\ Why You Need a Growth Marketing Strategy
You don’t need to be an experienced growth marketer to see some serious results from growth marketing campaigns when you look to implement them. Making sure you focus on good growth tactics are healthy parts of an overall marketing plan, and they might be more mainstream than you think.
From Facebook to Airbnb, these companies started with no users and they implemented growth marketing tactics to quickly get users and advocates. Also, they’re still using those creative tactics today.
Let’s explore what growth marketing truly is, and how you can make it work for your business.
What is Growth Marketing?
Growth marketing is sometimes also referred to as growth hacking, but it is much more than some of those generic hacking articles you read around the web. Real growth marketing involves concrete strategies for experimenting and growing your customer base.
The difference between growth marketing and growth hacking is that while growth marketing provides that overall system and strategy for growth, growth hacking is an implementation of strategies and tactics within that system. They do work hand-in-hand.
Growth Marketing typically includes a couple of key things:
Cross-channel, cross-funnel, and cross-department marketing. Rather than solely focusing efforts on one channel or funnel, a growth marketing strategy will experiment with different options to test the waters for a business or product. This omnichannel approach is what allows many businesses to find a gold mine of users.
A/B testing and experimentation. The sheer power of testing multiple variations of a landing page or offer is sometimes overlooked. A good growth marketing system will involve A/B testing across multiple channels–email, SMS, advertising, landing pages, and more. This allows growth marketers to quickly learn what customers respond to.
Examples of Growth Marketing in Action
When you look into some of the biggest companies and startups that you may use everyday, you’ll find that most successful plans contain some elements of a growth marketing approach that you can easily take over and weave into your growth plan.
That’s because in an age where digital is king, experimentation and flexibility have become key to effective marketing. Here are a couple examples of growth marketing done right, by brands you’ve already heard of.
You’ve got growth goals? We’ll build the roadmap.
Businesses need a data-driven vision. More importantly, they need a clear, action-packed game plan. We partner with you to strategize, prioritize, link up cross-channel insights, and, ultimately, grow.
Facebook Acquired a lot of users through Email
Since its very inception, Facebook’s had a growth team that has implemented some brilliant strategies across the board. In fact, many of the tactics that Facebook used to grow initially have been borrowed and used by many businesses today. From the very offset, the company played it smart, but one specific tactic they used to acquire new users was through email:
» When a user was mentioned on Facebook, they’d get a notification, via email, letting them know. But the user wouldn’t get to see the actual content, so they’d feel the need to click through.
» Facebook applied a similar strategy by asking users to import their contacts and invite their friends to the platform via email.
» Facebook also tested landing pages and designs at every step of the way to make sure that once users were on the platform, they’d be incentivised to stay there.
How Airbnb used growth tactics as part of its overall strategy
Growth hacks, tactics that you apply as part of your growth marketing strategy, aren’t confined to just one channel. Just like Facebook’s email efforts were part of a larger plan, Airbnb has implemented viral growth tactics that were placed into the overall marketing plan.
Here’s what they did to acquire initial users on a budget:
» Airbnb’s most famous growth hack happened on Craigslist. When Airbnb was in its early stages (and didn’t have nearly the user base of Craigslist), the company created a feature that would email users who had listed a property on Airbnb. The email would include a one-click link to publish their listing on Craigslist, too–resulting in happier users and more traffic to Airbnb.
» Listing photography was a hurdle for the Airbnb team. To combat this and increase conversions, they launched a photography program that would let users automatically schedule a photographer to take photos of their space. This helped increase conversions and nights booked.
» A heart instead of a star. Wish lists on Airbnb used a star icon. But, the team experimented (a key component of growth marketing) by switching the star icon to a heart. They saw a 30% bump in engagement–a real reward for such a simple change.
Benefits of Growth Marketing
When done right, growth marketing is a force of nature for your businesses. These are a couple of the headlining benefits you’ll be able to look forward to.
Faster user growth
Experimentation is at the core of good growth marketing. When you’re experimenting with your ads, offers, and landing pages, you’ll find ways to accelerate user growth and capture people’s attention. Using growth hacks, just like Airbnb did to acquire new users, is another way you’ll see quicker user growth with a good marketing strategy.
New insights on your customers
As you continue to experiment, you’ll learn more about what your customers respond to. This will help you create better ad campaigns and messaging strategies in the future. If, say, an informal landing page performs better than the industry-standard copy you have now, it could be a signal that your customers will respond better to that language in multiple channels.
Quick scaling for your marketing campaigns
Good growth marketers are flexible and responsive. If they see something that’s working, they’re able to quickly shift budget and resources into scaling that activity. This is one of the key benefits of growth marketing: You can scale successful tactics in a flash.
You’ve got growth goals? We’ll build the roadmap.
Businesses need a data-driven vision. More importantly, they need a clear, action-packed game plan. We partner with you to strategize, prioritize, link up cross-channel insights, and, ultimately, grow.