Mapping your marketing efforts – interview with James Baldacchino

Before getting into the conversation, it’s worth asking one key question: how do successful brands decide where to focus their marketing energy? This episode pulls back the curtain on how WordPress product companies can use data, structure, and storytelling to make better marketing decisions. Expect real-world examples of how mapping your efforts creates clarity, aligns teams, and ultimately drives measurable business growth.

In this episode of Osom To Know, host Maciej Nowak talks with James Baldacchino, Head of Marketing at Ellipsis, about how to build and optimize a marketing strategy that truly supports business growth in the WordPress ecosystem. James has spent years helping WordPress product companies craft effective messaging, understand their audience, and find the right balance between data and creativity.

💡 Together, they explore how strategic marketing maps connect audience insights, positioning, and long-term consistency. If you’re a WordPress product owner or agency marketer, this episode will help you rethink how to allocate your efforts—and measure what actually matters.

Understanding the Map: From Data to Direction

James starts with a simple truth: marketing without direction is just noise. For WordPress companies juggling content, paid channels, and product updates, clarity is what turns scattered activity into a measurable system.

It’s really about understanding where you are and where you want to go before you start moving.

He explains that mapping efforts begins with diagnosing current positioning, collecting accurate data, and defining target outcomes. Once the map is drawn, teams can track movement over time instead of chasing every new channel or campaign trend.This strategic approach helps teams identify which activities move the needle and which are simply distractions. It’s about progress, not just motion.

Building a Marketing Strategy That Scales

When asked about scalability, James stresses process and documentation as the backbone of sustainable marketing. Clear workflows allow marketing teams to grow without losing consistency or voice. In practice, this means having defined content systems, data dashboards, and repeatable playbooks that can evolve as the company matures. Without those, new hires or partners risk reinventing the wheel—or worse, breaking what already works.

It’s not glamorous, but great marketing scales on great documentation.

By investing early in these systems, WordPress brands can pivot quickly while maintaining the credibility that consistency brings.

Messaging and Positioning: Speak to Problems, Not Products

A core challenge for WordPress product teams is explaining why their solution matters. James emphasizes problem-first storytelling as the key to better positioning.

You’re not selling a plugin—you’re solving a problem that costs someone time, effort, or money.

Effective marketing connects product features to customer pain points in plain language. For example, instead of saying “fast hosting,” describe “a site that loads before your competitor’s does.” This shift grounds marketing in value and outcomes rather than technical jargon. The closer you get to customer language, the easier it is for them to see themselves in your story. In WordPress marketing, empathy is a differentiator—especially in a market crowded with similar tools.

Content Strategy: Quality, Frequency, and Focus

James warns against chasing volume over value. A clear, topic-based content map ensures every piece aligns with measurable goals. That means aligning blog posts, tutorials, and newsletters around product use cases and conversion paths, not just keywords. Good content informs the user while reinforcing product trust.

If content doesn’t help your audience do their job better, it’s noise.

The sweet spot? Balancing consistent publishing with genuine expertise—something WordPress audiences value deeply.

Measuring What Matters: From KPIs to Insights

Marketing performance isn’t about vanity metrics. For Ellipsis, meaningful measurement starts with understanding the customer journey and defining actionable KPIs. He recommends focusing on metrics that link directly to business goals: trial signups, demo requests, retention rates, and customer lifetime value. Data dashboards should serve strategy, not the other way around.

If a metric doesn’t change your decision, it’s not a KPI—it’s decoration.

By simplifying reporting and connecting analytics to strategy, teams can make decisions with clarity and confidence.

Collaboration and Consistency: The Human Factor

Marketing maps aren’t built in isolation. Cross-functional collaboration with design, sales, and product teams ensures the brand message remains consistent from ad to onboarding. At Ellipsis, James describes how internal communication frameworks keep distributed teams aligned across time zones. Everyone works from a shared understanding of audience goals and brand tone.

Consistency is trust. If users feel the same experience in every interaction, they stick around.

For WordPress agencies and product companies, this cross-team synergy is what turns scattered marketing into a unified growth engine.

Key Takeaways: How to Map Your Marketing Efforts

• Start with direction. Define your goals before you move.
• Build repeatable systems. Document, test, and refine as you scale.
• Speak human. Connect product features to real-world problems.
• Measure impact, not motion. Focus on KPIs that influence business growth.
• Collaborate widely. Keep teams and messaging aligned.

Full conversation with James Baldacchino