Marketing ≠ Growth

As you can probably tell, I’ve been using the term “growth practitioner” rather prolifically these days. I tend to think a lot about the work non-data people working in data-adjacent roles can do with data – the kind of work I’ve done in the past and would like more people to do.

And one thing’s for sure: It’s not Marketing.

So what is Marketing?

Well, it’s an umbrella term that includes many different types of work including demand generation, content marketing, product marketing, and so on, each requiring a distinct set of skills. If you wish to dig deeper, I haven’t found a better breakdown of the subgenres of marketing than this post by Emily Kramer .

Now, if I were to define Marketing in simple terms, here’s how I’d do it:

Everything an organization does to attract users is Marketing.

However, ecommerce and enterprise sales aside, there’s a lot that organizations need to do to make a new user do the following things:

• B2B
• B2C

It’s not a marketer’s job to do these things because they require a very different mindset and skills, ideally found in a growth practitioner.

What’s the definition of Growth Practitioner?

I’ve been asked that question multiple times recently and my definition is continuously evolving; here’s the latest:

A growth practitioner uses data to get more people to use a product more often.

They don’t do marketing just like they don’t manage the product. However, a growth practitioner clearly understands where users come from and what it takes for them to succeed with the product. Additionally and most importantly, they have a sound understanding of every stage of the data lifecycle – origination, collection, integration, analysis, and activation.

Keeping that in mind, here’s how I’d define the practice of Growth:

Everything an organization does to retain users and turn them into buyers is Growth.

First Marketing, then Growth. The two are distinct and overlapping responsibilities lead to confusion and frustration.

Growth Team Structure

So then, what does a growth team look like??

Elena Verna is the only person who comes to mind who has done a lot of thinking in this area. I particularly like her definition of Growth:

Growth is a blend of marketing and product, built on a foundation of data.

The source of that definition is this growth team structure map by Elena . I think it’s a useful rubric for teams looking to build their first growth team; however, I firmly believe that acquisition is a function of Marketing and should not be conflated with Growth).

The way I see it, a solid growth team must include people who deeply understand the business, the audience, and of course, the data. And the person who leads the team must have a deep understanding of all three.?

In terms of the structure, Growth is a cross-functional team comprising at least one of each of these:

• Software Engineer
• Data Engineer
• Data Analyst
• Product Manager
• Growth Practitioner

This is also the team that owns instrumentation (collecting data that originates in the core product) and leverages data contracts to maintain a high bar for data quality.

Click on the image below to learn more about data contracts:

At smaller organizations, it’s normal for a software engineer to own data engineering workflows, and for the growth practitioner to manage the product and perform analyses.

Ultimately, organizations need to experiment with team structures rather than replicate what has worked for others. In fact, I’d argue that now is the best time to disrupt team structures of the past because everything – how new technology is built, how it’s used, and what customers expect from it – everything is changing.

From Marketing to Growth

When I joined Integromat in 2018 as the first go-to-market hire, product education and organic user acquisition were my primary responsibilities. I kickstarted the user community, created lots of product tutorials, collected feedback from customers and partners and relayed it to our CTO, wrote blog posts, and ran webinars – essentially, a combination of product and marketing activities.

Later, when user acquisition was no longer a problem for us (we were acquiring almost a thousand new users every day), only then did we decide to build the growth team. And that’s when I was able to take off my marketing hat for good and embrace the growth mindset as the first Head of Growth at Integromat.??

Even though it was the first time I was going to work with data at scale, by then, I had already gained a solid understanding of every stage of the data lifecycle. I knew that event data from our core product (the web app) was necessary to run experiments, and running experiments – both in-app and outside – was the only way to drive incremental growth for the business.

Keeping that in mind, and the fact that we had the opportunity to start from scratch, I focused all my energy on setting up a robust data foundation in collaboration with two of our software engineers. As part of the effort, we evaluated tools, set up processes, and created documentation to collect and move product data to our activation tools.

In the absence of dedicated Product and Data teams, besides running experiments, my team and I did everything we could to increase adoption, activation, and retention. With so much to do, Marketing was the last thing on my mind.

But you know what’s funny? In my next job where I did most of the same things, Growth didn’t exist and I was a Product Marketing Manager. I was essentially doing two jobs, splitting my time between growth activities and some product marketing – it didn’t seem sustainable so I decided to quit.

The Attributes of a Growth Maverick

Like software engineers doubling up as data engineers in the absence of a dedicated data team, marketers and product managers too can double up as growth mavericks.

So what does it take to become a growth maverick?

• They have a sound understanding of every stage of the data lifecycle and make a concerted effort to stay abreast with the engineering lifecycle of the product they’re trying to grow.
• They can move data between tools and databases and write some SQL to build analytical data models to power reports and segments in the absence of an analyst.
• They certainly don’t mind getting their hands dirty when they encounter new technology and are able to navigate a product’s API docs to understand its true capabilities.

Needless to say, they intricately understand the product and the business, can empathize with the different audiences they cater to, and are motivated to drive data-powered growth.

If this sounds like you, well, you’re a growth maverick my friend! ??

And if you need my help becoming one, join the databeats community !??