Discovery
Learn the business, the brand and the customer before changing anything.
Strategy
How I step in and get growth unstuck.
Building a brand and a marketing program isn't one campaign. It's a plan that runs in order: understand the business, agree on the story, then put it to work everywhere and measure it. Here is how I do it.
- Phase 1DiscoveryLearn the business
- Phase 2DiscussionAgree on the story
- Phase 3DistributionPut it to work everywhere
- OngoingOptimizeMeasure and adjust
How I get started
Discovery, discussion, distribution.
Discussion
Agree on the story, the plan and the targets everyone will be measured on.
Distribution
Put the new story to work everywhere the brand shows up.
Optimize
Measure, learn and move budget toward what works.
The creative brief
Every good ad starts with a good brief.
My brief has six questions. It works with agencies, in-house teams and AI tools alike. This is the one that matters most:
What is the single most important thing to communicate, in one sentence?
If the team can't agree on this sentence, we're not ready to make the ad.
Before I get started
The questions I ask first.
Sixteen questions in four areas. The answers predict the job better than any job description. Here is one from each.
Goals
- What does success look like?
+ 3 more
Marketing
- Is marketing a cost center or an investment?
+ 3 more
Measurement
- What is a customer worth over time?
+ 3 more
Culture
- How are decisions made, and who makes them?
+ 3 more
The full playbook
Want the whole plan?
The step-by-step plan for each phase, the full six-question creative brief and all sixteen questions I ask before I start, in a short PDF. Ask and I'll send it over.
Measurement
Numbers matter. You can't measure relevance.
I build a growth model, track spend and report against agreed targets every month and quarter. I also measure the things last-click reports miss, because that's where brand shows up.
Cost and value
Cost per acquisition, customer acquisition cost and lifetime value, against targets everyone agreed to up front.
Brand health
Awareness, people searching for you by name, and how often AI answers name you when buyers ask about your category.
What really worked
Mix modeling and simple tests that show which channels add sales, not just which one got the last click.
Sales
Marketing has to reach the sales team.
Marketing only matters if it drives revenue. Known brands open doors, but the sales team still needs tools built on the same story. I make sure they have:
Positioning they can say out loud
A pitch built on the value
Materials that look like the brand
Email that warms up leads
Video that helps explain and sell
Training on using the brand
Rules I work by
Nine things to remember about marketing.
- Marketing is harder than it looks.
- If marketing didn't work, you wouldn't be reading this.
- If you can't explain your product in a few words, your marketing is off.
- Fast and cheap are free now. Good isn't.
- You may not be creative enough to make your own ads.
- Define what success looks like.
- Know your metrics and how they drive revenue.
- Leave enough lead time to buy media and make the ads.
- Define your brand before you spend money.