Mastering the RACE Framework: A Holistic Growth Strategy for Mid-Size Brands

Posted by Anya Sleezer << back to blog

Last Updated on November 11, 2025

Table of Contents

1. Why RACE Isn’t Just for Digital Anymore
2. The Four Stages of RACE
3. Reach: Attract and Build Awareness
4. Act: Encourage Interaction and Consideration
5. Convert: Turn Prospects into Customers
6. Engage: Retain and Turn Customers into Advocates
7. Levo’s Leak Finder Audit™: Uncovering Hidden Gaps
8. A 12-Week Timeline for Applying RACE in a Mid-Size Brand
9. FAQs About the RACE Framework
10. Final Thoughts and Next Steps

Key Takeaway

The RACE Framework is more than a digital marketing tool — it’s a holistic growth strategy that unites your online and offline efforts into a single, measurable system. For mid-size brands, RACE brings clarity to the customer journey, aligning marketing, sales, and customer success teams around four clear stages: Reach, Act, Convert, and Engage. By applying the framework across every channel and running diagnostics like Levo’s Leak Finder Audit, organizations can pinpoint hidden drop-offs, prioritize high-impact fixes, and build sustainable momentum. The result isn’t just more campaigns — it’s a unified growth engine that consistently attracts, converts, and retains the right customers.

Why RACE Isn’t Just for Digital Anymore

Most articles you’ll read about the RACE Framework position it as a digital marketing model — a way to organize SEO, PPC, email, and social media campaigns into a coherent flow. And that’s true: it was originally created by Dr. Dave Chaffey at Smart Insights to bring order to fragmented online marketing.

But here’s the truth. At Levo, RACE is bigger than digital.

At its core, RACE is about the customer journey — guiding people from first discovery of your brand to loyal advocacy. That journey doesn’t just happen online. It happens:

On the trade show floor
In a phone call with sales
When someone opens your direct mail piece
During onboarding at your physical location
In the way a happy client refers you over lunch

For mid-size brands, the real power of RACE is that it unites digital and offline marketing into a single framework. Instead of tracking sales, campaigns, and customer success separately, you can map all activity to Reach, Act, Convert, or Engage.

This creates clarity, alignment, and a common language across marketing, sales, and leadership teams.

The Four Stages of RACE (and How They Apply Online + Offline)

1. Reach — Attract and Build Awareness

Objective

Help more of the right people discover you.

Digital Examples

SEO and search advertising
Organic social media
Digital PR and influencer collaborations
Display ads and sponsored content

Offline Examples

Trade shows and expos
Speaking engagements or sponsorships
Local partnerships and community events
Traditional media: TV, radio, print, direct mail

Metrics

Impressions
Unique visitors
Reach
Brand search volume
Event attendance

How to execute

Research your target audience: What do they read, watch, or attend?
Develop both digital content (blogs, videos, guides) and offline campaigns (events, PR).
Cross-promote: use offline activity to drive digital engagement (QR codes, hashtags, sign-ups).

Levo Insight

For mid-size brands, the fastest wins often come from bridging channels.

Example
Promote your trade show booth online before the event, then retarget booth visitors afterward with tailored digital campaigns. That way, Reach becomes measurable and continuous.

2. Act — Encourage Interaction and Consideration

Objective

Motivate prospects to take the first step toward buying.

Digital Examples

Landing pages with lead magnets
Quizzes, calculators, or assessments
Webinars or live demos
Social media CTAs

Offline Examples

In-store consultations
Printed brochures with follow-up codes
Sampling or trial experiences
Sales presentations or workshops

Metrics

Leads generated
Engagement rate
Time on site
Sign-ups
Event participation

How to execute

Create offers that are valuable and relevant — both downloadable guides and in-person experiences.
Reduce friction: make it easy to sign up, scan, or schedule.
Track offline actions (like QR scans or text-to-join campaigns) alongside digital to get the full picture.

Levo Insight

Many mid-size brands lose people here because they only measure digital leads. We help clients track offline “Acts” — like someone visiting a booth or calling in from a flyer — and integrate that into CRM data. That way, your funnel isn’t undercounting half your opportunities.

3. Convert — Turn Prospects into Customers

Objective

Close the deal and capture revenue.

Digital Examples

Ecommerce checkouts
Trial-to-paid upgrades
Automated nurture emails
Online scheduling and proposals

Offline Examples

Field sales or distributor signings
Retail checkout or POS systems
Contracts closed at in-person meetings
Phone sales conversions

Metrics

Sales conversion rate
Revenue
Average order value
Close rate

How to execute

Audit the bottlenecks in your sales process (cart abandonment, proposal delays, long contract reviews).
Improve the handoff between marketing and sales.
Use retargeting and personalized offers both online and in follow-up sales calls.

Levo Insight

For hybrid B2B/B2C brands, conversion is rarely just one click. It’s usually a chain of micro-conversions. Levo helps clients build “conversion scoring” systems that track behaviors across digital (like repeated site visits) and offline (like meeting attendance) to prioritize sales follow-up.

4. Engage — Retain and Turn Customers into Advocates

Objective

Keep customers coming back — and get them to refer others.

Digital Examples

Loyalty apps and referral platforms
Customer onboarding emails
Private social or community groups
Product updates and webinars

Offline Examples

VIP customer dinners
Printed loyalty cards or mailers
Onsite training or workshops
Word-of-mouth referrals and testimonials

Metrics

Repeat purchase rate
Lifetime value
Referral count
NPS
Advocacy mentions

How to execute

Map out the first 90 days after purchase — what touchpoints can you use to deliver value?
Create both digital and offline retention programs.
Actively invite customers to share feedback or refer others.

Levo Insight

The biggest missed opportunity for mid-size brands is not mobilizing advocates. A delighted customer is worth more than another ad campaign. Levo often helps clients build co-created case studies and ambassador programs that live online and offline, feeding new Reach and Act stages.

Leak Finder Audit: Levo’s Unique Approach

Find the leaks. Recover the growth.

Most brands optimize in silos — fixing one campaign or one stage at a time. But the biggest gains come when you step back and audit the entire customer journey.

Levo’s Leak Finder Audit is a practical, stage-by-stage diagnostic that exposes where prospects are slipping through the cracks across RACE: Reach → Act → Convert → Engage. By quantifying those hidden leaks, we help you stop wasting spend and redirect energy into the highest-impact fixes.

How it works:

Choose one campaign or persona path.
Map it through all four RACE stages.
Measure drop-off and leaks at each handoff.
Pinpoint the single biggest revenue drain.
Prioritize and test fixes for maximum ROI.

Instead of chasing surface-level optimizations, the Leak Finder Audit shows you where one fix can unlock exponential growth.

Want to see where your funnel is leaking most? Book a free 30-minute consult to learn how it could help seal the gaps in your marketing.

12-Week Timeline for Applying RACE in a Mid-Size Brand

Weeks	Focus	Deliverables
1–2	Plan + Audit	Map digital + offline channels, define KPIs
3–4	Reach	Launch content hub, prep PR/events, seed campaigns
5–6	Act	Build offers, landing pages, in-person CTAs
7–8	Convert	CRO fixes, automate nurture, sales handoff
9–10	Engage	Loyalty programs, advocacy initiatives
11–12	Cross-Stage Audit	Identify leaks, prioritize next optimizations

FAQs

1. Is RACE only for digital marketing?
No. It started as digital-first, but it’s fundamentally a customer journey framework. You can apply it to sales calls, events, and customer service just as easily as SEO or social media.

2. How do I use RACE if I have a small team?
Start lean. Choose one tactic in each stage (one Reach channel, one Act offer, one Convert process, one Engage touchpoint). Build consistency first, then layer in more.

3. How long until I see results?
Some fixes (like improving a checkout page or adding a lead magnet) can show impact in weeks. Deeper Engage wins (like lifetime value and referrals) take months to materialize.

4. What if my business is mostly offline?
RACE still works. Think of Reach as events/PR, Act as consultations, Convert as contracts, and Engage as loyalty dinners or customer service. The framework flexes to fit your channels.

5. How does RACE compare to funnels or flywheels?
Funnels are linear, flywheels focus on momentum. RACE is more practical and measurable — you can map campaigns and assign metrics. You can even layer it with a flywheel model by feeding Engage activity back into Reach.

Unified Marketing for Real Growth

The RACE Framework is more than a digital marketing model. For mid-size brands, it’s a unifying growth strategy — one that aligns sales, marketing, and customer success around the same customer journey.

By mapping both digital and offline tactics into Reach, Act, Convert, and Engage, you eliminate silos, track performance consistently, and create a marketing engine that fuels sustainable growth.

Ready to put RACE into action? Let’s build your roadmap together. Book your free 30-minute consult with Levo here: www.golevo.com/initial-consult.

Anya Sleezer

Anya Sleezer is the owner of Levo, a full–service marketing agency, focused on helping companies from all industries who are concerned with their marketing results, traffic, branding, advertising, or websites.

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