What Is Growth Marketing, and Is It Right for Your Business?
Marketing is a huge, complex field. The only way to stay on top of the latest trends and best practices is to keep reading. That’s why we’ve compiled this ultimate guide to growth marketing, so you have a solid base of knowledge to build on.
What Is Growth Marketing?
It’s marketing focused on business growth. The goal is to grow your user base and revenue by acquiring new customers and retaining existing users. Think about it like this: Budgets for growth marketing are determined by your business goals. If you want to drive more revenue, create more traffic or get more downloads, you’ll spend more money on growth marketing channels.
Once you have a target number in mind, it’s time to figure out how much the different marketing channels will cost. You also need to decide what marketing tactics to use. For example, will you focus on paid advertising, SEO, email marketing, and social media?
Some businesses only have a budget for one or two of these channels. Others have an unlimited budget to spend across the board. Regardless of your budget, there are certain tactics that work better on certain channels. Listen to your customers to see what they value and prioritize accordingly.
Where Is Growth Marketing Headed?
The tools, tactics, and strategies you use today will likely be different in a year or two. New platforms emerge all the time, letting you reach new audiences for less money. Others disappear, causing your strategies to fall apart overnight. Here are the top trends we see shaping growth marketing in 2022:
1) Growth Hacking Will Become More Important
Growth hacking is a combination of product development, marketing, and business strategy. It focuses on improving key metrics in your company to drive growth, like engagement and conversion.
Growth hacking began with startups that didn’t have a lot of money to spend on marketing. However, it works well for larger businesses as well. Since it’s based on experimentation, you can test different concepts and see which ones work best.
The process is more efficient than traditional marketing because it doesn’t require lengthy roadmaps or tons of upfront planning. There are no long-term commitments, and you’re free to change your strategy as often as you like.
2) Social Media Will Change How We Connect With Customers
In five years, we’ll be sharing our lives with virtual reality (VR) as well as other various forms of social media. By then, most businesses will be using social VR to connect with customers and potential leads. A majority of VR users report they prefer interacting with brands in VR over other channels.
Social VR is largely a matter of user interface design and technology. As the tools improve and we experience more realistic interactions, social VR will become more widely used. Even if you don’t have VR equipment, you can still use interactivity as a tool to engage customers in your business.
3) Conversations Will Be Recorded in Every Corner of the World
The next logical step after social media is to feel like we’re always talking to each other. That’s why tech companies like Facebook and Google have been investing heavily in video.
Video conferencing is a growing trend. As people increasingly use smart devices to connect with friends and family, we’ll be able to do it from anywhere on the planet. It will be easier than ever to see loved ones, even if they’re thousands of miles away from you, because the technology can send pictures, videos, and audio communications across each channel. The more you know about your customers, the more likely they are to trust you.
4) Email Marketing Will Become More Personal
Email marketing is already among the most effective forms of marketing. However, it hasn’t evolved very much in the last couple of years. There’s a lot of room for growth when it comes to personalizing and targeting messages based on keywords and interests.
What Are the Benefits of Growth Marketing?
Growth marketing can be a bit cheesy at times. However, if you can do it right through the right digital marketing firm, it can be a powerful tool that helps you drive sales. Here are the most important benefits of growth marketing:
1) Significant ROI
Growth marketing is expensive. When compared to other growth channels, it’s definitely more expensive. This doesn’t mean growth marketing is useless – in fact, if done correctly, it has a higher ROI than tactics like paid ads and copywriting. If you can achieve a 2% conversion rate, your ROI will increase by 200%.
2) It’s fun!
Of course, not every growth marketing project is going to be successful. But even when they fail in some way, they’re still worth doing. The process of growth marketing is exciting, and your customers will enjoy the results. Just remember that you’ll still need to focus on customer service for your existing users and make sure you have the proper infrastructure in place before you begin.
3) It’s Natural for Your Audience to Trust You
It’s easier for your audience to trust you when you’re building a brand that has real value to them. Some people like funny videos, while others prefer customer testimonials and helpful tips. Your growth marketing efforts shouldn’t be so over-the-top that they overshadow your other marketing efforts.
Are You Ready to Make Growth Marketing Work for Your Business?
If you want to continue growing your business, you’re going to have to avoid some common growth marketing mistakes. If you want to avoid those mistakes and create more engaging content, start by:
1) Making It Easy for Your Customers to Buy
The biggest mistake businesses make with growth marketing is confusing their customers. They try to rush them into selling without giving the customer the tools they need to make a purchase. The result? Few sales and an overall bad experience for both sides.
2) Trying Too Hard
Marketing videos aren’t organic anymore; they require creators and sponsors. It’s not enough to create entertaining content now; it has to be funny, insightful, and educational all at the same time.
3) Trust-Building Content
Think about your audience when you create your growth hacking strategies. What are the topics they would find most interesting? Where can you find those people? What do they have in common? How can you use their keywords to your advantage?
Growth marketing should be an organic process that fits naturally into your current business model. There’s no easy way to implement growth marketing strategies. However, when you plan them correctly and dedicate the time and energy to executing them, you’ll get results. Finding a good digital marketing firm such as our team here at Salt Rank will help you avoid common mistakes, too. You need to be proactive about growth marketing. Make sure your system is set up for success at every stage of the funnel.