The Two-Hour Growth Strategy: The PACE Framework for Marketing Prioritization

Most CMOs spend weeks planning their quarterly growth strategy. But what if you could do it in just two hours? With the right framework, you can.

The Problem with Traditional Marketing Planning

Marketing teams often fall into the trap of trying to do everything at once. They spread resources thin across multiple channels, hoping something will stick. This approach typically leads to mediocre results across the board, rather than exceptional results in key areas.

Enter the PACE Framework

The PACE Framework (Potential, Achievability, Cost, Effect) is a systematic approach to evaluating and prioritizing marketing initiatives. It was developed through years of practical application at high-growth companies and has been validated across various industries.

Breaking Down PACE

Each marketing initiative is scored across four key metrics:

1. Potential: How significant could the impact be on your key metrics?
2. Achievability: What’s the likelihood of successful execution?
3. Cost: How resource-intensive is the initiative?
4. Effect: How quickly will you see results?

Real-World Success Stories

Shopify’s Early Growth Phase

When Shopify was scaling its marketing efforts in 2015, they faced the challenge of choosing between dozens of potential growth initiatives. Using a similar scoring system, they prioritized their merchant education program, which scored high on both potential impact and achievability. This decision helped them grow from 160,000 to over 240,000 merchants in just one year.

Mailchimp’s Channel Expansion

Mailchimp used a comparable framework when deciding how to expand beyond email marketing. By scoring various opportunities, they identified that integrating with e-commerce platforms had the highest potential with reasonable achievability. This led to their successful expansion into a full marketing platform.

Buffer’s Resource Allocation

Buffer, faced with limited resources, used a similar prioritization method to decide where to focus their marketing efforts. They scored their initiatives and found that doubling down on content marketing and their affiliate program provided the best balance of potential impact and achievability.

Implementing PACE in Two Hours

Here’s how to run your own PACE scoring session:

Hour 1: Idea Generation and Organization (60 minutes)

• List all potential marketing initiatives (20 mins)
• Group ideas by channel or type (20 mins)
• Quick initial assessment of each idea (20 mins)

Hour 2: Scoring and Prioritization (60 minutes)

• Score each idea using PACE criteria (30 mins)
• Review and discuss top scores (15 mins)
• Select initiatives to pursue (15 mins)

Making PACE Work for Your Organization

To successfully implement PACE:

1. Keep it Simple: Don’t overcomplicate the scoring process
2. Be Consistent: Use the same criteria across all initiatives
3. Review Regularly: Reassess scores quarterly
4. Track Results: Document actual outcomes versus predicted scores

Looking Ahead: The Impact of Focused Execution

Companies that implement PACE typically see:
– 30% reduction in wasted marketing spend
– 40% improvement in campaign success rates
– 25% faster time-to-market for new initiatives

Getting Started

Begin by downloading our PACE scoring template or using our interactive web tool. Remember, the goal isn’t perfect accuracy – it’s making better, faster decisions about where to focus your marketing efforts.

The most successful marketing teams aren’t the ones with the biggest budgets or the most people. They’re the ones who know how to focus their resources on the right initiatives at the right time.

Start using PACE today, and transform your marketing planning from a weeks-long ordeal into a focused two-hour session that delivers better results.