Growth Marketing: What it is and How it’s Different
Modern businesses are all about being on the innovative front line of their industry, growing fast and seizing opportunities to get ahead of the competition. As a result, the traditional marketing department has changed considerably in recent years.
It’s not just about promoting your brand anymore – modern businesses are focused on acquiring customers, understanding their needs and engaging with them so that you can convert them into loyal customers. This is where growth marketing comes in. Here’s everything you need to know about what growth marketing is and how it can help your business grow.
1) What is Growth Marketing?
Put simply, growth marketing is the process of acquiring and retaining customers through continuous engagement and optimisation. It’s all about understanding customer behaviour and using data-driven techniques to increase acquisition, conversion and retention rates.
Growth marketing is different from traditional marketing because it focuses on creating a plan to get more customers and keep them engaged. In contrast, traditional marketing is all about the promotion of a brand through advertising, events and PR – none of which contribute anything towards customer acquisition or retention.
Growth marketing typically falls under the remit of the marketing department, but its success is reliant on cooperation across all departments within a business. Every part of your company should be focused on engaging with customers and efficiently acquiring them, whether it’s by finding new audiences or offering customer support where needed – everyone needs to be aware of this process.
2) What Does Growth Marketing Do?
There are three main areas where growth marketing comes into play.
- Acquisition – ways to increase the number of customers through content, SEO and email campaigns.
- Conversion – methods to convert more website visitors into paying customers, through effective design and user experience, as well as targeted marketing messages.
- Retention – strategies to keep customers coming back, such as customer loyalty programmes and engaging content.
3) How is it Different From Traditional Marketing?
There are several ways in which growth marketing is different from traditional marketing. Here are the key differences.
3.1) Growth marketing is data-driven
Traditional marketing typically uses qualitative research to understand the customers’ feelings, tastes and opinions. Growth marketers use quantitative techniques – for example, running split tests to see which colours convert best or using A/B testing to identify the most popular buttons on a website.
3.2) Growth marketing is focused on acquisition and retention
Traditional marketing is all about promotion and visibility. Once customers have been acquired, there’s no real focus on keeping them around. Growth marketing is all about getting new customers and retaining the ones you have, through continuous engagement and optimization.
3.3) Traditional marketing is usually the responsibility of the marketing department
The focus of traditional marketing is on promoting a brand through advertising, events and PR. Growth marketing, on the other hand, is about acquiring and retaining customers through continuous engagement and optimisation. As a result, growth marketing is typically the responsibility of the marketing department, but it’s reliant on input from other departments within a business.
4) Why is Growth Marketing Important?
Growth marketing has emerged as the best way to grow a company. That makes sense – why take an old-fashioned approach to get new customers when there are much more effective techniques out there?
Growth marketing is also incredibly valuable in this day and age, where we’re constantly bombarded with advertising messages. The average customer is exposed to roughly 5,000 marketing messages per day, so it’s important to find a way of standing out from the crowd.
With traditional marketing, you only get an effect when you create awareness through advertising and other promotional methods. Growth marketing, on the other hand, is about creating a system that continually acquires and retains customers. That means you can keep growing your business even when you’re not actively promoting it.
5) Effectiveness of Growth Marketing
Growth marketing isn’t something new – it’s been around for a while now, but it’s only recently started to become popular. That’s because the traditional marketing methods aren’t as effective as they used to be. For example, advertising used to produce a significant effect, but these days it’s not as successful.
That makes sense – you don’t need to advertise a product on a billboard if your customers can find out about it from their friends and family on social media. As a result, growth marketing is becoming more and more popular as businesses find new and more effective ways to acquire and retain customers.
Bottom Line
So, what is growth marketing? Growth marketing is a data-driven, customer-focused approach to marketing that’s focused on acquisition and retention. It’s different from traditional marketing in several ways, most notably its focus on data and its reliance on other departments within a business.
Growth marketing is becoming more and more popular as businesses realise the ineffectiveness of traditional marketing, so marketers need to be up-to-date with the latest techniques.
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