Marketing strategy skill

Marketing Strategy

Overview

Marketing strategy is the allocation of scarce resources across channels to maximize pipeline and revenue. Not "what should we post?" — "given our ICP, budget, and stage, where does every dollar and hour go?"

This skill builds a complete marketing operating plan: channel mix, budget allocation by funnel stage, content strategy, demand generation, brand building, and measurement. The output is a strategy document, not a list of tactics.

Authoritative Foundations

• Eugene Schwartz — Breakthrough Advertising — Match the message to the market's awareness level, from unaware to most aware.
• Les Binet and Peter Field — The Long and the Short of It — Balance long-term brand building with short-term activation instead of spending only on conversion.
• Byron Sharp — How Brands Grow — Grow by increasing mental and physical availability with the whole category, not only loyal buyers.
• Joe Pulizzi — Content Inc. (content tilt) — Find a content niche where you can be the leading voice before expanding.

When to Use

• "Build our marketing strategy"
• "Plan our marketing for Q1"
• "Allocate marketing budget"
• "Which channels should we invest in?"
• "Design a demand generation engine"
• "Create a marketing operating plan"
• "What should marketing own vs sales?"

Step-by-Step Process

Phase 1: Channel Mix by Stage

Stage	<$1M ARR	$1-10M ARR	$10M+ ARR
Primary	Founder-led content + outbound	Content + paid + events	Brand + multi-channel
Content	LinkedIn (founder), blog	Blog, newsletter, webinars	Editorial, video, podcast
Paid	None (too early)	LinkedIn + Google (test)	LinkedIn + Google + Meta + programmatic
Events	None	1-2 conferences/year	Owned events + major conferences
PR/Media	Podcast guesting	Trade publications	Tier 1 media + analyst relations
Partners	None	Integration partners	Full partner ecosystem

Phase 2: Budget Allocation

Marketing budget as % of ARR:

• <$1M ARR: 20-40% (investment mode, founder-led)
• $1-5M ARR: 15-25%
• $5-20M ARR: 10-20%
• $20M+ ARR: 8-15%

Allocate across channels:

Channel	Seed/<$1M	Growth/$1-10M	Scale/$10M+
Content & SEO	40%	30%	25%
Paid acquisition	0%	25%	30%
Events & field	10%	15%	20%
Brand & PR	5%	10%	15%
Product marketing	15%	10%	5%
Tools & ops	30%	10%	5%

Phase 3: Demand Generation Architecture

Top of funnel (awareness): Content marketing, paid social, PR, events. Goal: reach ICP, generate traffic and brand searches. Metric: traffic, brand search volume, social following.

Middle of funnel (consideration): Webinars, case studies, comparison pages, gated content. Goal: capture contact information, educate buyer. Metric: MQLs, email subscribers, content downloads.

Bottom of funnel (conversion): Demo requests, free trials, sales outreach. Goal: create sales-qualified opportunities. Metric: pipeline generated, opportunities created.

Post-funnel (expansion): Customer marketing, advocacy, referrals. Goal: expansion revenue and word-of-mouth. Metric: NRR, referral revenue.

Phase 4: Brand Building

Brand compounds. It's the reason someone chooses you over a cheaper competitor.

Brand assets to build:

• Distinctive point of view (not "we're the best" — "here's what we believe that others don't")
• Original research and data (your unique data is your best content)
• Customer stories (named, specific, quantified)
• Executive thought leadership (founder brand = company brand at <$10M ARR)
• Visual identity and design system (consistent across every touchpoint)

Measurement: Brand search volume, direct traffic growth, win rate on competitive deals, inbound demo request growth.

Phase 5: Marketing-Sales Handoff

Marketing generates demand. Sales converts it. The handoff is where most companies break.

MQL definition (marketing side): ICP fit confirmed + meaningful engagement (content download, webinar attendance, pricing page visit). Clear criteria, not "they seem interested."

SQL definition (sales side): MQL + explicit buying signal (demo request, trial sign-up, contact form with budget information).

SLA: MQL → first sales touch within 15 minutes (speed-to-lead is the single biggest conversion lever). Track: MQL→SQL conversion rate, SQL→ opportunity rate, marketing-sourced pipeline.

Output Format

Marketing strategy document with: channel mix by stage, budget allocation, demand generation architecture, brand building plan, content calendar (quarterly), marketing-sales SLA, and KPI dashboard.

Quality Check

• Channel mix appropriate for ARR stage
• Budget allocation by channel with rationale
• MQL and SQL definitions documented and agreed upon
• Marketing-sales SLA defined and measured
• Brand building plan (not just demand gen)
• Measurement framework: pipeline and revenue, not just leads

Common Pitfalls

1. No strategy, just tactics. "Let's post on LinkedIn and run some ads" without a channel mix and budget is a tactic list, not a strategy.

2. Too many channels too early. A $1M ARR company doesn't need events, programmatic, and TikTok. 2-3 channels done well beats 8 channels done poorly.

3. Marketing-sales misalignment. Marketing measured on MQLs, sales measured on closed revenue. Different incentives, different behaviors. Align on pipeline generated, not leads.

4. Brand as an afterthought. Brand is the thing that makes outbound reply rates go up, paid CPC go down, and win rates increase. Invest before you need it.

Execution Artifacts

• references/framework-notes.md — named frameworks, citation anchors, and operating assumptions
• templates/output-template.md — copy-paste deliverable structure for the user
• scripts/check-output.py — local checklist validator for required sections This skill includes lightweight artifacts the agent can load on demand: Use the artifacts when the user asks for an implementation-ready deliverable, a repeatable workflow, or a quality check rather than generic advice.

Related Skills

• paid-advertising: Paid channel execution
• content-marketing: Content strategy and SEO
• content-distribution: Multi-channel content distribution
• attribution: Marketing ROI measurement