How to accelerate your business in 2020 with growth marketing
Did you know there are 18,000 equine businesses in the UK alone? In such a crowded environment, it can be hard to stand out, which is why you need a carefully curated marketing strategy that not only helps with customer acquisition, it also creates loyalty.
This is where growth marketing can help.
What is growth marketing?
It might seem obvious that the aim of marketing is to grow your business, but some approaches only offer a quick fix. So, while they attract customers, they won’t necessarily retain them. And growth without retention isn’t really growth.
Growth marketing – also known as growth hacking – is all about increasing engagement, conversion and retention. It does this by focusing closely on the entire customer journey – from when they first learn about your business, to making a purchase – and tailoring it to meet their needs.
Marketing funnel
This customer journey is also known as a marketing funnel, which is a great tool for mapping and understanding customer behaviour. Every stage of the funnel is defined by their perspective and personal experience.
There are a number of variations, but essentially a marketing funnel consists of:
- Awareness
- Interest
- Consideration
- Intent
- Evaluation
- Purchase
Traditional marketing often focuses on the top of the funnel, with activities that drive quick, short-term wins. However, growth marketing isn’t about fixating on one part of the funnel. When done right, it adds value all the way through the marketing funnel by attracting users, engaging them, retaining them, and finally turning them into fans of your brand.
How to create a growth marketing strategy
Testing: one of the most important aspects of growth marketing is the willingness to experiment. A/B testing is a great way to try out new design features, campaigns, emails, apps or other marketing assets.
Data analysis and reporting: a data-driven approach will enable you to identify areas for improvement, develop experiments to test your hypotheses, analyse results and track growth.
It’s a good idea to start with analytics tools on social media sites and other platforms before purchasing. Web analytics are also essential, as they give you valuable insights into customer behaviour such as:
- Where do your users leak from the funnel?
- Which promotions are most effective?
- How many people abandon their shopping carts?
- Does your website under perform on certain devices or software?
Study trends: one of the best things you can do to achieve growth is to research your market. Social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook can be great tools to spot early business and consumer trends.
Study your customer: carry out market research to understand what your customers wants at each stage of the funnel. Armed with this information, you can personalise their journey, which will help drive growth.
Use the right social media: when you know your audience you can narrow down the best social channels to use, and the optimum times to use them.
Brand marketing: there are a number of ways you create brand awareness, such as influencer marketing, sponsoring events, video marketing or guest blogging.
Marketing automation: you can automate many marketing activities, such as email marketing and social media posts. It’s not only more efficient, it can provide a more personalised experience for your current customers and help convert new leads into sales.
Content marketing: this can be used for a number of purposes, such as increasing brand awareness, generating organic traffic, converting leads and offering value to current customers.
Paid acquisition: search engine marketing (SEM) and paid social can be important growth drivers. You can also use paid channels to test different messaging alternatives for your website or new campaign.
There are so many ways to use growth marketing, so pick the ones that best suit your budget and your business. And don’t forget, the key to success is to test and track each one. Don’t expect instant results, but with a creative yet methodical approach, your customers will become champions of your brand.
For more great marketing and PR advice get in touch to find out how we can help.
Image credit: Akil Mazumder from Pexels
