10 Growth Marketing Secrets of Successful Startups

I've consulted 20+ brands on growth marketing.

From what I've learned, here are 10 things the most successful brands have in common

1. They have a clear NORTH STAR metric.

The North Star metric is a single goal for the growth team. Everyone on the team is aligned with this goal.

The individual teams have their metrics that feed into the North Star goal.

2. They DON'T depend on a single acquisition channel.

They usually diversify their acquisition channel.

But they do this once they've built one stable funnel.

The process looks like this:

- Step 1: Experiment with a few channels using validation marketing

-Step 2: Find a winner channel

-Step 3: Focus on building a stable funnel

-Step 4: Add a second channel for diversification Usually, there's one discovery-based channel and one intent-based channel in the mix.

3. They think twice before adding a new channel.

They carefully add new channels once they have a diversified mix that is good enough. Adding a new channel costs team members time, energy, and money. Every new channel adds a layer of complexity to the business.

The channel output must be high enough to justify all these costs.

This is true for lean, high-growth teams.

4. They experiment on existing channels instead.

Instead of adding new channels, they consistently keep experimenting and improving them. Something already working has more data that can be used to improve it further.

5. They prioritize customer retention.

Retention is a high ROI channel. It also makes the acquisition channels more profitable. Retention gets users back and improves LTV.

6. They look at their entire funnel to run the numbers.

They consider all the stages of the user funnel to gather data and make decisions.

Growth marketing is full-funnel marketing.

7. They use data to make every decision.

If a CEO or CMO says something needs to be done, the growth teams can question and ask for the data.

They are allowed to question everything and find the answers in the data.

8. They split test everything

Experimentation is built into the teams. They're always A/B testing - across channels, content, and funnels.

9. They think twice before adding a new tool.

Tools are only useful if they're actually used. Adding a new tool adds more complexity to the system. I've worked with brands generating $1M+/mo from a single Google sheet. I've also worked with brands doing $1000/mo using 10 different tools.

10. They deeply understand their customer.

They don't stop at creating a customer persona. They interview customers from time to time. They deepen their understanding of the customer with each interaction.

They use both qualitative and quantitative data to do this. They try to find everything they can about their customers, from interviews with buyers to users who didn't buy to heat maps to analytics. And this helps them do all these things even better.

Regards,

Mohamed Omar