Grow Big or Go Home with Growth Marketing
Performance marketing. Growth hacking. Growth marketing. You can call it whatever you’d like—so long as you’re doing it. It, as defined by all-in-one marketing power player Intuit Mailchimp, is “the process of using data gained through marketing campaigns and experimentation to drive growth.”
Growth marketing has become one of the industry’s hottest terms (and strategies). And for good reason. At its core, growth marketing is about collecting insights on what makes a brand’s customers tick, and then using that information to better reach them and cater to their needs. Imagine eating at an all-you-can-eat candy buffet filled with different types of delectable chocolates. On your first visit to the buffet, you happen to mention to the chocolatier that you’re allergic to tree nuts, so you’ll be skipping over the section of walnut- and almond-filled treats. When you return to the bar for your second visit, those candies are now gone, replaced instead with new varieties that are safe for you to eat—including more of the fruit-filled selections you loaded up on your first trip. Sounds good, right? That’s growth marketing.
Now that you understand more about how growth marketing works in a simplified sense, let’s look at some real-life examples of the hottest trends in growth marketing today.
Harness the power of customer testimonials
You know those little thank you notes and Google reviews your brand gets on how wonderful you are? It’s time you start doing something with them. Few things are more powerful than authentic customer reviews, so it’s critical that you begin including the positive reviews you’re getting in your marketing efforts. The best way to do this is by creating segmented email distribution lists and including testimonials related to each customer or prospect list and where they are in the funnel. Of course, you can’t feature testimonials if you aren’t collecting them, so be sure to steadily ask your customers to leave you reviews across sites like Google and Yelp.
Personalized email campaigns
Ever get a “happy birthday” email from your favorite brand with a celebratory discount code? If so, that brand believes in growth marketing and the use of personalized email campaigns. Importantly, these campaigns don’t have to be around holidays or milestones. One of the best growth marketing strategies is personalized campaigns based on buying habits and preferences. Are you the owner of a small sporting goods store? Why not target the customer who just bought a new tennis racket with an offer on new tennis shoes or tennis balls?
Start loyalty and referral programs
If you have an established business, chances are you have an established customer base. If that’s the case, you should reward their loyalty and willingness to refer you to their friends and families with discounts and special offers. These programs come in all shapes and sizes and can be modified to meet the brand’s unique offerings. For example, loyalty programs can be anything from “buy 9, get 1 free” to “get $10 off for every $100 spent,” while referral programs can dole out discounts like 10% off or $50 in discounts for every referral that proceeds with purchase. If you’re truly analyzing the data, you already know what your customers are buying—why not sweeten the pot just a bit?
Create value-driven content
Companies with a keen interest in analytics are likely to use visualization software to perform heatmapping on their website. This exercise gives the brand a good idea of what pages customers are visiting, how long they’re staying there and what’s ultimately leading to conversion. Armed with that information, the brand can create value-driven content on pages that are the most meaningful to customers. Using our sporting goods store example, if the brand finds that customers are often looking at its online inventory of tennis rackets, creating a video of someone talking about a few of the most popular selections is a safe bet to get plenty of views.
Ready to up the ante with a little growth marketing of your own? We can help. Reach out to Heart & Hustle Brands today, and let’s talk about your growth marketing goals.
About the Author
Stacey Harrison is the lead brand strategist and designer at Heart & Hustle Brands and has provided creative direction for healthcare, industrial, and financial services brands for 20 years. She started Harrison Creative Group in 2017 to serve businesses that need a professional brand image on a budget. In 2021, the company rebranded to Heart & Hustle Brands to walk in the shoes of clients that experience a change of name or brand refresh.
