Unless customers remember and tell you, it’s difficult to determine whether a single piece of advertising drove them to your door. It’s even more unlikely that one spot someone heard on the radio is going to keep them coming back. Unless more traditional marketing (think publication and radio features) growth marketing moves beyond capturing consumers’ attention, driving awareness and increasing initial sales.
Growth marketing strategies focus mainly on tactics that seek growth at every stage of the buyer’s journey and marketing funnel.
Growth marketing is in it for the long haul. The ultimate goal is to build as many sustained customer relationships as possible and leverage the power of referrals. At the same time, growth marketers are experimental. They’re not committed to a single approach or message until they find what works. But to use growth marketing effectively, business leaders need to grasp its potential. Here are three ways to better understand growth marketing and implement its methods.
One time results are a no-no:
Instead of attracting user’s for a one time basis, if people gave your business their contact information and a list of product-related interests to get those coupons? Now you would have a way to personalise future marketing communications and campaigns. You’d start building on consumers’ awareness and curiosity, providing information and offers based on their interests. Some people who tried your product once because of a coupon will become repeat customers and refer others to you. This is what growth marketing is all about.
As a result, your company’s sustained income goes up, and customer acquisition costs go down. Plus, you get more out of the marketing dollars you spend.
Before Dropbox implemented growth marketing tactics through its referral program, the company spent between $233 to $388 on search engine ads to land one new customer. While that may not sound expensive, a new acquisition only brought in $99 a year in revenue. Once Dropbox dug into its data and realised one-third of its users came from referrals, its leaders came up with a new plan. The company began offering extra file storage to current and new customers who participated in a referral program. As a result, Dropbox grew from 100,000 users to 4 million in just 15 months. Dropbox’s example demonstrates how nurturing existing customer relationships can drive sustained growth for less.
Actually Implementing a Growth Marketing Strategy:
Some campaigns may focus on acquisition and creating awareness through blog posts and other online content. The goal is often to increase traffic to your website and get leads to engage with more resources. That can involve your sales team following up with contact form requests or prospects who’ve exchanged information for gated content.
However, focus could also be placed on retaining existing customers and getting them to buy from you again. Retention and nurture campaigns can include personalised offers and communications and be integrated into a loyalty program.
Interpret the data once you get those results in:
If your online content has high bounce rates, maybe your information isn’t valuable or relevant to the audience you’re attracting. You might need to change the meat of your blog posts, try various page designs or write something different altogether.
Maybe you’re targeting the wrong types of leads. Or perhaps people are reading fewer blog posts and would rather watch videos and attend webinars instead. Paying attention to the individual campaign and larger market signals can help you adjust your strategies and tactics. Incoming information that reveals trends and shifts in preferences will also assist you in overcoming challenges.
Remember, algorithms are fickle so what worked last month might not work tomorrow. Although growth marketing does contain some conventions, becoming dead set on certain practices may cause your strategy to falter. Be open to what your data reveals and think of creative ways to align your efforts with those insights.
