Growth Marketing: A Starting Point
I tend to consider Growth Marketing as marketing that contributes to business growth. And yet, SO much marketing doesn't contribute to anything; even a lot of so-called "growth marketing".
So today, I want to talk about GROWTH. Specifically, growth based in nature (where things grow without a huge amount of "strategy"). Why?
Because there's something to be learned here...especially if you want to consider what you do true Growth Marketing.
Shall we begin?
A Definition
I had ChatGPT compile a "common definition" of Growth Marketing for me, and here's what it came up with:
Growth marketing is a data-driven, experimentation-led approach to marketing that focuses on improving the entire customer lifecycle — from acquisition to activation, retention, revenue, and referral — in order to drive sustainable business growth.
With this, let's look at the key components of the definition and see what it really looks like to turn the concept into growth.
Piece #1: Being Data-Driven
We all love a good bit of data, right? But in a world where there's no shortage of data, how do we know what data really matters?
Let's use a nature example here and look at a seed.
Now, a seed for a pine tree and a seed for a palm tree and both seeds. They both get planted in some kind of soil, get some kind of nutrients + water, and turn that into growth.
But the individual components of what create growth for those two seeds are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.
Each different business is a different seed. And even if you "know" you're a pine tree, there are around 111 different recognized species of pine trees. And fun fact, there are over 2,600 known species of palms (yeah, I looked it up). One article I found in cited 13 "common" North American pine species. And that's just the common ones.
So even if another successful company wrote a book about what got them to their success, it doesn't mean that's going to work for you.
So, we need to be more diligent with what data we are considering. And specifically take into account PERSONAL data that we have collected about our clients, business successes (and failures), and ways of being that move the needle FOR US...not in general.
Piece #2: Being Experimentation Led
I love me a good experiment. And if we are using the REAL data from piece 1 to define our experiments, we should have a pretty good hypothesis. But what makes a good hypothesis:
It is both testable AND falsifiable - yes, your experiment must be capable of proving your hypothesis WRONG if it is in fact wrong. Far too many marketing hypotheses are only structured to prove something RIGHT or inconclusive.
It defines variables - both independent variables (what we change as part of the experiment) and dependent variables (what we measure) have to be defined. If the variables are not defined, you're just guessing.
It is clear and concise - there is one thing that we are testing, and our hypothesis makes that crystal clear.
It is grounded in theory - that comes from part 1; although more commonly, the theory comes from someone ELSE's theory, in shich case you really need to explore WHERE that theory is coming from (especially if the person who gave it to you sells a "solution" in the same arena).
It is predictive - it directly predicts the expected outcome (but don't forget to make it falsifiable too).
Far too often, marketing hypotheses look like, "more people will click on a blue button than a green button". Or, "if we send out more emails, we'll get more responses".
But until they check all five boxes, they're not really serving you as a hypothesis.
Which means, you're not REALLY testing.
Which also means, you're NOT being experimentation led.
If your expected outcome is "growth" (however you define that as a business), the predictive outcome SHOULD be Growth (and you know me, I don't like saying "should"). But if that's NOT the predicted outcome, i.e. more clicks on a button have no relationship to growth, then what's the point in "testing" it?
Tying in the nature component here, if your hypothesis was related to how to grow a sunflower, but your sunflower DIDN'T grow, can you really consider the test a "success"?
I mean, you can (humans can rationalize a lot of things), but not to the sunflowers benefit. Which brings me to the next point.
Piece #3: Improving the Entire Customer Lifecycle
Ok, we can be honest here, right? The color of your button doesn't improve the customer lifecycle AT ALL. Especially if the place you take them to with that click DOESN'T contribute to their experience either.
"Data-Driven Marketers" (I use the quotes to question whether they are actually driven by any meaningful data) love to make customers click extra things to track them. But that tracking doesn't lead to a meaningful experience for the customer, only the marketer.
Now we know more about you, so we can send you more relevant stuff. Based on the assumption they WANT more stuff from you. The data isn't really about you knowing what will help them, it's about automating your funnel, and that's all about YOU.
You can try to trick yourself into believeing otherwise, but if it actually worked, you would see it on the bottom line.
Here's the rub: if your marketing effort DOESN'T improve the customer lifecycle SOMEHOW, why are you doing it?
Anything that doesn't, ISN'T contributing to growth.
In nature, we don't really have customers per se, but let's look at these relationships like an ecosystem. Like an INTER-DEPENDENT ecosystem (which a business and it's clients totally are).
One of my favorite examples is the relationship between the Water Dikkop and the Nile Crocodile. The bird protects the crocodile eggs through a symbiotic relationship, nesting near them to avoid predators. The bird then act as a sentry, using loud calls and aggressive displays to drive off threats, or alerting the mother crocodile to return and defend the nesting site.
Both species coexist to ensure the survival of their respective offspring. And if the "respective offspring" of our relationship with our customers is SALES, then we really want to focus on bringing this coexistence to life, no?
Piece #4: Drive Growth...
I want to break this last part of the definition into two parts, focusing first on driving the growth. Continuing on with the concept of "sales as offspring", the goal is for business to hatch; but not JUST to hatch. To hatch, survive and thrive.
This is what we want for businesses too. But when marketing gets too focused on short-term conversions, we start looking at laying LOTS of eggs, but putting them so far from the crocodile that all the other predators get at them. And the result is that there are no eggs to hatch; nothing to nurture.
We have to DRIVE the growth.
Take actions that relate directly TO growth.
Figure out who our crocodiles are, and go build nests THERE.
Growth doesn't happen without making a decision. Ideally one based in the relevant data, that has been thoroughly tested in good experiments.
Piece #5: ...Sustainable Growth
And again, we don't want to just DRIVE growth to the point we've burned all our bridges and resources. We want that growth to be sustainable.
Businesses are constantly looking at how to scale. But all too often, that conversation now focuses around how many things we can do with how few people, instead of WHAT we can do with GOOD people to build something sustainable.
The croc and the dikkop? That's a sustainable relationship.
Which of your marketing relationships would you put in to that category?
I'll be honest, tech companies that are created to "scale and sell" CANNOT reach sustainability. Sustainability comes from an obession with helping the customer (piece 3), a commitment to good testing (piece 2) to confirm the real data (piece 1) through our actions (piece 4).
The final piece is something that is sustainable FOR YOU.
Which is NOT the same thing that's sustainable for another business.
As humans, we're good at driving a lot of things. But it's not just about the number of actions. It's about the IMPACT of the actions. And if the impact isn't sustainability, we're not talking about Growth Marketing.
And investors beware for any business that can't prove sustainability.
Putting It All Together
It's not actually that complex of a puzzle; yet it IS a puzzle that you must sit down and DO. The puzzle pieces won't just pull themselves together. YOU have to do that.
And unfortunately, it's become really easy for companies to be distracted by all the other marketing "doing" to not do the 5-piece puzzle.
5 pieces.
And yes, it takes longer than a kids 5 piece puzzle. But if you could do it then, you can do it now 😉 You just have to CHOOSE it.
And in 90 days, your marketing can look (and feel) totally different.
And in 6 months, you could have an ACTUAL Growth Marketing Program.
One that is truly data-driven. One that is built on meaningful experiments. One that takes the customer lifecycle into account. And one that drives the sustainable business growth you've been wanting since day one.
Ready to choose that? Let’s Talk!
