71 - Marketing Planning Series (Dan Frohnen, CMO at UpKeep)

Yaaaaas! Looks like folks are lovin' the series, so let's keep this going. Sprinkling in another episode for the "Marketing Planning Series" where I invite back top startup founders and marketing leaders to talk about their marketing plans going into 2022. 

I get questions from startups about this a lot (especially as the marketing landscape has changed so much throughout the pandemic) so I know this is on people's minds. We'll dive into marketing channels, budget, and resources and so much more.

Dan Frohnen is CMO at UpKeep. Prior to that, he was CMO at Sendoso. Welcome back to the show, Dan!

UpKeep was founded in 2014, has 176 people, and is based out of LA. Funding: Series B ($48.8M total). UpKeep is the #1 software for maintenance and facility management teams, a platform developed for technicians and maintenance workers that provides them with a computerized maintenance management system. Customers include McDonalds, Pepsi, Shell, and Marriott.

Here's what we cover:

Dan recently joined UpKeep and the first 7-8 months have been spent on laying down the (marketing) foundation, learning what’s working versus not, plus figuring out what’s going on in the world;

2022 marketing plan - budget, channels, and resources;

Roughly 80% of the budget is direct to pipeline and revenue (paid ads, events, SEO, content) and the other 20% is for stuff like content production, agency support, analysts and brand;

Dan is helping to support more of a demand gen motion (versus inbound lead gen);

Who’s on the marketing team now, and how are you planning to build out resources for 2022;

Why the designer is UpKeep's secret weapon;

UpKeep is a leader in a bunch of product categories with slightly different buyers and value props. How Dan is thinking about category creation moving forward (HINT: you need to think about it as a business strategy and not just something that marketing is doing); 

What's the "market narrative framework" and how it ties into ongoing thought leadership that the team rallies around;

Some goals that Dan wants to accomplish (personal, professional) in 2022 (HINT: being happy personally will make everything in your life amazing).

You can reach Dan on LinkedIn:  www.linkedin.com/in/danielfrohnen/

Find out more about UpKeep:  www.upkeep.com/

This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.io

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You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com

Thanks for listening!