Every successful entrepreneur knows that business growth does not happen overnight. One of the ways a company can achieve sustainable growth is by using marketing tactics supported by data and strategy. This is where growth marketing comes in.
Growth marketing is one of the biggest marketing buzzwords in 2021, but what exactly does it mean? In this guide, we explore what makes growth marketing distinctive from traditional strategies and how it can propel your business forward.
What is growth marketing?
Growth marketing is a holistic, experimental, and data-driven marketing approach that aims to deliver value across the entire buyer’s journey. It involves attracting quality leads, engaging them consistently, and converting them into loyal patrons or brand ambassadors.
The primary purpose of growth marketing is to drive continuous profitability by boosting customer lifetime value. Testing, data analysis, and highly tailored campaigns can help you lead potential buyers further down the funnel.
But what makes growth marketing unique is that it doesn’t stop at getting clicks, likes, and purchases. Instead, it keeps nurturing customer relationships to drive repeat sales and measurable growth.
Growth hackers vs. traditional marketers
Traditional marketing is mainly concerned with maximizing brand awareness and customer acquisition, whereas growth marketing optimizes all levels of growth, from activation and revenue generation to retention and referral.
Traditional marketers tend to focus on brand reputation. This is why most of their activities are concerned with brand identity and overall messaging. Because of this, they focus on vanity metrics like views, clicks, and impressions.
While vanity metrics may serve as good benchmarks, they often skip nuance and context, which are essential in creating real, actionable insights that will help grow your business.
Growth hacker marketing looks at the bigger picture
On the other hand, growth hackers help a company optimize output and scale rapidly by running experiments across marketing, sales, and product development. They rely on key growth metrics such as conversion rates, cost per lead, revenue generation, and churn rates to increase ROI and customer lifetime value.
Growth hackers are skilled in online marketing activities such as creating landing pages and A/B testing email and marketing campaigns. By analyzing customers’ unique needs and online behavior, they help improve acquisition, profits, and ultimately, long-term business growth.
Examples of growth marketing strategies
Here are some strategies that today’s growth marketers use to convert and retain customers.
A/B Testing
A/B testing or split testing involves showing two or more versions of a variable such as an ad, newsletter, CTA button, or webpage to different audience segments. In doing so, you can determine which version has the most impact on conversions, traffic, and other metrics.
A/B testing lets you know which words, images, audio, video, and other elements perform best. It is usually done before launching a website or starting a promotion campaign. Seventy-seven percent of marketers use A/B testing on their websites, while 89% of US companies use the same method on their email campaigns.
Split testing leads help you maximize your marketing spend and avoid unnecessary risks. When done right, it can lead to faster growth and higher sales.
Customer lifecycle
The customer lifecycle maps the various stages your customers go through before, during, and after completing a transaction. Growth marketers focus on three critical lifecycle stages:
- Activation stage – This is the initial contact point with a potential customer. Growth marketers often use introductory campaigns such as free trials and customer onboarding to capture consumer interest and build brand familiarity and credibility.
- Nurture stage – During the nurture stage, the goal is to engage customers and strengthen relationships by offering educational content, promotions, and newsletters.
- Final reactivation stage – This stage focuses on re-engaging past customers and inactive subscribers. Growth marketing strategies such as win backs and referral programs are used to drive retention and loyalty.
Omnichannel marketing
According to Google, omnichannel strategies increase incremental store visits by up to 80%.
Omnichannel or cross-channel marketing is used to provide target clients a cohesive and consistent experience across your brand. It integrates multiple marketing platforms such as social media, email, SMS messaging, and mobile apps to reach customers on the most relevant and preferred channels.
The goal of cross-channel marketing is to drive traffic and increase total sales, and continue engagement throughout all customer lifecycle stages.
By developing highly personalized campaigns that target users across multiple channels, growth marketers can successfully meet customers where they’re at on the buyer’s journey. Omnichannel marketing also provides comprehensive and valuable data about customers’ online activity in real-time.
Skyrocket your business growth with CRISPx
In a nutshell, growth marketing isn’t about fixating on one area of your funnel. It’s about optimizing your entire customer journey to drive sales and customer loyalty.
In growth marketing, every tactic is calculated leaving minimal room for risks and errors. Through constant testing, experimentation, and data analysis; businesses can scale faster and ensure continuous optimization.
At CrispX, we help companies penetrate new markets and achieve long-term growth using data and a little bit of science. Request a free consultation to learn how we can help you reach your marketing goals.