Introducing our ‘Pre-Seed to Scale’ marketing and communications roadmap for early-stage growth

For early stage companies, the to-do list is incredibly long. Founders and initial team members are often focused on sales efforts, so marketing and communications sometimes take a backseat at the start of a company’s journey. 

Competing priorities will always raise issues for a bootstrapped team. Should an in-house marketer (or founder) focus on growing social media? What about participating in events? Would LinkedIn ads move the needle for sales? 

There’s no shortage of options available, but without clear goals, it is hard to focus on efforts that will lead to success. This inevitably leads to subpar results and uncertainty as to what is right for the business at that particular stage.

That’s why we decided to create Pre-Seed to Scale: A Marketing and Communications Roadmap for Early-Stage Companies. This guide defines a clear path to marketing maturity, built on what we’ve learned supporting more than 100 B2B brands in clean energy and climate tech.

Our roadmap for early-stage marketing and communications activities

Over the past five years, DG+ has refined an approach for early-stage companies to establish a respected brand, increase credibility in the marketplace, and effectively scale lead generation campaigns. 

No matter the industry segment, location, or even the particular stage of the business, this roadmap is the cornerstone of what we do as an agency. Here’s a little about it:

Phase 1: Building the foundation

Our DG+ roadmap begins with a core “Foundation” that sets the tone for initial sales activities, brand awareness, and future growth. 

Our three pillars — marketing, communications, and creative — are intertwined to deliver initial visual brand, key messaging, audience segmentation, and competitive positioning that form the basis of all future activities.

These resources are then used to create some of the first externally facing materials like a website and sales collateral. A strong foundation ensures every message and design element aligns with your business goals and resonates with your audience.

Phase 2: Establishing credibility

The second phase is “Credibility”. We are all familiar with companies that look very polished and professional, but they can sometimes lack a bit of substance. This simply means that they need to showcase their work to increase trust and essentially reduce the risk for prospective clients to make a decision. 

The challenge is that building this credibility takes time and needs to be earned. This phase earns trust through case studies, thought leadership articles, press releases, and consistent social media participation. 

These activities are all orchestrated through thoughtful marketing and communications plans that align activities with your business goals.

Phase 3: Scaling with confidence

The third, and final phase, “Scale,” represents a mature marketing and communications engine for a scalable organization. At this point, an organization has found its footing by showcasing success stories and leadership to the greater industry, including customers. 

Now, you can take everything a step further by enticing followers to convert as qualified leads through marketing and communications campaigns. Depending on your audience, these campaigns could include (gated) white papers, webinars, op-ed submissions, events, and so much more.

Download the full roadmap more details

Our DG+ roadmap is a step-by-step marketing and communications guide to help early-stage climate tech companies build credibility and scale with confidence.

Want to see what makes sense (and when) for your organization? Download the full roadmap today.