Growth marketing became popular in the early 2010s, especially among tech startups in Silicon Valley, such as Dopbox. Since then, growth marketing has proved its success for many businesses, NGOs, governmental institutions, and more.
In this blog post, we will define go through:
- What Is Growth Marketing? A Practical and Clear Definition
- What Growth Marketing Is Not
- The Core Principles of Growth Marketing
Table of Contents
1. What Is Growth Marketing? A Practical and Clear Definition
Growth marketing is a systematic approach to sustainable business growth that involves experiments for each step of the customer journey.
- Systematic, where it requires a repetitive and well-thought-out process, not random guesswork.
- Experimentation, meaning each step of the funnel gets through tests that allow growth marketers to continuously learn and adapt.
- Entire customer journey, where each stage of the buyer funnel is equally prioritized.
- Sustainable, thanks to processes and systems that compound over time, not quick wins.
“In other words: Growth marketing is a long-term strategy to scale a business by improving every stage of the buyer’s funnel, based on continuous testing and data-driven insights“
2. What Growth Marketing Is Not
The term “growth marketing” is often confusing for B2B marketing teams. And what better way to define it than by contrasting it with what growth marketing is not?
Not just paid ads
Growth marketing is not “just running more paid ads” on Google or LinkedIn, nor bidding on keywords. Ads serve as tools within a holistic growth marketing strategy, but they are not the growth itself.
Not growth hacking shortcuts
Although the terms “growth marketing” and “growth hacking” are often used interchangeably, each has a distinct meaning.
Growth hacking is a set of short-term tactics that promise quick virality and overnight success, using creative methods. Therefore, when adopting growth marketing, businesses might use growth hacking as a tactic.
Growth marketing is not simply a set of tools or channels.
It is not a stack of tools, channels, or dashboards. These elements are just amplifiers, meaning that they translate the real value coming from strategy, hypotheses, and learning loops.
3. The Core Principles of Growth Marketing
Most recent guides converge on a small set of principles that define modern growth marketing.
Customer-centricity
Every decision starts with the customer’s mind and how the company’s solution can help them succeed. Empathy helps growth marketers to understand their customers’ pain points, address their needs, and assess if the solution intersects with pain points and needs.
Data-informed decision-making
Guesswork is not very common for growth marketing, however data are one of its the pillars . Data allow making informed decisions, they vary from user behavior, buying patterns, and success metrics. Each data manipulation help teams to adjust the gear.
Experimentation over assumptions
Constant testing is what makes growth marketing what it is. Teams usually start with a hypothesis about what will drive growth and value.
They design a prototype, run a testing spring, and then measure the outcome. Based on the outcomes, the teams learn whether they need to keep going, adapt, or pivot all together.
Learning loops instead of one-off campaigns
In growth marketing, each experiment feeds the next one. Insights from one sprint inform the next sprints. Meaning, learning from experiments compound.
Campaigns become inputs in a loop: test, measure, learn, iterate. And high-performing growth teams gain wisdom about growth drivers and start developing smarter processes.
Conclusion
- Growth marketing is a mindset and not a quick solution;
- Growth marketing relies on testing hypotheses and learning through tests and outcomes;
- Growth marketing is not paid ads, tactics, nor a set of tools;
- Growth marketing operates as an ongoing laboratory, where the goal is to learn what drives growth.