Marketing With Purpose Kit: Turning Marketing into a Revenue Engine

**SPEAKER_2** (0:04)
The Bliss Business Podcast, the show about empathy, connection and consciousness in business. Today's episode is brought to you by Zero Company, your paid search, social media and programmatic ad experts.

**Tullio Siragusa** (0:16)
Welcome back to Marketing With Purpose, a segment of the Bliss Business Podcast, where we explore what it really takes for marketing leaders to create impact that goes beyond the numbers. I'm Tullio and in each episode, we sit down with marketing experts to explore their leadership approach and strategies that drive performance and resonate with their audience. Together we'll dive into what's working, what's not, and how purpose and empathy can transform the way brands connect with people. So let's get started. Today I'm joined by Madeleine Zook, who's the co-founder of Catalyst. Madeleine is a recognized leader in the franchise industry with experience as a multi-brand franchisor, multi-unit franchisee, and founder of multiple agencies focused on franchise marketing operations and recruitment. Through Catalyst, the growth and marketing advisory firm she co-founded with franchise executive David Barr, she helps emerging and mid-market brands scale strategically with the firm now supporting franchise systems representing more than $1 billion in system-wide revenue.
Named one of USA Today's top 10 CMOs to watch and recognized among Philadelphia's top 100 C-suite executives, Madeleine brings a unique blend of operational insight, marketing expertise, and entrepreneurial leadership. We're going to explore turning marketing into a revenue engine. This is a favorite topic, it should be a favorite topic for all CMOs. And I'm excited to dive into it and see how strategic marketing can feel measurable, sustainable business growth.
Madeleine, it's great to have you with us today. Before we dive in a little bit, I'd love to hear, why was this topic, the topic you chose, you know, turning marketing into a revenue engine, and why do you think that's so important, especially right now?

**Madeleine Zook** (2:14)
Yeah, well, first of all, thanks for having me. I'm excited to have this conversation. I think, you know, in franchising, you see the small to the big and everything in between. So whether it's just starting out brands and just starting out business owners, all the way to multi-brand, legacy, McDonald's, you know, the cult brands, if you will, there's only one term when it comes to lead generation in its marketing. And that's kind of like saying, I need a car. And then people are like, great, what kind of car? That's always the next question, right? What kind of car? What do you need? What do you like? That's not what happens in marketing. It's just I need more marketing. Marketing is not working. And so what myself and Catalyst really strives to do is get down to the nuts and bolts of what marketing means to you. I always say, you know, we need to look always with the data because in franchising, there's a lot of cooks in the kitchen, right? It's the franchise owner, the franchise business coach, the Zor, anything in between. And there's a lot of different opinions, a lot of subjectiveness. So we always have to go to the numbers.
Now, you know, if you understand your numbers well enough, then there's a model there. And it is our job to build that model to your expectations of revenue. Now, once I get that down, we can optimize everything up from there. And to me, that's the creative, that's how you're positioned, that's do we need another video shoot. So for me, you know, marketing is a direct correlation to dollars in the register, and there's a lot in between point A and point B.
And so, you know, I'm excited to actually talk about how direct spend can correlate to revenue, because I think it's, there's a lot going on right now, a lot of changes, a lot of price increases, and it's scaring some a lot of business owners. And so, it's important.

**Tullio Siragusa** (4:13)
I love it. You know, in design thinking, the first question is not what, it's why, right?
And I love how you guys start with the end goal, like, where are you going? It's like getting into a car, you're not just going to fire up the GPS without an end location, otherwise you'll go in circles. So like, where are you going, right? Unless you're driving a really cool convertible Ferrari for no reason, you just drive around and that might be fun. But usually-

**Madeleine Zook** (4:41)
That might be the goal, that's fine.

**Tullio Siragusa** (4:43)
It's always a goal, so the goal might be always have fun for a moment.
All right. Okay. So the reality is CMOs are pulled quite often in many different direction, and the big balance is always near-term results and long-term brand building, and they're not the same thing, right? So how do you ensure your marketing strategies with your clients stay aligned with what the company's growth goals are? We mentioned that. Where do you find the biggest friction points in making that happen?