Growth marketing is getting a lot of buzz in the recent years. It aims to redefine marketing as a whole. Similar to sales & marketing alignment.
Breaking its perceived rigid structure and breathing new life into it. One of flexibility. Customer journeys have begun to change. Especially in the B2B industry, our prospects follow a complex path, and yet the opportunity to do something new has evolved.
Marketing is full of potential to do new things. Not just stop at the awareness stage but to guide the potential customer through a journey.
A journey is driven by: –
- Data.
- Creativity.
- Experimentation.
Change is here, and its name is Growth.
Growth Marketing is all about adapting to the ever-changing marketing landscape.
Growth marketing is an exciting concept. It offers a lot of promise and flexibility. But
What is growth marketing?
Essentially, growth marketing refers to a data-driven and creative approach to marketing with a heavy emphasis on analysis and experimentation.
The goal of growth marketing is the sustainable growth of business.
It treats marketing with a science-based approach.
A growth marketer will: –
- Analyze data
- Form a hypothesis
- Tests their hypothesis, draw a conclusion, and collect data.
- Analyze what has worked and what has not.
- Re-experiment with new data and a new hypothesis.
A growth marketer incorporates real-time data as feedback and changes the strategy, making growth marketing incredibly flexible and efficient.
Who is a growth marketer, and how is their role different from traditional marketers?
Unlike traditional marketers, growth marketers focus on sustainable growth and the full-funnel journey of the customer. The traditional marketer focuses only on awareness and brand recognition.
Growth marketers optimize their strategies to increase customer lifetime value and drive customer retention.
- 46% of the marketing decision-makers found data useful for Customer Experience/ Journey Mapping.
- 40% found it useful for personalization.
These numbers indicate that growth marketers are on the right track with their strategy.
Of course, understanding the buyer throughout their journey will make for a cohesive experience. Cohesive and personalized experience means more ROI and customer loyalty.
Growth Marketing can help businesses scale their marketing efforts efficiently.
It is a new and impactful way of reaching out to the audience. The motto of growth is to be driven by authenticity. Why? Because B2B buyers have increasingly begun to demand a personalized (ABM) touch from their partners.
The volatile marketing landscape can be a barren land for some but for businesses adapting and staying agile. It is an opportunity for growth.
Let us look at HubSpot.com. It is one of the leading CRM software on the market.
But have you noticed? A majority of HubSpot’s traffic is not there for their CRM but for their vast collection of high-quality content. Of course, their robust CRM is a good sell.
And yet, how many marketers find HubSpot because of their information? A lot. Marketers’ first impression of HubSpot is its content, especially its free reports and HubSpot Academy.
HubSpot is the perfect example of a business using growth marketing for its benefit.
Let us break down the how: –
Usage of Data
HubSpot conducts surveys each year. They understand how important data is. Not just for their use but for the use of fellow marketers and salespeople. They create yearly reports and statistics that enable decisions, which makes their data a sought-after commodity.
It drives traffic to their website and builds trust among their audience.
High-quality content
HubSpot’s blogs, podcasts, and videos are good. And that is an understatement. Their content offers a rich experience.
They create top-funnel content and bottom-funnel content (e.g., Newsletters that keep their customers engaged) to fuel their website.
Free tools and templates
When it comes to experimentation, HubSpot decided to give away fully functional free tools, kits, and templates to their audience and users. They analyze what tools would be necessary and create them.
Look at one of their recent blogs: Website Design Proposal: A Beginner’s Guide [+Template] (hubspot.com). Not only is it of high quality, but it also gives you a template to make your design.
SEO
When it comes to SEO, HubSpot takes the cake. They made their business on SEO and continue to hone it to perfection. If we search for any marketing or sales-related term, there’s a good chance of HubSpot ranking for it.
They keep testing new things and understanding what works. They anticipate their audiences’ needs and provide a solution for them.
By doing so, HubSpot has become a trusted authority in marketing and sales. HubSpot understood its audience, made pivots when necessary, and through experimentation transformed the customer journey by bringing value to each interaction.
HubSpot is one of the prime examples of growth marketing.
Growth Marketing is not just data and creativity. However, it is a scientific approach to understanding and reaching out to prospects and potential customers. Experimentation plays a huge role.
Growth marketing is perfect for B2B companies. In a traditional marketing setting, businesses focus on selling a product to its intended audience. But growth will focus on the customer. Its main goal is to attract the right customers to a business.
For a B2B company that requires high-quality leads, growth marketing is well-suited.
A very well-known problem in the industry right now is its ever-changing qualities. What works today may not work tomorrow. This is a fact in the marketing industry. B2B or not. Navigation in a dynamic landscape is not possible with rigid and uncreative structures.
Growth tackles these problems and makes marketing efforts agile.
How does growth stay agile, and what strategies does it use?
The advantage of growth marketing is that it manages and aims to bring growth to every part of the funnel. Growth stays agile by learning from their interactions with the prospect and pivoting when necessary.
There are a few strategies and frameworks that growth marketing adopts.
A/B Testing
One of the pillars of growth is experimentation. And A/B testing is one of the best strategies for this. Every marketer has implemented or heard of A/B testing throughout their career.
But for those who don’t know, A/B testing creates two unique campaigns (A & B) for similar customers. And randomly assigning the distinct campaigns to the audience and acquiring the data by analyzing which campaign has done better. And why?
AARRR or the Pirates Framework.
Aside from the creative name (which embodies the spirit of growth marketing). The framework helps marketers look at the customer journey through a new lens. It was created for SaaS organizations and start-ups, but its flexible approach can and should be used by everyone. AARRR stands for:
- Acquisition: How do we acquire the correct lead/potential customer, and from which channel?
- Activation: How do we keep the customer engaged and active?
- Retention: Are we able to retain the customer? Why or why not?
- Referral: Are they referring our services to their peers?
- Revenue: Has the potential customer converted into a customer? Why or why not?
Data Analysis:
It is normal for marketers today to have data analysis skills. Personalization requires them to go through a lot of data and make sense of it.
And in a scientific-driven approach like growth marketing, data is the center of it all. Without having data, decisions, and corrections cannot be made. It is impossible to understand what works and what does not without the data backing it up.
Why is data so important? Customer-Data Platforms are the new-age answer!
Creativity
How is creativity a strategy? Creativity is the basis of all strategies. Growth marketing is not about numbers. It is about using the numbers as tools to increase creativity and use it practically.
Growth Marketing enables creativity by backing it up with data.
Growth marketing helps businesses connect with the right audience. It values quality over quantity. And when done right, it will end the search for high-quality leads and meaningful conversations.
Embracing change is necessary. But in this volatile industry, risk-taking is already a big problem. A fad comes, and we might be inclined to chase it. How do we make sure our efforts don’t end up futile? We adapt to each failure.
Similar to software developers who iterate and stay agile. So has marketing grown to be flexible. Data and hypothesis back our creative methods and risks. With the support of data, we can minimize unnecessary efforts and maximize ROI.
Growth marketing is not just a buzzword; it could become a new way of marketing. It could very well be the human touch that is much-needed today.
