Entrepreneur and marketing guru Seth Godin once said, “The only way to consistently grow in B2B is to be better than very good.” If you must be “better than good” to grow, how can marketing help you stand out? One proven method to maximize your ROI is campaign optimization with growth marketing.
When you make customers the center of your business and focus on forming better relationships, customer loyalty increases and growth happens more organically.
During economic downturns and uncertain times, a company’s marketing budget line is often one of the first to get slashed, but “history has time and again shown that recessions can offer incredible opportunities for business growth for brands that sustain marketing activities and budgets.”
Keep reading to learn what growth marketing is and find out how making it a part of your strategy can help support continued success, even during adversity.
What is growth marketing?
The key to driving business growth lies in using valuable data obtained from marketing activities and campaign experimentation. This process is often referred to as growth marketing or growth hacking.
By using data insights in your planning, you’ll be better prepared for potential changes and have the information you need to effectively develop strategies designed to support continuous improvement.
What makes it different from traditional marketing?
Instead of just targeting the top of the marketing funnel, growth marketing considers the entire customer journey.
In traditional marketing, the focus is often on building brand awareness and acquiring new customers rather than on what happens after a potential customer becomes a paying customer.
Around 33%
Smart Insights, 2021
That’s how many B2B companies cite search engine optimization as a top lead generator
What’s involved with growth marketing?
Growth marketing is known for being “all hands on deck.” Creating stronger connections with leads and customers often includes:
Pro-tip: Customer feedback isn’t just helpful for growth marketing. It can also be helpful when you’re doing persona research.
- Gathering, tracking, and analyzing customer feedback for insights
- Building multi-channel strategies
- Conducting A/B tests and launching sample campaigns, then making tweaks to maximize performance
- Adjusting and responding quickly when situations change
Can you outsource growth marketing activities?
Recessions tend to be when marketing projects get postponed and less essential activities are dropped (or minimized). Basically, it’s anything but “business as usual.” Like you, your competition is having to do more to maintain visibility.
One way many businesses survive—and often thrive—during an economic crisis is to consider outsourcing some of their marketing activities to experts. The skilled growth marketing staff at a professional agency can provide services and tailor-made solutions (in some cases for less money), so your in-house team’s time is freed up to focus on what they do best.
Additional resources
What works today with your target audience may not work tomorrow. Growth marketing is a great way to identify new engagement opportunities with your prospects and customers. Check out these resources for more ideas on how to get started with this approach.
Forbes: Why Growth Marketing Is the Next Frontier of Marketing
Zach Boyette explains how growth marketers (or “T-shaped marketers”) use the scientific method (conducting tests and leveraging granular data to create scalable, trackable strategies) to help companies achieve sustainable growth.
New York Times: How to Grow Your Business
This staff-written guide covers what’s involved in a data-driven approach to marketing, including the importance of recognizing growth signs and strategies for understanding target audiences, differentiating from competitors, and optimizing your marketing campaigns with split testing.
Hubspot: Developing a Growth Marketing Mindset
In this video lesson, you’ll learn what it takes to have a growth marketing mindset and how to manage your growth funnel within the ever-changing landscape of digital media.
Note: A version of this blog post first appeared in the Creative Edge, a monthly email with marketing news and tips from the TBH Creative team. Don’t miss the next issue.
