Trevor Acy

This may be a hot take, but IMHO the single biggest thing that can influence your likelihood of success as a CMO is the due diligence you due on the company BEFORE you accept the role. Over the last few years since joining Pavilion, I've been privy to countless conversations in our community Slack channels where marketing leaders share their frustrations as well as horror stories of toxic workplaces, bad bosses, and impossible situations where they are set up to fail. While there are many factors beyond a CMO's control that might result in this type of situation, the truth is that majority of them could have been uncovered with better due diligence during the application process. Yet so many candidates are afraid to ask the tough questions, and afraid to probe deeply into the data - especially in a tough hiring market where they NEED the job. I guess the question is, is it worth it to take a job where you'll be miserable and set up to fail? I learned this the hard way earlier in my career. Every time I had a role where I was miserable, or my tenure was short, I could trace it back to poor due diligence on my part. It's one of the reasons I'm grateful I found Pavilion. When I joined, I took CMO School and in the first session, Andrea Kayal pulled back the curtain on her due diligence process and shared the exact question set she uses when evaluating potential roles. What I learned is that I need to be evaluating potential employers with the same level of rigor that I approach forecasting and developing strategies once I'm in a role. That means gathering data on things like: ⭐ Customer health (GRR, NRR and NPS) ⭐ The team, culture and people (employee monthly attrition rate, Glassdoor reviews, etc.) ⭐ Growth opportunities (TAM, SAM) ⭐ Sales and marketing (bookings targets, sales cycle length, size of pipeline, close rates, marketing budget, etc.) ⭐ Business health (performance against targets, CAC by channel, LTV, payback period) ...and getting to know the CEO, SLT and board well enough to understand how they think about marketing and whether I'll have the resources and support I need to be successful. The beautiful thing about this approach is that it actually makes you a stronger candidate because it demonstrates to potential employers that you are serious, thorough, and data-driven, and you have high standards - all of which are traits that also make you a better CMO. My advice to anyone looking for their next role is to invest some time in building out a thorough due diligence process - - and then stick to it. Expect to be asked to sign an NDA as part of this process. And lastly, if a CEO is unwilling to share this type of information with you, or doesn't have the information.... well, that is its own type of red flag 🚩 What other due diligence would you add to my list above? #CMO #kathleenhq

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I attended a great panel this morning at Denver Startup Week called "How Hiring Fractional Talent Can Drive Quick Wins for Small and Medium Size Businesses." I'm about to hit my one year anniversary of becoming a fractional SEO Director, and a lot of what the panel discussed really resonated with what I see as the value I bring to my clients every day. Some of the key advantages of working with fractional talent include: - You are able to hire higher caliber talent than you may be able to afford if you were to hire a full-time employee. - You get a brutally honest voice in the room. We aren't politicking or angling for a promotion. Your success is our success too. - You get quicker execution from fractional talent. Onboarding is shorter, meetings are fewer, and there is more intentionality around our goals and work because our time is more limited. - Your organization benefits from us working with other clients. We will get you out of the "we've always done it this way" mindset and provider fresh perspectives on how others have approached your challenges. If you're looking for fractional SEO or content strategy help, or you are interested in getting into the fractional world, my DMs are open! #denverstartupweek #fractionalleader #fractionalhiring #fractionaladvantage

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Who should own product launches? Derek Osgood thinks it should be one product marketer per product line. Launches are one of those distributed tasks that sit at the intersection of a bunch of roles. It feels like everyone and no one is responsible for them. On this week's #GrowandTell, Derek shared his experience launching *billions* of dollars in games at PlayStation, where 90% of a game's sales happen in the first 90 days. Derek says the best launches come from one product marketer owning each product line or customer segment. They act as air traffic control for their product, coordinating customer discovery, market research, demand gen, messaging, internal training, collateral creation, and executing the launch itself. They're backed by a platform product marketing team that acts as shared services across your product lines. Big fan of that approach. -- Loved going deep on Derek's time leading launches at PlayStation and Rippling. We also talked about founding Ignition, his go-to-market platform for better product launches. You can watch the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/gh73Q_JY

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After Highschool... nobody likes a firedrill. And I don't know anybody who likes closing out the year scrambling around trying to prove the value of what they've been working on... Swallow the frog 🐸 and build a dashboard tracking metrics and info your CEO can use at the beginning of the year. ↳ If you can keep it populated and tracking throughout the year you might not have to build something new at year end. ↳ Know what you're going to need to report out well ahead of the next budget cycle. ✨️Sometimes hard business kpis aren't going to be enough to keep your different marketing initiatives funded, if there's not a direct traceable sales result, person-to- person... you'll need to communicate the strategic goal✨️ If it's not generating a direct trackable sales result why are we doing it? 👉 Save your team the headaches. #marketingtips #digitalmarketing

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✍🏼 Codify your process for nurturing referrals It is a tough climate for agencies across the board right now, but among those that continue to win against the hardest headwinds are those that have a well-oiled referral system. For most agencies this is a critical lead source, yet many have no formalised system. This should include defined and relevant incentives, how to create triggers for referrals, how to nurture referee relationships and how to measure impact. This system should sit at the heart of your growth strategy. #agency #newbusiness #businessdevelopment #growth #NBfirestarters

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I’m gonna mix a little bit of info with a lil sharing. If you know me this is pretty standard behavior. I was chatting with someone about programmatic direct mail and incrementality. When I think of incrementality I think of stickiness vs reach. Showing your ad to a new person is dope, but the data shows that channel diversification is more about breaking through the noise then unlocking a new audience. If you’re spending in the millions there’s a pretty good chance you’re hitting a lot of your target demo on digital channels. Tell me the last 10 meta ads you saw? 5? Tell me one meta ad you saw today? (This brings up another convo of frequency in this evolved digital age but Idk best practices) it takes a lot for something to stick so if you’re going to a new channel for incrementaltiy choose channels that are going to stick. Hence programmatic DM. When you start testing I’d think of it as a lift channel. Part of your lifecycle nurture flow. Test with unconverted audiences and see if it lifts. Then use the lifted to lal for prospecting. Ok the other thing. I was chatting with a brilliant marketer who complemented my posts and it gave me the biggest imposter syndrome ever. I thought about it a bit and I think it’s because all of these posts are the results of failures, experiments, and learning from other great marketers. Plan A has worked so rarely I could count it on my hands. The speedy pivot to plan B, C, & D is the real gold. I’m learning new stuff constantly because I care about marketing (I’m learning about social media right now). I’ll probably suck at it for a bit and then I’ll get good and write something about it if I think it can be helpful. Idk just thought I’d share.

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6 Lessons learned after 6 months with an e-commerce brand (coming from someone who's focus has been on SaaS and govtech). ⚪ Everyone is looking for real transparency - across industries/types of business. This doesn't and shouldn't mean only sharing the good things. ⚪ If you build it they will come - but only if your website is good enough once you get there. (Field of e-dreams?) ⚪ As much as you can, show process, mistakes/lessons, and explanatory content, that's what people are seeking in feed full of solely ai created content. Your product/business model will be proven trustworthy in these moments. ⚪ Everyone loves a purpose. Learn what purpose your audience wants to have, and show them how you help get them there. Your product sales will follow. ⚪ Word of mouth is more powerful than anything you can do online. Champions of the product are a hugely impactful resource that should be mined and discussed. ⚪ Transitioning into a new industry tests your creativity and builds new skills quicker than you can imagine - 6 months ago, I was nervous to make a video of myself talking. Now, I get ads of my own face and voice on a daily basis. 6 months isn't long enough for anything hard and fast lessons, but what a fun and educational 6 months its been. Grateful for clients that let me grow and experiment while producing high quality content to help their business soar. DMs are open if you want to chat business! #ecommerce #digitalmarketing #purpose #audienceanalysis #lessonslearned #6monthsreview #endofyear #transparency #saas #wordofmouth

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For the spreadsheet users out there, especially if you're tracking your nonprofit donations and donors in spreadsheets, here's a tip: 📊 The idea here is to leverage AI to guide you through better utilizing your spreadsheets. So, here are three prompts you can try yourself: 1. Data Cleaning and Duplication Removal Prompt   - "How can I identify and merge duplicate donor entries in my spreadsheet? Give me a step-by-step guide"   - Why it 🪨s: Instead of manually combing through endless rows to spot duplicates, use AI to guide you on creating a process or formula in your spreadsheet software to clean and organize your data efficiently. 2. Analyzing Donation Trends and Predictions Prompt:   - "Can you teach me how to analyze donation trends and predict future giving patterns using my spreadsheet software? [describe the columns and how your spreadsheet is laid out]"   - Why it 🪨s: This helps you set up your own analytics right in your spreadsheet. tools like pivot tables or forecasting functions allow you to spot trends and make informed predictions. And depending on how much information you have in your spreadsheet... 3. Donor Engagement Scoring Techniques Prompt   - "Explain how to score donor engagement based on interaction frequency, donation amounts, and event participation in my spreadsheet."   - Why it 🪨s: AI can help outline the best practices for setting up an engagement scoring system. This allows you to quantify how engaged each donor is, based on your data inputs, enabling more personalized and effective communications. Start with these prompts, and you’ll start to better steward your nonprofit's donor base. Your future self—and your donors—will surely thank you. Speaking of Steward, here's the link to use the Free AI that is built for the nonprofit sector: https://lnkd.in/gGkTMX6W

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There's something weird happening in EdTech. Have you noticed? Is it just me? I'm seeing an increase in people trying to enter EdTech. Vendors and consultants without EdTech experience trying to niche down to work with EdTech startups. Founders without education experience trying to build and launch EdTech products for K12. I'm not an educator. I'm a marketer. I've spent my entire career in mission-driven roles, and a large portion of that in mission-driven #b2b #k12 #edtech. Two things I want these people to know: 1) EdTech is by and for educators for a reason. The process of teaching and learning is complex. If your product is designed to support any part of that process, then ... if you're not an educator, your co-founder should be. 2) EdTech is not just another b2b vertical. EdTech is mission-to-mission, even when your go-to-market model is b2b. Even for venture-backed EdTech startups, growth isn't just a transaction. We're measuring impact as well as profit. There's a reason we say "partners" instead of "customers." If your mission is to be profitable, educators will smell that from 10,000 miles away. If your mission is aligned with the mission your educators are on, educators will sense that just as easily. So...if you're an agency or consultant trying to help edtech startups with sales and marketing, and you're not experienced in this space, you need to pull in someone who is. If you're in it for the right reasons, if you're on a real mission, if you've got the right people in your founding team, go to it. If any of those things are a bit off, think more about what you're doing, why, for whom, and with whom.

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I'M LIVE 📱COME HECKLE ME IRL --> https://lnkd.in/d6sXA_ux I've got James Martin Sr. (Rally Corp) with me - We're real-life group chatting if texting still has a place in digital fundraising in 2024. Here's the topics we're covering 👇 📵 Why does texting strategies seem to get a bad rap with nonprofits? (Probably because you are using it wrong 😬) 📆 What does your nonprofit need to get text-to-donation started: It's not as daunting as it may seem. ✅ 3 ways to use texting in digital fundraising today: We're not sending you home without a clear path for taking the 1st steps for adoption of texting (including giving season) Drop a "YO ADAM" in the chat if you do join - you may get a live shout out ⚡

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I've launched an internal newsletter at every company I've worked for. But they take a lot of time, so I'm rethinking... I just got forwarded a sweet internal "podcast" from some UX / designers that is essentially a video combining a deck, gong clips, and discussion. In this case it is regarding customer research. I love it! Here's why: The time they take to create it is the time they take to package it. Instead of spending time gathering info and then packaging it up and sending it, they just gather it up -- play the clip -- and then talk about. Dialogue is illuminating. It's one thing to get an update on something and an entirely different thing to hear two smart people talk about it, share their opinions, worries, etc. Video is flexible. I can speed up, skip around, go back and re-watch... and I can listen while doing other tasks that don't require 100% focus. There are also plenty of downsides for sure but I love this idea for PMM. Anyone out there trying this? does it work? do people listen? Or is a short and sweet email still the best way forward? I could argue that it still might be... or maybe it's both? or neither?

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What makes a brand enterprise-level? Initially, I thought "it's a gut feeling." I'm sure you know of a company that you could have sworn had thousands of employees, but are actually a scrappy startup of 30. That was too surface-level, because decisions were made that contribute to that gut feeling. Next, I went to, "is 'enterprise' a level of fidelity?" We love to look at the big boys of tech and say, "let's design it like that" for a reason. To this point, I actually find that enterprise-level brands in the B2B space tend to reduce the gimmick and be more straight forward. Startups tend to love the gimmicky interactions that look cool, but don't perform. Ultimately, my conclusion was this: Visually – a focus on tightening design principles. Consistency in elements, colors, and hierarchy. Creating a unique motif that builds brand equity over time. There is an aspect of fidelity that is important here, but I don't think that's the end-all-be-all. Content – writing with purpose and a unique voice. All pieces of marketing sound like they are coming from the same voice. Knowing where the customer is at in the journey, and speaking to them there. Simplifying the message, keeping it brief, and showing the value. Strategy – creating with a purpose. Different teams are working in harmony towards the same goal/campaign, rather than one-off silo projects. Understanding where to strike at the right time. #branding #strategy #marketing #enterprise #saas #startups

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👀 If you're in a fundraising round, BrightPulse Marketing put together a blog post to help you secure that funding, including actual pitch decks from brands like Yammer and Peloton. ✅ Check out How to Use Marketing Concepts in Your Fundraising Pitch: bit.ly/4ha0W0A #StartupMarketing #Entrepreneurs #BrightPulse #Startup #Solopreneur #Fundraising #Preseed #Seriesa #Funding

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Great How-To on finding existing pages to increase traffic and the process for improvement. Very short video but packed with step by step.

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As an avid listener of the #RadicallyTransparent podcast, I felt compelled to share this: If you’re stuck in a cycle of “more blogs,” “more videos,” and “more SEO” without moving the needle, this episode featuring Christopher Peer may be one for the books. Chris, CEO of SyncShow and Author of the book "The Great 8 Pillars of ROI-Driven Marketing", has scaled hundreds of companies and earned spots on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies twice! In this episode, Chris challenges the “do more” mindset, offering a refreshing approach to focusing on what will actually yield meaningful results. Spoiler alert: It may not be your tactics, but your operational structure 😱 ***** The key takeaway for me? Stop chasing ‘more.’ Start doing what matters. If you’re ready to break free from tactical chaos and embrace strategic marketing, don’t miss this conversation. 🔗 Link to listen: https://okt.to/hwWzgM What’s helped you move past the “whack-a-mole” trap? Let’s chat in the comments! 👇 #MarketingTips

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Don't build your email automations like a Dr. Seuss bike. I see this far too often, and to be honest...I've been guilty of this in the past. But PLEASE... Before you build an email workflow/automation - map it out. Write down what you want it to accomplish BEFORE you actually build it. You want it to be as simple as possible while still achieving the desired result. (Or you could hire someone like me who has experience building clean automations) But I promise you, keeping it simple and clean will save you a lot of stress and confusion down the line.

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Last night, a prospect reached out to me. They shared a dire situation. Their email deliverability, IP, and domain reputation were suffering. These issues were blocking their business growth. This stark reminder highlights the urgency of addressing deliverability problems. They can strike at any time. They cripple your ability to reach subscribers and drive revenue. In this case, the company's transactional emails delivered well. But their promotional campaigns and flows suffered from unstable performance. Unchecked, these issues can quickly escalate. They become a full-blown crisis. Your sender reputation nosedives. ISPs start blocking your emails. Your hard-earned subscribers never see your messages. Your brand image is damaged. Engagement plummets. Sales are lost. But there's good news. These challenges are solvable with the right expertise and action plan. Conduct a thorough audit. Examine your email infrastructure, authentication protocols, and sending practices. Identify the root causes of your deliverability problems. Implement targeted solutions to get your email program back on track. Don't wait until deliverability issues become a "blocker to growth." Take proactive steps to monitor and optimize your email deliverability. Unsure about your email program's health? DM me. Already experiencing deliverability challenges? DM me. Don't let deliverability issues derail your growth. Protect your most valuable marketing asset. #emailmarketing #digitalmarketing #emaildeliverability

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Services are hard to sell. Especially when there's no tangible deliverable. A simple way around that: Productfy it! Create a product that your service builds. → Leadership Handbook → Communications Playbook → OEM Prioritized Checklist → Connection Roadmap → Culture Audit Sell the product. And your service is the process of delivering the product. I share how in tomorrow's email. Join the newsletter to get it in your inbox ↓ https://lnkd.in/eDUCC_eW

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