Growth marketing is achieving growth by any means possible, through innovation, experimentation, and leveraging data. Unlike traditional marketing, which often depends on larger budgets and mainstream channels, growth marketing is all about being clever—using whatever tools and tricks you have to get your results.
Traditional marketing and growth marketing differ fundamentally in their approach and objectives. While traditional marketing focuses on building brand awareness and reach through well-established channels (TV ads, billboards, digital ads) with a significant budget, growth marketing focuses on finding innovative, cost-effective tactics, to demonstrate a product's intrinsic value to spread awareness.
Example: In the early days of Hotmail, their marketing team added a simple signature to users' outgoing emails: “PS: I love you. Get your free email at Hotmail.” This tiny tweak virally introduced Hotmail to a massive audience without the need for expensive ad campaigns. This is the essence of growth marketing.
Before you incorporate growth marketing into your strategy, make sure that your product genuinely fits the needs of your target market. Get aggressive with collecting feedback and iterate until you have that strong product market fit. Marketer's Disclaimer: Before you attempt growth marketing, your product needs to be at a point where it can sell itself. This isn't how you break into the market, it's how you expand your share of it.
Example: Twitter, in its early days, realized through data that users who followed at least 30 people were more likely to become active, long-term users. By encouraging new users to follow at least 30 accounts during the sign-up process, Twitter significantly increased user engagement and retention, showcasing how product adjustments based on user behavior can drive growth.
You always need good content, but the trick to growth marketingh it is by leveraging platforms that your competitors might overlook. Instead of sticking only to blogging, try adapting your content to use on platforms like Quora, Reddit, or other niche forums. Dive into discussions related to your industry and provide insightful answers or content that subtly promotes your product.
Example: Instead of the usual blogs, Slack utilized its changelog — a typically dry, technical document outlining software updates — to engage users. By injecting personality and humor into its changelog, Slack turned a mundane update log into engaging content that highlighted new features in an entertaining way, fostering user engagement and loyalty.
Design a referral program that rewards your users for bringing in new customers. The reward doesn’t always have to be monetary; it could also be additional features, storage, or whatever else increases your product's value to the user.
Example: By offering extra storage space for both the referrer and the referee, Dropbox incentivized word-of-mouth marketing, transforming its users into a powerful marketing force. This strategy pushed their user base from 100,000 to 4 million in just 15 months.
Focus on creating inherently shareable marketing campaigns. Tools like interactive content, quizzes, infographics, or even fun videos related to your product can encourage users to share with their networks, amplifying your reach. Marketer's Disclaimer: You can't pay your way to go viral and you can't manufacture it. You can't anticipate it but you can focus on creating share-worthy content.
Example: The ALS Association's Ice Bucket Challenge became a social media phenomenon, not because of a huge marketing budget but because it was a share-worthy cause. By nominating friends to participate, the campaign organically reached millions, showcasing the power of viral marketing to achieve dramatic growth.
Automation tools and AI can streamline growth and processes, from email marketing to customer engagement. Tools like chatbots can provide 24/7 interaction with potential clients, answering questions, and guiding them through the sales funnel without significant human input.
Example: Zappos, an online shoe and clothing retailer, leveraged AI and automation to enhance customer service via chatbots, providing personalized shopping experiences at scale. This not only improved efficiency but also significantly enriched the customer journey, leading to higher conversion rates and customer retention.
Experiment with pricing models such as freemium, pay-what-you-want, or tiered pricing to find what resonates best with your audience. Sometimes, a simple adjustment in the pricing structure can significantly impact sign-ups and conversions.
Example: Evernote’s freemium model demonstrates how tweaking pricing can drive growth. By offering a free tier, Evernote attracted a vast user base. A small, yet significant, fraction of these users eventually upgraded to the premium tiers, fueling Evernote’s growth and sustainability.
Find non-competing businesses that target the same demographics and consider a partnership. Co-marketing initiatives can be an effective way to reach a wider audience while reducing marketing expenses. This could be in the form of cross-promotions, bundled offers, or joint events.
Example: Spotify and Uber’s partnership allowed Uber riders to play their Spotify playlists during rides. This cross-promotion not only enhanced UX for existing customers of both services but also introduced each user base to the other's platform, driving sign-ups and engagement.
In terms of growth marketing, agility, and innovation are your greatest assets. By adopting some of the unconventional strategies highlighted above, startups can carve out their path to rapid and sustainable growth, even in the most competitive markets.