| name | marketing-strategy |
| description | Build complete B2B marketing strategies — channel mix, budget allocation, content strategy, demand generation, brand building, and measurement framework. Use when building a marketing plan, allocating marketing budget, designing multi-channel campaigns, or creating a marketing operating system. Triggers on: "marketing strategy", "marketing plan", "demand generation", "brand strategy", "marketing budget", "channel strategy", or any marketing planning request. |
| license | MIT |
| compatibility | Claude Code, Jesse, Codex, Hermes, Windsurf, OpenCode, Gemini CLI, Copilot, Zed, VS Code, Goose |
| metadata | {"version":"1.0.0","author":"LeadMagic","category":"analytics","tags":["marketing","strategy","demand-gen","brand","channels","budget"],"related_skills":["paid-advertising","content-marketing","content-distribution","social-media-strategy","attribution"],"frameworks":["Product-Led Marketing","Schwartz Awareness Levels","Pulizzi Content Tilt"]} |
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
- Product-Led Marketing — Shapes deliverables for this skill — Marketing strategy is the allocation of scarce resources across channels to
maximize pipeline and revenue.
- Schwartz Awareness Levels — Shapes deliverables for this skill — Marketing strategy is the allocation of scarce resources across channels to
maximize pipeline and revenue.
- Pulizzi Content Tilt — Shapes deliverables for this skill — Marketing strategy is the allocation of scarce resources across channels to
maximize pipeline and revenue.
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
Common Pitfalls
-
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.
-
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.
-
Marketing-sales misalignment. Marketing measured on MQLs, sales
measured on closed revenue. Different incentives, different behaviors.
Align on pipeline generated, not leads.
-
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 assumptionstemplates/output-template.md — copy-paste deliverable structure for the userscripts/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
