With all the different types of marketing positions out there, throwing out terms like “product,” “agile” and “growth marketing” can make it all the more confusing for anyone looking to hire a marketer — and these terms even confuse marketers themselves!

Plenty of so-called experts are calling growth marketing, or growth hacking bull. I’ve even had people tell me, “Hey Kate, growth marketers are jerks, and you’re not one, so don’t use it.”

So, is growth marketing just another way to say online or digital marketing or is there more to it?

The answer is: It’s a little bit of both.


In the beginning of my career, I used to simply call myself a “marketer.” Keeping it simple. But as my marketing network grew, I realized what I did was completely different than what other marketers do. When working with a growing tech company, like Koombea and Dashable, I started categorizing myself based on what results I could bring to the table.

I now call myself a growth marketer, which all comes down  to the engineering and execution.

KPIsNo matter the type of marketer you are, you’ll always look for KPIs and objectives to measure to achieve your end goals.

Some marketers don’t show results. Based on the industry or business they’re marketing, it might be okay for the result to be something as simple as an increase in production of content or more marketing materials for nurturing leads. And that’s okay; some people can settle comfortably with setting up those foundations.

For other marketers, focusing on bringing numbers and tangible results to the table can differentiate your type, and perhaps quality, of marketing. For me, growth marketing is a combination of product, digital and engineering marketing.

It’s a little psychology, a little math, a little copy and a whole lot of effort and effect.

My Day-to-Day Growth Marketing Tasks

One of my largest focuses revolves around high-converting websites; I concentrate on what will make users click here, go there, read this, fill out something here. Ultimately, I want conversions. I also want to start conversations, so I measure contact forms and signups depending on the company I’m marketing. I set up funnels of clicks and places to the points of purchases.

This is the math and the psychology. It’s about finding out abandonment rates in Google Analytics, figuring out the URLs of exit paths and working with developers to optimize sites for users. This can mean anything from a design color change and more CTAs to fewer pages in the funnel process.

My Growth Marketing Focuses: Traffic and User Acquisition

As I said above, I’m focused on conversions. Attracting traffic and users (the RIGHT users) are the first steps. My attentions then turn to user retention and acting a little bit as a product manager to update an application or services site to get users to do something (or ideally make a purchase.)

Growth marketing isn’t easy. Increasing a conversion rate by just 0.02% can actually be a huge deal. Tracking metrics for optimization is the next step.

Optimization

A lot of the time I’m focused on making improvements to get a better, more qualified end result. So if 253 people sign up for a trial of a product, but only two of them purchase it after that trial, this tells me something. Perhaps the product has hit a dead end, the funnel path wasn’t directing the way it should, it wasn’t bringing users to the right place or the user source is not in my target market.

So what do I do? I shift things. I tweak the CTA. I suggest more, fewer or different visuals. I target ad spend to different audiences or interests.

10 Growth TipsIf you’re interested in switching over to the growth marketing world, you can start with some of these tips to shift your online strategy in the right direction:

1. Create stronger calls to action
2. Gamify your blog
3. Make sharing easier
4. Offer a free e-course
5. Test share button positions
6. Write 25 awesome headlines
7. Create longer copy
8. Grow your Google+ audience
9. A/B test your About page
10. Get more aggressive

I also absolutely love these content marketing growth hacks from Unbounce.

Regardless of What You Call It, Everyone Wants GrowthWhen it comes down to it, growth marketing is really just a term and people can perceive it however they want to. Getting results has existed since the creation of man. People have been doing it for years, which perhaps that’s why there’s negativity surrounding the word itself.

My guess is that a marketer started marketing the “growth” term to satisfy some sort of objective of his or hers. And so be it! It gives a little more clarification and categorizes niche marketing attempts.

Why are there so many new technologies revolved around content? A how-to-guide on making digital marketing turn into conversions. To read the original post on Medium, click here.

A fellow boss and Silicon Valley friend of mine, Nathan Zaru, wrote an excellent post on new content marketing technologies. After reading his article, I felt the innate marketer in me to immediately respond. Why are there so many new technologies revolved around content? The increase of the latest content services and apps like GatherContent, Scripted, and Cision floods my inbox daily. Do I use them? Absolutely. Because if the title suggests anything, content and digital marketing is the ONLY marketing you need to help your business succeed and turn your online presence into conversions. Technologies like these help us to execute our digital plans properly. If you’re a startup in need of marketing, you need to adapt fast, some might even coin the term Agile Marketing, where you need to start the marketing process before the development of your product.

Many of whom I’ve talked to (Startup CEOs and Directors of Marketing of well-established companies both USA and International) still have no idea what the Social idea or ROI is for them, and little do they know their companies are falling behind at a fast pace by not implementing it properly and by not setting up a digital marketing campaign early on. Nor do they have the right dedicated people under them who understand how it works or can execute (yes this is at least 2 full time jobs). You have the prime example of a company that is “pushing” instead of “pulling” their audiences or is automating Tweets (which to an extent is ok, as long as you don’t want to do what Progressive did, where you get caught being a robot and not actually engaging with your users), and DMing them with spam. That is not an engaging strategy to build an audience, now is it?

Many who are just joining this digital marketing experience often make those rookie mistakes and get fed up for it “not working” properly. Well, duh. Give it a chance. It’s going to take you at least a month to get set up, get used to the right tools, and hire the best content writers. It’s all a process and really just takes dedication and execution. Much of what I’ve learned (when it comes specifically to execution) deserves a huge shout out to Ellie Cachette my marketing mentor, boss, and guru.

Do you see how I just embedded social media into this blog (content) my company’s contact form? I used content & social to backlink and engage, messaged to the right audience (those looking to build products), boosted website traffic, and I took you somewhere where I can convert you into a lead (if you clicked the link and were interested). BAM!

Allow me to explain…

I found this image the other day, that in a nutshell explains how everything comes together. Social media, blogs, events, webinars, SEO, website traffic, and conversions. In other words, how you can get that “Social ROI” or website contact conversions. People reach out to me all the time asking “How do I start a Business Twitter account and make money doing it?” My answer is long because usually I need to start from the beginning, teach them how to tweet, hashtag, mention, use Followerwonk, Moz, Google Analytics, and before I know it, I’ve already set up their entire digital marketing campaign. The infographic below can hopefully give people a better understanding of how it all works, but there’s one thing people don’t know how to do. EXECUTE. Sure you understand the philosophy but you don’t know how to make it happen.

1. 1st research. I’m not going to tell you how to do that, because everyone should teach you because it’s a Business fundamental. SEO research is different and isn’t for whimps. Get your target market figured out, find out what blogs they hang out at, make lists, (Hint: then eventually with this list you can co-write blogs, guest blog together, webinar cross-promote together, upload helpful presentations on slideshares,), validate your product, and do a sales safari.
   *Use Google Keyword Planner and Moz to get your SEO words figured out…
   then…
2. Start writing content. I hope you hear me, because CONTENT is KING! Getting your evergreens, or awesome, reusable content together is just part of the madness that makes the marketing world go round and round, and convert. Mention the SEO words you put together using the keyword planner, put up cool presentations on Slideshare, cross and backlink your OTHER evergreens and contact website pages at least 2 per paragraph. Don’t have a content writer? Hire one. But it’s still up to you to promote and get it out there.
   Hire Writers (Taken & revised from @yes)
   http://linchpin.net/
   http://www.iwriter.com/
   http://scripted.com/
   https://contently.com/
   or simply ask me for some references (I only know tech writers):katherineswanberg@gmail.com
3. Back up with social: promote, promote, and promote it as much as you can (without sounding spammy)Around 5 Tweets per day is standard and as long as you are giving benefit to the user and not all “we, we, we” you are safe to do more. As you’ve probably already heard the rumors, Facebook organic read is dead. I’ve experienced it, fellow marketers have experienced it, and if you don’t have the ad spend in your marketing budget to do suggested posts, newsfeed ads, or right hand ads, things won’t work out. Twitter for business is currently where it’s at. See my article on “Facebook Business Pages are DEAD (coming soon).” Make sure you hashtag, @ mention people that are in your blog on Twitter so that they can Retweet and spread the publicity and audiences.
   Social Resources:
   http://bufferapp.com/
   http://bit.ly/
   followerwonk.com
   https://zapier.com/app/dashboard (for social automations)
   https://www.geckoboard.com/
4. Guess what you’ve just done? If your blog is a part of your company website, as it should, you’ve boosted your website traffic! These aren’t spammed visitors on your site either. If your blog content messaging is tailored to the correct audience you’re going to attract the right people. One day after posting your blog, and promoting it, I DARE you to check your Google Analytics (don’t forget to integrate the code!).
5. Last step, that’s right, you’re almost there, seeing if those have converted onto your online contact form. In other words, these people want to learn more about your product or services. The online contact form is more of a way of measuring value for services. Of course if you’re an online product, you will have other ways of measuring the success, such as your Purchase Page which is a goal you can set up in GA.
   

In order for you to know what’s working you need to track your results (and then get back to me to let me know how it went.) Steps 1-5 take time. I would expect at least 1-3 months to get the strategy right, figure out your tone, and actually see the progress and website conversions. I recommend either super dedicated consultants or at least a Social Media Manager. Bottom line you need setup, execution, and results. There are tools out there (like below) but you can also set up a simple excel form. To keep track of the stuff that really matters.

Analyze your Resources:
http://simplymeasured.com/
https://sumall.com/now
http://moz.com/
https://www.google.com/analytics (This is obvious.)

I’m absolutely not a mathematician, but there is some truth to finding the perfect digital marketing formula. As marketers we A/B test everything to find what works and what doesn’t. As Nathan Zaru puts it, “My prescriptiveand more realistic [marketing] model is 1) Message 2) Media and 3) Math.”

Webinar*Events*Whitepapers*Evergreens= Quality content + SEO reachSEO + Quality content(Newsletter*Blogs*SocialEngagement*Cross-promotional)= Website traffic + EngagementTime * (Quality content + SEO) * (Website traffic+ Engagement) = Conversions

I’d love to hear some feedback, comments or questions on this blog. Feel free to tweet at me or shoot me an email ☺.