The Startup Marketing Checklist: What to Do, In What Order

Most marketing checklists are organized by category. This one is organized by sequence — what to build before what, and why the order matters.

A startup that sets up a Facebook ad account before having a clear value proposition is spending money to drive traffic to a page that won't convert. A startup that builds an elaborate email nurture sequence before validating that anyone wants to sign up is optimizing a funnel that doesn't need to exist yet.

The items below are grouped roughly by phase: foundation first, then acquisition, then optimization. Within each phase, items are ordered by dependency — you can't do the later ones well without the earlier ones.

Phase 1: Foundation (do this before spending on acquisition)

Market and positioning

• Define your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) at company level and person level — not demographics, but the specific person experiencing the problem you solve
• Write a one-sentence value proposition that describes what changes for the customer after using your product (not what the product does)
• Identify the budget category your product belongs to in a buyer's mental model — not "tools" generically, but the specific cost line you're improving or replacing
• Research 5–10 direct competitors — what they charge, what customers complain about in reviews, where their messaging is weak
• Identify 2–3 customer segments with different use cases and write a different value proposition for each

Website and conversion foundation

• Build a dedicated landing page (not a homepage) for your primary acquisition channel with a specific offer and CTA
• Ensure the headline describes an outcome, not a feature
• Add social proof that is specific (company names, numbers, outcomes) rather than generic ("trusted by businesses worldwide")
• Set up a single, frictionless CTA — one action per page
• Verify the page loads in under 2.5 seconds on mobile (test with PageSpeed Insights)
• Install Google Analytics 4 and verify conversions are tracked
• Add a basic heatmap tool (Hotjar, Microsoft Clarity) to see where users click and where they drop off

SEO foundation

• Claim and verify Google Search Console
• Submit an XML sitemap
• Ensure each page has a unique title tag and meta description
• Fix any crawl errors shown in Search Console
• Verify HTTPS is active on all pages
• Check Core Web Vitals status in Search Console

Phase 2: Acquisition (build these once the foundation converts)

Paid acquisition

• Define a target CPA before running any paid campaign — what is a customer worth and what can you afford to pay to acquire one?
• Start with search ads targeting bottom-of-funnel keywords (people actively searching for what you do), not awareness campaigns
• Create campaign-specific landing pages — not your homepage, not a generic product page
• Set up conversion tracking before spending
• Run for at least 2 weeks before evaluating results — algorithm learning requires volume
• Track qualified leads (sales-accepted), not just form fills

Content and SEO

• Identify 5–10 keywords your ICP uses when searching for solutions to the problem you solve — use Ahrefs or Semrush for volume and difficulty
• Write one piece of content per keyword that genuinely answers the query better than current top results
• Add internal links from each piece of content to your conversion pages
• Build comparison and alternative pages ("Product X vs. Product Y", "Best [category] for [use case]") — these have high commercial intent and are underproduced by most companies
• Publish consistently — one strong piece per week beats four mediocre pieces per week

Email

• Set up a welcome sequence for new signups: what the product does, what to do first, how to get help
• Build three lifecycle triggers: activation nudge at day 3 (if no key action), re-engagement at day 21 (if inactive), upgrade nudge when user hits free tier limits
• Segment your list by use case or ICP from signup — send different content to different segments from day one
• Track email-to-activation rate, not open rate, as your primary email performance metric

Social and community

• Identify 2–3 communities where your ICP congregates (specific subreddits, Slack groups, LinkedIn groups, forums)
• Participate genuinely before promoting — answer questions, share useful content, establish presence
• Share founder updates and product progress — people root for builders who are transparent
• Use community insights to improve product and messaging, not just as a distribution channel

Phase 3: Optimization (build these once acquisition is working)

Conversion optimization

• Run one A/B test per month minimum — start with the headline, then the CTA, then the hero section
• Document every test: hypothesis, variant, result, confidence level
• Review session recordings monthly for patterns in where users drop off
• Interview 5 recent customers about what convinced them to buy — use their language in your copy
• Interview 5 churned customers about why they left — fix the most common reasons

Retention and referral

• Calculate your 30-day and 90-day retention rates by cohort — if you don't know these numbers, set up the tracking before building anything else in retention
• Identify your highest-retention user segment and build more of their onboarding experience into the default path
• Ask your most engaged customers directly if there's anyone in their network who'd benefit — no formal program required, just a direct ask
• Track NPS quarterly and follow up with detractors within 48 hours

Analytics and reporting

• Define 3–5 metrics that matter for your business stage: at early stage, these are typically trial signups, activation rate, and MRR. Not vanity metrics.
• Build a single dashboard with these metrics, reviewed weekly
• Set up funnel visualization from first touch to paid conversion
• Review CAC by channel monthly — not all leads are equal in cost or quality
• Track LTV:CAC ratio — a ratio above 3:1 is generally healthy; below 1:1 means the unit economics don't work

What to skip (at least for now)

These things are fine to build eventually. They're actively harmful if built before the foundation is solid:

• Complex marketing automation before you have a converting funnel
• Video content and podcast before you have a clear content strategy
• Affiliate or partnership programs before you have a product with strong retention
• Brand guidelines and design system before you have product-market fit
• ABM (account-based marketing) before you have a repeatable sales motion

The most expensive marketing mistakes we see: startups building sophisticated systems for a stage they haven't reached yet, while neglecting the foundation that the systems depend on.

Marketing checklists are useful for knowing what exists. What's harder is knowing what to do next given where you actually are.
That's a more specific conversation.
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