Hey everyone,
Happy Sunday from Austin. It’s great to be back here visiting my brother and friends.
Since moving to NYC, I’ve been so inspired by what many of you are building. Not just the products, but the conviction and energy behind them.
When founders I admire reach out with gaps they are looking to build on the marketing side, I remind them that there is a method to the madness that is termed “marketing” and to generally use the same framework every time to build their new workflow (tons more below):
Figure out what to build first (based on overall company roadmap + revenue goals)
Figure out how to know if it’s working (test infra, iterate)
Allocate resources + go (timeline, how to execute, who’s doing what)
I’ve used this type of clarity on their marketing vision to help epic companies like:
When the picture, goals and build is sharper, everything clicks into place.
That’s what Knight Vision is built for.
We plug in as CMO, working directly with teams to drive growth, marketing, and brand.
Knight Vision delivers a “productized” top-tier marketing org, giving founders plug-and-play access to content, product marketing, growth, and partnerships.
I am so grateful to be surrounded by people and companies that are relentless in the pursuit of greatness, keep it real with metrics, and have that special lightning energy.
Let’s build things together and make the world a cooler, better place.
Reach out now so we can build together in 2026!
The 5 Successful Steps in Marketing: Use It or Lose
Step 1: Set the Direction
Start by answering three things:
What are your company’s top-line goals? (pipeline, revenue, CAC, retention)
What are the core workstreams that fold up to them?
Which ones matter most this quarter vs later?
That’s your foundation. Without it, every idea feels urgent.
At Baselayer specifically, there were multiple things working in order to drive top-line revenue (they grew so fast). Yet, there was no foundation or coordinated execution in marketing, so everything felt urgent to the team.
The first step was working directly with their exec team to run through everything they were doing across the company, identify gaps on the marketing side, ruthlessly prioritize and segment what to build, and then go.
Bringing order to what’s working/what’s needed and tying back to your ARR is the best place to start.
Step 2: Pick Your Near-Term Buckets (next 30–90 days)
Don’t try to do everything at once, obviously.
Choose 1–2 focus areas based on current bottlenecks and work on them in parallel.
Common early focus areas:
Build your internal marketing muscle (lifecycle email, events, founder content)
B2B: Fuel AE pipeline and scale beyond founder-led sales (outbound emails, cold calling, market / ICP segmentation, etc.)
More for consumer: User acquisition via paid ads, social growth, search, etc.
Rebuild the website so it actually converts (copy, flow, tracking)
Launch product marketing and first PLG motion
Step 3: Unicorn Companies Follow This. Now It's Your Turn (from proven playbooks of mine)
Here’s a liiiiitle snippet from SOWs and proven playbooks that I’ve used. It’s really cool to go from idea to execution here.
No path is a straight line, and oftentimes we build outside of the scope to win.
I wrote the below so that you can forward this around work and look smart →
Here’s what predefined marketing buckets look like that you can select from:
1) Website audit and optimization:
What it is: rewrite positioning, fix copy and flow, wire analytics into every key action. Build a few focused pages for testing that are tailored to specific offers.
Deliverables: positioning framework, conversion flows, 2 to 4 new landing pages, tracking plan.
2) B2B outbound engine and pipeline acceleration (a lot here for Baselayer & Rilla):
What it is: partner or hire for outbound emails (i.e. email sequences), weekly pipeline review with AEs, turbocharging SDRs, etc.
Deliverables: market segmentation of your ICP list (who gets emails, who gets calls, who you see at events, etc.), outbound muscle built via email with warmed domains, multi-touch sequences, cold call transcript, weekly pipeline dashboard.
3) Lifecycle marketing systems and retention:
What it is: map the full customer journey from lead to expansion, identify friction, automate nurture and recovery.
Deliverables: lifecycle strategy map, automated flows for welcome, onboarding, re-engagement, expansion, reporting dashboard for opens, clicks, conversions, retention.
4) Product-led growth activation and product marketing playbook (a lot here for Rilla):
What it is: audit onboarding and activation, add prompts and triggers, define 5 to 7 tactical fixes that move activation and habit.
Deliverables: PMM recommendations on all products and features, PLG build out, in-person working sessions, totally upleveling product onboarding experience, surprise and delight events, education, buttons, navigation, upselling, engagement/retention surfaces, etc.
5) Content engine for GTM:
What it is: founder and team content system that builds category authority, with a cadence you can keep and posts that go viral.
Deliverables: positioning framework, executive social posts, content system for turning research and wins into 3-5 weekly posts and one long-form per month, getting your entire team pumping on LinkedIn.
6) Event marketing and branded experiences:
What it is: repeatable dinners, roundtables, and conference activations tied to pipeline metrics, not vibes lol.
Deliverables: event playbook for one to two events per quarter, merch concepts, measurement framework for sourced meetings and follow up conversion.
7) Centralized marketing infrastructure and knowledge hub:
What it is: one living home for brand, messaging, templates, and OKR artifacts so teams can execute fast.
Deliverables: marketing hub, refined positioning and messaging docs, standardized templates for outbound, product, and content.
8) Performance advertising audit and optimization:
What it is: diagnose CAC leaks, fix targeting, creative, landing pages, and attribution, then rebuild tests.
Deliverables: performance audit, new campaign structure, creative test plan and build, attribution checks, new flows for each platform.
9) Creator partnership program + strategy:
What it is: source and negotiate with high-signal creators who already speak to your buyers, treat it like a channel with commitments, close deals + onboard them.
Deliverables: Creator deals for 3-12 months, onboarding creators, content builds and integration calendar, affiliate link tracking, taking creative and piping it to paid ads or organic.
10) UGC creator network setup and management:
What it is: test whether UGC can be an acquisition lever, build content brief with different messaging, install tracking and ops, set up internal program.
Deliverables: initial setup is 3 to 5 UGC creators sourced and onboarded, operating guide, tracking and contracts, monthly performance rollup, google drive with content, managed spend.
Step 4: Create Your Operating Rhythm
You need owners. You need honesty. You need to make shit happen now.
Every week, check-in:
What’s moving the needle?
What’s stalled?
What’s next?
Are you really following the plan? If you’ve deviated, WHYYYY?
This rhythm compounds & grows into something or you watch it all fumble in real time. Without consistency, owners and tracking, every project stays half-built.
Step 5: Scale Horizontally
Once one or two buckets are working, expand into the next layer: paid, creators, SEO, partnerships, etc.
By then, you’ll have a clear system that can absorb more inputs without breaking.
And you can begin to build the rest against your company roadmap.
Well, How’d I Do:
Yes, I’m currently living my dream.
Marketing stops feeling overwhelming once you can see the map.
This is how I build it for the companies I work with, and how you can do it for your own.
Experiencing the lightning in the companies Knight Vision works with is magical. I’m so excited to continue building with the best of the best.
Have an incredible next week.
Julia
