Bison Payments — Flagship Campaign Brief & Launch Plan

“FROM THE OILFIELD, FOR THE OILFIELD” — Quick Pay ABM Launch

The operational rollup the team executes. This is the master campaign brief and launch plan for Bison’s priority motion: the Quick Pay account-based campaign that warms the discoverable ~40% of the market for the proven sales floor and lights up the offline motion for the analog 60%.

Format: Extended MKT1 GACCS brief (Goals · Audience · Creative/Fuel · Channels/Engine · Stakeholders), mapped onto the Demand Curve B2B Tech Path and grounded in 03-growth-system/growth-roadmap.md (initiatives C3, C6, W2, W3, W4, W5, R2). It rolls the relevant roadmap initiatives into one executable campaign with owners, sequencing, budget guidance, and metrics.

Non-negotiables (from _inputs/BISON-BRIEF.md §12): Lead with Quick Pay. Never market JIB/Online Payments as live (waitlist seeding only). Never quote a fixed APR or rate. “Largest” only ever appears as “largest invoice-funding company in U.S. oil & gas.” Voice is operator-to-operator, SpaceX-industrial — credible champion for the field, never an outsider acting like it knows oil & gas. No glossy/posed stock, no fintech jargon.

1. GOALS & SUMMARY

Description. A single, coordinated account-based campaign that does one job: make oilfield-service operators hear of Bison before a rep ever dials, then convert that warmth into funded Quick Pay accounts. Quick Pay is the cash cow — LIVE, ~$1B invoice volume, ~120 customers — and the founder’s only goal is to double revenue every year. Chris Toy’s read is explicit: “If they could triple revenue on Quick Pay, they’d take that instantly above everything else — no variability, no new product, known entity. Max it out.” This campaign maxes it out.

The campaign runs two motions in parallel (never one before the other), because only ~40% of the ~50,000 oilfield-service companies appear in any B2B database; the other 60% are “very offline, very analog” and unreachable by any data provider:

Marketing’s role is accelerant, not replacement. A 3–4 person cold-calling / door-knocking team built Quick Pay to $1B — that is the proven engine. This campaign warms the list reps dial and supplies the air cover so the operator has heard of Bison before the conversation starts.

Campaign Type. Account-Based Demand Generation (combining “fuel” = field-authentic credibility creative + “engine” = ABM/LinkedIn/direct-mail/sales-floor distribution).

Timeline / Key dates. 12-week flagship launch inside the Q3 30-60-90, then sustained. - Pre-launch (Weeks 1–4 / Days 0–30, “CRAWL”): fix the value step, instrument, build the list. - Launch (Weeks 5–8 / Days 31–60, “WALK”): feed reps, light up LinkedIn + direct mail + email. - Optimize/scale (Weeks 9–12+ / Days 61–90, “RUN”): scale what proved out, paid distribution, flywheel.

Qualitative goal. Bison becomes the name an oilfield-service operator already recognizes — “the one from the oilfield” — the moment a rep calls or a mailer lands. Credibility precedes the pitch.

Primary KPI. Funded Quick Pay accounts and the pipeline that produces them, on an attributable funnel: - Site CVR 0.36% → ≥2.0% (the named #1 fix) — ~6x more Quick Pay leads from the existing 3,613 sessions/mo at no new spend. - Measurable lift in rep meetings/mo sourced from the warmed ABM list vs. cold dialing. - Tracking against the 120 → 240 customer / $1B → $2B Yr-1 path.

OKRs this supports. The founder north star — “Double revenue every year. That’s the only goal that matters in this company” (North Whipple). Yr-1 leg: Quick Pay volume ~$1B → $2B, customers ~120 → 240.

DRI (Directly Responsible Individual). Demand-Gen / Growth Marketing Manager (roadmap hire W1; reports to COO). This role owns the campaign end-to-end. Until onboarded, the COO holds the DRI role for the pre-launch (CRAWL) initiatives.

Stakeholders. Sales floor lead (the 3–4 person cold-call/door-knock team), Web/Eng (page + pixel fixes), COO (sponsor + pre-launch DRI), Channel/Partnerships (EnergyLink), founder North Whipple (content credibility + named-operator stories), MarketerHire team (strategy + execution support).

2. AUDIENCE

The pain (lead the message with this). Operators sit on 30–90 day payment terms from the operators they serve, but payroll is every two weeks. Banks penalize them for being “concentrated” in one operator — which is completely normal in the field — so they can’t get a working-capital line. Quick Pay solves exactly this: advances up to 95% of an invoice, funded next day, no concentration limits, no borrowing bases, no personal guarantees, no covenants.

Buying behavior (this dictates the whole channel mix). “Very offline, very analog.” They don’t search for invoice funding. They buy on word-of-mouth, social proof, and credibility, and they trust people from the field — not bankers, not outsiders. They are responsive on LinkedIn, mailers, and phone. Facebook/Instagram ≈ irrelevant — do not run them.

3. FUEL (CREATIVE)

Creative strategy. Every asset must read as if it came from inside the field. Founder’s aesthetic reference is SpaceX industrial — engines, fire, hardhat crews up close to the work; pumpjacks, rigs, welding, trucks. Never iPads, suits, posed smiling stock, or glossy startup fintech polish.

Brand rule (do not violate): “The only thing worse than us not being from oil & gas is us acting like we know oil & gas.” Be a humble, credible champion for them.

Marketing perception / storyline. “Better than a bank. Built for the field. From operators who get it.” The differentiator is credibility and speed, not price — “We don’t win on cheapest. We win on being the most credible industry partner.” This is the one storyline competitors (banks, generalist factors, even EnergyLink’s 1,087 un-measured ads) structurally cannot tell.

Public-facing campaign description. Bison Payments is the largest invoice-funding company in U.S. oil & gas — built by people who understand that getting paid in 90 days while making payroll every two weeks is the whole problem. Quick Pay advances up to 95% of your invoice, funded next day. No concentration limits. No personal guarantees. From the oilfield, for the oilfield.

Why the audience should care (benefit). Cash in hand next day instead of waiting 90 days — without a bank telling them they’re “too concentrated” to lend to.

Headline direction (Poppins ALL CAPS, one green .accent word; product names Title Case). - “GET PAID NEXT DAY. NOT IN 90.” - “YOUR BANK CALLS IT CONCENTRATION. WE CALL IT YOUR BUSINESS.” - “FROM THE OILFIELD, FOR THE OILFIELD.”

CTA. “See if you qualify — funded next day.” (Routes to the fixed, embedded QuickPay lead form.)

Other key messages / proof (use verbatim, attributed as customer testimonials). - “Up 500–600% YoY.” - “$350k → $7.5M in 3 years.” - “Customers typically double their growth rate within their first 90 days.” - Concrete-spec proof block: “up to 95% · next day · no concentration limits · no personal guarantees.”

Assets needed (status to be tracked in Asana/Notion):

Brand tokens are mandatory on every customer-facing asset: Bison Green #00432C, bright #2E8B5F, hover #0C6A43, duotone teal #6E928A; Poppins 700–800 headings (ALL CAPS + 1 green accent word), Mulish 400–600 body (line-height 1.55), testimonials Mulish italic. Photography is teal/green duotone or desaturated B&W with green type — never fully saturated. Tokens: context/design/colors_and_type.css.

4. ENGINE (CHANNEL STRATEGY & SEQUENCING)

Channels are tiered by fit to this analog, social-proof-driven, LinkedIn/phone/mail-responsive ICP. One governing rule: instrument-then-spend. EnergyLink runs 1,087 LinkedIn ads with zero measurement — that is the failure mode to avoid. No paid dollar launches until GA4 + LinkedIn pixel + CAPI fire.

Channel sequencing logic. Capture surface and measurement come first (or paid clicks die on a broken page, measured blind). Then amplify the proven sales motion and light the two parallel motions (LinkedIn + email for the 40%; direct mail + phone for the 60%). Only then scale paid distribution of the dormant, defensible brand onto a working, instrumented funnel.

5. PHASED LAUNCH TIMELINE

PRE-LAUNCH — Weeks 1–4 (Days 0–30, “CRAWL”): Fix the value step, make it measurable, build the list

Near-zero spend. The demand is already here (3,613 sessions/mo, +196%, 57% direct) — stop leaking it.

Pre-launch gate (do not proceed to launch until all true): 0 broken core pages · pixels firing · CVR baseline live and trending toward 2% · review profiles claimed · ABM master list segmented and in Sales’ hands.

LAUNCH — Weeks 5–8 (Days 31–60, “WALK”): Feed the reps, light both motions

First warmed sales conversations, first direct-mail responses, first nurtured leads.

Launch gate: demand-gen manager onboarded · first warmed ABM meetings · first direct-mail responses · LinkedIn CPC improving · first email-nurtured leads.

OPTIMIZE & SCALE — Weeks 9–12+ (Days 61–90, “RUN”): Scale what proved out

First paid-sourced and first partner-sourced funded Quick Pay clients.

Optimize gate / scale criteria: first paid- and partner-sourced funded Quick Pay clients attributed · CVR ≥2.0% sustained · ABM list producing measurable rep-meeting lift · flywheel live.

6. OWNERS BY ROLE

7. BUDGET ALLOCATION GUIDANCE

Principle: acquisition is the bottleneck, not economics. Each Quick Pay account funds ~$8.3M/yr of compounding volume, so the Target-CAC ceiling comfortably funds both motions in parallel. Spend stays credibility-preserving (operator-to-operator, no glossy stock, no fixed APRs, no “live” JIB claims) and never launches before measurement fires.

Allocation rules of thumb: 1. Offline gets the biggest media line at launch — it is the only channel that reaches the 60% that gates the 240-customer target. 2. No paid media before pixels fire (C2). Hard gate. 3. The demand-gen hire is the highest-ROI line item — 0/5 marketing functions are staffed today; this single role unblocks every channel. 4. Reallocate monthly by CPSQL/CAC; paid search is cheapest to enter (no competitor bids the terms), so it earns budget fast if it converts.

8. SUCCESS METRICS & MEASUREMENT

What “wildly successful” looks like. Operators across the basins recognize “the one from the oilfield” before a rep calls; the warmed ABM list measurably shortens sales cycles and books more meetings; the direct-mail motion proves the analog 60% is reachable; and Quick Pay tracks visibly against the 120 → 240 customer / $1B → $2B Yr-1 doubling — all on an attributable funnel.

Benchmarks. B2B site CVR 2–5% (Bison at 0.36%); LinkedIn eng already strong at 6.7%.

Risks & mitigations: - Paid spend goes blind (EnergyLink’s failure mode) → hard gate: no media before C2 pixels fire. - Offline 60% proves unreachable → direct mail = Learning Goal #1; if responses lag, double down on referral/testimonial flywheel (the other 60%-trust channel) and EnergyLink reach. - EnergyLink channel-dependency risk → R1/R2/W6 owned channels deliberately hedge the single-partner risk. - Late/wrong DRI hire → every initiative single-threads through W1; COO holds DRI interim and keeps the req hot from Week 1. - Credibility breach → any asset that reads outsider/glossy/banker-ish gets killed; voice review on every customer-facing piece before it ships.

Which funnel stages. Aware → Lead → MQL → SQL (Quick Pay), plus a Loyalty → Referral loop (flywheel).

Sources: _inputs/BISON-BRIEF.md (canonical); 03-growth-system/growth-roadmap.md (initiatives C1–C6, W1–W6, R1–R6); _frameworks-vendored/campaign-brief.txt + campaign-launch-plan.csv (extended MKT1 GACCS model); Demand Curve B2B Tech Path (Crawl-Walk-Run). All targets are illustrative — calibrate against first-party HubSpot/GA4 data once C2 instrumentation is live.