As startups are pushing for more and more growth, they often encounter a unique set of marketing challenges that can either be stumbling blocks or stepping stones. In this article, I’ll first walk you through four structural growth barriers that frequently emerge during the Series A phase and in the second part I’ll explain why these are problematic and give some pointers on how to overcome them for sustained success.
- The Home Market Comfort Zone: the launch market works really well and it is responsible for >80% of the overall revenue
- The One-Channel Wonder: One acquisition platform does all the heavy lifting, this is mostly a performance channel such as Paid Search or Paid Social
- Brand basics only: There is a brand (and often it is implicitly strong) but it lacks a proper manifestation and key aspects of good brand management are neglected (e.g. design or tonality)
- A Motley Crew of marketeers: The marketing team has grown organically from a group of very talented ‘growth hackers’ but is not structured according to a strategy
So far so good. Generally, this is totally fine for the GTM phase but as a company approaches new ambitious revenue targets and potentially a next funding event – these traits quickly become bottlenecks and need to be addressed to unlock the next level of growth.
Eliminating growing pains
To achieve the next level it is critically important that a) there is awareness in the leadership team for the need to change and b) to be prepared to invest into making the changes.
And here is why it matters and some thought-starters on how to get these 4 points right:
International expansion – Escaping The Home Market Dilemma
In almost all cases the business plans calls for a significant share of international revenue, yet we realize (often painfully) that an one-size-fits-all marketing playbook approach does not work. Founders and marketing teams have gained a fundamental and very thorough understanding of their target audience and for what performs in the years since launch. Now, they are confronted with an audience that has very different needs – and in many cases also category knowledge. What worked in the home market suddenly doesn’t work that well any more in the new market(s). This is when it becomes crucial to start working with tools that in the past didn’t need to be used, such as qualitative and quantitative research, different messaging structures and conversion funnels to really understand the new market in depth.
Diversification of acquisition channels – Leaving the Comfort Zone
The one channel that efficiently brings new customers to the business is maxed out – and more often than not, this channel is Paid Search. Performance on paid search is driven by the amount of searches for a topic and the ability to convert the traffic bought. Typically, there is not much room to grow as the wider (and thus less relevant) the keywords become the more expensive acquisition gets since CVRs are decreasing. With that, new channels are needed. Yet, they normally work very different from the existing core channel and require an entirely new setup as they may need different funnels, may sit much higher in the path to purchase and they most certainly require a different approach to creative and measurement. Get ready to (almost) start again.
Brand manifestation – From Logo to Legacy
Of course almost all companies that made it that far have defined the rudimentary foundations of a brand: there is a logo, a font, a color palette and a vision and mission statement. But often this is it and the founders or one of the very early employees act as the ‘brand manager’ and most knowledge exists in their heads. Yet, as the company gets bigger and more and more people and external partners are working with the brand, it becomes incredibly important to have a professional brand toolkit – which btw is also an invaluable item to have for the onboarding of new employees as they need to understand (and be convinced of) the brand. What is needed now is some ground work, not to reinvent the brand but much more to distill the already existing elements, refine and sharpen them, fill the gaps and put it all in really solid, workable and inspiring structure.
Marketing team – Building an organization for impact
Undoubtedly, the best teams are designed around a mission and a strategy and the objectives to be delivered upon within this strategy. But the reality in most start-ups is different. Typically, everybody in the marketing team does a little bit of everything and while some really good expertise has been built (especially around the main channel, see above) there is a lack of a professional setup of experts that are able to deliver a more complex strategy. This is when it becomes crucial to very clearly set your marketing strategy and build the team around it, ideally keeping your rockstars and helping them to grow by complimenting them with ‘A players’ that bring in outside domain expertise.
🚀 Level up 🚀
By correctly addressing these 4 points every company will be able to put themselves in a top position (from a marketing POV) to unleash their next level of growth.
If you feel that you are limited by these 4 areas and you could need help with tackling this – let’s connect and talk. I have worked with many startups and founders over the years on exactly these topics and I am more than happy to explore solutions together with you.
Last but not least, I hope this article was helpful and would love to hear what you think in the comments. Feedback is always appreciated. Thank you 🙌!
This article was originally published on Linkedin on August 11th, 2023.