In this post, I want to introduce you to the Growth Marketing Framework.
What is Growth Marketing
Growth Marketing is a term that gets bandied about a lot. To be honest, I used to be a bit skeptical when I heard someone refer to themselves as a growth marketer. Isn’t that like saying “I’m a tall giant”? Isn’t all marketing about growth.
Recently, I have come round to embracing it as a concept. Growth marketing is an end-to-end approach to marketing. It takes into account the full customer lifecycle from acquiring the customer through to growing the business that you do with that customer.
If you Google, Growth Marketing, you will get many different definitions. This blog post by Drift includes a handy presentation you can click through in 5 minutes.
The basic principles of growth marketing are about:
- A holistic view of your customer lifecycle
- Finding long-term profitable and successful customers
- Focus on the lifetime value of customers
- Customer experience AND customer acquisition
- And doing this as efficiently as possible for the customer
The Growth Marketing Framework
The diagram at the top of this post presents my new Growth Marketing Framework. Tadah!
Across the top are the stages of the customer lifecycle:
- Initially, they are trying to solve a problem. You want to engage them so that they consider that you might be the solution to that problem. As the blue line shows, it’s a winding and unpredictable road, where they will tap into many sources for advice and ideas.
- Then they evaluate options, hopefully including you. They do this on their terms and won’t contact you until they are good and ready.
- Then they make a decision. This is where the buyer often gets stalled as they search for validation, assurance and anything that will lower their risk. This often includes a pilot or trial of your solution, represented by the small circular arrow.
- Once, they have made their decision, they then go through a period of onboarding and familiarization as they get to know your solution
- They then use and expand their use of your solution, adding users and upgrading. This is represented by the large circular arrow. Over time they will hopefully add users and upgrade the solution.
- As they use your solution and get to know you better, they develop opinions about you. They will inevitably share these opinions. Often these opinions will reach others who are in the problem-solving or evaluation stage. Positive influence is represented by a green arrow and negative opinions and influence is represented by a red arrow.
At the bottom of the diagram is your focus as a growth marketer. In the early phase of their journey, your emphasis is on marketing strategies geared towards acquisition and brand-awareness building. As their journey progresses, customer experience strategies become more important.
Growth Marketing Strategies
In this version of the Growth Marketing Framework, Marketing strategies are shown across the bottom. They align with the different stages of the buyer’s journey.
- Problem-solving: In this phase, as a growth marketer you will be primarily focused on Account-based marketing (ABM), inbound marketing, and brand awareness building.
- Evaluating: As a growth marketer, your focus is on helping provide validation that persuades the buyer that you are the right choice.
- Deciding: Here your role is to help the buyer get comfortable in selecting you by de-risking their decision. Customer references and testimonials, and meeting the team are ways to do this.
- On-boarding: As a marketer, you can make a big impact by helping teach the customer how to use and get value out of your solution.
- Using & Expanding: During this stage of the customer lifecycle, your role as a marketer is to build loyalty and upsell. You also have a stake in measuring satisfaction and gaining insight into what they love and dislike about your solution and company.
- Influencing: Lastly, as a growth marketer, you need to look for ways to make your best customers into proactive advocates for your firm.
What’s Next
Over the next few months, I will be writing more about growth marketing, especially how you can grow business with existing customers. I will also be plugging away with ideas and best practices for ABM and brand building.
BTW: Drew Neisser has an awesome podcast and in a recent episode he interviewed three marketers about growth marketing. It is well-worth a listen.,
Let me know what you think about the framework!
Originally posted on LinkedIn.