By Estela Viñarás, on 6 June 2024
The main difference between growth marketing and more traditional marketing is that while the latter focuses more on the top of the marketing funnel (customer attraction), growth marketing focuses on the entire funnel, from the attraction phase to customer retention.
Therefore, the main benefit we see with growth marketing is that it is much more comprehensive.
Traditional marketing is based on following a more established path. In contrast, growth marketing thrives on continuous experimentation and adapting to a brand's circumstances, needs, and goals. It enables a deeper level of customization when it comes to marketing strategies.
If we focus on its more concrete benefits and the results, growth marketing allows:
- Creating a much larger user base than other marketing techniques.
- Building a more engaged audience that increases retention rates.
- Increasing customer lifetime value.
- Reducing customer acquisition costs.
- Higher customer satisfaction rates.
- Boosting brand awareness.
- Ensuring constant company growth, avoiding declines.
- Building more creative strategies.
Growth Marketing Strategies for Customer Acquisition
One of the main characteristics of growth marketing is constant experimentation. Conducting tests to find the best action at each stage is common in growth marketing. Specifically, there are three very common tests that we'll explain below and that you can't afford to overlook if you want to make the most of your growth marketing strategy.
A/B Testing
A/B testing involves launching two versions of the same marketing action to see which one performs better and achieves better results. These two versions are essentially the same, but with a different detail that could be key for one alternative to perform better than the other.
For example, you can launch two versions of the same landing page, changing the placement of the CTA, and see which one gets better conversions. The winning version is taken into account to replicate it in the future.
In A/B tests, changes must be noticeable and significant to truly be the reason for the better performance of one option over the other. For example, changes in color or images may not be enough to claim that they have caused better performance.
Another thing to consider in A/B testing is that only one change can be made per pair of options. This means that when you launch the two alternatives to check which one works better, they should only differ in one element or variable. If you want to see how other elements come into play, you can launch a second A/B test later, changing another factor.
A/B tests can be performed with a variety of marketing actions besides landing pages, such as newsletters, ads, forms, etc.
Multivariate Testing
Multivariate tests are very similar to A/B tests, except that more elements can be changed and there can be more than two versions.
Multivariate tests are very useful if you want to know which combination of elements works best and they can be applied to the same type of content as A/B tests.
If you're unsure when to use multivariate testing and when to use A/B testing, consider that the latter is easier to implement and works better when you have limited traffic or audience, the former works better when you have higher traffic, as otherwise the results may not be conclusive.
However, it's important to note that A/B testing is a good starting point to begin testing different versions, and multivariate tests can be implemented later once you have a more solid foundation.
Multichannel Marketing
Multichannel marketing represents a valuable approach involving ongoing testing and analysis. In the realm of growth marketing, it's good to explore the most suitable marketing channels for the company. Consequently, it's commonplace to continuously experiment with new channels to gauge their effectiveness.
If a channel doesn't work at a specific time, it shouldn't necessarily be discarded, as it may be useful in the future when the company has evolved.
Success Stories of Growth Marketing for Customer Acquisition
Airbnb
Airbnb is one of the best examples of growth marketing, especially because of the great importance the company gives to building a loyal, solid, and engaged community, even reaching the point where any customer would recommend the platform.
Airbnb serves as a prime example of growth marketing, particularly evident in its inception. The company adopted a highly innovative strategy in its early stages: leveraging the classified ads platform "Craigslist" and capitalizing on its traffic to promote their own listings. This quest for novel communication and promotional avenues epitomizes the essence of growth marketing.
From Airbnb's experience, we glean the importance of forging partnerships with like-minded and complementary brands to foster creative collaborations—a potent marketing strategy. Moreover, cultivating a robust community emerges as a cornerstone value for brands aiming to endure over time.
We've highlighted LinkedIn as an exemplar of successful growth marketing primarily because of its exceptional efforts from the outset in cultivating a robust, expansive, and actively engaged user community. Remarkably, this took precedence even before strategies for consistent revenue generation.
LinkedIn is also one of the best examples of a company that has conducted —and continues to conduct—numerous tests and analyses to discern the most effective methods for attracting traffic and acquiring profitable users.
Recommendations for Effective Implementation of Growth Marketing
Order of Test Execution
In growth marketing, conducting a multitude of tests and analyses is commonplace, underscoring the importance of effective organization for storing results and ensuring their usefulness in future actions.
Prior Definition of Growth Objectives
Growth marketing doesn't imply aimless growth. While a company may aspire to reach unprecedented heights, it's crucial to establish realistic objectives and update them as you go. Failing to do so risks losing sight of the horizon and potentially triggering adverse effects. Therefore, it's important to clearly define objectives before embarking on any growth marketing strategy and to adjust them as milestones are reached. This approach provides the necessary framework to guide the trajectory of the growth marketing strategy effectively.
Flexibility Above All
Since a large number of tests and analyses are carried out in growth marketing, it's important to be open to changes that may occur and not cling to unprofitable ideas that may have worked in the past, as they may not work now.
Understanding Key Marketing Metrics
It's very important that the experts leading the growth marketing strategy know the company's KPIs (key performance indicators) perfectly and can interpret which actions are most useful to pursue. Likewise, it's also important that they are familiar with the use of the most common analysis tools in the marketing world. Otherwise, no matter how many tests and experiments are conducted, they will not have a noticeable effect on the company's results.
