The 90 Day Marketing Plan

Stepping into the role of Director of Marketing at a SaaS startup is both exciting and challenging. The first 90 days are critical for establishing a strong foundation and setting the stage for long-term success.

This comprehensive 90-day marketing plan is designed to guide new hires through this pivotal period, ensuring they develop rapport with the team, understand the product and market, and lay out a strategic and actionable marketing plan.

Let's dive into the details of this plan, broken down into three key stages.

Stage 1: The Kickstart

The first month is all about immersion and understanding. It's crucial to build relationships, familiarize yourself with the company's processes and products, and conduct thorough audits and reviews.

Leadership Meet & Greet

• Review with Leadership: Schedule meetings with the executive team to understand the company's vision, mission, and strategic goals. Discuss the overall marketing objectives and ensure they align with the broader company goals.
• Set and Understand Goals: Clarify what success looks like for the marketing department. Identify key performance indicators (KPIs) and set realistic, measurable goals.
• Conduct Sanity Check: Evaluate the current state of the marketing department. Identify any immediate issues or discrepancies that need addressing.

How to properly meet and greet as a new employee

Team Rapport

• Meet the Team: Arrange one-on-one meetings with each team member to understand their roles, strengths, and areas for improvement. Foster a positive and collaborative work environment.
• Identify Strengths and Skill Gaps: Assess the skill sets within the team and identify any gaps that need filling, whether through training or hiring.
• Understand Work Style and Processes: Get a sense of the team's work style and current processes. Identify any bottlenecks or inefficiencies that need addressing.

Operations and Tools

• Current Marketing Ops: Review the existing marketing operations to understand how campaigns are currently run and managed.
• Available Tools: Take stock of the marketing tools and software in use. Assess their effectiveness and identify any potential new tools that could improve efficiency.
• Potential New Apps: Research and evaluate new applications that could enhance marketing operations, especially when the current setup lacks AI automation.

AI Marketing automation tools

Product Familiarization

• Product Demos: Participate in product demonstrations to get a hands-on feel for the SaaS app the company is selling. Understand its features, benefits, and unique selling points.
• Sales Meetup: Meet with the sales team to understand their processes, challenges, and successes. Gain insights into customer interactions and pain points.

Customer Journey

• Informal Customer Sit-Downs: If possible, conduct informal meetings with customers to understand their motivations, inhibitors, and outcomes. This will provide valuable insights into the customer journey and help tailor marketing efforts. If this isn't possible, consider watching previously recorded customer meetings to build on that insight.

Competitor Research

• Profiling Competitors: Conduct a detailed analysis of competitors' strategies and tactics. Identify their strengths, weaknesses, and areas where your startup can differentiate itself.

How competitor profile helps your Marketing strategy

SEO Audit

• Technical Audit: Assess the website's technical SEO aspects, such as site speed, mobile-friendliness, and indexing.
• On-Page SEO: Review the on-page elements like meta tags, headers, and keyword usage.
• Sitewide SEO: Analyze the overall site structure and internal linking strategy.
• Backlink Analysis: Evaluate the quality and quantity of backlinks pointing to the site.

How to run an SEO audit

Ad Audit

• Past Campaigns Review: Assess previous ad campaigns across platforms like Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, X/Twitter, and TikTok. Analyze their performance and ROI.

Email Marketing Assessment

• Campaign Analysis: Review past email marketing campaigns, including open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates. Identify what worked and what didn't.

CRO and Sitewide UX Review

• User Flow Analysis: Evaluate the user flow through the site. Identify chokepoints and bottlenecks that could be affecting conversions.
• UX Review: Assess the overall user experience and identify areas for improvement.

What is Conversion Rate Optimization

Content Marketing Analysis

• Content Review: Evaluate the existing content strategy and its effectiveness. Review KPIs such as engagement, traffic, and lead generation.

How to review your content marketing

CRM/Lead Attribution

• Lead Capture Review: Assess how leads are captured and attributed across various marketing channels. Ensure proper tracking and attribution.

Stage 2: The Plan

The second month focuses on developing a strategic marketing plan and formulating it into actionable items with a clear budget.

Develop Overall Marketing Strategy

• Present to Leadership: Develop a comprehensive marketing strategy and present it to the leadership team for feedback and buy-in.
• Formalize Strategy: Ensure the strategy aligns with the company's objectives and is agreed upon by all stakeholders.

Laser Focus on Target

• Craft Buyer Personas: Define who your target audience is, what their pain points are, and what motivates them.
• Geographic Breakdown: Identify key geographic areas and tailor your marketing tactics to suit regional differences.
• Vertical Assessment: Determine the most lucrative verticals for your product and develop key messaging points for each.

Establish a Tactical Action Plan

• Task List and Work Calendar: Break down the strategy into specific tasks, assign responsibilities, and create a detailed work calendar.
• Resource Utilization: Identify the resources needed to execute the plan, including personnel, tools, and external vendors.

Develop Marketing Budget for 2024/2025

• Examine Previous Budget: Review the previous year's budget to identify areas of overspending or underspending.
• Review Sales Forecast and Cash Flow: Consider the company's sales forecast and cash flow when planning the budget.
• Craft New Budget: Develop a detailed budget for ad spend, personnel, and external resources.
• Sanity Check: Verify that the budget is realistic and aligned with the marketing plan's actionable items.

How to develop a marketing budget

Establish Reporting Protocols

• Identify KPIs: Determine the key performance indicators to measure success.
• Reporting Schedule: Decide how and when to report progress to stakeholders. Ensure transparency and accountability.

Stage 3: Shifting Gears

The final month is about execution, reporting, and making necessary adjustments to ensure the plan's success.

Develop Quick Wins List

• Top 10 Bang-for-the-Buck Activities: Identify the top 10 marketing activities that offer the highest return on investment.

Routinely Implement Quick Wins

• Weekly Implementation: Execute quick wins weekly to build team camaraderie, boost leadership confidence, and test the marketing engine's efficiency.

Implement New Tools

• Marketing Automation/CRM/ABM: Introduce and integrate any new tools that can enhance marketing automation, customer relationship management, or account-based marketing.

Develop Relationships with External Vendors/Agencies

• Vendor/Agency Onboarding: Establish strong working relationships with any external vendors or agencies that will be assisting with marketing efforts.

How to develop a professional relationship with your agency

Systematically Carry Out Tactical Action Plan

• Execution: Implement the tactical action plan step-by-step. Monitor progress and ensure tasks are completed on time and within budget.

Routinely Report on Progress

• Regular Updates: Provide regular updates to stakeholders on progress. Use these reports to adjust strategies based on performance, industry trends, and feedback.

Review and Adjust

• Monthly Review: Conduct a comprehensive review of all marketing activities at the end of each month. Assess what worked well and what needs improvement.
• Adjust Strategy: Based on the review, make necessary adjustments to the marketing strategy. Stay flexible and responsive to changes in the market.

Celebrate Wins

• Team Recognition: Celebrate successes and recognize team members for their hard work and contributions. This helps build a positive team culture and motivates everyone to keep striving for excellence.

How to celebrate wins with your Team

Hit the Ground Running as the new Director 

The first 90 days as a Director of Marketing at any SaaS startup are critical for setting the foundation for future success.

By following this structured 90-day marketing plan, new hires can build strong relationships, gain deep insights into the product and market, develop a strategic and actionable marketing plan, and execute it effectively.

This approach ensures that the marketing efforts are aligned with the company's goals, maximizes the team's strengths, and drives sustainable growth.