Over time, we have seen the internet tailor the definition of scaling and growth marketing for startups as they deem fit. But having spent a decade in the ecosystem, we wanted to share what it actually means and why sticking to its true meaning is important for you.
What is growth marketing?
It is a process of swift experimentation across marketing channels and product development to grow a business.
But to even begin , you need clear OKRs, a MVP, channels & tooling, and a dedicated team in place to be able to identify and tap into opportunities.
How is it really done?
To successfully reach the scaling phase, five essential questions need to be addressed by the team:
– Strategy: why do we do things?
– Customer profile: who are our prospective customers?
– Offering: what are we going to offer to our customers?
– Growth plan: how do customer discover us/ how do we going to reach our customers? The answer to this question is crucial as it validated your growth hypothesis.
– Operating model & business case: which resources and activities are required to achieve the above?
The goal here becomes focusing all efforts on effectively reaching your customers (both supply and demand side in case of a platform).
Why make so much of an effort?
During Market Fit, growth marketing is what helps teams with MVP validation, deriving insights from audience response and ideal customer personas to create a go-to-market strategy for scaling.
Simply put, it is that one function that defines your marketing before, during and post-Market Fit to keep efforts and resources streamlined during this crucial period.
Because this is when we see most startups fail or run out of resources.
If you want to be inspired, please listen to our podcast on how we applied growth marketing at start-ups.
