Speed.

SPEED in start-ups and scale-ups is crucial. The name of the game in SaaS is growth. In these times it’s about cost-effective revenue growth. You have to do it efficiently. Especially as you need to:

• Ability to invest in the product profitability

• Ability to Raise/Hire

• Attract the best talent

The thing is, scaling is hard work, no doubt about it. What makes it hard is that everyone is blending in with one another in a market where only 3% are ready to buy right now.

Focus on impactful actions that directly contribute to your goals and execute them swiftly. Embracing speed empowers you to experiment rapidly—launch campaigns, explore marketing channels, test different messages, and iterate on creatives.

Swift decision-making not only accelerates your journey to success but also brings you closer to valuable insights. Whether the result is a success or a learning opportunity, quick experimentation positions you to seize significant opportunities.

You need to stand out

For a marketer, there is nothing worse than indifference. People need to escape making marketing 100x harder than it should be by NOT being the same as everyone else. The goal of marketing is to cut through the noise and attract potential customers.

Every software category is just insanely competitive now. Software is cheaper than ever to make and GTM is more expensive than ever to execute.

In a sea of software solutions, standing out is not just a challenge; it's a necessity.

Consider marketing tools - Selling a landing page builder doesn't merely place you in a sea of a few competitors; rather, it immerses you in a crowded pool fighting for the attention of buyers. To separate yourself, the key lies not only in outperforming others at the same game but in rewriting the rules

Don't rely on the tactics that thousands are already employing. Approach the market with a fresh perspective and identify what unique value you can bring to the table. Whether it's in your offer, your positioning, or the creativity you use, the differentiation factor is key.

It's not just about being a landing page builder; it's about being the solution that captures attention, solves problems uniquely, and leaves a lasting impression.

Marketing Jenga with countless tactics

You need to not just stand out but execute effectively. The list above is not a marketing strategy but just a list of tactics where companies try to get this running all at once. When you couple that with all the marketing channels out there 👇

People can’t get any results out of any of it because they’re not dedicating enough time to make effective use of the channels and spreading themselves too thin.

It would be best if you had focus and speed as this will be your unfair advantage. You need to identify where you think there is the best opportunity for growth.

Look at what you’re competitors and do the complete opposite of the herd or keep an eye on what they are doing, see where they are getting a lot of their growth, talk to people in your industry/space and try to understand what the playbooks are.

It varies depending on who you are going after, so hone in on the channels that you’re most comfortable about.

Pathways to drive sustainable Growth

Understanding the dynamics of growth involves a strategic approach across various avenues:

Building Your Brand (Owned):

Create and manage content that carries your brand across various digital platforms—blogs, podcasts, websites, communities, and social media channels.

• Advantages: Establishing a strong brand and organic traffic can significantly offset marketing costs.

• Drawbacks: Requires time, consistent effort, and patience to build and maintain.

Getting Noticed (Earned):

Focus on gaining exposure through external sources and collaborations—PR, content partnerships, webinars, and podcast appearances.

• Benefits: Cost-effective with minimal investment. Being featured by reputable sources enhances your brand's credibility and authority. Leveraging someone else’s audience. 

• Challenges: Time-consuming; building relationships and securing opportunities can take time. Not your audience.

Accelerating with Ads (Paid):

Invest in advertising, such as Search Ads and social ads (Linkedin, X, Meta, Reddit). 

• Advantages: Yields direct, measurable results. Scalable to match your budget and goals.

• Drawbacks: Results stop when spending stops, making it financially intensive. Testing for effective channels can be a costly trial-and-error process.

Growth on Autopilot (Growth Loops):

Leverage existing traffic and customer base to fuel further growth—referrals, new subscriber sign-up flows, and content sharing.

• Merits: Maximise resources by extracting more value from your existing audience, reducing the need for continuous customer acquisition. Can sustain growth without exhausting your budget.

• Considerations: Takes time to figure out; implementation may have a learning curve, and fine-tuning for optimal results is a gradual process.

Doing this as quickly as possible.

The best way to approach this is to start doing bets on the channels you’re most comfortable with.

Choose around 8 channels and do one at a time. Gain momentum, and understand the playbook and the ins and outs before moving on to the next.

Slowly in time, you will have all 8 working for you. The quicker you figure them out, the quicker you can move to the next channel.

What works well is having the team run in sprints
(it can be weeks or months, it doesn’t matter) 👇

The focus is figuring out the channel and moving it to the stable category where you can continue to run and start tackling the next one.

The quicker you get through the learnings, the failures etc. the quicker you can find the channels that are producing results and move on to the next.

Remember, most of your marketing will fail. Here's a simplified guide to enhancing your marketing strategy:

• Channel mastery: Identify and conquer one marketing channel at a time. Gradually shift it from uncertainty to stability before moving on to the next. This allows you to build a strong foundation.

• Accelerated learning curve: Embracing failures as stepping stones. Understand that each setback provides valuable insights. The faster you absorb these lessons, the quicker you can pinpoint the channels that truly deliver results.

• Expect mishaps: Acknowledge that a significant portion of your marketing efforts may not yield the desired outcome. Rather than viewing this as a setback, consider it an integral part of your learning journey.

• Fail forward, fail cheap: Minimise the impact of failures by adopting a fail-fast, fail-cheap mindset. Conduct controlled experiments on a smaller scale to mitigate risks.  Leverage data to pivot swiftly when necessary. Failure doesn't have to be expensive if managed promptly and at an appropriate scale.

• Embrace failure as learning:  Each stumble provides crucial data points that move you closer to understanding what genuinely works.

• Data-driven pivots: Regularly assess performance metrics and be prepared to pivot based on insights. Allowing for constant refinement without committing significant resources upfront.
  Idea backlog: Maintain a pipeline of ideas and prioritise them based on potential impact and be ready to adapt and experiment with unconventional concepts. Ensuring a continuous flow of innovative strategies to keep your marketing efforts fresh and effective.

Be fearless:

Focus on reaching goals with courage and embrace new opportunities without fear. Adopt a mindset that sees failure as a normal aspect of moving quickly. Failures are stepping stones guiding you to faster victories, transforming setbacks into chances for growth.

Summary

Monthly revenue targets are BS as you can never fully control any outcome, you can control your effort. Short-term goal = short-term thinking. Focus on inputs.  Give 100% at all times.

Whatever happens, happens.

Give your all to grow the company's revenue, do whatever it takes. That’s how you make people buy into you.

Speed is vital for cost-effective growth. The challenge lies in standing out in a highly competitive market where only a small percentage is ready to buy.

Approach this in 3 ways: Owned (Branded), Earned, and Paid, along with Growth Loops. The key is to experiment with different channels, quickly learn from failures, and embrace them as valuable lessons.

The strategy involves focusing on around eight channels, tackling them one by one, and moving on to the next after gaining momentum.

The advice is to run in sprints, understand each channel, optimize, and iterate for success. You also need to accept the fact that most marketing efforts will fail, emphasising the importance of failure as a learning tool, limiting its impact through quick experiments, and maintaining a diverse idea pipeline for ongoing innovation.