Marketing Strategy¶
This page documents Trove's marketing strategy for the team. It covers our overall objectives, who we are targeting, the channels we use and how we use them, how we approach campaigns, and how we measure success. It is intended as a practical reference for new hires, contractors, and anyone who needs to understand how we go to market.
Ownership & Resources¶
| Owner | Johnny Reid - COO & Co-Founder |
| Contributors | Mason Bursill (Chief of Staff), Sheree Andersen (CEO & Co-Founder) |
| Budget | Determined by Johnny Reid and Sheree Andersen |
| Headcount / Capacity | Determined by Johnny Reid and Sheree Andersen |
| Review cycle | Updated by team |
Overall Marketing Objectives¶
Trove's marketing has a small number of clear priorities. The most immediate is generating qualified leads and getting the right brands into a demo conversation. Alongside that, we are focused on building genuine awareness in the ecommerce and corporate gifting space, so that when a brand is ready to solve this problem, Trove is already a name they recognise.
Beyond lead generation, marketing plays an important role in supporting the sales process. That means building stronger case studies, shareable one-pagers, demo assets, and proof points that make sales conversations easier to progress and close.
We are also focused on retaining existing customers and growing the share of their corporate orders that flow through Trove. As we build new features, marketing helps communicate that value to the brands already on the platform.
Finally, we are actively working to establish Trove in new markets. The UK is the current priority, but North America is an increasing focus, and we are working to land our first lighthouse brands in Singapore, UAE, and other key Asian markets.
Target Audience Summary¶
Trove's primary audience is brands and retailers with meaningful corporate gifting demand, or clear potential for it, that are still managing orders through manual and fragmented processes. There are two main customer groups.
The first is gifting brands. These are typically small to mid-sized businesses, often around five to fifty people, operating in categories like hampers, food, chocolate, wine, beauty, and lifestyle. Corporate gifting is already part of the business but the workflow is still largely handled through emails, spreadsheets, and manual coordination. The key decision-makers in this group are founders, owners, and corporate sales managers.
The second group is enterprise retailers. These are larger businesses with established ecommerce capabilities but a corporate gifting channel that is still disconnected or underdeveloped. The relevant stakeholders tend to be heads of corporate sales, heads of ecommerce, and ecommerce directors, with marketing and operations often involved as secondary influencers.
Our core markets today are the UK, Australia and New Zealand, the United States, and Canada. We are also pursuing secondary markets including Singapore, UAE, and broader Asia. These markets require a different approach, including localised language, culturally relevant messaging, and in some cases adjusted product positioning. The goal in these markets right now is to land lighthouse brands rather than run at scale.
The best leads we encounter already know that corporate gifting matters. What they need is confidence that Trove is the right way to support it. Marketing should reflect this and get to the operational pain quickly rather than leading with category education.
Key Channels and How We Use Them¶
Most leads today come from direct cold outbound. The channel mix is designed to support that with warmer signals and market presence over time.
Email outreach is our primary lead generation channel. We use Smartlead to manage automated sequences, and are actively testing domain configuration, signature variations, copy, and subject lines to improve open and reply rates. Sequences should be personalised, reference specific gifting use cases relevant to the brand being contacted, and lead with a clear problem and solution. The goal of every email is a reply or a demo booking, not a click.
LinkedIn is used for both direct outreach and organic content that builds credibility over time. The team is targeting 300 connection requests per week across Mason, Sheree, and Johnny, each followed by a two to three step sequence and supported by a consistent content cadence. Outreach should feel human and relevant rather than templated. Organic content should educate the market on the problem: corporate gifting is still surprisingly manual, brands are leaving revenue on the table, and there is a better way to run the channel. Paid LinkedIn ads allow precise targeting by job title, company size, and industry, and are particularly useful for reaching decision-makers in core markets.
Phone outreach is being added as a formal touchpoint in the outbound workflow. Calls are layered into sequences for key brands and ICPs, using phone numbers captured in ClickUp via Smartlead. It is especially effective for founder-led gifting brands where a direct conversation moves faster than an email thread. Calls should be focused: understand the current process, qualify the pain, and offer a demo.
Paid advertising on Meta and LinkedIn is used to build awareness and drive inbound interest. We are piloting a Meta and Facebook paid campaign this quarter, producing video creatives and launching a full funnel to measure cost per qualified lead before scaling. Ads should lead with the problem clearly rather than listing features, with short copy, strong creative, and a simple call to action.
Agency partnerships are a high-value referral channel. Ecommerce agencies, Shopify partners, and digital consultancies who work with gifting brands and retailers can each unlock multiple warm introductions. This quarter we are launching a formal agency partnership program, with a goal of identifying target agencies and signing two to three pilot agreements by end of quarter. We should focus on agencies whose clients match our ideal customer profile and make it straightforward for them to refer, with clear materials, a simple process, and a commercial incentive where appropriate.
Events and conferences are used for attendance and sponsorship in key markets. The team attends events such as Retail Fest, the Good Food and Wine Show, and Shoptalk Europe. Face-to-face conversations convert differently to cold outreach and events are worth the effort when our ideal customer is concentrated in the room. Sponsorship should be used selectively where it delivers direct access to decision-makers, not just brand visibility.
Direct mail is also being piloted this quarter. 100 brands and key prospects will be targeted globally to test this approach as an outbound method.
Each quarter, Johnny and Sheree are each expected to secure one external marketing opportunity such as a podcast appearance, panel, or guest article. These build personal credibility and extend Trove's reach into relevant audiences.
Campaign Approach¶
Trove's marketing is primarily always-on. Outreach, content, and paid activity run continuously rather than in isolated bursts. That said, corporate gifting has a distinct seasonal rhythm and we plan around it deliberately.
In the six to eight weeks before a major gifting peak, we ramp up outreach targeting brands heading into a high-volume period, focused on helping them handle more corporate orders without the manual chaos. During the peak itself, outreach is lighter as most brands are heads-down. We use that time to capture testimonials, order volume data, and content from existing customers to use afterwards.
In the one to two weeks following a peak, we re-engage prospects who were too busy to talk earlier. If a brand had a strong period on Trove, that becomes the proof point. The idea is to show prospects what they missed and make next season feel like the obvious moment to act.
The main gifting peaks to plan around across core markets are Christmas and Q4, Easter, Mother's Day, end of financial year, and mid-year gifting moments. For secondary markets in Asia, Chinese New Year, Eid, and Diwali are particularly relevant and campaigns for those regions should be built around these moments specifically.
Content and Sales Enablement¶
Marketing is responsible for building the materials that make the sales motion easier. The most valuable assets are case studies that tell real stories from live customers, showing what changed operationally and commercially after implementing Trove. These should be specific, reference real outcomes where approved, and be easy to share in a sales conversation.
Alongside case studies, the team needs concise one-pagers for each key segment, clean demo environments and walk-through guides, and approved social proof in the form of customer logos, quotes, and testimonials. Only approved wording should be used and social proof should never be paraphrased or improvised. For secondary markets, localised versions of core materials will be needed, particularly where language or cultural context differs.
Reducing onboarding friction is also a priority. We are improving the onboarding process with clearer milestone tracking, a payments FAQ for brand self-serve, proactive check-in scheduling, and an early go-live incentive to get brands live and transacting faster.
How We Measure Success¶
Our primary metrics are demos booked and brands that are onboarded. Everything else is a supporting signal. We track response rates across outreach channels, inbound lead volume, partnership referrals, and existing customer engagement to understand what is working, but we do not let these distract from the metrics that matter.
Vanity metrics such as impressions, follower counts, and email open rates in isolation are not how we define marketing success. When evaluating any activity, the question is always whether it helped us book more demos or onboard more brands.
Primary targets (reviewed each quarter)
Refer to Quarterly Targets and OKRs for current and previous quarter targets.
The quarterly GMV target from brands going live is set each planning cycle. This breaks down into a small number of whale accounts from named pipeline targets, and a larger group of mid-tier brands going live across the quarter. Both contribute to the annual GMV target and both are tracked separately.
Leading indicators
To track whether we are on course, we monitor the following leading indicators:
- Total pipeline value under active engagement (GMV potential)
- Number of brands in active onboarding at any given time
- Brands moved from cold or stalled to active conversation per month
- Qualified meetings booked per month
These are reviewed regularly and used to identify where the pipeline is healthy and where it needs attention. Specific targets for each indicator are set as part of the quarterly planning process.