Oct 28, 2023

Growth Marketing vs. Traditional Marketing

If you are running a business in the digital age, you might have heard of the term “growth marketing”. But what exactly is growth marketing and how is it different from traditional marketing? And more importantly, why should you care about it?

In this blog post, we will compare and contrast growth marketing and traditional marketing, highlighting the key differences and advantages of growth marketing. We will also explain why growth marketing is more suitable and effective for agencies in the digital age, where customer expectations and behaviours are constantly changing.

What is Traditional Marketing?

Traditional marketing is the type of marketing that most people are familiar with. It is about creating brand awareness and reputation through outbound marketing and reputation management. This takes time and a substantial marketing budget.

Traditional marketing focuses on creating product- or service-oriented marketing plans to generate revenue. Ad campaigns are geared toward stimulating purchases of specific products or services. The main goal of traditional marketing is to increase sales revenue through individual sales of products or services.

Traditional marketing typically uses well-defined marketing channels, such as TV, radio, print, billboards, direct mail, etc. It also relies on opinions and assumptions to make decisions, rather than data and experiments.

What is Growth Marketing?

Growth marketing is a newer term that emerged in the last decade. It is about acquiring and retaining customers through constant experimentation with untested or unconventional solutions, which could lead to massive growth in a short time.

Growth marketing focuses on growing the customer base, retaining the customers that become a part of it and building a reputable brand. The main goal of growth marketing is to increase sales revenue through customer lifetime value (CLV), which is the total amount of money a customer spends on your business over their entire relationship with you.

Growth marketing uses a holistic approach to attain profitable customer acquisition. It covers the entire sales funnel, from awareness to acquisition to activation to retention to referral to revenue (AAARRR). Growth marketing also uses less rigidly defined marketing channels, such as influencers, live social media broadcasts, online forums, etc. It also relies on data and experiments to make decisions, rather than opinions and assumptions.

What are the Differences between Growth Marketing and Traditional Marketing?

Here are some of the key differences between growth marketing and traditional marketing:

Area of focus: Growth marketing focuses on the customer base, while traditional marketing focuses on the products or services.
Ideal business partners: Growth marketing is more suitable for bootstrapped/seed stage SaaS and tech startups trying to grow their user base for their new product/service, while traditional marketing is more suitable for established companies that have established products they want to sell more of.
Types of activities: Growth marketing runs experiments across product, marketing, and sales to see what will positively impact key growth metrics, looking for successes that compound over time. Traditional marketing runs campaigns across product, marketing, and sales to see what will increase sales revenue for specific products or services.
Metrics: Growth marketing measures key growth metrics, such as user acquisition cost (CAC), user retention rate (RR), user referral rate (RRR), user lifetime value (LTV), etc. Traditional marketing measures key sales metrics, such as sales revenue, sales volume, market share, etc.
Mindset: Growth marketing has a growth mindset, which means embracing challenges, learning from failures, seeking feedback, and constantly improving. Traditional marketing has a fixed mindset, which means avoiding challenges, fearing failures, ignoring feedback, and sticking to what works.
Creativity: Growth marketing encourages creativity and innovation, which means trying new things, exploring new possibilities, and breaking the rules. Traditional marketing discourages creativity and innovation, which means following best practices, sticking to proven methods, and playing it safe.

What are the Advantages of Growth Marketing over Traditional Marketing?

Here are some of the advantages of growth marketing over traditional marketing:

Cost-effectiveness: Growth marketing is more cost-effective than traditional marketing because it uses data and experiments to optimize the return on investment (ROI) of every dollar spent. It also leverages organic and viral channels to acquire customers at a lower cost.
Scalability: Growth marketing is more scalable than traditional marketing because it uses successes that compound over time to achieve exponential growth. It also adapts to changing customer needs and behaviours faster than traditional marketing.
Competitiveness: Growth marketing is more competitive than traditional marketing because it creates a loyal and engaged customer base that advocates for your brand. It also differentiates your brand from your competitors by offering unique value propositions and experiences.

Why Does Growth Marketing Matter for Your Business?

Growth marketing matters for your business because it helps you achieve your ultimate goal: growing your business. Whether you are launching a new product or service, entering a new market or niche, or expanding your existing customer base, growth marketing can help you reach and exceed your growth targets.

Growth marketing also matters for your business because it helps you survive and thrive in the digital age, where customer expectations and behaviours are constantly changing. You need to be agile, data-driven, and customer-centric to keep up with the fast-paced and competitive environment.