The document presents the results of a 2016 survey of Chicago's top startup marketing leaders, covering various aspects such as experience, team size, budgets, and acquisition channels. Key findings indicate average team headcounts of 7, with budgets primarily under $500k, and that SEM/SEO are the leading acquisition channels. The report highlights challenges faced by marketers, including lead generation and resource constraints, as well as questions they have for their peers regarding strategic planning and team structure.

1. Chicago Startup Marketing
Leader Survey Results, 2016
Elan Mosbacher
VP of Marketing @ SpotHero
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2. Agenda
• Introduction
• Executive Summary
• Survey Results
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3. Introduction
• Surveyed 10 of Chicago’s top startup marketing leaders
• Aggregated and anonymized results
• Summarized results in this deck
• Goal is to provide visibility on how different team operate
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4. Executive Summary
• Experience: BS in Finance/Econ, MBA, ~8 years of work, in role for 2 years
• Title: VP of Marketing is most common marketing leader title
• Startup Stage: Series A or Series B with $18M in funding
• Team Size: Headcount is 15% of company total, with average of 7
• Direct Reports: Average is 3-4 direct reports, only one instance more than 5
• Budget: Most spending <$500K but some spend over $5M annually
• Acquisition channels: Search (SEM/SEO) is primary for most companies
• KPIs: Vary by business model, but go as far down the funnel as possible
• Team Meetings: Most teams meet weekly, while some do daily standups
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Summary of findings around startup marketing leaders & their teams:

5. SURVEY RESULTS
Topics: Experience, education, team size, org charts, budgets, KPIs, acquisition
channels, meetings, challenges, questions, hiring.
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6. Years of experience; overall & current role
• Experience in Marketing
– Average is 8
– Ranges from 4 to 15 years
• Months at Current Startup
– Average = 22 months as leader of marketing team
– Min = 5 Months
– Max = 66 months
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7. Educational background
• Undergrad Majors (100%)
– Finance/Econ (30%)
– Advertising/Marketing
(20%)
– Communication (20%)
– Journalism (10%)
– Psychology (10%)
– Business (10%)
• Graduate Degrees (50%)
– None (50%)
– Marketing (30%)
– MBA (20%)
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8. Marketing team size
• Marketing teams average 15% of headcounts
– Range from 6% to 24%
• Teams ranged from 2 to 26 people, with a median team size of 7
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9. Sample of marketing org charts
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10. Marketing Team Org Chart – 2 people
CEO
Marketing
Manager
Director of
Content
• Seed Stage
• eCommerce
• Marketing 13% of headcount
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11. Marketing Team Org Chart – 4 people
Director of
Marketing
Demand
Generation
(SEO / SEM)
Content
PR
• Series B
• Marketplace
• 6% of headcount
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12. Marketing Team Org Chart – 4 people
VP of Marketing
Director of
Communications
Content
Manager
Inbound
Specialist
• Series B
• Enterprise SaaS
• 11% of headcount
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13. Marketing Team Org Chart – 7 People
VP of Marketing
Head of
Communications
Head of Content
Event Marketing
Manager
Performance
Marketing
Manager
Media
Production
Manager
Visual Designer
• Series A
• B2B SaaS
• 24% of headcount
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14. Marketing Team Org Chart – 10 People
CMO
VP of
Marketing
Content
Marketing (3x)
Community
Manager
Designer
Product
Marketing
Growth
Marketing
Regional
Marketing
Lead
• Series A
• Consumer SaaS
• 12% of headcount
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15. Marketing Team Org Chart – 17 People
VP of
Marketing
Digital
Director
SEM
SEO
Content
Paid
Brand
Director
Designer
B2B
Brand
Strategist
PR
Analytics
Manager
Analyst
Partnerships
Lead
Partnerships
(3x)
• Series B
• Marketplace
• 14% of headcount
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16. Marketing Team Org Chart – 22 People
CMO
VP of Demand
Generation
SEO (3x)
Paid (3x)
Lead Gen
Analytics
VP of Marketing
Customer
Marketing
PR
Communication
Events (2x)
Social (2x)
Director of Email
Email Marketing
(3x)
• Series C
• B2B SaaS
• 12% of headcount
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17. Budgets, KPIs and Customer Acquisition
Channels
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18. 2016 marketing budget
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19. Marketing KPIs
What KPIs is marketing responsible for?
Lead Volume, MQL's (# & %), CPL, CAC, Product Adoption/Renewals (shared)
Sessions, leads, CPL, CPA
Signups, MQLs
Top of Funnel, Middle of Funnel
Leads & revenue
Primary: Lead volume, velocity, cost and quality. Secondary KPIs influence that primary ones include web traffic &
engagement, web traffic, media mentions, backlinks, social media reach and engagement
Leads generated (Enterprise focus = 100 locations +)
Impressions, CTR, engagement metrics, duration
Customer acquisition
New users, repeat users, LTV/CAC/Payback
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20. What are your top 3 acquisition channels?
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24%
20%
8%8%
4%
4%
4%
4%
4%
4%
4%
4%
4%4%
Top Acquisition Channels
SEM
SEO
Word of Mouth
Partnerships
Social
Referral
PR
Outbound Sales
Other
Facebook
Email
Direct Traffic
Content Marketing

21. Team meeting frequency
• 50% of marketing teams meet 1x per week
• 25% of team do a daily standup
• 25% of teams have a different routine, such as meeting monthly or meeting 1x as a
big marketing team and 1x/week as sub-teams
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22. Biggest challenges
What is your biggest marketing challenge right now?
Generating enough leads to grow the inside sales team
Attaching the entire customer lifecycle rather than just one stage
Convincing our CEO to hire more product marketers
Resource constraints
Segmentation
Moving upstream - the prospect/customer needs, marketing messages and channels and sales process are entirely different
We have to aggressively test and build a new marketing program while continuing to deliver results for our downstream business
Finding the perfect brand positioning statement to build brand messaging that will in turn bring the qualified leads we are working to
obtain
Educating the market why they need us
Consistently hitting CPA goals
How to grow faster
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23. Biggest question for other marketers
What is your biggest question for other marketing leaders?
What do your communications look like for your boss?
How they unlock new growth channels.
Would love to see/hear how others structure their marketing/creative teams and how they work together.
Compensation data- where do you get it? how do i know if im fairly compensated?
What funnel measurements do you track and how to you measure them?
How much time is your team dedicating to finding new channels vs optimizing existing channels?
How do you motivate your team?
At what point did it occur within your company that planning was a core component? Currently, we are moving quickly back and forth between target
audience focus and many things are not structured out in a way that months are outlined and drive results for the one overarching goal.
Do you feel that as a B2B company that it is okay to have a hard focus on enterprise influence (more serious, focused, business minded) as well as a fun side
(more B2C kind of fun, i.e. - creative, out-side-of-the-box) or do you think the fun element takes away from the credible serious tone that is B2B?
When innovating an industry, how have you both educated and sold services?
Most successful acquisition channels and tactics
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24. Hardest role to hire for right now
What is the one role that is hardest to recruit for?
paid user acquisition
Data/Analytics -- analytical chops plus understanding of business goals to provide relevant recommendations, actions.
Designer w/ marketing skills
content marketing manager with horizontal skillset
Growth Ops
Content leadership
Graphic design/video production manager
VP of Sales
Brand strategists.
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25. Questions?
Elan Mosbacher
VP of Marketing @ SpotHero
elan@spothero.com
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