B2B Marketing through various Company Growth Stages

There are various ways of giving back to the world, and I wanted to start a new series for my LinkedIn community to give back the lessons I have learned in my 20+ years of being in tech. I will post about various topics and things I have learned. I hope they can add value to your careers.

As a Marketing Leader for two decades, I had various opportunities to write marketing strategies for multiple company stages to help them navigate uncertainties and set them on a growth path.?

I encountered numerous challenges while executing these and also have had many failures. But continuously innovating and getting outstanding mentorship helped me scale through them.

I am sharing some of my learning, and I hope you will find them helpful as you scale in your organisations.?

So, let's go,

Seed Funding Stage

This is the stage where experiments begin. This stage is essential for every founder as it is the bedrock of your product tone. Here, you are likely innovating and experimenting with almost no budget.

Angel investors usually lead this funding round; sometimes, early-stage-focused venture capital firms also join it. Your startup should have a working prototype and a clear business plan. You should also be able to finetune your business model and validate your Product Market Fit (PMF).

Your primary marketing objective should be to develop the brand message and figure out a winning sales story.?

As tactics, this is an excellent time to start investing in a website, content to drive SEO, email marketing and working closely with the founder to create effective pitch decks and sales collateral.

You need your best passionate self to turn up. If you are in this stage, you believe in the vision and the product and are 200% behind the founder.

You don't need a large team; keep to 1 or 2 people at best, and remember, this is the beginning of hustle mode.?

Series A (Revenue Size: $1-10 Million)

Reaching the series A funding stage is significant as it solidifies your investor's belief in the product and PMF.?

Your goal at this stage should be to craft a product positioning that resonates and engages with your target audience. You may also start testing small paid campaigns. Also, look for communities you can join and spread the word. If you have some early customers, this is also a great time to showcase their case studies. Spend your budgets wisely, looking only at high ROI. I am a huge advocate of building organic growth; this is the time to start building your SEO, have a strong content strategy, and know clearly how you are better than your competition. If budget permits, could you do small closed-door events with your target accounts??

In this stage, the most important thing to remember is not to boil the ocean, have very focused industries and prospect targets, and keep all your activities focused.?

Continue to keep your team lean, and if you must, invest in specialists who can help speed up your marketing efforts. You should consider the following roles: a versatile content writer, a paid ad consultant, your first product marketer and a website programmer (your website will change a lot)

Series B (Revenue Size: $10-100 Million)

Woohoo! This is a significant milestone, congratulations. Reaching series B marks the point where you've proven your worth and are now ready for your next level of growth. You should accelerate your momentum by investing in new marketing strategies and entering new markets.

This stage is all about demonstrating repeatability in your business model. You're already exposed to what works and what doesn't. Your main goal is to expand by exploring new geographies and adding new industries.

You need to double up your marketing channels and activities. Based on your learnings, this is also a great time to invest in developing your brand. You can consider upgrading your website. I also suggest participating in large-format events that your ICPs attend. If you already have existing customers, consider focusing on customer-related marketing, forums, etc. Invest in a PR agency, marketing tech, etc.. the list goes on. There is much more you can explore in this stage as you expand and grow, but consider your revenue and the company's space before you make decisions.

This is a great time to build a marketing organisation and have a structured team doing the various tactics. Also, as you hire more people and introduce new structures, always stick to culture and reward your loyal early hires.

Series C (Revenue Size: $ 100 Million+)

For many businesses, series C is about accelerated growth, profitability and geo expansion.

Series C is about exponentially expanding into other Geos and prepping for an IPO. There will be many processes at this stage of the company and geo structure on marketing.

As a marketing organisation, you may be scattered with many folks focussing on geo-specific field marketing. You may now have a much bigger marketing budget that allows you to do the length and breadth of marketing. Having your entire company speak the same language is critical. You are now working with more significant lead numbers and pipelines and are fully supported by technology to help you manage.?

In series C, a well-structured team is necessary. Your team may include a CMO, Head of Growth, Field Marketers, Partner Marketers, and a much larger Product Marketing team, along with operations if you have only exclusively included one in your group.

?In all stages of growth, make sure you have:?

1. Hip-to-hip alignment with your founders/investors
2. Clear metrics / KPIs that everyone understands
3. Review and renew your goals every quarter with your stakeholders; things change very fast in a startup.
4. MQLs and leads are old ways of doing things; talk about pipeline, CAC, CLV and revenue.
5. Be able to show the precise impact of Marketing very analytically.?

You can do many other things in all these stages, and I would love to hear about what you have done. I?hope I provided you with some direction.

I wish you the best and look forward to your comments and ideas, which can help me and others.