Growth · Scale-up

RACE Framework

RACE, developed by Smart Insights founder Dave Chaffey, is a practical digital marketing planning framework that covers the full customer lifecycle: Reach (build awareness and drive traffic), Act (encourage interactions and lead generation), Convert (turn leads into customers), and Engage (build loyalty and advocacy). Each stage has specific KPIs and tactics, making it easy to diagnose where your digital marketing is working and where it needs improvement.

When to use this framework

→You need to structure your digital marketing plan across the full funnel
→You want a single framework to manage paid, owned, and earned digital channels
→Your digital marketing lacks clear KPIs at each stage
→You need to identify which funnel stage is underperforming
→You're presenting a digital strategy to stakeholders who need a clear structure

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Worked Example

HubSpot (B2B SaaS)

1. Reach — Build awareness and drive traffic

Reach Channels

Which channels drive traffic? SEO, paid search, social media, display, PR, content marketing.

1. SEO / Blog content (45% of traffic — HubSpot's blog is one of the highest-traffic marketing blogs globally) 2. Paid search (15% — branded and category terms) 3. Social media (10% — LinkedIn primary, Twitter secondary) 4. Direct / brand (20% — strong brand awareness drives direct visits) 5. Referral / partner (10% — agency partner network and integrations)

Monthly Unique Visitors

Total unique visitors across all digital properties.

15000000

Cost Per Visitor

Average cost to drive one visitor (total marketing spend / visitors).

0.12

2. Act — Encourage interaction and lead generation

Key Interaction / Lead Action

What counts as a meaningful interaction? Newsletter signup, content download, account creation, demo request.

Key Act actions: (1) Free tool usage (Website Grader, Make My Persona, Blog Ideas Generator — these are brilliant lead gen tools that provide immediate value). (2) Content download (ebooks, templates, guides — gated with email capture). (3) Free CRM signup (the product itself is the lead magnet).

Visitor-to-Lead Rate (%)

Percentage of visitors who take the key action.

2.5

Monthly Leads (calculated)

Monthly visitors × Lead rate.

—

3. Convert — Turn leads into customers

Conversion Process

How do leads become customers? Self-serve checkout, sales demo, free trial, consultation.

Multi-touch: Free CRM → product usage → in-app upgrade prompts → sales-assisted for larger deals. Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, and Service Hub have free tiers that hook users, then usage triggers (hitting limits, needing features) drive upgrade to paid tiers ($45-$3,200/mo). Enterprise deals involve sales demos.

Lead-to-Customer Rate (%)

Percentage of leads who become paying customers.

Monthly New Customers (calculated)

Leads × Conversion rate.

—

Average Order Value / Contract Value

Average revenue per conversion.

600

Monthly Digital Revenue (calculated)

New customers × AOV.

—

4. Engage — Build loyalty and repeat purchase

Engagement Tactics

How do you keep customers engaged? Email nurture, loyalty programme, community, content, product updates.

1. HubSpot Academy (free certification courses — creates educated, loyal users and career-invested customers) 2. HubSpot Community (peer support and networking) 3. Annual INBOUND conference (brand engagement event) 4. Customer success team for paid accounts 5. Product-led engagement (the more data in HubSpot, the higher the switching cost) 6. Partner ecosystem (agencies build businesses on HubSpot, creating customer lock-in)

Repeat Purchase / Renewal Rate (%)

Percentage of customers who buy again or renew.

Net Promoter Score

How likely are customers to recommend you? (-100 to 100).

5. RACE Diagnosis

End-to-End Efficiency (Visitor → Customer %)

Overall conversion from visitor to customer.

—

Biggest Bottleneck

Which stage is the weakest? Where's the largest drop-off?

Act stage (2.5% visitor-to-lead rate). While this is decent for B2B, given the massive traffic volume, even a small improvement has enormous impact. A 0.5% improvement in Act rate = 75,000 more leads/month. Focus areas: (1) improve CTA placement on blog posts, (2) test new free tools that capture leads, (3) optimize form length and progressive profiling.

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