Duct Tape Marketing for B2B SaaS
A 12-14 week project that adapts John Jantsch's Duct Tape Marketing system - anchored on the Marketing Hourglass (Know, Like, Trust, Try, Buy, Repeat, Refer) - into a CRM-native, B2B SaaS operating system. Replaces founder-led tactic-of-the-week marketing with a documented strategy, an instrumented hourglass, a content engine, a lead-conversion machine, a referral engine, and a permanent operating cadence. Outputs produce the T2D3 growth-curve foundation (Triple-1 -> Triple-2): a system that can survive without the founder's daily attention. Reference methodology: https://ducttapemarketing.com/seven-steps-marketing-system/. Total scope: 7 modules, 22 sections, 65 tasks, 807 hours of canonical effort.
M1 - Foundation: ICP, Core Message, Visual Identity
T2D3 stage Triple-1. The single biggest reason B2B SaaS marketing fails at $1-10M ARR is that no one wrote down who you serve, what pain you solve, or what unique claim you make. Module 1 produces the strategic spine: ICP one-pager, Pain-Claim-Gain core message, brand positioning statement, anti-personas, talking logo, talk triggers, and visual identity. STOP step Standardize the strategic artifacts so every downstream module can pull from a single source of truth. Reference https://ducttapemarketing.com/strategy-first/. Without this module, the Hourglass becomes a slide.
M1.S1 - ICP and Anti-Personas
Identify the narrowest viable ICP and codify anti-personas. Deliverables: ICP one-pager, anti-persona list, JTBD statements, watering-hole map. Per Jantsch's Strategy First (https://ducttapemarketing.com/strategy-first/), narrow wins.
Audit current customer base and identify best-fit cohort
This is John Jantsch's Step 1 — "Strategy Before Tactics" rendered as a B2B SaaS data-pull. Every downstream Module 1 output (ICP, anti-personas, core message, visual identity) is…
Draft ICP one-pager (narrowest viable B2B SaaS segment)
The ICP one-pager is the source of truth every downstream module reads from - the core message, the hub topics, the Hourglass tactics, the CRM scoring schema all dereference it.…
Define 3 anti-personas (who we explicitly will NOT sell to)
Saying NO is Jantsch's most-overlooked Step-1 lesson: "when you serve everyone, you serve no one." Anti-personas are the inverse of the ICP - the deals that close but churn, drag…
M1.S2 - Core Message (Pain-Claim-Gain)
Build a Pain-Claim-Gain core message and brand positioning statement. Deliverables: Core Message Document, talking logo, 30-sec founder pitch, talk-trigger candidates, headline variants per persona.
Draft Pain-Claim-Gain core message v1 with T2D3 generator
The Pain-Claim-Gain core message is the spine of every Hourglass stage - the same emotional throughline that runs from a LinkedIn hook (Know) to the pricing page (Buy). T2D3's…
Lock brand positioning statement in 'We help X get Y by Z' form
A positioning statement everyone on the team can recite the same way is what stops downstream copy from drifting. Jantsch's template - "We help [ideal client] get [core result] by…
Build talking logo and 3 talk-trigger candidates (Jay Baer)
Two distinct artifacts here. Jantsch's talking logo is the conversational version of your positioning - what you say at a conference or on a call when someone asks "what do you…
M1.S3 - Visual Identity
Establish brand visual system. Deliverables: brand style board (color, type, photography rules), logo variants, slide template, social templates. Per Jantsch's Step 3 'Wake Up the Senses with an Image to Match Your Message.'
Produce brand style board v1 (color, type, photography, voice)
Jantsch's Step 3 - "Wake Up the Senses with an Image to Match Your Message." The brand style board is where the Pain-Claim-Gain stops being words and starts being felt. In B2B…
Apply brand system to slide / social / doc templates
A brand style board that lives only as a Figma file never ships - it has to become operational templates the team uses without thinking. This task converts the v1 style board…
M1.S4 - Customer Discovery Interviews
Run 5 ideal-client interviews to validate ICP/Core Message (per Strategy First step 4). Deliverables: 5 transcripts, snippet-tag taxonomy, problem-statement library, validation memo.
Build 5-customer interview list (best-fit, recent winners)
Per Jantsch's Strategy First step 4 - "conduct research or interview 5 ideal clients" - this is the bridge from desk hypotheses to validated truth. The whole point of Module 1 is…
Draft Pain-Claim-Gain interview guide
The interview guide is the trio's go-to-meeting artifact - the script that turns five 30-minute calls into structured evidence rather than friendly chats. Its job is to test the…
Run 5 interviews and synthesize into validation memo
This is the gate that locks Module 1 and opens Module 2 - the moment the ICP and Pain-Claim-Gain stop being hypotheses and become validated (or get revised). Running the five…
M2 - Hourglass Build: Know, Like, Trust
T2D3 stage Triple-1. Builds the upper Hourglass - the stages that turn a stranger into a trusted candidate. Maps Jantsch's KLT to B2B SaaS: organic SEO + topical authority (Know), founder-led narrative + nurture (Like), G2 review velocity + security pages + named case studies (Trust). G2 2025 reports 31% of buyers cite review sites as their most-consulted source - Trust is now where deals are won. STOP step Standardize -> Templatize each play. Reference https://ducttapemarketing.com/grow-your-business-with-the-marketing-hourglass-framework/.
M2.S1 - Know Stage
Awareness: SEO + content hubs + paid LinkedIn + LLM discoverability. Deliverables: 3 hub-page briefs, paid-social campaign, LinkedIn ABM list, LLM-prompt monitoring setup. Per Jantsch's Hourglass framework.
Define Know-stage tactic stack (B2B SaaS)
The Know stage is the mouth of John Jantsch's Marketing Hourglass — where strangers first encounter your category and your name. For B2B SaaS, "being known" is no longer just SEO…
Brief 3 hub pages (topic clusters) for primary ICP JTBD
Jantsch's third step, "Make Content the Voice of Strategy," insists content isn't a stream of posts but the architecture of how you earn attention. The practical expression of…
Launch paid LinkedIn ABM campaign for 200-account list
Paid LinkedIn is the Know-stage amplifier for B2B SaaS: it lets you put your message in front of a named, finite set of accounts rather than a broad audience. In Hourglass terms,…
Baseline LLM-answer share-of-voice for 30 ICP queries
The customer journey is being rewritten by AI: with ~50% of B2B software buyers now starting research in AI chatbots, the Hourglass Know stage increasingly happens inside an LLM…
M2.S2 - Like Stage
Personality + nurture: founder LinkedIn cadence, weekly newsletter, opinionated POV piece, episodic customer-narrative content. Deliverables: nurture sequence, newsletter template, founder content calendar.
Launch weekly newsletter (founder-voice, 600-900 words)
In Jantsch's Hourglass, the Like stage is where a stranger who knows you decides you're worth paying attention to. The single most efficient Like-stage surface for B2B SaaS is a…
Stand up founder LinkedIn cadence (3 posts/week)
Founder-led content is the highest-converting Like-stage signal for early-stage B2B SaaS. Buyers don't bond with logos — they bond with people who have a point of view about the…
Design 5-touch Like-stage nurture sequence
The Hourglass only works if there's a mechanism that moves a contact from Know to Like — and then keeps nurturing them toward Try. A 5-touch email sequence, triggered the moment a…
M2.S3 - Trust Stage
Credibility: review velocity, security/compliance pages, named case studies, logo wall, analyst placements. Deliverables: G2/Capterra/TrustRadius outreach plan, trust center, 5 named case studies, reviews-velocity dashboard.
Build B2B SaaS Trust-stage definition card (T2D3 IP)
The Trust stage is the Hourglass hinge where "I like you" becomes "I believe you can deliver." For B2B SaaS, trust is manufactured deliberately through third-party proof, not…
Launch G2/Capterra/TrustRadius review velocity program
Reviews are the single highest-leverage Trust-stage asset in B2B SaaS — and with 31% of buyers (per G2's 2025 report) consulting review sites first, recency and volume directly…
Produce 5 named customer case studies (1-pager + long-form)
Case studies are the proof engine of the Trust stage — the moment a prospect sees a named company like theirs win with your product, abstract claims become believable. Reviews…
Build trust center page (security, compliance, logos)
In the Marketing Hourglass, Trust is the stage where a buyer moves from "I like these people" to "I can safely put my company's data and budget on the line." For B2B SaaS the…
M3 - Hourglass Build: Try, Buy
T2D3 stage Triple-1 -> Triple-2. The conversion middle of the Hourglass. Try = trial / sandbox / POC / interactive product tour / ROI calculator. Buy = pricing clarity, procurement support, security questionnaire pre-fill, MSA/DPA library, time-to-first-value < 10 minutes (OpenView/Lenny benchmark). STOP step Templatize so every offer has a reusable launch + measurement spec. Reference https://www.1capture.io/blog/free-trial-conversion-benchmarks-2025.
M3.S1 - Try Stage (Trial / Sandbox / POC)
Trial / sandbox / POC design. Deliverables: trial UX spec (opt-in vs CC), sandbox / interactive tour, POC playbook, ROI calculator, on-demand demo. Time-to-first-value < 10 min target.
Build B2B SaaS Try-stage definition card
The Try stage is the Hourglass's pivotal moment: a trusting prospect takes a low-risk action that lets them experience value before they buy. In B2B SaaS this isn't one thing —…
Decide: trial vs sandbox vs POC for our motion
Picking the wrong Try-stage motion is one of the most expensive mistakes in B2B SaaS: a self-serve trial on a $100K enterprise product strands buyers who need hand-holding, while…
Optimize trial UX for time-to-first-value < 10 minutes
A trial only converts if the prospect feels value fast — and the single strongest predictor is time-to-first-value (TTFV). Per OpenView/Lenny analysis, winning B2B SaaS trials hit…
Ship 1 self-serve ROI calculator OR diagnostic scorecard
Not every Like-stage visitor is ready for a full trial — many want a low-commitment way to see "what's in it for me" first. A self-serve ROI calculator or diagnostic scorecard is…
M3.S2 - Try Stage Offers
Mid-funnel offers: scorecards, assessments, ebooks, webinars. Deliverables: >=3 Try-stage offers wired to CRM, drip sequences, offer landing pages. Per Jantsch's content hourglass.
Ship 3 Try-stage content offers (ebook, webinar, scorecard)
Jantsch's content hourglass maps specific content types to each stage — and the Try stage is served by evaluation-grade content: ebooks, webinars, and assessment processes that…
Build Try-stage drip sequence per offer (3-touch each)
A content offer that just delivers an asset and goes silent wastes its best leverage. The Try-stage drip is the follow-through that turns a download into a demo — a short,…
Produce on-demand demo video (8-12 min, segmented per ICP)
A live demo is the highest-converting Try-stage moment — but scheduling friction kills many warm prospects before they ever see the product. An on-demand demo video removes that…
M3.S3 - Buy Stage
Purchase + onboarding fitness: pricing page, procurement/security paths, MSA/DPA library, kickoff playbook, TTFV < 10 min. Deliverables: pricing page rebuild (gate-eligible), procurement kit, kickoff scripts, first-100-days plan.
Build B2B SaaS Buy-stage definition card
The Buy stage is where intent becomes revenue — and in B2B SaaS it's where deals quietly die, not from lack of desire but from operational friction: an unclear pricing page, a…
Rebuild pricing page with Pain-Claim-Gain anchoring
The pricing page is almost always the largest single leak in the Buy stage — prospects who are sold on the product bounce because they can't quickly map cost to value, can't find…
Assemble procurement and legal kit (MSA, DPA, security pre-fill)
Enterprise B2B SaaS deals rarely die on price — they stall in procurement because the legal and security artifacts the buyer's team demands aren't pre-built. Every week a security…
Build customer-success kickoff + First 100 Days playbook
The Buy stage doesn't end at signature — it ends when the new customer realizes the value they bought. Duct Tape Marketing's CX engine sequences the post-sale relationship as…
M4 - Hourglass Build: Repeat, Refer
T2D3 stage Triple-2. The bottom of the Hourglass - Jantsch's most-overlooked stages and where B2B SaaS NRR is decided. Repeat = QBRs / async expansion playbook / education academy / product newsletter. Refer = customer advisory board, talk triggers, advocacy program, Partnerstack/Reachdesk integration. NRR >=110% target, referral revenue >=15% of new ARR. STOP step Templatize -> Optimize. References https://www.wudpecker.io/blog/retention-benchmarks-for-b2b-saas-in-2025 and https://www.revel-one.com/resources/customer-marketing-and-customer-advisory-boards.
M4.S1 - Repeat Stage
Retention + expansion. Deliverables: QBR / async-QBR template, expansion-trigger playbook (in-app at 80% tier-limit), education academy v0, product release newsletter. NRR 110%+ target.
Build B2B SaaS Repeat-stage definition card
In Jantsch's Marketing Hourglass, Repeat is where unit economics are won. For B2B SaaS, a paying logo that never expands is a slow-bleed liability; Net Revenue Retention (NRR)…
Build QBR / async-QBR template (SMB to enterprise)
The Quarterly Business Review is the canonical Repeat-stage rhythm — the recurring moment where the customer is reminded of value delivered and shown the next expansion path.…
Codify expansion-trigger playbook (in-app + CSM-led)
Expansion is the engine of NRR, and the costliest mistake is waiting for the customer to complain before offering more. By the time a team is bumping the ceiling of its plan, the…
Launch monthly product release newsletter (existing customers)
In Jantsch's content hourglass, Repeat-stage content "shows advanced results from your products" — it teaches existing customers to extract more value so they stay, deepen, and…
M4.S2 - Refer Stage Program
Customer referral + advocacy program. Deliverables: customer referral incentive program, Partnerstack/Reachdesk integration, advocacy program tiering, talk-trigger workshop. Target >=15% of new ARR from referrals.
Build B2B SaaS Refer-stage definition card
Refer is the last and most leveraged stage of the Hourglass: a happy customer who brings you the next customer collapses CAC toward zero and arrives with built-in trust. Yet most…
Design customer referral incentive program (cash vs credit vs recognition)
The incentive design is the program — it determines who refers, how often, and whether the reward reinforces or undermines your product. The most common failure is defaulting to a…
Stand up Partnerstack OR Reachdesk OR Cello integration
A referral program without tracking infrastructure is a spreadsheet that dies in week three. This task stands up the system of record that attributes referrals, automates payouts,…
Implement 1 talk trigger from M1 (operational, not slogan)
Jay Baer's Talk Triggers are the operational core of the Refer stage: a talk trigger is an operational choice — not a marketing slogan — that is so remarkable customers can't help…
M4.S3 - Refer Stage (CAB + Partner Ecosystem)
Customer advisory board + partner ecosystem. Deliverables: CAB charter, member roster, meeting cadence, partner-archetype map (complementary, adjacent, upstream, downstream), partner outreach sequence.
Charter Customer Advisory Board (CAB) and recruit 6-10 members
A Customer Advisory Board is the most strategic Refer-stage asset: it converts your best customers from passive users into co-architects of the roadmap and your loudest, most…
Map 4 strategic partner archetypes (complementary, adjacent, upstream, downstream)
Partner-sourced revenue is referral at organizational scale — one partner can route dozens of pre-qualified, trust-warmed prospects. But "let's find partners" without a taxonomy…
Build 4-touch partner outreach sequence
Partner programs fail not for lack of good partners but for lack of sequenced outreach — a single "want to partner?" email gets ignored because it leads with your ask before…
Document co-marketing playbook (joint webinar, integration launch)
In Jantsch's content hourglass, the Refer stage is fueled by co-branded content — joint ebooks, teaching events for partners, and partner-introduction content — because a partner…
M5 - Content Engine
T2D3 stage Triple-1 -> Triple-2. Implements Jantsch's Step 3 ('Make Content the Voice of Strategy'). Builds 3 content hubs (topic clusters), an editorial calendar, a content-to-Hourglass mapping, and an LLM-discoverable content posture (G2 finds 50% of buyers now start research with AI chatbots). STOP step Optimize - measure hub performance and double-down on the working one. References https://ducttapemarketing.com/seven-steps-marketing-system/ and https://ducttapemarketing.com/ai-rewriting-the-customer-journey/.
M5.S1 - Content Hubs
Build 3 content hubs (topic clusters) aligned to ICP JTBD. Deliverables: hub briefs, supporting article calendar, internal-linking spec, hub performance dashboard. Per Jantsch Step 3 - hubs dominate search and LLM share-of-voice.
Build hub-page #1 + 8 supporting articles
This is the first physical stand-up of your content engine and the proof point for Jantsch's Step 3, "Make Content the Voice of Strategy." A hub page is the topic-cluster anchor —…
Build 12-week editorial calendar mapped to Hourglass stages
Jantsch's third step, "Make Content the Voice of Strategy," insists that content is not a stream of posts but a deliberate sequence that walks a buyer through the Marketing…
Build syndication plan (LinkedIn / podcasts / newsletter)
Producing a 3,000-word hub and publishing it once is leaving 90% of the value on the table. The Duct Tape principle here is distribution is half the job — a single long-form asset…
M5.S2 - Editorial Calendar
Quarterly editorial calendar mapped to Hourglass stages. Deliverables: 12-week calendar, content-to-Hourglass map, syndication plan (LinkedIn, podcasts, newsletter).
Map every content asset to one Hourglass stage
The signature failure mode of a B2B SaaS content library is imbalance: most teams pour effort into Know (top-of-funnel SEO) and Try (gated demos, trials) while starving Trust,…
Build hub-pages #2 and #3 + briefs for 16 supporting articles
With hub #1 live, the engine scales by replicating the SOP across two more topic clusters. Three hubs with eight supporting articles each is the 90-day topical-authority footprint…
M5.S3 - LLM Discoverability
LLM-answer share-of-voice posture. Deliverables: LLM-monitoring dashboard, structured-data implementation, answer-engine optimization brief. Feature-gated section - skipped if customer.has_aio_program == true (covered by website-rebuild M4 AIO content guide).
Implement schema.org markup for hubs (Article, FAQPage, HowTo)
Buyers increasingly start research inside AI chatbots, and those systems preferentially extract from well-structured pages. Schema.org markup is the machine-readable layer that…
Stand up weekly LLM share-of-voice monitoring dashboard
A one-time LLM baseline tells you where you stand today; a recurring weekly monitor tells you whether your content engine is actually moving the needle in AI answer surfaces. With…
M6 - Lead Conversion System
T2D3 stage Triple-2. Jantsch's Step 6 - 'Make Lead Conversion Your X Factor.' Maps every micro-conversion (newsletter, ebook, demo, trial, paid) to a CRM-native Hourglass stage. Installs PQL scoring, lead-routing, lifecycle stage rules, and a conversion-rate dashboard that surfaces leakage by stage. T2D3 IP: the CRM-native Hourglass scoring model. STOP step Optimize. Reference https://hightouch.com/blog/the-definitive-guide-to-product-qualified-leads.
M6.S1 - CRM Hourglass Scoring
CRM-native Hourglass scoring model (T2D3 IP). Deliverables: HubSpot/Salesforce property schema, lifecycle-stage rules, scoring rubric per stage, automation workflows.
Define CRM Hourglass property schema (HubSpot or Salesforce)
This is the data foundation of the entire lead-conversion system: a CRM-native Hourglass scoring model (T2D3 IP) that makes every stage of the Know-Like-Trust-Try-Buy-Repeat-Refer…
Configure auto-staging rules + lifecycle automation
A schema alone is inert — this task brings the Hourglass to life by automating stage transitions so contacts move Know → Like → Trust → Try → Buy on their own behavioral and…
M6.S2 - PQL Scoring (Try -> Buy)
Product-Qualified-Lead scoring (Try -> Buy bridge). Deliverables: PQL definition, event taxonomy, scoring weights, MQL/PQL routing rules. Feature-gated section - active when customer.gtm_motion in (plg, hybrid).
Define PQL event taxonomy + scoring weights
For any product-led or hybrid GTM motion, the Try → Buy transition is won inside the product, not the CRM — so this task builds the Product-Qualified-Lead (PQL) event taxonomy:…
Configure PQL -> AE routing rules + SLA
A high PQL score is worthless if the lead sits in a queue for two days — speed-to-lead is the single largest controllable lever on PQL conversion. This task wires the PQL score…
M6.S3 - Conversion Dashboard
Conversion-rate dashboard (leakage by Hourglass stage). Deliverables: stage-by-stage conversion dashboard, anomaly alerts, weekly leak report. Surfaces the biggest leak; drives Module 7 monthly review.
Build stage-by-stage conversion dashboard (leakage by stage)
This dashboard is the payoff of the entire Hourglass instrumentation — a single view that shows the conversion rate between every adjacent stage and instantly surfaces the biggest…
Configure anomaly alerts + weekly leak report
A dashboard that no one looks at on a Tuesday is a dashboard that misses a leak until the quarter is already lost. This task makes the conversion data push instead of pull:…
M7 - Marketing Rhythm + Measurement
T2D3 stage Triple-2 -> Double-1. Jantsch's Step 7 - 'Live by the Calendar.' Stand-ups, monthly review, quarterly priorities, annual plan, daily founder reflection. The module that converts the project into a permanent operating system. STOP step Productize - every play graduates from project to BAU with an owner, a scorecard, and a STOP card. References https://www.reforge.com/guides/build-your-marketing-team-s-operating-rhythm and https://www.cmovate.com/from-chaos-to-cadence-building-a-12-week-marketing-rhythm/.
M7.S1 - Weekly Rhythm
Weekly stand-up + scorecard. Deliverables: agenda template, weekly KPI scorecard, blocker-removal SOP. Two tasks - exempt from the 8-task floor per Decision 2 (cadence section).
Stand up weekly marketing stand-up (30 min)
The weekly stand-up is the heartbeat of the Duct Tape operating system — Jantsch's Step 7, "Live by the Calendar," made operational. Without a fixed weekly cadence, the 30+ plays…
Lock weekly KPI scorecard (top 7 metrics)
A weekly scorecard only works if it is small and balanced — one metric per hourglass stage, so no part of the Know→Refer journey can quietly fail unnoticed. The failure mode for…
M7.S2 - Monthly + Quarterly Rhythm
Monthly review + quarterly priority cycle. Deliverables: monthly review deck template, quarterly priority worksheet, 12-week sprint cadence. Two tasks - exempt from the 8-task floor per Decision 2 (cadence section).
Build monthly marketing review deck (90 min, all-team)
The monthly review is where Jantsch's Step 7 — "Live by the Calendar" — connects short-term execution to the long-term strategy set in M1. The weekly stand-up keeps the team…
Adopt 12-week sprint cadence + quarterly priority worksheet
Annual plans rot because twelve months is too long a feedback loop for a scaling B2B SaaS team. The 12-week cycle fixes this: it is long enough to ship a real hourglass play and…
M7.S3 - Annual Plan + STOP Promotion
Annual plan + STOP promotion of plays from project to BAU. Deliverables: annual marketing plan, STOP scorecard for every play, BAU ownership map, daily founder-reflection prompt. Three tasks - exempt from the 8-task floor per Decision 2 (roll-up section).
Build annual marketing plan (T2D3 growth-curve aligned)
The annual plan is where the Duct Tape hourglass gets tied to the financial reality of the T2D3 growth curve — Triple, Triple, Double, Double, Double, the trajectory that takes a…
Run STOP promotion exercise - every play graduates project -> BAU
Across M2–M6 you stood up 30+ hourglass plays as projects — newsletters, review sprints, PQL routing, referral programs. Without a graduation mechanism they all stay "projects":…
Adopt daily founder reflection prompt (Self-Reliant Entrepreneur)
The whole point of building a marketing operating rhythm is that the system survives the daily chaos. Jantsch's The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur (Wiley, 2019) adds the smallest…