If marketing is about connecting the right message to the right people at the right time. And, Growth Marketing is about doing this in a way that drives growth in revenues and profits. Then, Bespoke Growth Marketing Teams are a key way to grow rapidly, in a scalable manner, with a limited budget.
Growth Marketing is a more specific type of marketing that focuses on growing traffic and revenue, usually online. The term encompasses a series of different tactics, disciplines and approaches to driving growth through marketing efforts. The term “Growth Marketing” is an off-shoot of the term “Growth Hacking”, that was popularized in startup circles and coined by a well known entrepreneur, startup advisor and marketer named Sean Ellis. Ellis first introduced the concept of growth marketing in a blog post in 2010 where he defined it as a “mindset of data-driven experimentation”.
Since the term “Growth Marketing” was first introduced back in 2010, it became incredibly popular within startups and tech companies that were looking for rapid growth in a scalable manner on a limited budget. Let’s break that down some:
Rapid Growth
For better and worse, Start-ups have the pressure (whether created internally or externally) to scale very quickly. Start-ups want to win markets and prove that their idea and businesses are worth joining by team members and investors. Whereas companies in some industries have, historically, been okay with growing single digits per year, start-ups have the pressure to grow rapidly. This is because competition is stronger than ever and entrepreneurs, teams and investors feel the intense pressure of winning markets. Therefore, while some companies can afford to spend a lot of time on brand marketing and strategy and building awareness, start-ups have to minimize the time between awareness and a purchase. If they don’t, they won’t be able to attract more investment dollars and won’t be able to attract the best people to join them. In other words, they simply won’t survive.
Scalable Manner
Getting initial growth is the first step for any company. But, most companies will hit a plateau and find it difficult to grow further. For many businesses, this is just fine. A restaurant owner may be fine owning a single restaurant in which she can make a good living and have loyal customers. However, start-ups have different pressures. They must scale or they die. Even if they can get to $1 million or $3 million, this often times won’t be good enough for the team nor the investors (sad in many ways, but true). Therefore, just being able to grow isn’t good enough. A company must understand what it will take to grow further and be confident that their channels for growth are scalable.
Limited Budget
Start-ups are trying to create something out of nothing and often this means that they have very limited budgets. Even those that have raised a lot of money, often find themselves competing with large and well-established companies. So, whereas spending a bit too much on marketing or sales may be inconvenient for large companies, they can spell the difference between life and death for start-ups.
So, Growth Marketing is in response to these realities. And, it applies the science and math of marketing with the art of it. With limited budgets, every dollar counts. And, Growth Marketing includes a pragmatic mindset that most companies will simply not be able to know what will work until they try it. In other words, Growth Marketing admits that most companies and marketers don’t necessarily know what the right message is, who the right people are, and what the right time (or location) to connect with them is. So, if a company doesn’t know what is going to work and doesn’t have much time (or money) to figure it out, what do they have to do? They have to:
- Get initial information or data to decide what to test
- Create assumptions for those tests
- Build a plan to test those assumptions
- Test rapidly
- Measure those tests
- Determine what works and doesn’t work
- Scratch what doesn’t work and determine if they can scale what does work
- Repeat
Doing the above makes sense and seems straightforward. But, it’s very hard to execute and you need people that have the experience and know how to pull it off. The reality is, most companies don’t have the culture to be able to implement growth marketing and most marketers don’t have the capability, experience or personality to be able to execute it.
And, then, here is where things get really tricky…Growth Marketing is not just for start-ups anymore. I tell people often, when kids are young, they want to be grown up. And, when you grow up and get older, you just want to be young again. Well, the same is true for companies. Start-ups want to scale up and become big companies (not all, but many) and big companies are constantly trying to figure out how to have the spirit and hustle of start-ups (not all, but many). Large companies want to act scrappy. They want to launch new products, test new markets and profitably drive growth.So, if it’s hard to do growth marketing and there aren’t many people that do it well…
And, if a lot of companies want to adopt growth marketing to grow faster in a way that is scalable and in a cost-efficient manner
What do companies do that want to execute Growth Marketing?
Well, before I answer that, let me add two more challenges to the pot.
The first is that growth marketing isn’t the same across every industry. What it takes to win in e-commerce is very different than what it takes to win in FinTech and is very different than what it takes to win as a sporting goods company. There are different regulations, different channels that their customers use to learn about products and often a very different business or industry language.
The second is that marketing has become littered with channels where you can deliver a message to an audience in hopes of finding customers. When somebody says, I want to buy social media ads…well, what does that mean? Buying Twitter (X) ads is very different than buying Instagram ads. Buying YouTube (is that social media or a search engine?) ads is very different than buying TikTok ads. Each uses a different platform, different analytics for tracking, and has different constraints and opportunities for messaging.
So:
If we need to: 1) Grow rapidly; 2) Grow In a scalable manner; and, 3) Do so affordably.
And, if: 1) There aren’t very many people that have the experience in growth marketing; and, 2) There are a lot of companies that are trying to hire these people.
And, if: 1) It’s important to have people that know your industry; and 2) There are an overwhelming number of marketing channels to test.
Then, how and the heck does a company invest in growth marketing if they are trying to grow quickly, trying to launch new products, trying to test new markets (vertical, geographical), etc..? Well, we believe that the best answer is (and often times only answer)…that companies must get in the habit of hiring Bespoke Growth Marketing Teams.
So, then, what the heck is a “Bespoke Marketing Team”. Well, we have already broken down what “Growth Marketing Is”. So, let’s break down the other two terms:
Bespoke
“Bespoke” is an English term that originated from the tailoring industry. The term was created to refer to “custom-made” or “made-to-order” products or services that are tailored to a specific individual or entity. The term is derived from the verb “bespeak,” which means to order or arrange something in advance. In essence, something that is bespoke is unique and personalized. It is designed to meet the specific requirements, preferences, and needs of a particular customer or market. In other words, Bespoke is the art of pulling together various custom specifications and ingredients to achieve a particular and focused outcome.
Teams
We all, generally, know what a team is but let’s say that it’s a group of people, working together to accomplish a common goal. A rowing team that doesn’t row together will lose because they won’t row fast enough. But, even a fast rowing team can lose if they row together but aren’t pointed at the finish line.
So, here is a definition of a Bespoke Growth Marketing Team for us at the company:
A Bespoke Growth Marketing Team is a team of growth marketers that is assembled based on their experiences, abilities, and understanding of a market and then works together to determine how to grow rapidly, in a scalable manner and at a reasonable price.
These teams bring together the collective expertise of the individual members to figure out the correct message, the correct audience and the correct time (or location) to deliver that message. And, they do this in an effort to drive growth in revenue and profits.
At Growth Assembly, we help companies of all sizes assemble and manage Bespoke Growth Marketing teams to help them grow faster, more flexibly and more profitably. We believe this is the best way for ambitious companies to grow.
