When it comes to marketing, startups are blessed with many different options: freelance or fractional support, working with an agency, or hiring in-house (or a combination of these).
When scaling our first startup, we first tried to do everything ourselves as generalist marketers. But we wasted a lot of time trying things experts would naturally know not to do. It was when we carved out budget for freelance channel experts that we started to see quick wins put in place and best practices implemented.
But working with freelancers isn’t a perfect solution, either. Ultimately, there’s absolutely no one-size-fits-all approach to growing a business; it’s just a case of being realistic about the benefits and drawbacks of each, and which one is right for you right now.
If you’re currently debating how to approach marketing for your startup, here’s my honest take on your options (and a look at where Growth Division sits amongst them).
Your startup marketing options
Your classic marketing team options: pros and cons
1. Bring in freelancers
Working with freelancers was one of the best things we did for our first startup.
It allowed us to test multiple marketing channels quickly and flexibly, and we got to work with smart, entrepreneurial experts who were really at the top of their game. After all, their day-to-day livelihood literally depended on it.
Ultimately, it worked, but it wasn’t a perfect system. Keeping multiple freelancers on the same page took up a lot of time. We still ultimately had to set the overall marketing direction for the business, and we struggled to truly create the feeling of having a team working with us. And while most of the freelancers were exceptional, a couple overpromised and underdelivered, something we couldn’t have predicted from their slick online presence.
2. Work with an agency
It’s important to mention at this point that neither Tristan, my co-founder, nor I have ever worked in an agency, or worked with a multi-channel marketing agency to market our startups.
So the pros and cons above are largely based on what I have heard from other founders, or on calls from wary marketing leads who’ve been burned by a bad experience.
Agencies are, of course, very varied – but I don’t think many are truly able to support early-stage startups in the way they actually need. Not because they aren’t excellent at what they do, but because their structure doesn’t allow for the flexibility and testing that’s needed at the startup stage.
3. Hire in-house
There’s a lot to be said for hiring in-house. This person has a total immersion in and commitment to your business that’s hard to replicate, no matter how professional and well-intentioned your agency or freelancers are.
Hiring in-house should absolutely be the end goal. For me, the issue here is a timing one.
The start of your ‘official’ marketing process should be all about testing and validating your marketing channels – and I don’t believe hiring in-house is the best way to achieve this.
Because when you hire in-house, you either:
- Hire one or two generalists. They’re good all-rounders, but don’t have enough deep expertise in each of the 20 marketing channels to test and run each channel effectively.
- Or you hire channel expert(s). At this point, you’re largely speculating which channels will be most effective to scale your startup. If your understanding changes, you risk having to find a different role for this person altogether.
The alternative options require less upfront commitment and help you blend broad and niche experience for a successful experimentation period. Once you have complete confidence that a marketing channel works for you, by all means, bring in an expert to manage and scale it in-house. This often happens at the Series-A stage for venture-backed startups.
Growth Division: combining the best bits
“Growth Division is a growth marketing agency for startups”.
That’s how I always introduce us, anyway. But I’ve wrestled with that word, ‘agency’ – it never quite fit us, but we’ve struggled to find a better alternative.
‘Collective’? Too vague. ‘Fractional marketing team’? Sort of, but it’s more systemised than that.
We started Growth Division to blend the best parts of different marketing team approaches into something new. Something that facilitated rapid and systemised growth experimentation, and worked in a way that startups actually needed.
We combine:
- The strategic oversight of hiring a CMO
- The flexible, deep experience of freelance channel experts
- The cohesive marketing strategy of an agency
- The feel of having an in-house team at your fingertips
And nothing makes me happier than when we see this vision reflected back to us in client feedback. When clients tell us we’re ‘not like other agencies’, and that we genuinely feel like part of their team. That they recognise how great our experts are, and feel grateful to get to work with them. When they really see what we’re trying to do, and it’s working for them.
“Finding agile generalists isn't hard. Finding deep-diving, myopically focused experts isn't either. Finding a group that brings agility AND depth and specificity of experience is rare.” – Sasha Small, CMO. Read the review
Our experts
- A community of 80+ vetted freelance channel experts to plug into each new project and bring deep channel experience.
- Highly-experienced growth strategists (many of whom are current or ex-founders), who bring broad experience across different industries, business models and stages of growth.
- You choose who you work with: we’ll propose a team, but you have the final say.
Browse our experts to get a sense of who we’re working with, and what they have achieved.
To give you just a flavour of the super smart people our clients get to work with every day, we have:
- Beth Thompson, a former founder turned growth strategist who scaled five revenue streams for her own brand, Leaf Envy, before exiting to a market leader.
- Chris Linn, whose previous experience includes: Head of Acquisition at Bablyon, Digital Performance for PHD (working with PWC, HeyCar, Logitech, Warner Bros), Head of Growth at Dext and Marketing Director of Dispatch. All during peak periods of growth for each company.
- Alex Dawson, an entrepreneurial direct outreach expert, who sets up award-winning businesses on the side, ‘just for fun’.
- Kerry Leach, one-half of B2B content agency Roo & Eve, who collaborated with Nottingham Trent University to create their own demand generation content framework.
Our process
- We propose 3-6 marketing channels using the Bullseye Framework, and compile a team of experts to run them (overseen by a growth strategist, who acts like your fractional CMO).
- Each expert tests rapidly to unlock growth for your channel, drawing on their deep, niche expertise. Your growth strategist is there for strategic oversight, and to keep everyone on the same page.
- If a channel doesn’t work, we cut it completely or try a different one. If it does, we scale it up.
The Bullseye Framework completely changed how Tristan and I thought about growth for our startup, and ultimately changed its trajectory. Our process follows the best practice for this framework, adapted over time as we’ve worked with over 130 startups.
Final thoughts
I know how it feels when you land that first major chunk of investment.
Finally! Some budget to actually start doing all the things you’ve wanted to.
…And the pressure of a new stakeholder keeping an eye on things, too.
But when it comes to the decision of how to structure your marketing, this is one time I don’t recommend moving fast and learning quickly.
Take your time. Talk to lots of people. Gather the quotes and ask for the proof.
Be wary of committing to anything too long-term for any specific channel. What worked for another startup won’t necessarily work for yours – even if everyone involved has the best intentions, which I find they mostly do.
If you’d like 30 minutes to chat about your marketing with me, I’d be happy to offer my thoughts on the best route for your startup, and to answer any questions you might have – absolutely no obligation.
TALK TO OUR GROWTH ADVISOR
TRISTAN ABOUT YOUR GOALS
Trusted by over 130 startups because our unique growth process and team of marketing experts unlock exponential growth
