| name | marketing-foundations |
| description | Strategic backbone for the Career Hub vital loop. Five marketing pillars (audience-first ICPs+CEPs / funnel + content-class balance / DBAs with prevalence rule / measurement maturity / channel diversification) plus a Dunford positioning brief. Every Strategic Brief, brand-lint check, and ROOS attribution references this skill. |
| metadata | {"family":"marketing","owner":"marketing","last_reviewed":"2026-04-29T00:00:00.000Z","version":"1.0.0","related_skills":["seo-foundations","marketing-psychology","page-cro","content-strategist","ai-seo"],"kpis":["% of Strategic Briefs tagged with target_icp + serving_cep + content_class (target 100%)","DBA prevalence across corpus (target ≥80% per asset)","Content-class balance vs 60/25/15 (alert if drift >2 weeks)","Predicted vs actual ROOS at 90d (target ±30%)"],"marketing_pillar":"all","seo_standard":"B","funnel_stage":"all","content_class":"all","maturity_stage":"predictive","used_by_stages":[1,2,5]} |
Marketing Foundations (Career Hub)
Strategic backbone for every stage agent in the vital loop. Read first when scoring opportunities, writing Strategic Briefs, or running brand-lint checks. Anchored in named marketing science — every rule cites its source.
When to Use
- Stage 1 Discovery scoring opportunities (CEP fit + content-class balance check).
- Stage 2 Strategy writing briefs (ICP + CEP + funnel-stage + content-class tagging).
- Stage 5 Brand + Guardrail (DBA prevalence enforcement).
- Quarterly weight tuning of measurement-framework coefficients.
Do Not Use When
- Implementing repo code (use
code/ family).
- Diagnosing technical SEO (use
seo/seo-audit).
- Net-new content drafting tactics (use
content/content-writer).
The Five Pillars (one-line each, full content in references)
- Audience-first — every brief tags
target_icp + serving_cep. CEPs use Romaniuk's W-framework (When/Where/While/With whom/With what feeling/Why). See reference/icps.md and reference/ceps.md. Sharp/Romaniuk 95-5 rule: ~95% of category buyers out-of-market on any day; content builds mental availability for tomorrow.
- Funnel coverage + content-class balance — every page tagged
funnel_stage (TOFU/MOFU/BOFU) + content_class (informational 60% / transactional 25% / brand 15%). See reference/content-class-balance.md.
- Distinctive Brand Assets (DBAs) with prevalence rule — Romaniuk: each DBA must be distinctive + prevalent (≥80% of brand expressions) + intuitive. See reference/dbas.md.
brand-lint enforces.
- Measurement maturity — 4-tier KPI cascade: Tier 1 leading SEO → Tier 2 engagement → Tier 3 brand+authority → Tier 4 conversion. ROOS is Tier 4 calibration, not the operating dial. See reference/measurement-framework.md. Per Binet & Field IPA 2013, brand and activation effects compound at different rates; both required.
- Channel diversification + share of search — track organic / AI search / brand search / direct / referral. Binet & Field 60/40 brand/performance target. Les Binet share-of-search as leading indicator of share of market. Career Hub today ~90/10 performance/brand; rebalance to 70/30 over 2 quarters.
Positioning Brief
April Dunford (Obviously Awesome, 2019) framework. Full at reference/positioning.md:
- Competitive alternatives: Google generic, BLS sites, Reddit, friends, Instawork content, Wonolo content, Indeed.com generic.
- Unique attributes: W-2 employment (vs 1099 gig platforms), Same Day Pay, app-first shift selection, two-way employer ratings, 18+ US markets, BLS-cited methodology with Indeed Flex platform data layered in.
- Value (and proof): "Find flexible work that fits your life — with the protections of W-2 employment". Proof: 18 cities + same-day pay + worker testimonials + BLS-cited wage data.
- Best-fit customer: hourly worker (18-55, skewing 22-35; $12-$30/hr) needing schedule flexibility AND income stability.
Required Output (per Stage 2 Strategic Brief)
Every brief must carry these mandatory tags (template at templates/opportunity-brief.md):
target_icp — one of canonical ICPsserving_cep — full W-frameworkfunnel_stage — tofu | mofu | bofucontent_class — informational | transactional | brandpredicted_tier1_lift — impressions delta + position deltapredicted_tier2_lift — CTR delta + engagement deltapredicted_tier3_lift — backlinks + topical authority deltapredicted_tier4_roos — app downloads delta × LTV per installconfidence — 0.0-1.0lift_per_effort — formula in PIPELINE.md90_10_class — taxonomy in PIPELINE.mdtopical_cluster_idlinkable_asset_y_n
Quarterly Weight Tuning
Three weight files versioned in git, tuned monthly via monthly-attribution-review:
References
Marketing science citations at reference/marketing-science.md: Sharp (How Brands Grow), Romaniuk (DBAs + CEPs + W-framework), Binet & Field (60/40 brand/performance), Binet (share of search), Dunford (positioning).
