buy-and-build
Example: a platform adding five regional home services brands. Marketing’s job: one brand, one site, one CRM, and pipeline the group can report as one number.
learn morePE value creation strategies, with examples
Buy-and-build, organic growth, pricing, professionalization and exit repositioning, each with the marketing work it depends on.
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choosing a value creation strategy
The strategy follows the investment thesis. A fragmented market points to buy-and-build. A strong product with weak demand generation points to organic growth. Most plans run two or three at once.
Whichever you pick, it’s operational work, and that pays: McKinsey finds sponsors that lead on operational value creation earn 2 to 3 percentage points more IRR1. Each strategy has a commercial piece marketing contributes to.
five strategies, five value creation examples
These are illustrative examples, not client stories. For real work, see our work.
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buy-and-build
Example: a platform adding five regional home services brands. Marketing’s job: one brand, one site, one CRM, and pipeline the group can report as one number.
learn more - (02)
organic growth
Example: a vertical SaaS company where organic growth has stalled and paid spend keeps rising to cover it. Marketing’s job: fix attribution, rebuild search and content, then move budget to what produces pipeline at an acceptable CAC.
learn more - (03)
pricing and repositioning
Example: a specialist firm priced like a commodity. Marketing’s job: a position that supports a higher price, and evidence customers will pay it.
learn more - (04)
professionalization
Example: a founder-led healthcare group with no marketing function. Marketing’s job: build the capability, the data and the reporting a board expects.
learn more - (05)
exit repositioning
Example: a company 18 months from exit with a growth story nobody can back up. Marketing’s job: a documented record of revenue by source, and a narrative that holds up in the buyer’s diligence.
learn more
check your strategy against your pipeline
The free Portfolio Marketing Audit is a leak report built from what’s visible from outside (site, search, ads, reviews, response speed), with an estimated cost where the evidence supports one and what we’d validate first inside the business. No call needed.
how much is marketing adding to EBITDA?
The free audit starts the answer: where marketing is likely losing money, what each leak may cost, and what to validate first.
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what every value creation strategy needs from marketing
Different plays, same foundations.
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a baseline
Pipeline, CAC and conversion rates at close. Without a baseline, nobody can show improvement.
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attribution
A CRM and tracking that tie each dollar of spend to pipeline, and then to closed revenue. In accounts the company owns.
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one owner
One named owner for marketing’s part of the value creation plan.
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board reporting
Metrics the board already reads: pipeline, CAC payback, LTV and revenue growth. Defined the same way in every portco.
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a documented record for diligence
Revenue by source, CAC by channel and pipeline history, documented across the hold. So exit prep is assembly, not reconstruction.
pick the strategy for the thesis.
build the marketing for the evidence.
questions, answered
Something we didn’t cover? Ask it on the audit form.
Buy-and-build, organic growth, pricing and repositioning, professionalization and operational improvement, and exit repositioning. Most plans combine several.
A sponsor buys a regional platform, adds smaller competitors at lower multiples, integrates them under one brand and grows organically. It then exits the combined group at a higher multiple.
The sponsor acquires a platform company, then bolts on add-ons. Value comes from scale, integration and multiple arbitrage: exiting the group at a higher multiple than the add-ons cost.
It contributes pipeline, supports pricing with a clear position, integrates brands after add-ons, and documents revenue by source for exit. To show any of it, it needs a baseline, attribution and an owner.
No. They are illustrative examples to show how each strategy works. Our real work is on the work page.
keep reading
- value creation leversThe four value creation levers marketing contributes to in a PE-backed company: brand, acquisition, retention and exit readiness. Get a free audit.read more
- value creationPrivate equity value creation now runs on EBITDA growth, not leverage. Where marketing contributes, and how to test if it can deliver the plan. Free audit.read more
- home servicesMarketing for PE-backed home services platforms: find where booked jobs leak, then fix local search, call tracking and CRM at every location. Free audit.read more
see where marketing is losing you money.
the free audit
what you get
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Where demand leaks
Search, the website, speed to lead and paid media: the leaks visible from outside the business.
- (02)
What each one may cost
An annual cost estimate wherever the evidence supports one, with the assumptions shown.
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What to fix first
Fixes ranked by likely payback for the work involved.
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What we’d validate inside
The CRM, ad and revenue data we’d check first to turn the estimates into numbers for your value creation plan.
what lands in your inbox
how much is marketing adding to EBITDA?
The free audit starts the answer: where marketing is likely losing money, what each leak may cost, and what to validate first.
Free Delivered by email No call needed