In Canada, there are an average of 95,000 companies founded every year. In such a cutthroat environment, it can be quite challenging for any startup company to stand out. This is why having a marketing plan in place is important. To break through the competition, your company should have a strong and compelling marketing strategy that does not only acquires more customers but acts as a breeding ground for virality, word of mouth, and organic growth.
While there are various marketing methods to attract and retain customers, growth marketing is a new and powerful way to build a loyal user base.
In this post, we will look into what growth marketing entails and how you can build one for your business.
What Is Growth Marketing?
Consider growth marketing as marketing 2.0. Growth marketing adds tiers to the traditional marketing model, such as A/B testing, SEO optimization, high-quality blog posts, data-driven email marketing campaigns, creative ad copy, and technical analysis that cover every aspect of the user’s experience. It allows you to promptly implement the information obtained from these strategies to achieve robust and sustainable growth. You can create a growth marketing strategy based on benchmarks, such as conversion rates, customer acquisition rates, customer retention rates, and customer lifeline value.
Here, we have rounded some of the top techniques used by today’s growth marketers to attract, convert, create, and retain loyal customers. While these techniques are commonly used in eCommerce shops, they also work wonders for brick-and-mortar businesses.
- A/B Testing
Also known as multivariate testing, A/B testing is among the fundamental practices of a powerful strategy for growth marketing. It can be applied in various formats, which include landing pages, social media ads, email marketing and others. It works by deploying either an “A” and a “B” or a set of different tests to help you determine which content variation performs well in terms of audience engagement and conversion rate.
- Cross-Channel Marketing
This marketing technique focuses on strategic channel plan building to help you connect to your customers. Cross-channel marketing strategy includes email marketing, in-app messages, SMS messaging, direct mail, push notifications, and other channels commonly used by your target audience. Incorporating a cross-channel marketing strategy into your growth marketing plan allows you to pay attention to your potential customers and understand their communication preferences, so you can create and design your campaign accordingly.
- Customer Lifecycle
A customer lifecycle refers to the process customers take as they learn about, communicate, purchase, and re-engage with your company. Growth marketers focus on 3 different lifecycle stages: activation, nurture, and reactivation. Each lifecycle is a significant contributing factor to customer experience.
Here are some tips on how to build a growth-focus marketing strategy:
- Study the Trends
Some marketers simply rush into growth marketing without getting to know the latest marketing trends. Slow down and take some time looking into behind the scenes before launching a new product or service. Gather information about the market and business and consumer trends as these factors can impact your growth strategy. You can easily spot the latest trends on various social media channels that cater to the interests of your target audience. Also, checking out media websites and popular influencers can earn you a wealth of knowledge on where the audience’s interests are shifting, so you can be prepared for the changing trends.
- Understand Your Audience
When you create a persona about your audience, it helps you know and understand what they think and want at each stage of their purchase journey. For instance, if you offer services for online divorce, taking the time to know about their problems and their reasons for availing your service can help your tailor the type of message you want to deliver as well as future development plans.
Also, getting to know what your target customers like and when they spend time on social media channels can also help you develop a persona that defines them. Armed with this information, you can easily personalize your brand message to help boost your drive growth.
- Focus on Digital Strategies
Staying on top of the latest digital trends can give you a competitive advantage and return for your growth marketing plan. It goes beyond just having a website and some social media accounts. Your strategies should involve actively using your website and social media and creating a strong digital presence.
Start with basic digital techniques and give your time to study and master them. When your budget allows you to expand your marketing campaign, you can add more digital strategies.
- Set a Budget
Now that you know why a marketing plan is important, make sure to set a budget to help reach your goals. Your budget depends on the number of strategies you use for your growth marketing campaign. If you are planning to incorporate more digital tactics, you may need a larger budget, including a team of professionals to work in the planning, executing, and measuring process. Instead of hiring full-time staff, outsourcing your comprehensive growth marketing strategy to a top Toronto SEO company can help cut down labour costs.
Additionally, automating your tasks helps further minimize the costs. Once your strategies start generating growth, you can reinvest more in digital marketing initiatives.
- Focus on Quantitative Results
Setting measurements and tracking them can help you monitor how much your marketing initiatives grew. Using marketing analytics tools on social media sites and other platforms lets you assess and measure your marketing performance.
- Switch Your Growth Marketing Strategy Quarterly
Using the same growth marketing strategy for a long time will not give you the results you desired. Instead, make sure to switch your growth marketing initiatives every three months. To test its efficiency, give 1 or 2 strategies a few quarters to establish themselves, and then swap a few others, so you can try other digital techniques, including:
- live-streaming video
- mobile video
- chatbots
- geofencing
- artificial intelligence
- machine learning
You can never underestimate the fact why having a marketing plan is important for your business. With the wide variety of digital tactics on the horizon, it is well worth continuing to explore and venture into new growth marketing initiatives. If you need help with your growth-focused marketing strategy, make sure to consult a reputable digital marketing agency for expert website marketing advice.
