Whatever business a brand is involved in, it needs an effective marketing strategy that can bring in more customers and help with its overall growth. Growth marketing is one such marketing strategy.
Growth marketing is a marketing method that primarily focuses on the growth of a business. It has been rapidly spreading over the past years, and many brands have adopted this strategy to acquire long-term loyal, advocate customers for their brands.
For any marketing strategy to work, one needs marketing channels that can easily and quickly reach the target audience. This article discusses some of the major growth marketing channels that brands can use to reach their marketing goals.
What Is a Growth Marketing Channel?
A growth marketing channel is any medium that is used to deliver marketing campaigns to the audience. Brands can acquire and retain customers for their business through these mediums.
There are several growth marketing channels that brands can make use of for their growth marketing campaigns. They can identify the channels that their target audience frequents and use them to accelerate their business growth.
Why Do We Need Growth Marketing Channels?
No matter the field of business a brand is in, they need marketing channels for customer acquisition, activation, and retention. The number of customers they acquire and the revenue they generate through them is what determines their success in business.
Growth marketing channels are an easy way for businesses to grab the attention of their target customers. With sufficient data about their customers, they can create an effective growth marketing strategy and run it on the preferred marketing channels to promote conversions.
Market research data is essential for any business to market efficiently. The data they collect through this research can make it easier for them to find their target audience and persuade them to convert into customers.
Some areas of market research where they can get information on customers are sales, consumer insights, social media, follow-up surveys, and analytics.
Top Growth Marketing Channels
Growth marketing channels are the mediums that act as a bridge between brands and their customers. They help businesses reach new heights by getting in more customers.
There are many growth marketing channels that brands may be familiar with and are actively using. However, there are also some channels that not many brands are aware of.
Now, let’s look at some of the growth marketing channels that help brands increase their customer base.
1. Behavior-based email marketing
Personalization is something that must be applied in any marketing strategy. This strategy can be used in email marketing. Behavior-based email marketing is one of the best ways to connect with customers.
To successfully run behavior-based email marketing campaigns, one should thoroughly understand their target users’ behavior and create email workflows that align with the customer’s activity.
Most brands use email marketing, and it is versatile in promoting the growth of a business. As it targets buyers at every stage of the marketing funnel, it is a great way for brands to acquire valuable customer data and use it for future campaigns.
2. Search engine optimization (SEO)
Search Engine Optimization is one of the essential marketing channels. It involves optimizing a website to rank higher on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). This can ultimately increase organic traffic and generate leads and conversions without spending too much money.
SEO strategies may seem easy to look at, but it is complex and takes time to provide any actual result. But, unlike paid advertisements that only give your results as long as you pay, SEO gives you steady, long-term results by helping customers find businesses online.
SEO is necessary for all brands, irrespective of their business model. Ranking higher in the SERPs can increase website visibility and get more people to visit the website.
Here is the average percentage of clicks the websites that rank in the first three positions in the SERP get.
- 1st rank – 32%
- 2nd rank – 17%
- 3rd rank – 11%
- Other sites on the first page of SERP – 1 to 2%
99% of the clicks on SERPs happen on the first page. So, it is important to optimize websites to rank higher in the search results.
3. Search engine marketing (SEM)
Search Engine Marketing also means paid ads (PPC ads). It involves paying money to increase the visibility of your advertisements on the SERPs.
It is important to understand that Search Engine Marketing is different from SEO. SEM requires using paid ads, while SEO can help brands rank organically with minimal expense.
Using paid ads, even though expensive, can help increase exposure and allow brands to have an edge over their competitors. By dominating the SERP by ranking higher, brands have a higher chance of users clicking on their ads.
4. Content marketing
Brands should understand that content is the foundation for any marketing strategy. The quality of content determines whether the users are interested in a brand and wish to buy their products.
Content marketing involves the use of various types of content, including
- blog posts,
- videos,
- social media posts,
- infographics,
- podcasts, and many more.
Not all content is created for promotional purposes. Some are created to add value to customers, provide information about a product, entertain users, or solve a problem.
Content marketing can help brands create an authentic, organic image for themselves. Here are some tips for creating content for customers.
- Keep your content updated. Like SEO, content should also be optimized from time to time.
- Provide the audience with the information they are looking for.
- Provide helpful and valuable information to the audience.
5. Social media advertising
Like Search Engine Marketing which involves using paid ads to increase visibility in SERPs, Social Media Advertising involves using paid ads to increase a brand’s visibility on social media platforms.
Social media are very useful for small and medium-sized businesses to connect with their audience. It helps them create customized campaigns, market their products, and promote their business.
Most people nowadays spend more time on social media than on other sites. Brands can identify the platform their customers frequent and spend money advertising on those platforms. This can help them reach a wider audience and get more leads.
6. Organic social media marketing
Organic traffic is when you get traffic on your website without spending any money. Likewise, organic social media is posting on social media that does not involve any money.
It includes posting content, using hashtags, engaging with your audience, replying to comments or any other social media activity that is done for free.
7. Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is creating a partnership between a brand and an affiliate who advertises the brand’s products or services. These affiliates bring leads, clicks, or downloads for the brand, and in turn, the brand pays them a commission.
In affiliate marketing, both parties benefit from this partnership. This is done by cross-promoting offers with other affiliate sites, products, or services on a brand’s website. This can increase the sales and revenue for both the brand and the affiliate.
8. Influencer marketing
Influencer marketing is an effective form of marketing. It involves having a person who has a high social status in society promote your products to their audience. The goal is to capture the influencer’s audience and convert them into the brand’s customers.
Most influencer marketing has been done in video formats. This ensures that the influencer connects personally with their audience. The influencers are responsible for influencing their audience’s tastes and purchase behaviors and persuading them to buy the product they are suggesting.
Brands can use influencers who specialize in their niche and use them to capture relevant audiences for their sites.
9. Retention Strategy
Once a brand captures a lead and successfully converts them into customers, the next step is to retain them for a longer period. Retention strategy is the strategy that a brand creates to make customers stay with the brand longer and buy their products repeatedly.
It costs more money to acquire new customers and make them go from being a lead to turning into a customer. Comparatively, retaining an existing customer is less expensive and involves less work.
Retaining your existing customers can also develop trust in your products for new customers. When your existing customers buy your products again and again, your new customers will believe that your products are of good quality and provides what they need from them.
10. Customer Referral Programs
Customers are the base of any brand that keeps it running. When a customer is happy and satisfied with a product, brands can use these customers to gain more customers.
This is called word of mouth. This is also one of the less expensive marketing strategies to gain more customers. Brands can offer incentives like coupons or free codes for referring their products and bringing in new customers for their brands.
When customers are hooked by a product and live it very much, they naturally recommend it to their friends and family. Brands can use this word-of-mouth marketing strategy to take their business to the next level.
11. WhatsApp marketing
WhatsApp is a type of messenger marketing that involves promoting a brand’s products or services through WhatsApp. This can drive sales and generate revenue for the brand by connecting with the customers through regular messages.
WhatsApp marketing helps brands build authenticity and provide customer support instantly. With more than 2 billion people using WhatsApp worldwide, it is one of the platforms that can reach a wider audience.
12. Native advertising
Native advertising is a type of paid advertising where the ads look and function like the page they appear on. As the name suggests, they look “native” and fit seamlessly into the webpage.
Native ads don’t really look like ads, so they don’t disrupt the user’s experience with the site.
13. Display Advertising
Display ads, otherwise called banner ads, appear on third-party websites in the form of text, images, or videos. They persuade the audience to click through to a landing page and take a specific action (make a purchase, provide information, etc.).
Display ads can also be used for retargeting purposes, where brands show ads to visitors who have already visited their website but failed to convert.
Growth Marketing Channels for B2B
There are so many growth marketing channels available for B2B firms that can give them the best ROI. These channels are best for creating brand awareness and gaining more customers.
To get the maximum benefit from their marketing strategies, these businesses prioritize and choose the right marketing channel to maximize growth. B2B marketing uses different growth marketing channels for different stages of the growth funnel (the pirate funnel).
For example, it uses channels, like SEO, PPC Ads, Social Media, etc., for the Awareness stage of the growth funnel. Whereas, email marketing and social media marketing are used prominently for the acquisition stage of the growth funnel.
Some growth marketing channels that B2B brands use are
- search engine optimization (SEO),
- social media marketing (SMM),
- search engine marketing (SEM),
- affiliate marketing
- email marketing,
- native and display ads, and
- content marketing.
Growth Marketing Channels for B2C and D2C
While B2B marketing is done between two businesses, B2C and D2C marketing involves marketing the products to the general public.
In B2C, the products are marketed by the companies directly to their customers. It involves using flashy commercials to persuade customers to buy a product the next time they visit a supermarket.
Whereas in D2C, the brands do not need to rely on intermediaries (supermarkets, stores, etc.) to sell their products. They can directly sell their products to their customers through social media or other digital platforms.
When it comes to the growth marketing channels of both these marketing strategies, they mostly use creative and persuasive content marketing channels to reach their customers.
The marketing channels from both marketing are mostly the same because both are directed to their customers. The end goal of these campaigns is to get their customers to buy their products. Some of the growth marketing channels involved in B2B and D2C marketing are
- Search Engine Optimization,
- Social Media Marketing,
- Search Engine Marketing (PPC Ads),
- Content Marketing,
- Email Marketing, and
- Influencer Marketing.
Conclusion
Above are some growth marketing channels that brands can use to reach their audience to promote their products.
But, it should also be noted that all channels do not work for all types of businesses. Brands should understand what type of business they are in and what channels their target audience frequents the most.
They can then create marketing strategies for those channels and attract their customers. This does not mean that brands should not try marketing on other channels.
Growth marketing is all about experimentation. Brands can try and see which channel works and which doesn’t and learn where to focus on.
Choose a Growth marketing agency that has ample of experience in handling multi-marketing channels, as your business can only growth if invested in right channels at right time.
Frequently Asked Questions
A growth marketing channel is any medium that is used to deliver marketing campaigns to the audience. Brands can acquire and retain customers for their business through these mediums.
There are several growth marketing channels that brands can make use of their growth marketing campaigns. They can identify the channels that their target audience frequents and use them to accelerate their business growth.
Growth marketing channels are the mediums that act as a bridge between brands and their customers. They help businesses reach new heights by getting in more customers. Some growth marketing channels are
- Email marketing,
- Search Engine Optimization,
- Search Engine Marketing,
- Content Marketing,
- Social Media Ads,
- Affiliate Marketing,
- Influencer Marketing, etc.