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marketingskills/skills/plan/references/example-olo.md
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Corey Haines ec31133ad9 feat: add plan skill — comprehensive AARRR marketing plan generator
A new skill (`/plan {client-name}`) that produces an exhaustive 13-section
Notion-paste-ready marketing plan structured by AARRR (Acquisition,
Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue), customized to the client's
current budget, team, stage, and tooling stack, mapped to future
funding-stage capability unlocks.

Three-phase workflow:
- INIT: research + structured 10-topic intake; pulls data from wired
  MCPs (Ahrefs, GA4, Stripe, Customer.io, etc.); offers to run
  /audit-marketing first
- REVIEW: section-by-section interactive draft with user confirmation
  on each of the 13 sections; resumable across sessions
- FINALIZE: compile, verification pass (cross-references, machine paths,
  brand voice), and optional publish to a shared GitHub repo

The 13 sections:
1. Executive summary
2. Strategic frame
3. Current state (scored against the 17-section audit-marketing rubric)
4. Acquisition
5. Activation
6. Retention
7. Referral
8. Revenue
9. 90-day roadmap (AARRR-tagged, owner-assigned)
10. 12-month outlook (with funding-stage milestones)
11. Marketing operations stack (skills + MCPs per AARRR stage)
12. Tactical idea bank (all 139 ideas from `marketing-ideas` mapped to
    AARRR + client-specific status: Now / Q2 / Q3+ / Q4+ / Skip)
13. Measurement, RACI, open decisions, appendix

References:
- methodology.md — full three-phase workflow
- plan-template.md — 13-section template with per-section guidance
- aarrr-framework.md — AARRR primer + diagnostic rules for which stage
  is the binding constraint
- current-state-rubric.md — 17-section audit-marketing rubric mapped
  to AARRR
- ops-stack-mapping.md — all 26+ marketing skills + MCP/API integrations
  mapped to AARRR stages
- idea-cross-reference.md — all 139 marketing-ideas mapped to AARRR
  with timing defaults
- funding-stage-unlocks.md — 5 standard funding tiers (pre-seed through
  Series B+) with budget profiles and capability unlocks
- measurement-framework.md — north-star patterns by business model,
  leading indicators by AARRR stage, review cadence
- client-types.md — variations by client archetype (B2B SaaS, D2C
  consumer app, hybrid hardware+software, marketplace, dev tool,
  deep-tech/clinical, commerce)
- example-olo.md — canonical reference plan from a real fCMO engagement

Updates:
- plugin.json + marketplace.json bumped to 2.3.0
- marketplace description updated to 43 skills
- VERSIONS.md entry added

Total skills: 43.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-05-27 17:38:31 -07:00

67 KiB
Raw Blame History

Example — Olo Marketing Plan v1

This is the canonical reference example for the /plan skill. It's the actual marketing plan produced for Olo, a clinically-validated spatial-audio nervous-system platform. The client and details are real; the plan was generated by walking the methodology in this skill end-to-end.

Use this as the "what good looks like" reference when drafting a new plan. The structure, tone, depth, and operational specificity are the bar to clear.

Olo's archetype: Hybrid hardware + software with deep-tech / clinical credibility layer. See references/client-types.md for archetype patterns.

Funding-stage context: Pre-seed-close (mid-raise on $3M seed). Tier 1 per references/funding-stage-unlocks.md. $0 paid budget; organic + lifecycle + ambassador only.

What was strong about this plan:

  • Strategic frame (Section 2) leaned on the founder's own meditation-vs-regulation framing as the content pillar
  • Current state (Section 3) included the 17-section audit rubric scored against existing materials (no formal audit run)
  • 90-day roadmap (Section 9) had owner-assigned moves, not just actions
  • Ops stack (Section 11) included a concrete operational proof-point (Customer.io MCP used live by non-technical founder on the kickoff call)
  • Tactical idea bank (Section 12) cross-referenced all 139 marketing-ideas to AARRR + Olo-specific status, including 23 explicit skips with rationale

Olo — Marketing Plan v1

Prepared by: Corey Haines (fCMO) For: Markus, Catarina, and the Olo team Date: 2026-05-27 Status: Draft v1 — for team review

Olo has built something rare: a clinically validated, brand-coherent, founder-led product in a category that doesn't yet have a name. The opportunity in the next twelve months is not to invent a marketing engine from scratch — it's to convert the existing organic gravity into a measurable, repeatable funnel, then layer paid acquisition on top of that funnel once the seed round closes.

Three big bets, ranked by leverage:

  1. Fix the leak before pouring water in. The Day 1 → Day 35 funnel shape (1.34% → 5.46%) tells us the product converts given time and contact. What it's missing is a working first-session moment (the headphone gate is killing conversion) and a lifecycle layer to deliver the contact. These two pieces — onboarding rebuild and Customer.io flows shipped — are the unlock for everything else.
  2. Compound the moats Olo already has. Peer-reviewed clinical study, Bryan Johnson PR, 15K live event participants, Markus's founder voice — these are link generators, content pillars, and credibility anchors that most wellness brands would kill for. They're under-leveraged. SEO, content, and App Store optimization translate them into search and discovery surface area.
  3. Build the founder-and-fCMO operating system that lets a 4-person team market like a 20-person one. This is what makes the plan actually executable at Olo's team size and burn rate — agentic tooling on top of Customer.io, Shopify, App Store, Stripe, GitHub, and the marketing skill library means we ship without hiring.

What twelve months looks like, plausibly:

  • App goes from beta to GA. Onboarding converts at meaningful lift over today's baseline.
  • 4 SEO content pillars staked, with Pillar 1 (Nervous System Regulation) and Pillar 2 (Sleep + Eye Mask) ranking on Tier-1 keywords.
  • Full lifecycle live in Customer.io: onboarding, lapsed re-engagement, hardware post-purchase, subscription-center opt-ins.
  • Ambassador program live with 1525 active hosts. First Olo Guides cert pilot run.
  • Eye mask wedge selling at scale via Shopify with a clean hardware → app activation path. Blended CAC measured and tracked.
  • Paid acquisition firing post-seed-close at $510K/mo initial test budget, scaling to $2050K/mo if unit economics validate.
  • Series A narrative writes itself: clinical evidence + activation lift + lifecycle compounding + first B2B install reference cases.

The 90-day priorities (which the rest of this doc operationalizes):

  1. Kill the headphones gate. Ship the bedrock fix this week.
  2. Run the three-variant onboarding test. Find the activation winner.
  3. Ship Customer.io Flows 6 (eye mask post-purchase) and 4 (lapsed user) — hold Flow 2 (onboarding) until app UI stabilizes.
  4. Rewrite the App Store listing in Olo's brand voice. Highest-leverage non-site asset right now.
  5. Stake the SEO foundation: consolidate to olo.app, publish Pillar 1 hub + 3 spokes, publish the Psychophysiology study landing page.
  6. Launch the ambassador program with the ~5 inbound waiting.

Everything else compounds on top of those six.


2. Strategic frame

This section distills positioning, ICP, and brand voice into what the team needs to keep in mind while executing. Full detail lives in marketing-os.md, icp.md, and sound-philosophy.md.

What Olo is, in one sentence

A nervous system intelligence platform — clinically validated spatial audio + AI reflection companion (Ona) + hardware + venue installations + practitioner network. "We start with sound. We expand to every sense. We end with cities."

The category we're claiming (and defending)

Olo doesn't fit the meditation app category, the focus audio category, or the sleep tech category. The brand makes a stronger claim: bottom-up nervous system regulation through spatial audio, with clinical evidence as proof and somatic credibility as defense.

The category-defining frame, per Markus (2026-05-19): Meditation is top-down. Olo is bottom-up. Meditation uses the mind to command the body — mental kung fu that fails the very people most likely to need help, because the prefrontal cortex is offline when stressed. Olo enters through the brainstem, before the thinking mind. The body responds before it has to try. (Full content-pillar treatment in meditation-vs-regulation.md.)

This is the single most important strategic message. It belongs in App Store copy, onboarding, lifecycle email, SEO content, ambassador talking points, and the seed deck.

Who we're for (D2C ICP, distilled)

Overstimulated high-achieving professionals, 2545, urban (Bay Area, NYC, London, Berlin, Austin). Tech workers, founders, creators, academics, designers, consultants. Often neurodivergent (ADHD, HSP, gifted). Sophisticated wellness buyers — already invested heavily in their inner life.

Their stated problem: "I can't shut my brain off. I've tried meditation apps. They don't work."

Their real problem: Overstimulation, not under-motivation. Their gift (quick thinking) became a curse. They need permission to stop optimizing — including their rest.

What they're actually buying: the feeling of stability, sensory indulgence, beautiful rituals, effortless effectiveness, a luxurious shortcut to the genius they can't access in chaos.

The business model logic (per seed deck)

B2B seeds the market. D2C harvests. A venue install puts Olo in front of ~20K people/year at ~$17K cost → 5% convert to subs → ~$430K/year per venue. Six compound channels (referral, Guides, content, home hosting, PR, community) make CAC approach zero by Year 3. Year 5: 75% of new subs come from near-zero-cost channels.

fCMO scope per kickoff: D2C-led. Markus owns B2B sales through events/network/founder credibility. The fCMO leverage is on the app/hardware D2C side. This plan reflects that split — B2B is acknowledged as the harvest engine but not treated as primary work surface.

Brand voice (the non-negotiable)

Per Marketing OS:

  • Tone. Authoritative yet accessible. Intimate yet professional. Revolutionary yet grounded. Authority comes from lived experience, not explanation.
  • Speak from the body, not the mind. Every sentence restores somatic safety and orientation. Language opens space rather than closing meaning.
  • YES vocabulary: Aliveness, inner life, nervous system, spatial sound, resonance, somatic safety, embodied clarity, natural rhythm, orientation, initiation, truth-telling.
  • NO vocabulary: Zen, chill, vibes, "high-vibe," spiritual bypass, meditation clichés, didactic/explainer language, "let me explain why this works."
  • Core method: Initiatory Reflection. Writing's purpose isn't to explain or convince — it's to shift the reader's internal state. The result should be "something in me moved," not "I understand this concept."
  • CTA rule: Never pressure. "We do not remind. We invite."

This rule constrains every piece of copy across every AARRR stage. When in doubt: rewrite from the body.


3. Current state

This is what we're starting from — team, budget, what's already in motion, what's stuck, scored against the CF Marketing Audit 17-section rubric.

Team composition (marketing surface area)

Person Role Marketing surface area
Markus Co-founder, CEO Owns: personal LinkedIn, live events, B2B sales, founder narrative, investor relations, brand voice authorship
Catarina Co-founder, CXO Owns: clinical/somatic credibility, brand-voice stewardship, somatic angle on copy review, practitioner network
Shariq Lead Dev Owns: product/UI build, instrumentation, Customer.io event wiring, App Store deployment
Ed Dorsey Design Advisor Advisory cadence (ex-Apple/Airbnb/Strava)
Emily Babich Creative Strategy Advisory cadence
Matt Mikkelsen Field Recording Audio library, not marketing
Corey Haines fCMO Strategy, lifecycle, SEO, onboarding tests, content, ambassador program, ops stack

No dedicated marketing hire yet. First hire likely post-seed close (Q3 2026 candidate): a lifecycle + content marketing manager who owns Customer.io, SEO content production, and ambassador operations day-to-day.

Marketing budget (current)

  • Paid acquisition: $0. Confirmed by Markus, 2026-05-20: "D2C UA so far: My personal LinkedIn posts, live Olo events, organic word of mouth, and organic app store discovery." No paid layer.
  • Tooling stack: Customer.io subscription, Shopify (eye mask storefront), App Store Connect, GA4 (or pending), Stripe, Notion, Dub.co (ambassador attribution). Estimate ~$5001,500/mo combined.
  • fCMO retainer: Corey Haines engagement.
  • PR: No paid PR. Organic Bryan Johnson tailwind, Mark Pincus + OpenAI angel network.

Implication: The 90-day plan must produce gains without any paid lever pulled. Everything in the next 12 weeks is organic, lifecycle, or product-level. Paid is a Q2Q3 unlock.

What's already done (acknowledge, then build on)

Asset Status Marketing leverage
Peer-reviewed Psychophysiology study (2025) Published Anchor of clinical authority. Most undermarketed asset Olo owns.
Bryan Johnson eye mask endorsement Live, generating Shopify sales Press hook. Underused for landing-page social proof.
Mark Pincus + OpenAI angel investment Closed Investor PR opportunity. "Why I invested" Substack/Medium pieces.
15K+ live event participants over a decade Real Email list potential, ambassador pool, testimonial bank, B2B reference.
Olo eye mask (5K in stock) Selling The wedge product. Hardware → app activation path.
38% 12-month retention (vs. category avg 20%) Real Headline metric. Belongs everywhere.
Customer.io + Shopify integration Wired The lifecycle infrastructure exists. Flows just need to ship.
4 GitHub repos for context + product Set up olo-context (shared brain), olo-promo, olo (app), ona (AI), olo-api
Markus's Sound Philosophy doc Working doc Linkable position paper once polished and published.
~5 inbound ambassadors waiting Inbound Referral program ready to launch — no demand-gen needed for v1.
EHA B2B install (€257K, July deadline) In-flight First flagship venue. Reference case once installed.
Notion Knowledge Directory Live Internal context.
Customer.io MCP (Claude integration) Validated on kickoff Non-technical team can ship flows independently.

What's in-flight (drafted but not shipped)

Item Status Blocker
Flow 2 — App Onboarding (8 emails / 14 days) Draft App UI in flux; copy references screens that may change
Flow 4 — Lapsed User Re-engagement (5 emails / 38 days) Draft None — ship-ready
Flow 6 — Eye Mask Post-Purchase Draft None — ship-ready
Onboarding rebuild (3-variant test plan) Strategy doc done Eng scoping + headphone-gate removal
SEO 90-day plan + keyword research Done Awaiting domain consolidation decision + content production start

What's stuck (and needs to unstick this quarter)

Issue Cost of inaction Action
Headphones hard-gate in onboarding Confirmed conversion drop post-launch Kill this week (bedrock fix)
4 domains unconsolidated (olo.app, olo.space, olo.audio, olo.center) SEO authority fragmenting, transactional email confusion Consolidate to olo.app per SEO data
App Store listing copy not in brand voice Highest-traffic Olo surface; off-brand experience for arriving users Rewrite in voice (Pillar 1)
Domain consolidation requires 301 plan + email sender migration Risk of traffic loss if mishandled Plan in weeks 12, execute weeks 34
olo-promo repo hasn't shipped since March 2026 Marketing site is stale Confirm whether it's live; rewrite or replace
29% monthly App Store churn vs. 38% 12-month retention claim Metric definition mismatch confusing the team Reconcile with Shariq + Customer.io data
Ona post-session reflection scope unknown Blocks Variant B and Variant C onboarding tests Resolve with Shariq

Audit rubric snapshot (17-section, lens from audit-marketing)

Scored 05. This isn't a full audit — it's what we'd score Olo today using the rubric as a current-state lens. The full audit can be run via /audit-marketing olo.app if Markus wants a formal artifact.

# Section Score Note
1 Positioning 4 Clear, original category claim. The bottom-up frame is the strongest piece. Needs broader external articulation.
2 Customer research 4 Deep founder-led research, decade of live participants. Could be more systematically captured.
3 Homepage 2 olo-promo hasn't shipped since March. Off-brand voice in places.
4 Sales / product pages 2 Eye mask page exists on Shopify but isn't optimized for SEO or sales narrative. No app-product landing page in brand voice.
5 Conversion pages 2 /partner exists on olo.app. No /science, /eye-mask, /ambassadors, /guides pages live.
6 Competitor comparison 1 Nothing exists. Big SEO + sales opportunity (own "Olo vs. Calm/Headspace/Brain.fm/Endel" SERPs).
7 Resources / content 1 Sound Philosophy not yet public. Psychophysiology study not yet on a dedicated page. No blog.
8 Onboarding 2 Headphones gate killing conversion. Hold-and-fix project this quarter.
9 Email lifecycle 1 All three flows drafted, none live. Ship-order set.
10 Sales material 3 Seed deck is strong (investor-facing). B2B sales material more founder-led than asset-led.
11 Messaging 5 Markus + Catarina have authored the most distinctive brand voice in the wellness category. This is a moat.
12 Pricing 3 $30/mo app, $45 eye mask, $7,500 speakers, $50200K B2B. Hasn't been pressure-tested for D2C conversion lift.
13 CRO 2 App Store conversion rate trackable but no A/B history. Headphones gate is the obvious first test removal.
14 GTM / launches 2 App in throttled beta. Major launches (eye mask, Ona public) haven't had structured GTM.
15 Ads 0 No paid layer. Reflects the current organic strategy — not a weakness, but the budget unlock means this will move.
16 SEO 1 Current state: 7 organic visits/mo. Plan exists; execution not yet started.
17 Internationalization 1 Finland HQ + global ICP, but EN-only and US-centric copy. Defer until Q4+.

Total: 36 / 85 (42%). The shape matters more than the score: high in Positioning + Messaging + Customer research, low in Conversion pages + Email lifecycle + SEO + Resources + Ads. That's the gap this plan closes.


4. Acquisition

"How do strangers become aware of Olo?"

Current state

100% organic. Four real channels: Markus's personal LinkedIn, live Olo events, organic word of mouth, organic App Store discovery. Plus passive PR drag from Bryan Johnson + clinical study.

This is good news, not bad. Every dollar of revenue earned to date has been earned without paid acquisition. The bar to exceed it isn't high; the upside on top of an organic base is significant.

The plan

Channel 1 — SEO (primary 90-day investment). The full 90-day plan lives in seo/plan.md. Summary: consolidate to olo.app, target three asymmetric clusters (nervous-system regulation KD 1432, weighted/blackout sleep mask KD 630, WELL + social-wellness-club B2B KD 534), publish 4 content pillars. 90-day target: 5001,500 organic visits/mo, 80+ ranking keywords. 12-month target: 10,000/mo, 1,000+ keywords.

Channel 2 — App Store optimization (highest-leverage non-site asset). The App Store listing is currently the most-visited Olo URL by Apple's algorithm. Fixing the copy is higher-leverage this quarter than fixing the marketing site. Rewrite in brand voice. Add the meditation-vs-regulation framing. Lead with the clinical anchor. Test screenshot variations.

Channel 3 — Markus's LinkedIn (productize the channel). Today it's ad-hoc founder posting. The next move is structured: a 23x/week cadence, post categories that map to the content pillars (nervous system, sound science, founder journey, clinical evidence, behind-the-scenes), trackable links via Dub, follower → email subscriber → app install funnel measured. This is Markus's voice — the channel only works if he's the one writing. fCMO + Typefully scheduling makes the cadence sustainable.

Channel 4 — PR amplification. Bryan Johnson tailwind is real but underused on owned surfaces. Add a /notable-users or /in-the-press page. Pitch the Psychophysiology study to 5 outlets (wellness press: Well+Good, MindBodyGreen; tech-adjacent: Wired with Johnson hook; mainstream: Outside, Forbes Wellness). HARO/Help-A-B2B-Writer responses citing Olo's data. Investor PR moments ("Why I invested in Olo" Substack pieces from Mark Pincus and OpenAI angels — push for these with backlinks).

Channel 5 — Event-to-app instrumentation. Live events are the highest-converting ICP exposure Olo has (15K+ participants, decade of trust). They're un-instrumented. Add: per-event QR code → app install + email capture, post-event lifecycle (Customer.io Flow 7?), event ROI tracking. Goal: turn an event from a one-night conversion moment into a 30-day funnel.

Channel 6 — Eye mask wedge (consumer entry product). 5K masks in stock. Shopify storefront exists but isn't optimized. Improvements: SEO-optimize the product page (target "weighted sleep mask," "blackout sleep mask," "silk sleep mask"), add reviews via Judge.me (per kickoff decision), 30-day return policy (US-market expectation, per kickoff), build the listicle ("Olo vs. Manta vs. Nodpod vs. Lumon"). Consider Amazon listing as a v2 distribution play.

Channel 7 — B2B venue installs (kept lean per kickoff). Markus owns this. Marketing supports with: case studies after each install, /partner page rewrite in voice (already exists on olo.app), Pillar 4 content ("The Missing Sound Feature in WELL"), reciprocal links from partner venues baked into contracts.

Channel 8 — Paid layer (unlocked post-seed close). Held until seed funding lands. Initial test budget: $510K/mo split across Apple Search Ads (highest-intent for App Store), Meta (Instagram + Facebook for eye mask), LinkedIn (B2B venue buyers). Don't fire until: (a) onboarding bedrock fix is shipped, (b) Flow 6 is live, (c) at least one Pillar landing page is in voice. Paid amplifies what already works — premature paid amplifies what's broken.

90-day acquisition moves

  • Weeks 12: Domain consolidation decision + 301 plan. App Store listing rewrite first pass.
  • Weeks 34: Domain 301s executed. GSC migration. SEO Pillar 1 hub drafted.
  • Weeks 58: Pillar 1 hub + 3 spokes published. Pillar 2 (Eye Mask) hub + listicle published. Markus's LinkedIn cadence operationalized via Typefully. Psychophysiology study lands on dedicated /science page.
  • Weeks 912: Pillar 4 (WELL/B2B) cornerstone published. Sound Philosophy goes public at /research/sound-philosophy. First PR push: pitch study + Bryan Johnson hook to 5 outlets.

12-month acquisition outlook

  • Q1 (Months 13): Foundation. SEO pillars staked. App Store rewrite shipped. LinkedIn cadence stable. PR push launched.
  • Q2 (Months 46, post-seed close): Paid acquisition pilot at $510K/mo. SEO compounding — Pillar 1 ranking. First B2B install reference case live.
  • Q3 (Months 79): Paid scales to $2030K/mo if unit economics hold. All four pillars producing. App GA — new GTM moment.
  • Q4 (Months 1012): Compound channels live. 50+ pieces of pillar content. First Olo Guides program pilot creating local SEO + earned media.

Skills + tools

  • Skills: seo-audit, ai-seo, programmatic-seo, schema, content-strategy, competitors, launch, ads, ad-creative, social, typefully, analytics, audit-marketing, copywriting, marketing-website-design, free-tools
  • MCPs / APIs: Ahrefs API, DataForSEO API, Typefully MCP (LinkedIn scheduling), GA4 MCP (when wired), GitHub MCP (olo-promo repo work), Notion (knowledge directory), Stripe MCP (LTV / paid-CAC math), agent-browser (LinkedIn drafting + testing), defuddle (research)

5. Activation

"Once someone tries Olo, do they have an experience that converts?"

Current state

Day 1 → paid: 1.34%. Day 7 → paid: 3.73%. Day 35 → paid: 5.46%. The funnel shape is the signal. The ~4× lift over 35 days means the product converts given time and contact — both of which the current onboarding undermines and the lifecycle layer doesn't yet provide.

Caveats: app is in throttled beta. Metrics are noisy. Don't optimize against absolutes; optimize against funnel shape and cohort comparison.

The plan

Move 1 — Kill the headphones hard-gate (bedrock fix, this week). Confirmed conversion drop after the gate shipped. The fix isn't better copy on the gate — it's removing the gate. Replace with passive headphone detection + soft single-line nudge. No regret change. Full reasoning in onboarding-recommendation.md.

Move 2 — Run the three-variant onboarding test. Three variants, each a pure expression of one belief about what drives activation in this ICP:

  • Variant 1 — Trust First. Bold promise + clinical anchor + testimonial wall + 1-line mechanism. Tests whether the saturated ICP needs framing before they'll invest.
  • Variant 2 — Seen First. Multi-step diagnostic → AI-generated "we see you" summary → personalized session. Tests whether being accurately named is the conversion event.
  • Variant 3 — Felt First. Audio starts on app open. ~15 words on screen. The session IS the onboarding. Tests whether the product can carry it cold.

Test sequence (sequential, ~7 weeks to a winner): bedrock baseline → V3 vs. baseline → winner vs. V1 → winner vs. V2. Full system in onboarding-recommendation.md.

Move 3 — App Store listing rewrite. Highest-leverage non-site asset. Rewrite in brand voice. Lead with meditation-vs-regulation. Screenshot variations to test. This is also an Acquisition move (organic discovery) but it lives here because it's the threshold to the trial.

Move 4 — Customer.io Flow 2 (held until UI stable). The 8-email / 14-day onboarding sequence is drafted and on-brand. Holding the ship because the emails reference in-app screens that will change during the onboarding rebuild. Once a winning onboarding variant ships, Flow 2 gets a copy refresh against the final UI and goes live.

Move 5 — Paywall + pricing review (cross-cuts to Revenue). What's the current trial structure? Length, paywall trigger, intro pricing? When the funnel shape is "lift over 35 days," extending trial may convert better than aggressively gating earlier. To be audited in Q1.

90-day activation moves

  • Week 1: Headphones gate removed. Baseline established.
  • Weeks 23: Variant 3 (Felt First) prototyped, instrumented, shipped to a test cohort.
  • Weeks 45: Read Variant 3 vs. baseline. Decide ship/iterate. Begin Variant 1 build.
  • Weeks 67: Variant 1 (Trust First) live.
  • Weeks 89: Read V1 vs. winner. Begin Variant 2 build.
  • Weeks 1011: Variant 2 (Seen First) live.
  • Week 12: Final read. Winning variant scheduled for permanent ship. Flow 2 unblocked.

12-month activation outlook

  • Q1: Winning variant identified and shipped.
  • Q2: Flow 2 ships. Paywall A/B tests start.
  • Q3: GA launch — onboarding re-validated at higher traffic. Cohort segmentation by acquisition source (Shopify/eye-mask vs. direct vs. ambassador vs. paid) starts to drive variant forks.
  • Q4: Onboarding is no longer the bottleneck. Focus moves to Activation → Retention transition (sessions 27).

Skills + tools

  • Skills: onboarding, signup, cro, cro, paywalls, popups, copywriting, copy-editing, copycraft, marketing-website-design, ab-testing, marketing-psychology
  • MCPs / APIs: App Store Connect (manual + dev-browser for screenshot automation), GitHub MCP (olo app repo for onboarding code), Figma / Pencil MCP (for onboarding screen design), Customer.io MCP (for any in-app/email coordination), GA4 MCP (activation events)

6. Retention

"Once someone converts, do they stay — and deepen?"

Current state

Headline metric (per seed deck): 38% 12-month retention — nearly double the category average (~20%). This is the strongest single retention signal in the deck and one of the most undermarketed claims Olo owns.

App Store snapshot, 2026-05-16: 145 paid, 42 churned (~29% monthly churn). Definition mismatch with the 38% claim — to reconcile. Possibly: 38% is annual cohort retention (people who paid month 1 and still pay month 12), 29% is gross monthly churn (people who paid this month who didn't pay next month). Both can be true. Need to clarify which metric is reported externally and which is the actual product health signal.

The plan

Move 1 — Ship Flow 6 first (Eye Mask Post-Purchase). Per kickoff decision and the onboarding-recommendation doc: this is the ship-ready flow. Hardware-anchored, doesn't reference in-app screens, can ship today. Wires the hardware → app activation path (eye mask buyers should get a free 6-month Premium trial — formalize this as part of the flow).

Move 2 — Ship Flow 4 second (Lapsed User Re-engagement). Five emails over 38 days. Language is universal — doesn't depend on app UI state. Ship after Flow 6 is live.

Move 3 — Hold Flow 2 (Onboarding). Eight emails over 14 days. Holds until app UI stabilizes post-onboarding-rebuild. Don't ship copy that will need rewriting in 8 weeks.

Move 4 — Customer.io subscription center with opt-in topics. Per kickoff decision. Topics: events, app updates, somatics & nervous system, eye mask promotions. Users self-segment. Improves deliverability (lower complaint rates) and gives lifecycle a richer segmentation surface.

Move 5 — Ona post-session reflection (when scoped). Most powerful retention move medium-term. After a session, Ona asks "What did you notice?" Optional preset chips + free text. Two payoffs: (a) gives Ona priors for personalization on session 2+, (b) reflection responses become a content + segmentation goldmine for the team. Scope question for Shariq — does Ona currently support this, or is it new build?

Move 6 — Hardware → app activation flow. The eye-mask-buyer-becomes-Premium-subscriber path is hinted in the seed deck (blended CAC via hardware) but isn't visible in the App Store dashboard. Audit the existing flow: does an eye mask Shopify purchase actually deliver a free Premium code? How is it redeemed? What's the conversion rate? This is foundational to the "B2C wedge" thesis.

Move 7 — Reconcile the retention metric. What's the actual definition of "38% 12-month retention"? Cohort? Plan type (monthly vs. annual)? Survives this even if the answer is uncomfortable — the team and investors need to be talking about the same metric.

Move 8 — Annual plan as default (cross-cuts to Revenue). Industry pattern: defaulting to annual reduces churn anxiety and improves LTV. To test in Q2.

90-day retention moves

  • Weeks 12: Flow 6 (eye mask post-purchase) ships. Address fixes from kickoff review (study link line break, CAN-SPAM footer, founder face-bubble signature, Judge.me reviews).
  • Weeks 34: Flow 4 (lapsed user re-engagement) ships.
  • Weeks 56: Customer.io subscription center built and live.
  • Weeks 78: Hardware → app activation flow audited and documented. Fix any leaks.
  • Weeks 910: Retention metric reconciliation (with Shariq).
  • Weeks 1112: Win-back campaign for churned cohort — test re-activation copy.

12-month retention outlook

  • Q1: Flows 6 + 4 firing. Subscription center live.
  • Q2: Flow 2 ships (post-onboarding-rebuild). Ona post-session reflection in production. Annual plan default tested.
  • Q3: GA launch — retention metrics re-baselined at higher volume. Cohort-based lifecycle flows (eye mask vs. direct app install).
  • Q4: Full lifecycle compound. Retention is no longer a top-three concern — focus moves to Referral and Revenue.

Skills + tools

  • Skills: emails, churn-prevention, copywriting, copy-editing, paywalls, ab-testing
  • MCPs / APIs: Customer.io MCP (validated on kickoff — non-technical team can ship flows), Shopify (eye mask buyers as event source), Stripe MCP (subscription state, churn cohort pulls), GA4 MCP (session events, retention curves)

7. Referral

"Do retained users bring more users — and at what cost?"

Current state

~5 inbound ambassadors waiting (per kickoff). Dub.co set up. No formal program yet. WOM happens naturally per Markus's UA breakdown.

This is one of the strongest leading indicators in the business: 5 unaffiliated people have raised their hand asking to bring Olo to their network before any program exists. That signal doesn't show up in apps with weaker product-market fit.

The plan

Move 1 — Launch the ambassador program with the 5 inbound. Tier 1 of the program. Per-ambassador landing pages (e.g., olo.app/with/sarah). Dub.co tracks attribution. Commission structure to determine (per kickoff, $/sub or rev-share TBD). Soft-launch with the 5 — treat as pilot cohort, gather feedback, refine before opening applications.

Move 2 — Build the share-after-shift moment. The Ona post-session reflection (see Retention) is the natural moment to surface a share prompt. After a user reports a felt shift, offer: "Want to share Olo with someone who needs this?" Single-line, never pushy. Most powerful WOM mechanism: gift-a-month flow where the recipient gets a discounted or free intro.

Move 3 — Founder amplification (Markus + Catarina as ambassador-zero). Markus mentioning the fCMO engagement in fundraise pitches (permission granted). Reciprocal mentions in fCMO-side content. Catarina's clinical network → practitioner ambassador pool.

Move 4 — Olo Guides cert pilot (long-term, Q3+). The Guides program is the Phase-2 referral compound (per seed deck). 5001,000 Guides across 50+ cities by Y35. First cert pilot: 35 hosts who run live sessions, get a rev-share + co-marketing. Builds local SEO + earned media + ambassador-of-ambassadors flywheel. Hold until paid + lifecycle are firing — Guides is a multi-quarter build.

Move 5 — Eye mask gifting flow. Hardware referral is rare and powerful. "Send a friend an Olo eye mask. They get the mask + a free 3-month Premium. You get a credit toward your next thing." Holiday/gifting peak windows are the test.

90-day referral moves

  • Weeks 14: Ambassador program scoped, commission structure decided, per-ambassador landing page template built, 5 inbound onboarded.
  • Weeks 58: First ambassador-driven sales tracked via Dub. Attribution and payout flow validated.
  • Weeks 912: Open applications for next 1015 ambassadors. Begin Olo Guides scoping.

12-month referral outlook

  • Q1: Ambassador program live with 510 active.
  • Q2: 1525 active ambassadors. Share-after-shift moment in production (post-Ona reflection).
  • Q3: Guides cert pilot launched (35 hosts). Eye mask gifting flow live for holiday peak.
  • Q4: 50+ ambassadors + 510 Guides. Referral driving 1525% of new D2C subs.

Skills + tools

  • Skills: referrals, social, copywriting, marketing-website-design (per-ambassador landing pages)
  • MCPs / APIs: Dub.co (attribution — already in stack), Stripe MCP (commission accounting + payouts), GitHub MCP (landing page deployment in olo-promo or new olo-ambassadors repo), Customer.io MCP (ambassador lifecycle: onboarding, monthly performance digest, payout notification)

8. Revenue

"What do we charge, who pays, and how does that compound?"

Current state

Product Price Volume signal
Olo App + Ona ~$30/mo 145 paid subs (App Store snapshot 2026-05-16)
Olo Eye Mask ~$45 5K in stock, Bryan Johnson PR-driven sales
Olo Audio (speakers) ~$7,500 Niche, founder-led
Olo Spaces (B2B install) $50200K EHA flagship in-flight (€257K), pipeline of 4 venues
Olo Experiences (events) Varies 15K+ historical participants
Olo Guides Rev share Not yet operational

Revenue to date: ~$500K on ~$250K raised. Capital-efficient. Hardware + B2B + app subs all contributing.

MRR (App Store snapshot): $592. Beta-throttled, not steady-state. The implied ~$4/sub/mo against $30/mo list suggests heavy annual plan adoption (which compresses monthly revenue but improves LTV) or significant promotional pricing — to reconcile with Markus.

The plan

Move 1 — Pricing audit. What's actually being charged today? List price, common plan mix, intro pricing, churn-recovery offers? The $4/sub/mo implied math doesn't tell a clean story — need ground truth before recommending changes.

Move 2 — Annual plan as default (test). Industry pattern, cross-references to Retention. Test in Q2.

Move 3 — Hardware → app bundling formalized. Per Andre Hurd / Daybreakers framing in the seed deck: blended CAC via hardware → app subscription is the play. Today an eye mask buyer gets... what, exactly? Free Premium? Trial code? Audit + formalize. The eye mask is the wedge; the app is the LTV.

Move 4 — Eye mask Shopify storefront optimization. The current page underperforms what it could. Add: SEO targeting ("weighted sleep mask," "blackout sleep mask"), Judge.me reviews (kickoff decision), 30-day return policy (kickoff decision), upsell flow into Premium app.

Move 5 — Consider Amazon listing for eye mask. Amazon takes margin but is its own discovery engine. Test as v2 distribution if Shopify volume validates.

Move 6 — B2B install case studies + sales material. Markus owns B2B sales but marketing supports with: post-install case studies (EHA as the flagship), /partner page rewrite in voice, Pillar 4 SEO content. Each B2B install is a ~$430K/year recurring + reference-case multiplier.

Move 7 — Data licensing (long-term, flag for ops stack). Per seed deck Y1015 value pool: $100160M/yr. Not immediate revenue. Belongs in the 24-month strategic agenda. Flag here so we don't lose sight.

90-day revenue moves

  • Weeks 12: Pricing audit. Reconcile implied vs. listed MRR.
  • Weeks 34: Hardware → app activation flow audited (also Retention move 6).
  • Weeks 58: Eye mask Shopify page rewrite + SEO optimization + Judge.me + return policy. EHA case study scaffolded for post-install.
  • Weeks 912: Annual plan default test scoped.

12-month revenue outlook

  • Q1: Pricing audit closes. Hardware → app activation formalized.
  • Q2: Annual plan default test live. Eye mask Shopify producing measurable lift.
  • Q3: B2B install case studies (12) published. GA launch + new pricing tier consideration (e.g., a higher-tier Ona-heavy plan?).
  • Q4: Pricing optimized via test results. Hardware → app blended CAC tracked and reported. First numbers on the data-licensing thesis (still very early).

Skills + tools

  • Skills: pricing, paywalls, sales-enablement, revops, ab-testing, copywriting
  • MCPs / APIs: Stripe MCP (pricing tests, subscription analytics, churn cohort, blended CAC math), Customer.io MCP (paywall-related lifecycle), Shopify (eye mask transactions), GA4 MCP (revenue events), Notion (commercial knowledge directory)

9. 90-day roadmap

Tactical execution layer. Each item is AARRR-tagged so priority is visible.

Weeks 12 — Unblock

Move Stage Owner
Kill the headphones hard-gate Activation Corey + Shariq
Domain consolidation decision documented Acquisition Corey + Markus
301 plan drafted (page-by-page) Acquisition Corey
App Store listing rewrite — first pass Activation + Acquisition Corey + Markus + Catarina (voice review)
Flow 6 (eye mask post-purchase) ships Retention Corey + Customer.io MCP
Ambassador program scoping doc Referral Corey
Pricing audit kicked off Revenue Corey + Markus

Weeks 34 — Foundation

Move Stage Owner
Domain consolidation 301s executed Acquisition Shariq + Corey
GSC + GA4 stood up on olo.app Acquisition Corey
SEO Pillar 1 hub drafted (Nervous System Regulation) Acquisition Corey
/science hub built with Psychophysiology study Acquisition + brand Corey + Catarina
Variant 3 (Felt First) onboarding prototyped + tested Activation Corey + Shariq
Flow 4 (lapsed user) ships Retention Corey
Ambassador program: 5 inbound onboarded Referral Corey
Hardware → app activation flow audited Retention + Revenue Corey + Shariq
App Store listing rewrite — final + ship Activation + Acquisition Markus + Catarina + Corey

Weeks 58 — Velocity

Move Stage Owner
Pillar 1 hub + 3 spokes published Acquisition Corey
Pillar 2 hub (Eye Mask) + listicle published Acquisition Corey
Markus's LinkedIn cadence operationalized (Typefully) Acquisition Markus + Corey
First PR push: study + Bryan Johnson hook to 5 outlets Acquisition Corey + Markus
Variant 3 read; ship or iterate Activation Corey
Variant 1 (Trust First) prototyped + tested Activation Corey + Shariq
Customer.io subscription center built Retention Corey
Eye mask Shopify storefront rewrite (SEO + reviews + return) Acquisition + Revenue Corey + Markus
First ambassador attribution verified via Dub Referral Corey

Weeks 912 — Compound

Move Stage Owner
Pillar 4 (WELL/B2B) cornerstone published Acquisition Corey
3 more Pillar 1 spokes published Acquisition Corey
Sound Philosophy published at /research/sound-philosophy Acquisition + brand Markus + Corey
Variant 1 read; begin Variant 2 (Seen First) build (Ona-dependent) Activation Corey + Shariq
Win-back campaign for churned cohort Retention Corey
Annual plan default test scoped Revenue Corey + Markus
Open ambassador applications for next 1015 Referral Corey
90-day review + Q2 plan recalibration Cross-cutting Corey + Markus

10. 12-month outlook

Quarterly milestones with funding-stage capability unlocks named explicitly.

Q1 — Months 13 (JunAug 2026)

Funding state: Pre-seed-close. Paid budget = $0. fCMO + founder-led + tool costs only.

Focus: Foundation. Plug the leaks. Stake the SEO ground. Get lifecycle firing.

Outcomes by end of Q1:

  • Headphones gate gone; onboarding winner identified
  • All four SEO pillars seeded (hub + first spokes)
  • Lifecycle Flows 4 + 6 live
  • App Store listing in brand voice
  • 5 ambassadors active
  • Pricing audit closed
  • Domain consolidated

KPI targets: Onboarding Day 1 → paid lift of 2550%. Organic traffic 5001,500/mo. App Store conversion rate +20%.

Q2 — Months 46 (SepNov 2026)

Funding state: Seed close (~Q3 2026 target). First paid budget unlock: $510K/mo test.

Focus: Validate paid. Scale winning onboarding. Add Flow 2.

Outcomes by end of Q2:

  • Paid acquisition firing on Apple Search Ads + Meta
  • Onboarding winner permanently shipped
  • Flow 2 (onboarding emails) shipped
  • Ona post-session reflection in production
  • 1525 ambassadors active
  • First B2B install reference case (EHA) published
  • Annual plan default tested

KPI targets: Paid CAC < $50 blended. Organic traffic 1,5003,500/mo. Retention curves visibly improving.

Q3 — Months 79 (Dec 2026Feb 2027)

Funding state: Seed deployment. Paid scales to $2050K/mo if unit economics hold. First marketing hire (lifecycle + content manager).

Focus: Scale + diversify. App GA. B2B reference cases compound.

Outcomes by end of Q3:

  • App GA launched with new GTM moment (PR + ad creative refresh + Pillar 3 spatial-audio-science content cycle)
  • First Olo Guides cert pilot (35 hosts)
  • All four pillars producing weekly content
  • Eye mask gifting flow live for holiday peak
  • New marketing hire onboarded

KPI targets: Paid + organic blended CAC stabilizing. App GA conversion +50% from beta baseline. Guides pilot validates rev-share + co-marketing model.

Q4 — Months 1012 (MarMay 2027)

Funding state: PreSeries A. Paid scaling continues. Series A pitch in motion.

Focus: Compound. Position for Series A.

Outcomes by end of Q4:

  • Compound channels (organic + ambassador + Guides + lifecycle) producing 50%+ of new subs
  • 50+ ambassadors, 510 Guides
  • 4 SEO pillars + 30+ pieces of content live
  • Paid scaling to $50150K/mo if validated
  • Series A narrative: clinical evidence + activation lift + lifecycle compounding + B2B reference case pipeline

KPI targets: D2C ARR run-rate trajectory clear. Blended LTV/CAC > 3. Founder narrative + data + reference cases ready for Series A.


11. Marketing operations stack

This is what makes the plan executable at Olo's team size. A 4-person founder team + fCMO + agentic tooling can ship the output of a 1520-person traditional marketing org — because the marketing skill library and MCP integrations do the orchestration.

The thesis

Every move in the AARRR breakdown above maps to (a) one or more marketing skills that operationalize the work, and (b) one or more MCP/API integrations that let it execute without a dedicated headcount per channel.

The fCMO's job is to:

  1. Define the strategy and sequencing (this doc)
  2. Run the skills against the right context at the right time
  3. Maintain the shared context (olo-context) and tooling so Markus + Catarina + future hires can plug in
  4. Hand off operational work to humans (or future hires) only where the cost of agentic execution > human execution

Skills mapped to AARRR stages

Stage Primary skills Supporting skills
Acquisition seo-audit, ai-seo, programmatic-seo, schema, content-strategy, competitors, ads, ad-creative, social, typefully, audit-marketing launch, free-tools, analytics, cold-email, copywriting, marketing-website-design
Activation onboarding, signup, paywalls, cro, copywriting, copy-editing, copycraft marketing-website-design, ab-testing, marketing-psychology, cro, popups
Retention emails, churn-prevention copywriting, copy-editing, ab-testing, paywalls
Referral referrals, social copywriting, marketing-website-design, emails
Revenue pricing, paywalls, sales-enablement, revops ab-testing, copywriting
Cross-cutting (brand, intelligence) positioning, brand-voice, customer-research, marketing-psychology, audit, audit-marketing brand-strategy, brand-guidelines, brand-style-guide, branding, marketing-ideas, diagram-maker, product-marketing

MCPs / APIs mapped to stages

Stage Existing connections at Olo Tooling layer (Corey's fCMO stack)
Acquisition App Store Connect (manual), Shopify, GA4 (in progress), Notion Ahrefs API, DataForSEO API, Typefully MCP, GitHub MCP (olo-promo), agent-browser, defuddle
Activation App Store Connect, Customer.io, Shopify App Store Connect (via dev-browser for screenshot automation), Figma / Pencil MCP, GitHub MCP (olo app repo), Stripe MCP
Retention Customer.io (with Claude MCP — validated on kickoff), Stripe, Shopify Customer.io MCP, Stripe MCP, GA4 MCP
Referral Dub.co, Stripe Dub.co, Stripe MCP, GitHub MCP (per-ambassador landing pages), Customer.io MCP
Revenue Stripe, Shopify, Customer.io Stripe MCP, Shopify, GA4 MCP, Notion
Cross-cutting Notion, GitHub (olo-context) Notion, GitHub MCP, defuddle, obsidian-cli (for Corey's working notes)

The Customer.io MCP unlock (concrete example)

Per kickoff call: "Built live on call — abandoned-cart flow drafted using Customer.io's Claude MCP. Validated that non-technical team can use the skill pattern independently."

This is the operational proof that the stack works. Markus, who is not a developer, drafted a working lifecycle flow with Claude + Customer.io MCP in real time on a kickoff call. The same pattern applies to: Flow 4 ship (lapsed user re-engagement), subscription center build, win-back campaign, eye mask gifting flow, ambassador lifecycle. The fCMO's role becomes orchestration + brand-voice QA, not hand-cranking each email.

Capability unlocks by funding stage

Stage Headcount Tooling Channels live
Pre-seed-close (now) fCMO + founder team All current tooling + Corey's marketing skill library + MCP layer Organic only (SEO, content, App Store, LinkedIn, events, WOM, ambassador)
Seed close (~Q3 2026) + first marketing hire (lifecycle/content) by end of Q3 + paid ad accounts (Apple Search Ads, Meta, LinkedIn) + paid acquisition pilot $510K/mo
Seed deployment (Q3Q4 2026) + designer (potentially fractional) + analytics expansion (Mixpanel or Amplitude if needed) + paid scaling $2050K/mo, + Guides cert pilot
Series A (2027) + performance marketing lead + content lead + dedicated tooling spend (~$25K/mo software) + paid scaling $50150K/mo, + international, + B2B vertical expansion

The marketing skill library scales these stages. Every channel added doesn't require a 1:1 headcount increase because each skill encodes the workflow.


12. Tactical idea bank — 139-idea cross-reference

The marketing-ideas skill catalogs 139 proven marketing tactics. Sections 48 (AARRR) prescribe what we're doing. This section maps the full universe of what's possible — every idea cross-referenced to the AARRR stage it primarily serves, with Olo applicability and timing.

This is the exhaustive menu. The plan above is the curated path. When we move to Q2 / Q3 / Series A and unlock new capacity, this is the inventory we pull from.

Status legend:

  • Now (Q1) — already in the 90-day plan OR can run alongside it without new capacity
  • Q2 — post-bedrock-fix, post-foundation; second-quarter layer-ins
  • Q3+ — post-seed-close, post-GA; expansion moves
  • Q4+ — long-game / large-investment moves
  • Skip / off-brand — incompatible with Olo's brand voice, business model, or product category

12.1 Acquisition ideas (88 mapped)

Now (Q1):

# Idea Olo note
1 Easy Keyword Ranking SEO plan Tier-1 cluster (nervous system, sleep mask, B2B) targets this directly
2 SEO Audit Run /seo-audit olo.app quarterly; publish findings as content
5 Content Repurposing Sound Philosophy → essays → LinkedIn posts → newsletter → podcast loop
6 Proprietary Data Content Psychophysiology study now; anonymized Olo HRV / sleep dataset later
7 Internal Linking Built into the pillar/spoke structure of the SEO plan
10 Parasite SEO Markus's LinkedIn already does this; consider mirror to Substack
12 Marketing Jiu-Jitsu Meditation-vs-Regulation IS this — turn "meditation works" assumption against itself
36 Quora Marketing Answer "why meditation doesn't work for me" + HRV + somatic questions
37 Reddit Keyword Research Mine r/somatic, r/CPTSD, r/HSP, r/ADHD for ICP language (feeds Customer Language #139)
39 LinkedIn Audience Markus's channel productized — primary D2C top-of-funnel today
59 Article Quotes HARO / Help-A-B2B-Writer for Markus + Catarina — easy press wins
70 Conference Speaking Markus: WELL Conference, biophilic design events, Mindful Leadership Summit
74 Press Coverage Pitch Psychophysiology + Bryan Johnson hook to 5 outlets in Q1
109 Public Demos Live Olo events ARE this; instrument the in-person → app conversion
114 Moneyball Marketing Already practicing — asymmetric SEO keywords, undervalued channels
133 Investor Marketing Markus's raise — leverage angel backchannel for PR + intros

Q2:

# Idea Olo note
3 Glossary Marketing Sound + nervous system glossary — "what is polyvagal," "what is HRV," "what is somatic listening"
8 Content Refreshing Revisit Pillar 1 quarterly with new data and search-intent updates
11 Competitor Comparison Pages Olo vs. Calm / Headspace / Brain.fm / Endel / Wavepaths — high-intent SERPs
13 Competitive Ad Research SpyFu + Facebook Ad Library before launching paid
17 Quiz Marketing "What's your nervous system profile?" — generates personalization seed + lead capture
25 Facebook Ads Eye mask creative + somatic content + retargeting from event attendees
26 Instagram Ads Visual product + Reels-native ads (eye mask especially)
28 LinkedIn Ads B2B venue buyers + investor-adjacent ICP
31 Google Ads Apple Search Ads first (App Store intent); Google for eye mask + B2B
38 Reddit Marketing Authentic participation in r/somatic, r/HSP, r/ADHD after content base exists
40 Instagram Audience Eye mask + somatic creators; Reels-native
44 Comment Marketing Thoughtful comments on Huberman / Daybreakers / Tim Ferriss / wellness creators
49 Monthly Newsletters Either Olo-branded or sync with Catarina's "Coffee with Catarina" Substack
54 Affiliate Discovery via Backlinks Find who links to Calm/Headspace/Brain.fm — pitch them on Olo affiliate program
58 Newsletter Swaps Daybreakers, founder wellness Substacks, Markus's investor network
64 Community Sponsorship Somatic newsletters, wellness Substacks, founder communities
65 Live Webinars Markus + Catarina hosting "Sound + the Nervous System"
101 Industry Interviews Markus + Catarina interview category experts (becomes seed of Olo podcast)
102 Social Screenshots Ona reflection responses (anonymized, consented) — social proof gold
108 Changelogs Public changelog at olo.app/changes — product momentum signal
115 Curation as Marketing Curated "field recordings of the year" feature; Olo Spaces directory
135 Support as Marketing Surface customer support / Ona reflection moments as content
138 Podcast Tours Markus on Huberman, Daybreakers, Tim Ferriss, Rich Roll, Rangan Chatterjee

Q3+:

# Idea Olo note
4 Programmatic SEO Olo Guides city pages once Guides program scales
9 Knowledge Base SEO When help docs scale enough to have problem-solution coverage
14 Side Projects Eventually a free Olo-adjacent tool that lives outside the app
15 Engineering as Marketing HRV interpretation guide; nervous system self-assessment; sound bath finder directory
18 Calculator Marketing Sleep latency calculator; overstimulation index
20 Microsites For specific GTM moments (e.g., Ona GA launch)
23 Podcast Advertising Huberman, Tim Ferriss, Rich Roll, Daybreakers — host-read most relevant
24 Pre-targeting Ads Warm audiences via content before direct-response
29 Reddit Ads r/HSP, r/ADHD, r/somatic — high ICP density, low advertiser saturation
30 Quora Ads Intent-rich for "why meditation doesn't work" queries
32 YouTube Ads Pre-roll on Huberman / Lex Fridman / wellness creator videos
33 Cross-Platform Retargeting Standard layer once paid is firing
35 Community Marketing Olo Spaces community (Discord/Circle); host monthly drop-ins
42 Short Form Video TikTok / Reels — somatic education + eye mask UGC
55 Influencer Whitelisting Run ads through ambassador / Guide accounts for authenticity
57 Expert Networks Olo Guides program IS this — certified hosts who can market
60 Pixel Sharing Standard once paid is firing
61 Shared Slack Channels Partner venue Slacks (EHA, Moonrise, Alchemy Springs)
63 Integration Marketing Apple Health (HRV data), Oura, Whoop — co-marketing
66 Virtual Summits Olo participates or hosts
68 Local Meetups Cities with high ICP density (SF, NYC, LA, Austin)
69 Meetup Sponsorship Sponsor wellness / biohacking meetups
72 Conference Sponsorship Industry conferences once budget unlocks
75 Fundraising PR "Olo raises $3M" moment when seed closes
78 Product Hunt Launch Ona public launch moment
79 Early-Access Referrals App GA early-access list (cross-references to Referral)
81 Early Access Pricing App GA — early-access tier locked in for first cohort
82 Product Hunt Alternatives BetaList, Launching Next, AlternativeTo at GA
97 Playlists as Marketing Olo curates Spotify playlists for somatic listening
98 Template Marketing Free "nervous system reset" protocol PDFs
100 Promo Videos High-quality brand films — Ed Dorsey advises, Matt Mikkelsen field audio
103 Online Courses Markus's Sound Philosophy course; Catarina's somatic methodology course
107 Podcasts Olo podcast — interview format with category experts and customers
111 Challenges as Marketing "21-day nervous system reset" — tasteful, no fitness-bro tone
113 Controversy as Marketing Meditation-vs-Regulation IS mild controversy — lean in carefully
126 YouTube Reviews Pitch Olo to wellness YouTubers — Huberman fan-creator tier
127 YouTube Channel Sound design behind-the-scenes; Catarina session demos
129 Review Sites App Store reviews actively managed; Trustpilot for eye mask Shopify
130 Live Audio Twitter Spaces / LinkedIn Audio with Markus on sound + body
134 Certifications Olo Guides cert IS this — Q3+ pilot

Q4+ / long-game:

# Idea Olo note
56 Reseller Programs Corporate wellness platforms (Modern Health, Lyra) as resellers
67 Roadshows Olo Experiences IS this — eye mask + listening session pop-ups in 3 cities
71 Conferences Olo-hosted "Sound + the Body" — long-game category-defining moment
76 Documentaries Markus's story is documentary-grade — long game
77 Black Friday Promotions Holiday eye mask + Premium bundle
80 New Year Promotions New Year nervous system reset campaign
84 Giveaways Eye mask giveaway with brand partner (Wellness Mama tier)
85 Vacation Giveaways Olo + retreat partner giveaway (olo.center could be venue)
87 Powered By Marketing "Sound system by Olo" badge in B2B venue installs
104 Book Marketing Sound Philosophy as a book — long-game positioning anchor
105 Annual Reports "State of the Nervous System" — Olo's data + industry commentary
106 End of Year Wraps "Your nervous system year" — Spotify Wrapped equivalent
110 Awards as Marketing Olo founds an award for innovative biophilic acoustic design
116 Grants as Marketing Free Olo subscriptions for therapists, social workers, first responders
119 OOH Advertising SF / NYC billboards if Series A budget unlocks
120 Marketing Stunts Public sound installation could work — brand-fitting
121 Guerrilla Marketing Sound installation in subway / airport — interesting but requires care
131 International Expansion Finland HQ + global ICP — Q4 or post-Series A

Skip / off-brand for Olo:

# Idea Why skip
16 Importers as Marketing No competitor data to import (consumer wellness, not SaaS)
19 Chrome Extensions Off-platform (mobile-first product)
21 Scanners No obvious product fit
22 Public APIs Not core business
27 Twitter Ads Lower priority unless Markus's X presence grows
34 Click-to-Messenger Ads Off-brand (no DM-driven sales pattern)
41 X Audience Depends on Markus's bandwidth — defer unless he wants to
43 Engagement Pods Off-brand
73 Media Acquisitions Too capital-intensive at this stage
83 Twitter Giveaways Off-brand voice
86 Lifetime Deals Brand-conflict — pressures the "no pressure" voice and damages LTV math
88 Free Migrations No competitor data to migrate
89 Contract Buyouts Not relevant for D2C subs
99 Graphic Novel Marketing Off-brand
112 Reality TV Marketing Off-brand
117 Product Competitions Not a developer product
118 Cameo Marketing Off-brand
122 Humor Marketing Brand voice is serious; humor would feel off
123 Open Source as Marketing Proprietary audio library
125 App Marketplaces Not relevant for native consumer app (no app-of-app pattern)
128 Source Platforms G2 / Capterra are B2B-focused; D2C uses App Store reviews
132 Price Localization Q4+ — tied to international expansion
136 Developer Relations Not a dev product

12.2 Activation ideas (7 mapped)

# Idea Status Olo note
124 App Store Optimization Now Q1 priority — listing rewrite in voice (also Acquisition)
90 One-Click Registration Now OAuth (Apple, Google) for app signup — standard activation lift
51 Onboarding Emails Q2 Flow 2 — held until UI stable post-onboarding-rebuild
96 Onboarding Optimization Q1-Q2 The 3-variant test IS this — primary activation work
47 Founder Welcome Email Q2 Personal welcome from Markus or Catarina early in Flow 2
48 Dynamic Email Capture Q2 Smart capture on olo.app — exit intent + scroll depth
95 Concierge Setup Q3+ High-touch onboarding for B2B venue clients + high-value subscribers

12.3 Retention ideas (8 mapped)

# Idea Status Olo note
46 Reactivation Emails Now Flow 4 ships in weeks 34 — exactly this
52 Win-back Emails Q1 (week 11-12) Standalone campaign on top of Flow 4
53 Trial Reactivation Q2 Expired-trial recovery campaign once paywall is firing
45 Mistake Email Marketing Q2 When something genuinely goes wrong, send "oops" — drives engagement
50 Inbox Placement Q1 Subdomain silo strategy (mail.olo.app / commerce.olo.app) addresses this
91 In-App Upsells Q2 Premium upsell points within app (also Revenue)
94 Offboarding Flows Q2 Optimize cancellation flow to retain or learn — feeds churn intel
135 Support as Marketing Q2 Customer support stories surface as content (also Acquisition)

12.4 Referral ideas (5 mapped)

# Idea Status Olo note
62 Affiliate Program Now Ambassador program v1 is exactly this — launched with the 5 inbound
137 Two-Sided Referrals Q2 Reward both referrer and referred — share-after-shift moment + gifting flow
92 Newsletter Referrals Q3 If we launch a newsletter, Sparkloop-style referral mechanic
93 Viral Loops Q3 Built-in share mechanics post-Ona reflection
79 Early-Access Referrals Q3 App GA early-access list referrals (cross-references to Acquisition)

12.5 Revenue ideas (3 mapped — most ideas serve top-of-funnel)

# Idea Status Olo note
91 In-App Upsells Q2 Premium upgrade prompts; eye mask cross-sell from app (also Retention)
132 Price Localization Q4+ Adjust pricing for local purchasing power once international
86 Lifetime Deals Skip Brand-conflict — see Acquisition skip list

12.6 Cross-cutting / brand foundation ideas

# Idea Status Olo note
139 Customer Language Now Ona reflection responses + 7 Ds language = the source-of-truth for customer language across all copy
114 Moneyball Marketing Ongoing Find undervalued channels at every stage — methodology, not a single tactic

Idea-bank summary

  • 88 ideas applicable to Acquisition (the dominant stage at Olo's current stage — makes sense, Olo's product converts well; the bottleneck is the top of funnel)
  • 7 ideas to Activation, 8 to Retention (smaller because these stages are about depth, not breadth — execute the right few well rather than running a wide tactic menu)
  • 5 ideas to Referral (program-driven, not tactic-driven)
  • 3 ideas to Revenue (most revenue work is pricing strategy, not tactical tricks)
  • 2 cross-cutting
  • 23 ideas skipped for brand / business-model fit — Olo's category positioning constrains what's available

What this proves: the plan is roughly 30% of the available tactical surface area, not 100%. That's appropriate at this stage and budget. As capacity unlocks across Q2 → Q3 → Series A, the cross-reference becomes the inventory we pull from to scale activity without losing strategic coherence.


13. Measurement, RACI, open decisions, appendix

Measurement — the metrics that matter

North star (proposed): Blended-LTV-to-blended-CAC ratio per acquired user, where:

  • Blended LTV combines app subscription revenue + hardware revenue (eye mask + speakers) + any cross-sells, per cohort
  • Blended CAC combines paid spend + content production cost + ambassador commissions + lifecycle tool spend, per cohort

This captures the business model: the eye mask wedge isn't free if it costs $X to make, and the app sub isn't expensive to acquire if a Bryan-Johnson-style PR moment is paying for itself.

If a single metric is preferred for team-level focus, fall back to: monthly new D2C subscribers from non-paid channels. This isolates the compound channels the long-game strategy depends on.

Leading indicators by AARRR stage:

Stage Leading indicators
Acquisition Organic visits/mo (overall + per pillar), App Store visit-to-install rate, Markus's LinkedIn engagement → email subscribers, event-to-app conversion rate, ambassador-attributed visits
Activation Day 1 / Day 7 / Day 35 → paid conversion, onboarding session-completion rate, first session Ona reflection completion
Retention 30 / 60 / 90-day retention, monthly churn, Flow 4 reactivation rate, hardware → app activation rate
Referral Ambassador-attributed new subs (Dub), share-after-shift rate, Guides pilot referrals (when live)
Revenue Blended MRR, ARPU, annual plan adoption %, LTV by cohort, eye mask attach rate

Review cadence:

  • Weekly: fCMO ↔ Markus 30-min sync. AARRR scoreboard + this week's ships.
  • Monthly: Full metrics review (extended sync, Catarina included). Compare against quarterly KPI targets.
  • Quarterly: Plan recalibration. What's working, what's not, what funding-stage moves we're triggering.

RACI

Domain Responsible Accountable Consulted Informed
Strategic plan (this doc) Corey Markus Catarina, Emily Team
Brand voice Markus + Catarina Markus + Catarina Corey Team
App + onboarding implementation Shariq Markus Corey Team
Lifecycle flows (Customer.io) Corey Markus Catarina (copy QA) Team
SEO content Corey Corey Catarina, Markus Team
App Store copy Corey Markus Catarina Team
Markus's LinkedIn cadence Markus Markus Corey (orchestration) Team
Events Markus + Catarina Markus Corey (instrumentation only) Team
Ambassador program Corey Corey Markus Team
B2B sales Markus Markus Corey (case studies) Team
Pricing Markus Markus Corey Catarina
Investor narrative Markus Markus Corey, Catarina Team
Olo Guides program (Q3+) TBD (likely future hire) Markus + Catarina Corey Team
Future marketing hire (Q3) Corey Markus Catarina Team

Open decisions blocking the plan

Most blocking, ranked by impact:

  1. Canonical domain. SEO data + this plan recommend olo.app. Needs exec sign-off + 301 execution plan. Blocks: domain consolidation, SEO foundation, email sender migration.
  2. Retention metric definition. Reconcile 38% 12-month retention claim vs. 29% monthly App Store churn. Blocks: clean dashboards, investor narrative coherence, lifecycle test reads.
  3. Ona post-session reflection scope. Does Ona currently support this, or is it new build? Blocks: Onboarding Variants 1 and 2 (which depend on Ona reflection moment), retention compound moves.
  4. App UI stability timeline. When does the headphone-gate-removal + onboarding-rebuild allow Flow 2 to ship without rework risk? Blocks: Flow 2, full lifecycle, paid acquisition timing.
  5. GA launch timeline. When does the throttled beta become GA? Blocks: paid acquisition scale, Q3 GTM planning.
  6. Pricing structure ground truth. What's actually charged today? Blocks: pricing audit conclusions, annual-plan default test, blended LTV math.
  7. First marketing hire scope. Lifecycle + content owner, or something else? When does the JD get written? Blocks: Q3 capacity plan, succession of fCMO operational work.
  8. Ambassador commission structure. $/sub, rev-share, hybrid? Blocks: ambassador program launch, attribution dashboards.

Published to the team via Olo-Space/olo-context GitHub repo:

  • marketing/seo/plan.md — Full 90-day SEO + keyword research plan
  • marketing/seo/keyword-shortlist.md — Tier 1 keyword shortlist
  • marketing/seo/raw/ — Ahrefs + DataForSEO API pulls
  • marketing/onboarding-recommendation.md — Three-variant onboarding test plan

Founder-authored strategic context (in Olo's internal knowledge base):

  • Seed deck — Investor narrative
  • Sound Philosophy — Markus's technical/philosophical working doc
  • Marketing OS — Brand voice, content rhythm, visual system
  • ICP doc — D2C audience profile
  • Meditation-vs-Regulation note (2026-05-19) — Central content pillar
  • Kickoff call transcript (2026-05-18) — Decisions + open questions
  • App Store copy snapshot + voice-gap analysis
  • App Store metrics snapshot (2026-05-16)
  • Customer.io lifecycle flows inventory

Marketing Plan v1. Prepared by Corey Haines (fCMO), 2026-05-27. For team review and discussion.