We often hear marketers talking about helping businesses acquire new leads or sell to more customers, but we seldom hear them talk about how to keep them. Growth marketing is a concept that is redefining marketing strategy. Aside from focusing on customer acquisition, growth marketing also thinks about fostering customer loyalty and retention.
What is Growth Marketing?
Traditional marketing is like a sieve. There is an overwhelming focus on awareness and acquisition but few actionable plans that go beyond that. Customers, once acquired, are left to their own devices and are likely to lose interest and leave the brand behind.
Growth marketing, on the other hand, is like a funnel. After awareness and acquisition comes activation, where customers who have signed on are delighted and surprised by the quality of your product or service. Then comes retention, where customers are rewarded for their loyalty, creating a situation where they keep coming back.
Naturally, the next step is revenue. By preventing attrition, businesses can upsell or cross-sell and gain more revenue from their existing customers. Finally, referral. Your customers are so pleased with your product that they spread the word and get their friends and family to sign on as well. At the end of the funnel, the customer is firmly in your camp and has become a champion of your brand.
Growth marketers pay attention to the entire consumer lifecycle, collecting data and using their insights to engage customers and drive compounding returns. While traditional marketing can deliver short-term wins, growth marketing can create entire customer ecosystems that bring sustained, long-term profits and business growth.
Growth Marketing Strategies
Social Proof
Social proof is one of the strongest marketing vehicles available to brands, particularly in today’s digital landscape where consumers are increasingly cynical and skeptical. Social proof is based on the concept of normative social influence, where people tend to conform to the behavior of others within their society.
Chances are that you have been influenced by social proof without even knowing the term. If you have visited a restaurant because of a positive review, changed your opinion about a product after reading a case study, or subscribed to a service because X amount of people have already done it, then you have been swayed by social proof.
Brands can generate social proof in a variety of ways. They can make it easy for their customers to leave testimonials and reviews about their business. In general, most businesses with an online presence or online shopping businesses will benefit from referrals and reviews. Many apps do this by asking their customers if they are satisfied first, then asking the most satisfied customers to leave a review, effectively ensuring that they receive the most positive reviews.
Brand Community
Building a brand community for your customers is a proven way for them to feel more connected to your brand. The bond formed between individual customers within this community can lead them to feel more invested and encourage them to refer more of their peers.
A brand community adds value and allows businesses to benefit from users supporting each other. For example, Lululemon has brand ambassadors that not only embody their brand values in the real world but also guide fellow brand consumers toward their fitness goals. Likewise, GitHub’s collaborative open-source environment allows users to work on projects together, forming teams and taking part in competitions.
Viral Loop
A viral loop may sound dubious, particularly in pandemic times, but it is a powerful mechanism for continuous growth. A viral loop is where you persuade your existing customers to refer your brand to others, and then convince the newly-acquired customers to do the same. If set up correctly, a viral loop can generate massive growth for businesses.
A successful viral loop should reward both referrers and their targets. For instance, cryptocurrency shopping app SocialGood offers $50 credit for both the referrer and their newly subscribed friend when they make a purchase for the first time. In addition, customers can earn cumulative rewards for making multiple referrals in the form of credits, discounts, or free upgrades.
Where to Start?
Although we have touched briefly on growth marketing, there are many more nuances and technical aspects in the field that cannot be covered in a short essay. To truly harness the strength of growth marketing, brands should consider contacting a growth marketing agency with a proven track record for a free strategy consultation.
Because full-service digital marketing agencies have a team of experts at their disposal, they can manage client relationships at every level of the customer marketing funnel. This ensures that from landing page to loyalty program, your brand will acquire and retain clients who will assist you in expanding your audience and customer base.
Growth marketing is a solid foundation on which to build a sustainable business that will continue to grow long-term. Because a successful digital growth marketing strategy can be tricky to set up, invest in a professional marketing agency. This valuable investment will pay you back year after year in increased clients, improved profits, and exponential growth.