A Guide to Building a Growth Marketing Plan

In this article, we take a look at how a business can benefit from growth marketing, and show you how to get started with your own growth marketing plan.

What is growth marketing?

Growth marketing is a term that is often used in the tech industry to describe a data-driven approach to marketing. Unlike traditional marketing, which focuses on broad-based campaigns aimed at increasing brand awareness, growth marketing is all about driving measurable results. This means that growth marketers are always looking for new ways to acquire and retain users.

To do this, they rely on a variety of tools and tactics, including search engine optimization (SEO), content marketing, A/B testing, and paid advertising. By constantly experimenting with different methods, growth marketers are able to continually improve their results. And while the focus on growth can sometimes come at the expense of other marketing objectives, it is ultimately what allows startups to scale quickly and successfully.

Growth marketing involves processing data to drive targeted marketing campaigns, and scrutinises outcomes far more than traditional marketers. By leaning more on available data, the goal of growth strategies is to eliminate the guesswork.

Growth marketing vs growth hacking

Growth marketing and growth hacking are two terms that are often used interchangeably, but there is a subtle distinction between the two.

Growth marketing is a data-driven approach to marketing that focuses on identifying and capitalizing on opportunities for growth.

Growth hacking, on the other hand, is a more experimental approach that uses creative techniques to achieve rapid growth.

While growth marketing relies on tried-and-true methods, growth hacking is all about thinking outside the box and testing new ideas. Both approaches can be effective, but growth hacking may be more suitable for startups and businesses with limited resources. Ultimately, the best approach depends on the goals of the company and the industries in which they operate.

What are the key components of a growth marketing plan?

Here are some of the tactics that companies use to attract more customers, convert and retain them using growth marketing plans.

A/B testing

This requires a testing base of people split into two groups, A and B. Group A tests one version of an app, website, etc. While group B tests another version that is similar to group A. Usually, the difference is one single variation. For instance, a test for completion could be carried out with A/B testing, to determine whether a button for completion is better positioned at the top or the bottom of an app screen. A/B tests are carried out to better understand how customers react to your content, visuals, user experience, design and other features.

Cross-channel marketing

This is a strategic plan pushed across multiple channels to reach more customers. Cross-channel marketing can involve a combination of SMS and email marketing, in-app purchases and messages, and push notifications. When you create a cross-channel marketing plan, you need to understand each customer’s communication preferences and tailor your offering to them. A/B testing can also help you to understand how particular users respond to various types of marketing, while allowing you to observe their past shopping behaviours.

Understanding the consumer life cycle

This is all about the life cycle of a customer’s interest and purchases with a brand. In the ‘activation’, stage, a brand targets customers through a growth marketing plan, creating their interest through introductory campaigns. The ‘nurture’ phase happens when a company continues to engage and strengthen its relationships with customers after they’ve made a purchase, through actions like promotions, sales, newsletters and updates. The final phase is ‘reactivation’, where companies aim to achieve customer loyalty to their brand. This can be achieved through post-purchase communication and offers, and loyalty schemes to get customers to make more purchases.

What does growth marketing success look like?

There are plenty of growth marketing success stories out there. Take men’s skincare and shaving brand Harry’s for example. According to data from Rakuten Intelligence, the brand is growing three times quicker than the industry average, and even more quickly than Dollar Shave Club, which was seen as the market leader until it was purchased by Unilever. A clever growth marketing plan is behind the success.

Harry’s used a subscription-based service so that customers could remain loyal to the brand and keep making continued purchases from it. Good quality shaving and personal care products for reasonable prices also gave the brand a desirable factor, while creating a key selling point. By also delivering email-based and other online marketing campaigns that are specially catered to its biggest audience (Baby Boomers), this has accelerated growth on a staggering scale.

That said, in order to maintain its relevance, Harry’s still needs to continue to draw younger audiences in. It has attempted to do this by starting Flamingo, which is gathering pace in the women’s shaving market.

How can a growth marketing plan help my business?

There are many benefits to harnessing a solid growth marketing plan. These include:

Increased brand awareness

Growth marketing helps you test out and establish new partnerships and collaborations through guest posts, digital and social media advertising, and relationships with influencers. You can share the story of your business through so many more channels, expanding reach and creating improved awareness. From here, it’ll be easier to attract investors and customers alike.

Better return on investment

Optimising and creating more bespoke campaigns that are rooted in A/B testing, metrics and data enable you to better assess outcomes, and whether or not a campaign was worth it. Without taking risks based on assumptions, you can calculate whether making a particular change will improve your returns, retain customers and so on.

Attracting more customers

A growth marketing plan continually assesses how to improve the purchase experience for customers in terms of your brand communication and UX. This will happen from the moment they land on your website, until they finalise their purchase and checkout. You’ll be able to convert leads more easily, removing any obstacles that may be getting in the way.

When do I need a growth marketing strategy, and how do I create one?

It’s never too early to start producing a growth marketing plan – otherwise, you won’t know how to grow and scale your business over time! Once you’ve decided on your goals, it is time to lay out your roadmap for success, with checkpoints at each stage to assess what you have achieved. Your growth marketing plan should include the following:

• The vision you have for your product, the audience it is aimed at, and how it resolves pain points.
• KPI’s for every stage of the sales funnel.
• Observations on what your competitors are doing, and the creation of a competitor audit.
• An understanding of your customer’s wants and needs, including their demographics and psychographics.
• The current customer journey, and any pain points experienced.
• A list of prioritised objectives that will help your brand reach its goals.
• Budgets set for testing.
• Growth marketing tactics to test.
• Creating a process for growth experiments, that is based on data.

Need help planning your growth marketing strategy?

If you are looking for a part-time marketing director to help you achieve sustainable, long-term growth with a data-driven approach, we can help at Leadership Services. Our growth-focused experts will create and deliver marketing strategies and growth marketing plans that align with your goals and deliver them. Our experienced marketing directors will ensure that you are using the right data collection and testing methods, and available channels to promote your brand to the right audience, all while maximising ROI.

Find out more about our part-time marketing directors today and discover how we can help your business.