This week on The Review, Alex Kracov spells out the channel strategies, messaging drills and big bets he invested in as the first marketing hire at Lattice, and which tactics he’s putting to use once again now as CEO and co-founder of Dock.
Passing the Button-Clicker Test, and Other 0 to 1 Lessons from Lattice’s First Marketing Hire
Alex Kracov has a revealing trick to identify the real doers of company-building: what he calls the “button-clicker test.” To build things from scratch, you need to be able to take matters into your own hands, like scrapping together a website mockup in Figma or typing up some landing page copy.
That unglamorous click-clacking made up most of Kracov’s days back when he was employee #3 at HR tech powerhouse Lattice, where he was the first marketing hire. He was tasked with the simultaneously demanding work of not only shaping the marketing strategy, but executing it — from building a website to designing conference t-shirts to publishing blogs and SEO articles.
Kracov has found that too many early marketers are only skilled at the strategy component. “One of the biggest mistakes people make with early marketing hires is they have someone who can talk the talk, but when it comes to actually doing things, they have to go hire people to click the buttons,” he says.
In this exclusive interview, Kracov reflects on how he toggles between high-level decision-making and daily to-dos — and shares his order of operations in his first year as a team of one. From how he worked with the founder to nail down positioning to the experimental approach he took for setting up Lattice’s marketing channels, Kracov opens up his exact playbooks. He also brings things full circle to talk about how he’s thinking about this work now as the founder of Dock, a revenue enablement platform.
Whether you’re a founder or a marketer, Kracov has plenty of advice for the uniquely challenging slog of zero-to-one marketing (he’s tackled it in both seats, after all). Here’s a sampling:
- Stand up a proper website as soon as you can. Even if you’re still putting the finishing touches on the product, your website should be your first priority. “The best thing about a website is you can do a bit of magic trick in the market. You can feel so much bigger than you are if you nail your website and invest a little bit more into the design of the site.”
- Start wide with your channel strategy, then narrow it down once you figure out what sticks. “There are so many different directions you can take marketing,” he says. “Cast a wide net at first — then pick a few channels that really work. And bonus points if you enjoy doing them yourself.”
- Don’t obsess over numbers in the early innings. Slow-burn channels like community and SEO can take years to compound, so don’t expect flashy metrics right after you launch them. “You might see a really cool experienced leader sign up for the Slack channel,” he says. “Or maybe someone said something really nice about the blog. Those signals, while qualitative, can give you a sense of whether or not something is working. And you can be confident that all these little things, incrementally, help the go-to-market function.”
It's a rare peek behind the curtain at what the first year in the founding marketer's seat looks like as a startup finds its sea legs.
Thanks, as always, for reading and sharing!
-The Review Editors
Recommended resources:
-As planning season gets underway, revisit this product prioritization thread from Shreyas Doshi.
-Thinking about investing in a B2B conference? Here's how to stand out amidst the sea of booths.
-How to sharpen your judgment and make better decisions.