As a business, it’s not enough to provide a service or two, or handful of products and hope for success. With so many competitors out there, this isn’t enough to stand out and thrive in your chosen market. To put it simply, customers have a lot of choice, and there’s no guarantee that they’ll find you over others. Businesses need a clear, actionable growth strategy to grow, expand and scale, and marketing plays a big part in this.
Whether you’re a startup looking to grow, or an established business wanting to expand into a new market, a marketing growth strategy can help you to tap into new opportunities and achieve long term success. Below, we’ve taken a look at marketing growth strategies and the major benefits for your business.
What is a Marketing Growth Strategy?
There are a lot of ways to approach marketing as a business, one of which is from a growth angle, which requires you to have a marketing growth strategy in place. A marketing growth strategy is a detailed, long term approach to marketing that looks beyond simply acquiring new customers. It focuses on the entire customer journey, from the moment they find out about your brand, to the moment they become a paying customer, and beyond. Instead of concentrating on a single stage of the sales funnel, a marketing growth strategy aims to build lasting customer relationships, encourage brand loyalty and drive continuous customer engagement.
A marketing growth strategy uses data analysis at every stage of the sales funnel to gain valuable insights, which can then be used to guide decisions and improve marketing efforts. With a marketing growth strategy, you can refine your marketing efforts based on up to date feedback, allowing you to adapt your approach along the way.
Traditional Marketing vs. Growth Marketing
If you have done any marketing before, you will probably have focused on traditional marketing, as most businesses do. But, you’re likely to find that growth marketing is actually more impactful. Traditional marketing and growth marketing differ in their approaches and goals, and understanding the differences is key.
Traditional marketing tends to focus on increasing awareness, driving acquisition and boosting short term sales or leads. It’s usually centred on ‘set in stone’ plans that are put into place and left alone, with a hope that they will work. This type of marketing tends to work towards one main goal, such as boosting leads, sales or encouraging people to sign up. There’s not a lot of thought about what happens after this goal has been reached, and how the customer should be handled once they’ve interacted with the business.
Growth marketing does things a little bit differently, as it has a more long term approach. It puts the customer at the centre of the marketing strategy, engaging with them at every stage of the funnel. Through awareness, acquisition and retention, growth marketing focuses on engaging with a customer and turning them into a brand advocate. Instead of trying to lock in a sale, growth marketing tries to lock in a customer that’s going to return in the future. Rather than focusing solely on generating new leads or increasing revenue, growth marketing finds ways to nurture relationships and grow the business as a whole. This includes optimising customer retention, and boosting brand loyalty.
If a marketing strategy isn’t working as well as you thought, growth marketing encourages you to analyse the results and make adjustments, until it’s bringing in your desired results. This constant optimisation ensures that growth marketing efforts align with your business long term goals. While growth marketing sometimes leads to fewer immediate leads, the focus on customer retention and loyalty can increase revenue over time, making it a more sustainable approach to marketing.
The 4 Types of Growth Marketing
- Product Development – Product development is about creating new products for your current market. Using your existing customer base to identify needs, product development focuses on finding new solutions and marketing directly to your existing audience. Businesses often do this by developing products based on customer feedback. This strategy allows growth by addressing unmet customer needs with innovative solutions.
- Market Penetration – Market penetration involves increasing the sales of existing products to your current customers. This strategy focuses on capturing a larger share of your existing market by boosting promotions and offering discounts. This type of growth marketing is usually a relatively ‘safe’ approach, but market penetration does have its limits, especially for niche markets or products that aren’t likely to be replenished.
- Diversification – This is the riskiest growth marketing strategy, but it also offers the highest potential reward, making it an option worth considering for a lot of businesses. It involves launching a new product in a new market. For diversification to be successful, you need to make the most of your existing business strengths and focus on moving into related markets.
- Market Development – This approach to growth marketing focuses on entering new markets with your existing products. Market development can involve expanding into different geographic regions or modifying your marketing approach to appeal to a broader audience. Though it can be effective, market development requires careful planning and investment. Tailoring your product and messaging to new markets without losing your existing customer base can be a challenge.
The Benefits of Having a Marketing Growth Strategy
There are a number of benefits that come with having a marketing growth strategy in place, such as:
- Higher ROI – As a business, it’s important to invest your money in a way that’s going to benefit the business. By implementing a growth marketing strategy, you can prioritise initiatives that offer the best return on investment. Whether it’s through increased customer acquisition, improved retention rates, or cost-effective marketing tactics, a growth approach to marketing helps to maximise resources and increase profitability.
- Improved Customer Retention – Growth marketing strategies emphasise not only attracting new customers, but also retaining and nurturing existing ones. By focusing on the entire customer journey, you can build long term relationships and increase customer loyalty. This is hugely beneficial when it comes to repeat business.
- Increased Brand Awareness – Growth marketing often leads to expanded brand reach and awareness. By targeting new audiences, entering new markets or launching new products, you can enhance your business’ visibility and strengthen your market position. This benefits all businesses, large and small, in any sector.
- Sustainable Growth – A marketing growth strategy promotes sustainable, long term growth. Instead of short term, quick spikes in revenue, growth marketing focuses on scaling a business by building strong customer relationships, optimising operations and exploring new markets or product offerings, all of which align with business’ overall goals.
- Targeted Growth – A marketing growth strategy helps you to identify specific areas to focus on, such as new markets, product innovations or customer segments. This targeted approach ensures that resources are directed towards opportunities that are likely to pay off, increasing the likelihood of business success.
- Competitive Advantage – There’s a lot of competition out there, but a marketing growth strategy can help your business to stay ahead of the competition. By continually analysing market trends, customer behaviour and industry changes, you can adapt your marketing approach quickly and maintain a competitive edge.
There’s a lot that goes into building a successful marketing growth strategy, which is why a lot of businesses seek the help of the experts, like us. You need to have a deep understanding of your customers, clear goals and a willingness to adapt to a changing market, all of which Profici can help you with.
By focusing on long term growth, you can create a strategy that not only boosts customer acquisition but also strengthens retention and loyalty. Give your business a boost by getting in touch with our talented team of growth experts.
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