leadership wants more ‘leads,’ so we’re stuck chasing short-term wins.” “Search works. LinkedIn doesn’t. We’re stuck.” “We believe in demand gen, but we also have to hit this quarter’s goals.” What’s really happening? Most teams are trying to scale demand without a brand foundation and without a plan for expansion The fix isn’t just better ads It’s a fully integrated growth strategy: Brand → Demand → Expand Here’s the roadmap: Phase 1: Embrace Reality → Brand: Audit perception. Understand where trust is strong or missing. → Demand: Run a Revenue Performance Assessment. Kill wasted spend. → Expand: Identify missed opportunities in your existing customer base. Phase 2: Make the Change → Brand: Launch consistent organic + paid programs to build awareness and trust. → Demand: Tighten measurement. Improve conversion. Align with sales. → Expand: Partner with CS to identify and support account growth opportunities. Phase 3: Stack Growth → Brand: Scale what’s working across channels. Grow share of voice. → Demand: Optimize performance engines. Add new capture levers. → Expand: Turn customers into advocates. Increase retention and expansion. This is how you build a sustainable GTM engine