Leadership changes. Teams get reshuffled. A merger flips priorities overnight.
These are the moments when marketing feels the most uncertain. This same pressure is a catalyst for possibility. Without a straightforward way to see what's working, what's not, and where to go next, this opportunity for a reset quickly turns into chaos.
That's where Red Door Interactive's Marketing Maturity Model comes in.
It's a practical way to bring clarity when your team needs it most. Built for moments of disruption, it helps you pause, take stock, and move forward together.
Making Sense of Change through Marketing Maturity
When change hits, from new leadership to a sudden shift in strategy, teams are often left grappling with uncertainty. Even the most experienced marketing departments can feel unmoored, unsure how to prioritize, align, or measure progress.
That's where marketing maturity becomes essential.
Digital marketing maturity is a framework that helps teams understand their current state across key capabilities (from strategy to execution) and align on what "better" looks like. It's not about perfection. It's about progress. By mapping where you are and where you want to go, you build a shared understanding that turns confusion into clarity and tension into momentum.
It is especially powerful in moments of disruption, when clarity is hard to find. Whether navigating a merger, onboarding a new CMO, or pivoting brand priorities, Red Door Interactive's Marketing Maturity Model brings a sense of direction when your team needs it most. It helps you answer questions like:
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Who leads the brand voice now?
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Which tools and processes stay, and which go?
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How will success be measured moving forward?
Instead of fragmented conversations and competing agendas, your team walks away with aligned priorities, a common language, and a roadmap ready to activate.
So, what is a Marketing Maturity Model?
A maturity model is a simple framework for seeing where your marketing stands today and where it needs to go. Most maturity models describe five stages of growth. They give teams a shared language to understand how far they've come and what's ahead:
These stages are universal. What sets Red Door apart is how we guide you through them and turn your results into an actionable roadmap. Our model steps away from synthetic perfection & focuses on improving how your people, processes, and tools work together to create real impact.
We don't just hand you a score. We show what it means for your business and how to use it to create focused, strategic growth—moving your team from busy to aligned and from reactive to confident.
The 5 Stages of Red Door's Marketing Maturity Model
Every organization is unique, and every transition is different. Our process meets your team where they are and guides them to where they need to be.
Step 1: Build a Model That Reflects Your Reality
We work with you to define categories that reflect how your team truly operates, such as:
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Strategic Alignment
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Brand Strategy
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Content Execution
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Operations
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Growth
These categories aren't pulled from a dusty template. We build each component around your people, goals, and challenges, so the model is relevant and practical from day one.
Step 2: Facilitate a Collaborative Workshop
We bring key stakeholders together for a focused, efficient, natural, collaborative session.
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Method: We use Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats to assign each participant a clear role and perspective.
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Goal: Quickly surface valuable insights through open, unscripted discussion.
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Collaboration: Outcomes reflect input from every voice, not just the loudest. The process builds trust and shared ownership of decisions.
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Outcome: Your team walks away with shared understanding and alignment on where you stand today, achieved in a structured and organic way.
Step 3: Visualize the Results
We turn the workshop insights into clear, visual dashboards you can scan immediately. Our visualizations include:
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Radar charts to see performance across key categories
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Summaries highlighting strengths and gaps
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Optional benchmarks to compare your team to peers
These visuals make it easy to spot what's working, what needs attention, and where to focus next.
Step 4: Shape the Way Forward
You leave with a prioritized roadmap that connects every insight to a tangible next step. From staffing plans to KPI development, your roadmap is practical, relevant, and ready to act on.
The Benefits of a Marketing Maturity Assessment
A Marketing Maturity Assessment isn't just a one-time diagnostic. It's a strategic tool that drives alignment, efficiency, and confidence across your entire marketing function.
By grounding your team in a shared understanding of where you stand today, you unlock the clarity needed to take meaningful action tomorrow.
Teams who complete the assessment gain:
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Aligned Vision: Everyone understands the current state and what success looks like moving forward.
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Focused Priorities: With a clear maturity baseline, your team can stop spinning wheels on distractions and start acting on what matters most.
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Objective Clarity: The structured, data-informed process removes bias, helps settle debates, and brings focus to previously subjective conversations through a marketing maturity audit.
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Faster Onboarding: Whether a new CMO or a new agency partner, the maturity model creates a shared language that speeds up understanding and decision-making.
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Stronger Narratives for Leadership: You leave with compelling, data-backed insights that justify your investments and accelerate stakeholder buy-in.
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Tangible Roadmaps: No fluff, no vague recommendations. Just actionable steps tied to your specific goals, people, and constraints.
Clarity That Transforms Marketing Teams
When change happens, it's easy for teams to stay busy without pulling in the same direction. Even high‑performing groups can lose focus as priorities shift, and decisions pile up. Our Marketing Maturity Model helps restore that focus. It gives teams a simple way to cut through the noise, agree on what matters most, and move forward purposefully.
And the results speak for themselves.
Dave Gladson, CMO of Point Loma Nazarene University, commented on his experience using the model: "In a time of transition, I needed a tool to help me clearly explain our team's strengths, our growth edges, and our trajectory. I (of course) believed my team was solidly on track, but I needed a way to express that clearly to my new boss.
Enter the marketing maturity model. Equal parts assessment tool, roadmap planner, and executive coach, the Marketing Maturity Model (and more importantly, the exercise of building the model collaboratively between Red Door and my leadership team) gave me the language and framework to confidently talk about where my team is strong, where we are investing in growing, and where we can reasonably project ourselves to be heading."
Change is hard. Clarity doesn't have to be. Let's build your roadmap together.