Scaling a company is a very different challenge to launching one. After a funding round, whether Series A, B, or C, the pressure is on to convert capital into growth. Marketing leaders are expected to build predictable revenue engines, reach new markets, and demonstrate efficiency. All, usually, in a minimal space of time.
A strong digital marketing strategy is the foundation of that growth. It aligns your product, market, and channels into a system that can scale spend without losing efficiency. So this guide outlines the key steps and nuances you need to know when creating a digital marketing strategy for a scaling business, particularly in SaaS, fintech, and B2B.
What is a Digital Marketing Strategy?
A digital marketing strategy is the blueprint for how your company will utilise digital channels, including search, paid media, content, affiliates, and more, to drive measurable growth. It’s not just a list of tactics. It’s a framework that ties together your market, your product, and your audience into a repeatable, scalable system for generating revenue.
If you search for definitions, you’ll come across dozens of frameworks: the 7 stages of digital marketing, the 4 pillars of marketing, even the 5Ds of digital. These can be helpful as a starting point, they highlight fundamentals like audience research, channel planning, measurement, and optimisation.
But scaling companies can’t afford to rely on broad, generic models. Theory isn’t enough. What matters is how your strategy connects directly to your objectives, funding stage, and audience realities. The approach for a SaaS company fresh off a Series A is completely different to a fintech business entering a new market at Series C.
That’s why in this guide, we’ll move past one-size-fits-all checklists and instead break down the core components of a practical, stage-specific digital marketing strategy, covering:
- How to align business model and market fit with digital activity
- Which channels to prioritise at each funding stage
- How PPC, SEO, affiliates, and CRO interact as you scale
- Why creativity and brand matter just as much as efficiency
- How to measure success when attribution is never perfect
The goal isn’t to follow a theory; it’s to build a digital strategy that scales with your business, without wasting the investment you’ve worked hard to secure.
Why scaling companies at different stages of growth need a different kind of strategy
At seed stage, marketing is often scrappy. Testing messages, running low-budget campaigns, and seeing what sticks. Post-funding, the demands change:
- Series A: Prove acquisition channels can work at scale.
- Series B: Broaden reach, expand into new regions, and build brand recognition.
- Series C+: Maximise efficiency across the funnel, reduce CAC, and drive enterprise-level credibility.
At each stage, investors are looking for predictable, measurable growth. That means your digital strategy can’t be opportunistic; it has to be structured.
Step 1: Ground your strategy in the business model
Before choosing channels or campaigns, start with clarity on:
- Revenue model: subscription, usage-based, marketplace, or enterprise contract.
- Sales cycle: Are deals quick self-serve or 9-month enterprise negotiations?
- Market segment: SMB, mid-market, or enterprise.
This context will determine everything: ad spend pacing, messaging, landing page design, attribution modelling, and CAC payback.
Step 2: Define ICPs and segment audiences
Scaling isn’t just about “more leads”, it’s about more of the right leads.
- Build Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs): industry, company size, geography, decision-maker roles.
- Use data sources (CRM, closed-won analysis, sales feedback) to validate.
- Segment your audiences: Series A companies may target early adopters; Series B+ may go after procurement-heavy enterprise accounts.
Step 3: Set measurable goals and guardrails
Scaling ppc budgets without guardrails leads to waste. Define:
- North Star metrics: CAC payback, pipeline value, MRR growth.
- Channel metrics: CPC, CTR, conversion rate, SQLs, pipeline contribution.
- Efficiency rules: e.g., CAC must stay below 1/3 of LTV, or payback within 12 months.
This ensures growth doesn’t come at the cost of unsustainable acquisition.
Step 4: Build a full-funnel framework
Scaling requires moving beyond bottom-of-funnel intent ads. Think in three layers:
- Top of funnel (TOFU): demand generation (content marketing, awareness campaigns, thought leadership, PR).
- Middle of funnel (MOFU): lead nurturing (email, remarketing, CRO, webinars).
- Bottom of funnel (BOFU): high-intent capture (Google Search PPC, LinkedIn lead gen, direct response).
Each layer supports the next, avoiding over-reliance on expensive bottom-funnel clicks.
Step 5: Prioritise digital channels that scale
Here’s how channels fit into a scaling strategy:
- Search ads capture in-market demand quickly. Essential for SaaS/fintech scaling post-Series A.
- Paid social (LinkedIn, Meta, X, TikTok in some cases) drives awareness and lead-gen at scale.
- Build testing frameworks: ad copy, landing pages, and audiences should be constantly iterated.
2. SEO
- Invest early, results compound over time.
- Start with technical foundations, then content hubs around ICP pain points.
- Align SEO with paid: SEO for evergreen discovery, PPC for high-intent capture.
- For Series B+, international SEO becomes critical when entering new regions.
3. Affiliate / Partnerships
- As spend scales, small improvements compound.
- Test CTAs, form lengths, pricing pages, and trial flows.
- Use session replay tools, heatmaps, and structured A/B tests.
Step 6: Create campaigns for each funding stage
Series A
- Focus: proving paid channels can scale.
- Approach: heavy on PPC, agile testing, short feedback loops.
- Creative: emphasise pain points solved, quick demos, founder credibility.
Series B
- Focus: expanding reach + efficiency.
- Approach: layer more SEO investment, start brand-building campaigns, and invest more in CRO.
- Creative: use social proof, industry authority, and customer stories.
Series C+
- Focus: market leadership + enterprise trust.
- Approach: brand + performance blend. Heavy investment in partnerships, global SEO, and account-based marketing.
- Creative: category leadership, analyst recognition, ROI calculators, enterprise case studies.
Step 7: Connect marketing to sales operations
Scaling is only successful if pipeline turns into revenue.
- Align definitions of MQL, SQL, and “high quality leads” with sales.
- Invest in marketing automation and lead scoring based on the above definitions.
- Map lead sources to closed revenue using blended CAC reporting due to attribution gaps.
Step 8: Attribution and measurement
Scaling budgets without accurate reporting is risky.
- Use first-party data and enhanced conversions where possible.
- Blend attribution models: last click for efficiency, data-driven or multi-touch for strategy.
- Accept that full visibility isn’t possible, particularly in long-cycle B2B SaaS. Build dashboards that give directional clarity, not false precision.
Step 9: Add creativity and brand building
Performance levers alone won’t get you there. Scaling companies must stand out in noisy markets.
- Build distinctive creative: visual identity, challenger messaging, bold campaigns.
- Invest in thought leadership and content that’s more than gated PDFs.
- Balance rational ROI proof with emotional brand building. Investors will expect both.
Step 10: Iterate, learn, and scale responsibly
Finally, treat your strategy as a living system:
- Run quarterly reviews of channel efficiency.
- Scale budgets into proven campaigns first before adding new experiments.
- Document learnings and feed them into the next funding milestone.
Ready to get started?
Creating a digital marketing strategy for a scaling company isn’t just about picking channels. It’s about structuring growth in a way that can stand the scrutiny of investors and CFOs while keeping creative enough to win in competitive markets.
For SaaS, fintech, and B2B businesses post-funding, the playbook is clear:
- Start narrow, prove efficiency, expand, and professionalise.
- Align PPC, SEO, affiliates, and CRO under one measurement framework.
- Balance hard data with creativity and brand building.
The result? A digital strategy that scales with your business, stage by stage.
For help crafting your digital marketing strategy get your free proposal from Lever Digital , experts in scaling ppc strategy.
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