From startup to Series A and beyond, how you build your growth engine evolves as your company matures. In this presentation, we look at the critical things to consider before you try a single tactics and frameworks for defining objectives, your funnel and positioning.

1. Hana Abaza,
Head of Marketing, Shopify Plus
@hanaabaza
BUILDING A GROWTH
ENGINE

2. 3 Phases of Evolution

7. Where are you now?
Wizard of Oz Scooby Doo Oceans 11

8. Marketing
Product
Sales &
CS Teams
Lots of moving
parts…

9. Where you focus depends on your
model, market and strengths.
Where do you begin?

10. We’ll begin at the
beginning.

12. These people self-educate.
Historical search terms?

13. Content, tactics and channels
change. Need case studies, proof,
validation.

14. The “Chasm”

15. What kind of growth
are we talking about?

16. New category? Think
demand generation.

18. Established industry?
Prove you’re better.

20. Positioning, growth strategy
and teams must be aligned.

21. POSITIONING

22. April Dunford
CEO, Sprintly
Marketing is about making it easy for people to
find, evaluate and buy your products.
Positioning is figuring out what your product is
in the first place.
“

23. Marketing can polish a turd.
Positioning can turn turds into
fertilizer.
“
April Dunford
CEO, Sprintly

24. Who is your buyer/
user/influencer?

25. How do they think
about your product?

26. CONTEXT…

27. IS EVERYTHING

28. What’s the context
that frames you?
Price, customers, competition,
brand, channels, message

29. What language do
people use?
How do customers explain your
product? What would they search?

30. WHAT IS IT?
Plain language.
No jargon.
WHO IS IT FOR?
Be as specific as possible.
WHAT CATEGORY?
New vs. established.
Frame of reference.
HOW ARE YOU
DIFFERENT?
Be honest.
WHY SHOULD I CARE?
What’s in it for me?
Benefits and value.
ALTERNATIVES?
Status Quo, Competitors,
Frenemies

31. It will (and should)
change over time.

32. 2010

33. 2017

34. GROWTH

35. How does it change?

36. Driving Growth
Sell Sell Sell Demand/Marketing + Sell *Brand/Growth + Sell

37. These aren't hard and
fast rules.

38. It depends. (Annoying,
I know.)

39. DISCOVERABILITY TRY-ABILITY VALUE? COMMIT?
SEO/Content
Events/WOM
Product Driven
Partners
Social Media
Influencer Marketing
Paid Channels
Free Trial
Paid Trial
Demo
How hard is it to try?
Friction?
Product
Experience
Expectations
Have they gotten
value in some way?
Enough value to
pay you?
WILL THEY STAY?
Churn is an outcome. It’s an indication of things going right/wrong in the above areas.

40. DISCOVERABILITY TRY-ABILITY VALUE? COMMIT?
Channel <> Market Fit
Message <> Market Fit
Channel <> Message Fit
Reduce Friction/
Improve Experience
Meet/Exceed
Expectations
If no, why?
WILL THEY STAY?
Data, data, data.

41. How do you
operationalize it?

42. Define your funnel.

43. Funnel Evolution
Lead
Customer

44. Lead
Customer
Lead
Qualified Lead
Customer
Funnel Evolution

45. Lead
Customer
Lead
Qualified Lead
Customer
Lead
Marketing Qualified Lead
Sales Accepted Lead
Sales Qualified Lead
Customer
Funnel Evolution

46. Customer
Lead Management
Lead Nurture, Scoring, Data Enrichment,
Lead Recycling
Product Mktg/Sales Enablement
Value & Messaging, Product
Positioning, Collateral
Sales Qualified
Leads
Sales Accepted Leads
Marketing Qualified Leads
Leads
Campaigns & Programs
Promotions (magento campaign), Paid Ads,
Social Media, Content Marketing, SEO, Email
Customer Marketing

47. Building Systems
OBJECTIVE
These are goals, not metrics (metrics are just a way to keep score)
LEVERS
What levers can you pull to get there? (I.e. increase conversion by X%)
STRATEGIES & TACTICS
What’s the approach? Specifically, how will you execute (tactics).
DEPENDENCIES / EFFORT
Is the execution dependent on others? How much effort is needed?
PRIORITIZE
Weigh the potential impact with the effort it will take.

48. TEAMS & FUNCTIONS

49. Product Marketing
Growth (general)
Product Marketing
Growth (focused)
Data/analysis
Writers/Content
Product Marketing
SEO/Content Marketing
Paid Channels
Data Analysts
Content/Copywriting
Brand & Comms
Functions (not people)

50. These aren't hard and
fast rules.

51. It depends. (Annoying,
I know.)

52. So what exactly is
product marketing?

54. “Product marketing, at its heart, is about understanding what
you’re building, why you invested in it, and how it will benefit the
user — and then messaging that understanding to your customer.”
- Joanna Lord, CMO of Classpass

55. Huh?

56. Product
Eng/Dev
Marketing
Customer-facing
teams

57. Product
Eng/Dev
Marketing
Customer-facing
teams
That’s Product
Marketing

58. How and when to invest
in product marketing.

59. First Round Capital

60. Oh Shit! Moments
(a.k.a. signs it’s time to hire a product marketer)

61. The problem with marketing…

62. Marketing is everything and
everything is marketing.

63. - David Packard, Co-founder of Hewlett-Packard
“Marketing is too important to be
left to the marketing department.”