MIA #05: Everything You Need to Know About Growth Marketing
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🔗 ICYMI: In our last issue, we talked about how to build a successful growth machine that is scalable, predictable, and repeatable. Read it here:
I've found that trends like "Growth" and "Growth Marketing" can be quite confusing. So, I decided to give a history lesson to clear up the confusion.
Growth marketing originated in the United States. It emerged in the early 21st century as a response to the challenges faced by startups in achieving rapid growth with limited resources.
Here’s a timeline highlighting key companies and individuals associated with the development and popularization of growth marketing:
The early 2000s
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The 2010s
The 2020s to date
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Getting Started with Growth Marketing
It is easier to grasp Growth Marketing by moving beyond theory and putting it into action (that’s Marketing In Action).
I put together a Notion resource to help you get started with this right away. You can streamline your growth team's productivity and collaboration with strategy, projects, tasks, docs, sprints, and experiments all in one.
See how it works in this video:
I’ve published the link to the Notion templates within this Resource Library.
Here’s how you can thank me 🙂:
Use your referral link to share the MIA newsletter with your friends, colleagues, and bosses (especially those who don’t get marketing—and make your life hard). Trust me, you'll be doing everyone a solid!
And a Few Concepts:
Growth marketing combines the principles of traditional marketing with a focus on rapid experimentation across various channels and product features. It's data-driven, aiming to find the most efficient ways to drive revenue growth.
A professional who focuses on driving growth for a business by using creativity, data analysis, and experimentation to rapidly acquire and retain customers.
A comprehensive plan that outlines the channels, levers, and tactics used to achieve specific growth objectives.
Your GTM motion is the distinct approach you can adopt to drive a growth strategy, i.e. the major channels you use to acquire and retain customers. e.g. Product-Led GTM, Sales-Led GTM, and Hybrid GTM.
Channels are all the different ways you can reach your audience e.g. Product, SEO, Content, Lifecycle, Ads.
Growth Levers
Levers are the key areas that can be leveraged to drive growth. e.g. Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue.
Growth Project
An initiative aimed at achieving a specific growth objective, involving multiple tasks and tactics, such as launching a new marketing campaign or developing a referral program.
Growth Task
An individual action or step taken to execute a growth tactic or project, such as writing a blog post, setting up an email sequence, or analyzing campaign performance.
Growth Sprint
Weekly or bi-weekly 30-60 minute reviews to review active projects/experiments, learnings, new growth ideas, and assignments.
TL: DR
Get a PDF summary of this article here.
Many trend jumpers and even practitioners don't fully understand what ‘Growth Marketing’ is.
Early 2000s: PayPal, Facebook, and LinkedIn used innovative tactics like referral programs & network effects to grow fast.
2007: Sean Ellis coined "growth hacking" - rapid experimentation to find the best growth methods.
2010s: GrowthHackers.com, books & tools popularize growth marketing strategies.
2020s: Notion, Clubhouse, and Substack show how community & content fuel growth.
Was this helpful? Hit that ❤️ and let me know your thoughts in the comments! Want to see more of this content? Restack this post (if you're on Substack) and share it with your friends!
You might find these interesting:
How to build a Growth Process & Machine — A practical guide to building a successful growth machine that is scalable, predictable, and repeatable.
How to build a Growth Team — A practical guide to structuring your growth team, and executing Product Led, Sales Led or Hybrid GTM motions.
How to hire a Growth Marketer — A practical guide to finding and hiring growth generalists, channel specialists, and ensuring acquisition channels are delivering performance.
Hiring within our network:
CRO Growth Marketer & Project Manager at Donorbox
Marketing Strategist at botto.com
Head of Marketing and Content at r3gen finance
Demand Generation Manager at Deel
Product & Partner Recommendations:
James Praise — I partner with founders and marketing teams of Product-Led startups to drive long-term growth using SEO, Performance Marketing, Product Marketing, and Lifecycle Marketing, from acquisition to retention to revenue.
Clay — Clay combines 50+ data providers, real-time scraping, AI, and outbound workflows, so you can send automated, 1-1 personalized campaigns (and book more meetings than your sales team).
Testimonial — Testimonial makes it easy to collect text and video testimonials from your customers in minutes, with no need for a developer or website hosting.
Synthesia — Synthesia is the #1 AI Video Creation Platform that enables you to create professional videos without mics, cameras, actors, or studios.
Riverside — Riverside makes it easy to record remote podcasts and video interviews that look and sound like they were recorded in a million-dollar studio.
If you want to collaborate or feature your product in this newsletter, shoot me an email.
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This has to be my favourite 🚀
I’ve published the link to the Notion templates here https://jamespraise.xyz/miaresources
Thank me by sharing the MIA newsletter with your friends 🙂