Blog Post

Growth

Demand Generation

How to Create a Successful Growth Marketing Strategy

How To Create a Successful Growth Marketing Strategy

According to 3Q Digital's Growth Marketing Survey Report, less than 1 in 5 marketing leaders have the structure in place to execute an effective growth strategy.

Without a plan to facilitate the continued growth of your company, you will be left vulnerable to changing market dynamics and a volatile customer base.

Having a concrete strategy for growth is the secret to overcoming internal and external barriers and building an effective, scalable growth marketing model that will sustain your business in the long term.

This article will show you how to create a growth-oriented marketing strategy to drive customer acquisition and retention.

Step #1. Define Your Vision

It's not enough to say you want to grow your business. You need to figure out what growth means for your company at the moment.

If you don't have a clear vision for what you want to achieve with growth marketing, you will end up chasing the wrong things, getting distracted, wasting resources, and taking forever to hit milestones.

So you need to decide which target business goals your growth strategy will support within a set timeline. This way, it will be easier to stay on track and measure your progress. For example, your goal might be to:

  • Increase newsletter signups by 10% every month
  • Grow cart value and website conversions by 25% in four months
  • Break into x and z new markets by year's end
  • Generate 30% more revenue every quarter for two years

The more SMART your vision is, the better.

Source: Breeze. A graphic showing that SMART goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.

Step #2. Establish Success Metrics

Your growth marketing efforts will likely involve both digital marketing and traditional marketing tactics, so there are going to be all kinds of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that you can track. But not all of them are going to be important to you. 

Your job is to identify the key growth metrics you will use to determine how well you are progressing toward the goals you set earlier. Some examples of metrics you can set for different goals include:

Goal

Metrics

Acquire new customers

Click-Through Rate (CTR) on paid media campaigns, email marketing open/CTR, landing page conversion rates, customer acquisition costs, etc.

Increase revenue

Customer lifetime value, monthly/annual recurring revenue, average revenue per user, customer lifecycle, revenue churn, etc.

Step #3. Research Customers and Competitors

Now that you know what areas of your business you want to grow, it's time to begin gathering data to help you get there. 

Start by understanding who your ideal and existing customers are. Dig into their pain points, behaviors, and entire customer journey. Figure out which customers use your services the most and which ones you generate the most revenue from. What characteristics set them apart?

Look at your competition or businesses in a similar niche that are experiencing tremendous growth and see what you can learn from their strategies. Pay attention to what differentiates your brand from theirs, then leverage that to blaze past the competition.

The information you glean from your research will help you shape your growth marketing plan, identify market gaps that you can fill, find ways you can better serve your customers, and position your brand to claim a bigger market share.

Step #4. Brainstorm Potential Strategies

Growth strategies aren't going to fall into your lap; you have to come up with ideas for how to connect with your customers, improve your speed to lead time, and make your brand a market leader.

Don't limit the strategy brainstorming process to your growth marketing team alone. Source for ideas from people across the organization. Additionally, use social listening to discover what your target audience is saying about your product and competitors, then harvest their suggestions or build on interesting ideas.

Step #5. Choose Tactics in Line With Your Goals

All the strategies you came up with in the last step won't be winners, and you probably won't have the time or resources to try them all out, even if you want to. 

Your energies should be focused on the tactics that align with the objectives you have set and are equipped to drive the business growth you want within the timeline you are working with.

Once you identify your top-performing strategies and channels, double down on your efforts and focus on optimizing them.

Step #6. Budget, Execute, and Evaluate 

When creating a budget for your growth marketing efforts, don't get too hung up on what it will cost. Instead, consider the value that it will generate for your brand and factor that into your calculations. Don't forget to factor in the cost of whatever growth marketing platform you will use — e.g., Hubspot.

Once you have allocated the amount of money you can afford and intend to spend to implement your growth plan, all that's left is to put it into action and start reaping the rewards.

As you execute your growth marketing strategy, diligently monitor the results you are getting so you can pinpoint new trends and know what's working for you, what needs to be adjusted, and the tactics to move away from.

Want to Jump Start Your Growth Marketing? Connect With Matter Made

Devising, executing, and tracking the performance of a sustainable growth strategy is key to building a successful business that is constantly growing and beating the competition.

Matter Made helped Productboard achieve deeper market penetration for their product and 99% month-on-month enterprise lead growth using a five-point omnichannel integrated campaign.

Want to turn your marketing initiatives into a similar relentless growth engine? Let's talk.

Blog Post

Growth

Demand Generation

Blog Post

5 Reasons You Should Hire a Growth Marketing Agency

Google Trends data shows that searches for "growth marketing" have grown substantially over the past five years. This isn't too surprising — growth marketing is highly scalable, provides a strong Return On Investment (ROI), and helps brands grow sustainably long-term. 

Mastering growth marketing isn't always easy, so many companies choose to work with a growth marketing agency. This article will shed light on five reasons your brand should hire such an agency. 

#1. They Have Experience With Other Companies at Your Growth Stage

As brands grow, they often face a common set of growing pains related to marketing. For example, startups often lack the marketing bandwidth to run full-fledged campaigns on all digital platforms simultaneously. Or, new ecommerce businesses often struggle to get the engagement snowball rolling (getting your fifth follower is far easier than getting your 150th). 

Growth marketing agencies work with brands over long periods, so they know how to minimize growing pains and steer a brand through the chaos. 

Growth hackers have also implemented a wide range of strategies across many digital platforms, so they know what works and what doesn't. This knowledge is invaluable, as it will help you make smarter marketing choices straight away so you can yield returns quickly. 

Note: Read "How To Build a PLG Funnel Your Sales Team Can Use."

#2. They Can Plan Industry-Specific Long-Term Strategies

Compared to regular marketers, growth marketers view the sales funnel more holistically. Plus, they focus on metrics like Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) and retention rate over short-term revenue. 

The growth marketing sales funnel stages: awareness, consideration, action, adoption, and expansion and their corresponding lifecycle stages.

As a result, growth marketing strategies are like snowballs — they grow as they gain momentum. Growth marketing is really a long-term approach. 

While a traditional marketing agency can help you design a strategy weeks to months in advance, your growth team will think months to years ahead. Naturally, they can help you design marketing that is sustainable and provides long-term returns. 

Growth hackers are also excellent researchers. They can dive deep into your industry and learn what motivates your customers and how to market to them best. When you hire a growth marketing team, you get a holistic, industry-specific plan. 

#3. They Can Save You Money

The initial investment of hiring a growth hacking marketing agency often makes brand owners and managers nervous. However, if the brand invests wisely, it can spend less on an agency than it would if it tried to run a fully-fledged marketing strategy in-house. 

Growth marketing agencies can also get brands a better ROI. Agencies have a lot of in-house expertise, so they can optimize your marketing budget with smart investments and reduce marketing wastage. 

Research on 1,000 marketers by Rakuten Marketing shows that around 26% of marketing budgets were wasted in 2018, while a 2022 report on 41 companies spending $500,000 to $31 million on marketing estimates marketing wastage is 41%. So wastage is a major concern for many brands. 

#4. They Reduce Your Workload

Growth marketing agencies often employ marketers who specialize in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), paid media, content marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, referral marketing, video marketing, and other marketing niches. So, when you work with an agency, you get access to experts without having to expand your in-house marketing team. 

Working with a growth marketing company can also reduce your workload substantially. Marketers can either complete marketing tasks for you or help you automate them. 

You'll know whether you've hired a good agency if they're easy to work with. We recommend looking for an agency that communicates well, provides regular updates, consults you in the decision-making process, and works transparently. 

#5. They Can Help You Become Results-Driven

Growth marketing is generally more adaptive than traditional digital marketing (though that is changing as marketers get better access to marketing data). When they implement a strategy, growth hackers conduct frequent tests and experiments to assess how your audience is responding. Then, they optimize your marketing materials to obtain the best result. 

Naturally, hiring an agency can help you become more results and performance-driven. Performance marketing offers benefits like:

  • Higher ROI
  • More efficient marketing
  • Optimized campaign planning
  • Enhanced forecasting 
  • Faster speed to lead times
  • Greater customer retention

Working with a growth hacking consulting agency also means you don't need to design your marketing analytics infrastructure alone. Many new brands and startups with limited staff and busy schedules often struggle to dedicate time to building this infrastructure, so it's nice to get it off your to-do list.

Note: Read "3 RevOps HubSpot Automations Your Business Needs."

Performance Marketing and Growth Marketing Agencies

Growth marketing can improve your ROI, grow your customer base, and help you achieve rapid and sustainable growth. 

You can see the value of a growth agency by looking at a case study like that of Allocations. Matter Made helped Allocations develop marketing infrastructure and run campaigns on Google, Bing, and LinkedIn. As a result, Allocations increased its pipeline three times in the first 90 days

Want results from growth marketing? Let's talk. 

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