Marketing Strategy

Marketing Strategy Skill

Trigger Conditions

Use this skill when the user asks to:

• Create or refine a marketing strategy
• Plan a campaign or launch
• Define marketing OKRs or KPIs
• Analyze market position or competitive landscape
• Build content pillars or editorial calendars
• Prioritize marketing initiatives
• Conduct TAM/SAM/SOM analysis
• Design a growth model or funnel

Brand Voice Integration

MANDATORY: Before generating ANY strategy content, load the brand voice configuration.

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from growthOS_shared.config import load_brand_voice
brand = load_brand_voice()

All strategy outputs must align with brand.tone, respect brand.avoid terms, and pass anti_slop validation. Strategy documents that ignore brand voice are invalid.

Growth Frameworks

AARRR — Pirate Metrics Framework

The AARRR framework (Dave McClure, 500 Startups) maps the full customer lifecycle into 5 measurable stages. Use this as the primary diagnostic framework when a user needs to understand where their growth is leaking.

How to apply AARRR:

1. Diagnose first — Ask: "Which stage is the biggest bottleneck?" Use data if available, or hypothesize based on product maturity.
2. One stage at a time — Focus resources on the weakest stage. Improving Retention before scaling Acquisition prevents burning budget on users who churn.
3. Set stage-specific OKRs — Each stage gets its own Objective and 2-3 Key Results.
4. Measure cohorts, not aggregates — Weekly or monthly cohorts reveal trends that aggregate numbers hide.

Stage-specific playbooks:

• Acquisition bottleneck: Audit channel mix, test 3 new channels with small budget, measure CAC per channel. Consider content marketing (low CAC, slow) vs paid (high CAC, fast).
• Activation bottleneck: Map the first 5 minutes of user experience. Identify the "aha moment" (the action that correlates with retention). Reduce steps to reach it.
• Retention bottleneck: Build cohort analysis. Identify the "habit loop" — what makes users return? Add engagement hooks (notifications, digests, streaks). Segment by behavior.
• Revenue bottleneck: Test pricing tiers. Add annual plans (reduce churn). Identify expansion revenue opportunities (upsell, cross-sell). Optimize trial-to-paid flow.
• Referral bottleneck: Add referral program with bilateral incentives. Measure k-factor. Make sharing frictionless and contextual (share after a success moment, not randomly).

ICE Scoring — Quick Prioritization

ICE (Sean Ellis) is a lightweight scoring model for rapid prioritization of growth experiments.

ICE Score = (Impact + Confidence + Ease) / 3

When to use ICE: For backlogs of 10-30 ideas that need quick ranking. Not suitable for strategic decisions requiring deeper analysis.

Pitfalls to avoid:

• Confidence inflation — teams overestimate confidence on their own ideas. Require evidence links.
• Ease bias — easy tasks get prioritized over high-impact hard tasks. Weight Impact 2x if needed.
• Score anchoring — first scorer sets the range. Use blind scoring then average.

RICE Prioritization — Data-Driven Ranking

RICE (Intercom) adds Reach to create a more rigorous prioritization model.

RICE Score = (Reach × Impact × Confidence) / Effort

When to use RICE: For roadmap prioritization with 5+ competing initiatives. Best when you have data on Reach.

Confidence calibration:

• 100% = have data proving it works
• 80% = strong qualitative signal (user interviews, competitor proof)
• 50% = intuition only — acceptable but flag it

Positioning Frameworks

Category Design

Category design (Play Bigger methodology) means defining and owning a new market category rather than competing in an existing one.

Steps:

1. Identify the problem the market doesn't know it has — Frame a "before" and "after" that shifts perception.
2. Name the category — The name should be intuitive, memorable, and googlable. Test with 5 people outside your industry.
3. Lightning strike — Coordinate a launch event that educates the market on the category and your position as the leader.
4. Category POV document — Write a 2-3 page manifesto explaining why the old way is broken and what the new category enables.

When NOT to use: If you're entering an established category with a better/cheaper product, compete on positioning within that category instead.

Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD)

JTBD (Clayton Christensen, Tony Ulwick) reframes positioning around the job the customer is hiring your product to do.

Job statement formula:

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When [situation], I want to [motivation], so I can [expected outcome].

Example:

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When I'm planning next quarter's content, I want to quickly generate
platform-specific posts, so I can maintain consistent presence without
spending 20 hours per week on content.

Applying JTBD to positioning:

1. Interview 10-15 customers about their last purchase decision
2. Extract the functional, emotional, and social jobs
3. Identify over-served jobs (competitors do this well) and under-served jobs (gap)
4. Position your product around the under-served jobs
5. Write messaging that directly addresses the job, not your features

Positioning Canvas

Use this structured canvas to define positioning:

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positioning:
  target_customer: "[Specific persona with problem]"
  category: "[Market category you compete in or create]"
  key_differentiator: "[The one thing you do uniquely well]"
  proof_points:
    - "[Data point or case study 1]"
    - "[Data point or case study 2]"
    - "[Data point or case study 3]"
  competitive_alternative: "[What customers use today instead]"
  unique_value: "[The transformation you enable]"

Content Pillar Methodology

Content pillars are 3-5 core themes that all content maps back to. They ensure consistency, reduce content planning overhead, and build topical authority.

Building Content Pillars

Step 1: Audit your expertise zones List everything your team/product knows deeply. Group into 5-8 clusters.

Step 2: Map to audience jobs For each cluster, answer: "Does my audience actively seek information about this?" Eliminate clusters with no audience demand.

Step 3: Narrow to 3-5 pillars Criteria for a strong pillar:

• You have genuine expertise (not generic takes)
• Your audience has proven demand (search volume, community questions)
• Competitors underserve this topic
• It connects to your product's value proposition

Step 4: Define sub-topics per pillar Each pillar should have 10-20 sub-topics. These become individual content pieces.

Step 5: Map pillars to funnel stages

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Pillar A → TOFU (awareness) + MOFU (consideration)
Pillar B → MOFU (consideration) + BOFU (decision)
Pillar C → TOFU (awareness)

Content Pillar Template

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pillar:
  name: "[Pillar Name]"
  description: "[1-2 sentence description]"
  target_persona: "[Primary persona]"
  funnel_stages: [awareness, consideration, decision]
  sub_topics:
    - name: "[Sub-topic]"
      format: [blog, video, social, newsletter]
      priority: [high, medium, low]
      search_intent: [informational, navigational, transactional]
  kpis:
    - metric: "[e.g., organic traffic to pillar pages]"
      target: "[e.g., 5,000 visits/month within 6 months]"

Campaign Planning Structure

Campaign Brief Template

Every campaign should start with a brief that answers these questions:

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campaign:
  name: "[Campaign Name]"
  objective: "[Single clear objective — use SMART format]"
  target_audience:
    primary: "[Persona with demographics and psychographics]"
    secondary: "[If applicable]"
  key_message: "[One sentence — what should the audience think/feel/do?]"
  channels:
    - channel: "[e.g., LinkedIn]"
      role: "[e.g., thought leadership, lead gen]"
      budget: "[If applicable]"
      content_types: ["posts", "articles", "ads"]
  timeline:
    start: "YYYY-MM-DD"
    end: "YYYY-MM-DD"
    milestones:
      - date: "YYYY-MM-DD"
        deliverable: "[What ships]"
  success_metrics:
    primary: "[The ONE metric that defines success]"
    secondary:
      - "[Supporting metric 1]"
      - "[Supporting metric 2]"
  budget:
    total: "[Amount]"
    breakdown:
      - category: "[e.g., paid ads, tools, freelancers]"
        amount: "[Amount]"
  risks:
    - risk: "[What could go wrong]"
      mitigation: "[How to prevent or respond]"

Campaign Types and Playbooks

Competitive Positioning Matrix

Building a Competitive Matrix

Step 1: Identify competitors

• Direct competitors (same solution, same audience)
• Indirect competitors (different solution, same problem)
• Substitutes (what people use instead, including doing nothing)

Step 2: Define comparison dimensions Choose 5-8 dimensions that matter to your target buyer. Examples:

• Price, ease of use, feature depth, integrations, support quality, time-to-value

Step 3: Score honestly Rate each competitor 1-5 on each dimension. Be honest — inflating your score undermines the exercise.

Step 4: Find your wedge The wedge is the dimension where you score highest AND competitors score lowest. This becomes your primary positioning angle.

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competitive_matrix:
  dimensions:
    - name: "[Dimension]"
      weight: [1-5]  # How important to buyer
  competitors:
    - name: "[Competitor]"
      scores:
        "[Dimension]": [1-5]
      positioning: "[Their main claim]"
  your_wedge: "[Dimension where you win]"
  messaging_angle: "[How to frame your advantage]"

OKR Writing for Marketing

OKR Structure

Objective: Qualitative, inspirational, time-bound. Key Results: Quantitative, measurable, challenging but achievable (70% hit rate target).

Marketing OKR Templates

Growth-stage OKR:

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O: Establish [Brand] as the go-to solution for [Job-to-be-Done]
  KR1: Grow organic traffic from [X] to [Y] monthly visits
  KR2: Achieve [X]% trial-to-paid conversion rate (from [current]%)
  KR3: Reach [X] qualified leads per month via content marketing

Retention-focused OKR:

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O: Build a community of engaged users who advocate for [Brand]
  KR1: Increase NPS from [X] to [Y]
  KR2: Grow referral-sourced signups from [X]% to [Y]% of total
  KR3: Achieve [X]% monthly active rate among paid users

Brand-building OKR:

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O: Own the [Category] conversation in [Industry]
  KR1: Publish [X] thought leadership pieces with [Y]+ average shares
  KR2: Secure [X] media mentions or podcast appearances
  KR3: Grow LinkedIn followers from [X] to [Y] with [Z]%+ engagement rate

OKR Anti-patterns

• Vanity KRs: "Get 10,000 followers" without engagement or conversion context
• Activity KRs: "Publish 20 blog posts" — measure outcomes, not outputs
• Sandbagging: KRs you'll hit at 100% aren't ambitious enough
• Too many KRs: Max 3-4 per Objective. If you need more, split the Objective.

TAM/SAM/SOM Analysis

Definitions

Calculation Template

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tam_sam_som:
  tam:
    method: "[top-down or bottom-up]"
    total_potential_customers: "[Number]"
    average_annual_value: "[Amount per customer]"
    total: "[TAM = customers × value]"
    source: "[Where data came from]"
  sam:
    geographic_filter: "[Markets you can serve]"
    segment_filter: "[Customer segments you target]"
    product_fit_filter: "[Who your product actually serves]"
    total: "[SAM after filters]"
  som:
    market_share_target: "[Realistic % — typically 1-5% for startups]"
    timeline: "[1-3 years]"
    total: "[SOM = SAM × share %]"
    assumptions:
      - "[Key assumption 1]"
      - "[Key assumption 2]"

Quality Checks

• TAM should come from at least 2 sources (cross-validate)
• SAM should be less than 50% of TAM (if higher, your filters are too loose)
• SOM should feel uncomfortably small (if it feels easy, you're overestimating)
• Always list assumptions — investors and stakeholders will challenge them

Strategy Document Output Format

All strategy outputs must follow this format:

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---
type: strategy
subtype: "[campaign | positioning | growth-model | okr | competitive-analysis | market-sizing]"
status: draft
date: "YYYY-MM-DD"
author: growthOS/marketing-strategy
brand: "[from brand-voice.yaml]"
tags:
  - "[relevant tags]"
---

Anti-Slop Validation

Before finalizing any strategy document:

1. Scan for banned phrases from brand-voice.yaml → anti_slop.banned_phrases
2. Replace any matches with specific, evidence-backed language
3. Verify active voice is used throughout
4. Ensure no superlatives appear without supporting data
5. Check that headlines are specific, not generic clickbait

Output Contract

Strategy Document Schema

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output_contract:
  format: markdown
  required_sections:
    - frontmatter:
        type: string  # "strategy"
        subtype: string  # specific strategy type
        status: string  # "draft" | "review" | "approved"
        date: string  # ISO 8601
        author: string  # "growthOS/marketing-strategy"
    - executive_summary:
        max_words: 150
        must_include: [objective, approach, expected_outcome]
    - analysis:
        frameworks_used: list  # which frameworks were applied
        data_sources: list  # where data came from
    - recommendations:
        format: prioritized_list
        each_item:
          - action: string
          - rationale: string
          - priority: string  # "P0" | "P1" | "P2"
          - effort: string  # "low" | "medium" | "high"
          - expected_impact: string
    - success_metrics:
        format: table
        columns: [metric, current, target, timeline]
    - next_steps:
        format: checklist
        max_items: 7
  validation:
    anti_slop: true  # must pass anti-slop scan
    brand_voice: true  # must align with brand-voice.yaml
    min_word_count: 500
    max_word_count: 5000