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Passing the Button-Clicker Test, and Other 0 to 1 Lessons from Lattice’s First Marketing Hire
A behind-the-scenes look at how Lattice built its marketing strategy from scratch, as told by Alex Kracov, the company’s third employee and first marketing hire.
Early-Stage Marketing: Sprinter and Marathoner
Building marketing for an early-stage startup requires both speed and patience. A marketer must quickly launch campaigns that capture attention while also investing in initiatives, like SEO, that take time to show results.
Alex Kracov experienced this firsthand. At 25, with no prior SaaS experience, he joined Lattice as employee #3, tasked with creating an entire marketing function from the ground up. He made up for his lack of experience with a history of building projects, including a dog treat delivery service, a travel planning app, and political ad campaigns.
Kracov describes passing the “button-clicker test”—being able to execute marketing tactics, build websites, and set up campaigns, rather than just talking about them. This hands-on approach would prove essential in scaling Lattice’s marketing.
Step 1: Build Your Website
Kracov’s first task was refining Lattice’s website. The site served two purposes: it reflected the brand and captured leads. He established the early stages of the marketing funnel and attribution model.
Many early-stage startups underinvest in their website, but Kracov emphasizes that even small companies can create a professional and polished site. A well-designed website can make a company feel larger and more established than it currently is.
Step 2: Define Your Messaging
A clear story is essential for a strong website. Early marketing hires should:
- Extract the founder’s insights: Translate the founder’s customer knowledge into clear, compelling marketing messaging.
- Engage with customers: Participate in calls to understand market shifts and customer needs.
- Research competitors: Analyze competitor messaging to find opportunities for differentiation.
At Lattice, messaging evolved from focusing on OKRs to broader performance management solutions, with the brand voice highlighting modern, employee-centric HR.
Targeted product and solutions pages complement the homepage, addressing specific audiences and driving discovery. Messaging should focus on what customers are buying and the outcomes they can expect.
Step 3: Experiment with Channels
Early-stage marketing requires testing multiple channels. Kracov advises casting a wide net before focusing on the channels that perform best. Marketing should align with the founder’s strengths and interests to ensure consistency and sustainability.
Channels tested at Lattice included:
- SEO: Started early to build compounding long-term traffic.
- Webinars: Partnered with complementary brands to reach new audiences.
- Media Brand: Launched Resources for Humans, including a newsletter, Slack community, dinner series, podcast, and video series. Each channel complemented the others.
- Conferences: Treated as integrated marketing campaigns rather than isolated events.
Step 4: Take Bold Actions
Kracov recalls the ABM City Campaign, targeting 18,000 HR professionals with coffee mugs, billboards, digital ads, and event invitations. The campaign generated millions in pipeline and revenue, demonstrating the power of a coordinated multi-channel approach.
Step 5: Measure Early Wins
Early-stage marketing success is gradual. Kracov emphasizes qualitative feedback alongside simple quantitative measures, such as lead quality, to evaluate campaigns. Tracking customer engagement with early initiatives, like the Slack community, helped demonstrate impact and guide priorities.
Step 6: Build Your Team Strategically
As marketing initiatives expanded, Kracov recognized the need for additional hires. Early marketing hires should:
- Complement existing strengths (e.g., demand generation if the founder excels in content).
- Be hands-on “do-ers” who can execute tasks independently.
- Exhibit an entrepreneurial mindset and willingness to experiment.
Step 7: Prioritize and Align
With multiple initiatives underway, Kracov used a whiteboard exercise with the executive team to prioritize marketing activities. This ensured alignment on the most important initiatives and allowed for clear communication when requests from sales or customer success arose.
Conclusion
Early-stage marketing is a combination of experimentation, focus, and execution. From building a website and defining messaging to testing channels, taking bold actions, measuring impact, and scaling the team, the work is never about one single tactic. It’s about integrating multiple initiatives to create a coherent and effective marketing function from scratch.
