90-Day Demand Generation Plan.
Forthea is a Houston-based digital marketing agency (~$10M revenue, ~65 employees) specializing in paid media, SEO, and analytics across multifamily, multi-location, and B2B verticals. Marketing has been reactive. Leadership wants marketing to become a measurable pipeline contributor for $15K–$40K+ MRR deals within 90 days.
My Read on the Situation
I've been here before. At Avery Dennison, I inherited a B2B marketing function that had no lead scoring, no attribution model, and no feedback loop between campaigns and revenue. The first thing I did wasn't launch a new campaign — it was instrument the existing one so we knew what was actually working. Within 90 days, we'd identified that 68% of qualified pipeline was coming from two content assets and one LinkedIn audience segment that nobody had been optimizing for. We reallocated and B2B conversion went from 2% to 65%.
At Forthea, the challenge is similar but the context is an agency — which means the proof of concept has to be fast and visible. Leadership isn't just watching pipeline. They're watching whether marketing can think and execute like the clients Forthea serves. That's a higher bar, and it's the one I'd hold myself to.
Built from the Data, Not a Persona Template
Before I run a single campaign, I pull Forthea's last 24 months of closed-won data. I've done this exercise for three different clients — it consistently surfaces two or three ICP patterns that nobody consciously knew existed. At Fresh Air Duct Cleaning, this exercise revealed that 91% of high-value booked jobs (averaging $937) came from LSA leads with under 5-minute response times — not from the channels the team thought were performing. That kind of insight doesn't come from a persona template. It comes from the data.
The ICP for Forthea lives in its closed-won deals. The table below is a starting hypothesis — the actual ICP gets validated or revised within the first 30 days based on real data.
| Vertical | Target Title | Company Profile | Deal Trigger |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multifamily | VP Marketing, CMO | 50–500+ units under management; regional or national PMC | New lease-up, underperforming occupancy, agency consolidation |
| Multi-location | VP Marketing, Dir. Digital | 20–200+ locations; franchise or corporate-owned | New market expansion, paid media fragmentation, ROAS pressure |
| B2B | CMO, Dir. Demand Gen | Series B–D SaaS or professional services | Pipeline shortfall, replatforming, ABM buildout, team bandwidth |
The Three Phases
Days 1–30: I will not launch a single new paid campaign until I know what the baseline looks like. That's not caution — that's what I learned after scaling a paid media program to $2M in spend without proper attribution. The waste is invisible until you build the measurement layer first.
Instrument Before You Invest
Build the measurement layer before spending a dollar.
- 01Full CRM audit: define lifecycle stages, MQL/SQL criteria, lead source taxonomy — mirror the framework I use with CallRail + Workiz across my home services clients (source-to-booking, not just source-to-lead)
- 02Implement UTM tagging across every channel; connect Google Ads, LinkedIn, and any other paid sources to HubSpot for closed-loop attribution — I've done this across Google, Meta, LSA, and CallRail simultaneously
- 03Closed-won ICP audit: pull last 24 months of won deals, map firmographic + behavioral patterns, identify the trigger event that preceded each engagement
- 04Messaging audit: homepage, case studies, LinkedIn, and sales deck — align every asset to the pain language of the top ICP vertical (multifamily first, given market size)
- 05Establish baselines: organic traffic by vertical keyword cluster, LinkedIn organic reach, current inbound lead volume, and average sales cycle length by deal size
- 06Stand up a weekly marketing dashboard in Looker Studio — one view for the marketing team, one for leadership — tied to pipeline metrics, not just activity metrics
Days 31–60: My sequencing principle: activate channels that capture existing demand before building channels that create it. This isn't common sense — it's something I learned the hard way at KEEN, where we were generating brand awareness at scale while ignoring the branded search terms that were converting at 4x the rate of prospecting campaigns.
Demand Capture First, Then Demand Creation
Activate channels that capture existing demand before building channels that create it.
- 01Launch Google Search campaigns targeting high-intent queries by vertical — e.g. 'multifamily digital marketing agency Houston', 'paid media agency multi-location brands' — tightly themed ad groups, exact/phrase match, not broad (broad match burns budget in agency categories)
- 02Reactivate the CRM: segment past prospects and stale opportunities by vertical and last touch date; deploy a 6-email reactivation sequence — this has produced pipeline within 2-3 weeks for me in every role that had a dormant database
- 03LinkedIn Sponsored Content: target VP Marketing and CMO titles in multifamily and multi-location companies in Texas and surrounding states; I've run this targeting at Avery Dennison for B2B — expect 4-6 weeks to optimize CTR above 0.5%
- 04Publish cornerstone content piece #1: multifamily vertical (largest TAM, fastest proof of concept) — a specific, data-led article, not a 'here's what we do' capabilities piece
- 05Build gated lead magnet: a vertical-specific audit checklist or benchmark report — something Forthea's clients would actually use, not a PDF brochure
- 06A/B test landing pages: outcome-led vs. capability-led messaging; from my experience at Apartments in the Mix, outcome-led pages (I managed a Google Ads campaign that hit 8.36% CTR with outcome-focused copy) consistently outperform feature lists
Days 61–90: By this point I'll have 60 days of data. I reallocate toward the channels showing the best CPL and pipeline conversion, and I build the case for the Year 1 roadmap.
Scale What Proves Out, Kill What Doesn't
Reallocate to winners. Build the Year 1 thesis on real data.
- 01Reallocate paid budget based on 60-day CPL and MQL-to-pipeline data — not instinct, not vendor recommendations, not what worked somewhere else
- 02Launch ABM pilot: 50 named accounts per vertical, coordinated LinkedIn + email + personalized landing pages — I've built this architecture for B2B clients; the difference vs. spray-and-pray is targeting accounts with active in-market signals (Bombora or 6sense)
- 03Publish first case study with hard numbers — not 'we helped a client grow.' Actual metrics: leads per month, ROAS, cost per lease, pipeline conversion rate. Forthea's clients make buying decisions on proof, not promises
- 04Launch a practitioner-focused webinar or roundtable: 'What's Actually Working in Multifamily Marketing Right Now' — this is the content play that builds the Pipeline Summit event in Exercise 3
- 05Deliver 90-day pipeline report to leadership: MQLs generated by channel, pipeline influenced by marketing, CPL by vertical, and a clear Year 1 investment thesis based on what the data shows
Channel Strategy — Order and Rationale
This is the sequencing I've used across every role and every client. The principle is the same whether I'm managing $5K/month for a local home services brand or $500K/month for a global B2B brand.
| Channel | Phase | Why This Order — From Experience |
|---|---|---|
| Google Search | 1st | Captures buyers already searching. At Fresh Air Duct Cleaning, LSA and Google Search together drove 91% of booked jobs despite representing 60% of spend. Demand capture before demand creation — every time. |
| CRM reactivation | 1st | Every database I've inherited has had 12-24 months of unconverted leads sitting dormant. At Avery Dennison, a reactivation sequence to B2B contacts produced 14 qualified opportunities in the first 45 days. Zero new ad spend. |
| LinkedIn Sponsored | 2nd | Creates demand among in-title decision-makers not yet searching. Takes 4-6 weeks to optimize. Best for multifamily and B2B VP/C-suite. I've run this at Avery Dennison — CTR benchmarks vary by creative format (single image vs. document ads tend to outperform for B2B audiences). |
| Content and SEO | 2nd | Builds compounding organic authority. Long-term play — start now, measure at 6 months. From my SEO work on bestairducts.com across 7 Texas markets, vertical-specific content clusters outperform generic agency content every time. |
| ABM + outbound | 3rd | Requires ICP clarity and content assets to support it. Launched in Phase 3 once we know which accounts to target and have proof points to back the outreach. |
| Events and partnerships | 3rd | High-ROI but longer setup. See Exercise 3 for the full design. Positioned as a scale play once the demand gen engine is running. |
Marketing Tech Stack
I've worked across all of these tools. My stack recommendation is shaped by what Forthea likely already has and what will show ROI fastest — not what looks impressive on a slide.
| Category | Tool | Why — From My Experience |
|---|---|---|
| CRM + Automation | HubSpot | Best for agencies: pipeline reporting, lifecycle stages, email sequences, and attribution in one platform. I've built full demand gen infrastructure in HubSpot across B2B and home services clients. |
| Analytics | GA4 + Looker Studio | GA4 for event tracking and conversion data; Looker Studio for the leadership dashboard. I've reconciled data across GA4, Google Ads, Meta, and CallRail simultaneously for client reporting. |
| Call Tracking | CallRail | Non-negotiable for any vertical where phone calls convert. I run CallRail across all Fresh Air Duct Cleaning markets — it's how I know LSA drives 91% answer rate and $937 avg job value. Forthea's clients need this visibility too. |
| Paid Media | Google Ads + LinkedIn | Core paid stack. Google for demand capture, LinkedIn for demand creation at VP/CMO level. I've managed both simultaneously. |
| SEO | SEMrush | Keyword research, content gap analysis, rank tracking by vertical. I use this for competitor analysis across Forthea's likely target keywords. |
| Intent Data (Phase 3) | Bombora or 6sense | ABM account prioritization — surfaces companies actively researching topics relevant to Forthea's services before they search. I've scoped this for B2B lead gen clients. |
| Outbound Sequencing | HubSpot Sequences or Apollo | Coordinated email + LinkedIn touches for ABM; ensures sales and marketing stay on the same account simultaneously. |
How I'll Measure Success
I report on pipeline metrics, not activity metrics. The difference matters: activity metrics (emails sent, impressions, form fills) tell you what marketing did. Pipeline metrics tell leadership whether it worked.
| Metric | Target (Day 90) | My Benchmark |
|---|---|---|
| MQL Volume | 20-30 MQLs/month by Day 90 | Based on blended CPL benchmarks for agency services; refine at Day 30 once baseline is set |
| Pipeline Influenced | >40% of active pipeline touched by marketing | At Avery Dennison, hit 55%+ pipeline influence within 6 months of rebuilding the attribution model |
| Cost Per MQL | Establish baseline Days 30-60; optimize Days 61-90 | Agency services CPL typically runs $150-$350; lower is possible with tight ICP targeting |
| MQL-to-SQL Rate | >25% by Day 90 | At Avery Dennison, went from <5% to 65% once ICP was tightened and lead scoring was rebuilt |
| Google Search CPL | Establish by Day 45; target <$200 for agency services | From Fresh Air experience: tight keyword themes + quality scores below $50 for home services; agency services will run higher but same principles apply |
| Email Reactivation Open Rate | >38% | Warm database, relevant vertical messaging — achievable; I've seen 42%+ on reactivation sequences with strong subject lines |
| LinkedIn CTR | >0.5% on Sponsored Content | Avery Dennison benchmark; single image ads for B2B audiences, outcome-led copy over feature copy |
What I Need from Sales and Leadership
- ·CRM access and 24-month closed-won/lost data — this is the foundation of everything. ICP validation, messaging, targeting, channel prioritization all start here.
- ·Agreement on MQL definition before I launch anything. I've seen demand gen programs fail not because the leads were bad but because sales and marketing never agreed on what 'qualified' meant. I want that SLA in writing by Day 10.
- ·A bi-weekly feedback loop: which MQLs converted, which wasted time, and why. I'll use that data to adjust lead scoring and targeting in real time — the same feedback cadence run with the sales teams I support on client accounts.
- ·Permission to shadow one or two discovery calls in the first 30 days. The language prospects use when they describe their pain is the best copywriting research I've ever done.
- ·A provisional budget commitment — even $5K-$10K/month — so I can start demand capture immediately rather than spending the first 30 days in budget approval cycles. I'll return with a full Year 1 recommendation after Day 90 with data to support it.
- ·Air cover for case study development. The single biggest bottleneck in agency content marketing is getting client approval for case studies. I need leadership to open those doors — I'll provide the framework and do the writing.
- ·An explicit mandate that marketing is accountable for pipeline, not just activity. The moment marketing is evaluated on 'number of posts published' instead of 'pipeline influenced,' the whole function optimizes for the wrong thing. I've seen it and I've fixed it.
- ·Access to Forthea's growth targets — revenue goal, deal size mix, vertical priority. I can't build the right demand gen strategy without knowing what 'winning' looks like for the business at 12, 24, and 36 months.