Business team celebrating success
Whether you’ve been implementing growth marketing for a while or are new to the practice, you want to succeed. No one likes to miss a goal post. In business, the stakes are high. Not meeting your targets could lead to disappointed stakeholders, future resignations and financial losses. But to achieve success with growth marketing, you must be willing to learn from failure.
Unlike traditional marketing, there’s some experimentation involved. Growth marketers approach their strategies and tactics like scientists. Data and observation fuel a hypothesis, which gets tested to determine what holds water and what doesn’t. Nevertheless, growth marketing does offer tried-and-true tactics to help businesses thrive. Here are four ways to meet—and even crush—your growth marketing goals.
1. Use More Than One Channel
The marketing landscape is more dynamic than ever. TV, radio and print are still around, but companies also reach consumers through social media and guerilla marketing tactics. Novel approaches such as native advertising are emerging to target audiences in unexpected ways. To exceed growth expectations, marketers should expand the number of channels or media types they use.
Attempting to reach leads and customers through various forms of media is known as cross-channel marketing. While most businesses do this to some degree, growth marketing strategies hyperfocus on finding the right combination. Even more so, marketers aim to discover which channels work best at each stage of the buyer’s journey or marketing funnel.
Maybe blog posts, podcasts and online events are highly effective for generating awareness and qualifying leads. However, personalized emails, direct mail and targeted online ads convert more leads into sales. Leveraging cross-channel marketing opportunities helps your business get its message across in ways that prospects and clients can appreciate. Using multiple media types also ensures you’re exercising the most appropriate tool for your audience at the right time.
2. Learn From A/B Testing Results
Remember that bit about testing hypotheses? A/B or split testing is where you get to do that. You start with an educated guess about your audience and run a test to determine whether it’s true. For example, you might conclude your clients respond better to promotions emphasizing limited-time savings. You reached this conclusion based on customer survey data.
So you test this hypothesis by sending two versions of an email. Both highlight your latest product sale, but only one includes language that encourages readers to act quickly. The test results show more conversions came from the email that stressed urgency. In this case, the results confirm the original hypothesis. Now you know to continue using this language to drive more sales with that audience.
Successful growth marketers also use A/B testing to discover who their consumers are. They may not have enough reliable data yet or want to see whether various customer segments respond differently. For instance, distinct landing page versions might reveal that certain age groups engage more with specific design features. Growth marketers can then use those test results to refine the page so it will resonate with their targeted demographic.
3. Concentrate on the Entire Buyer’s Journey
Traditional advertising usually focuses on the early stages of the buyer’s journey. The goal of a TV spot is to make consumers aware that a product, service or brand exists. Often, the hope is people will remember the business’s or product’s name when they’re ready to buy. But conventional marketing doesn’t typically address other stages of the buyer’s journey or funnel.
A complete marketing funnel consists of six different stages. Awareness represents the top of the funnel. However, the remaining stages are acquisition, activation, retention, revenue and referral. Many people might be aware your product exists. A smaller percentage will visit your website or store for more information. From there, some will fill out a form, subscribe to your email list or make a purchase.
Once leads become customers, you want them to stay. Ideally, you want them to make repeat purchases or add more services. Hopefully, those clients are so satisfied and enthusiastic about your brand that they refer others. Growth marketers who meet or exceed their goals realize that generating awareness is only the beginning. Revenue opportunities exist throughout the entire funnel, and customer relationships require nurturing to drive sales.
4. Rely on Real-Time Data
Effective growth marketers realize data from a few months ago may not be reliable. Consumer behaviors and lifestyles can sometimes change drastically. A looming economic recession and supply chain disruptions might lead to behavior changes that impact your business. If consumer confidence is low, your customers might be less willing to add on new services.
Alternatively, real-time data from website analytics and surveys may reveal a growing interest in replacing aging products or equipment. Perhaps current feedback indicates more of your customer base is responsive to promotions. They’re willing to act and recommit when they can get a deal. At the same time, customers want reassurance they can get the savings on the product they want.
Growth marketers see all of this data as an opportunity to personalize the customer experience. Current inventory and client data could help craft marketing messages targeting customers with aged equipment. Those communications would likely highlight current promos on newer models from the same brand or manufacturer. Personalized emails could also show online and local inventory numbers to motivate clients.
Conquering Growth Marketing Objectives
It takes grit and a willingness to learn and adapt to become successful at growth marketing. Strategies and tactics that drive results with one customer segment may not move the needle with another. Implementing diverse initiatives and juggling simultaneous experiments are par for the course. That said, a commitment to cross-channel marketing, A/B testing, relationship building and real-time data can help you realize the outcomes you want to see.
