4 Ways to Create a Holistic Growth Marketing Strategy

Every business needs robust marketing to keep the revenue pipeline full. Various forms of marketing exist, though. And when you want campaigns to be highly targeted, cost-effective, and sustainable, traditional tactics may not be ideal.

A TV spot or print ad might get the word out. But it’s typically broadcast to everyone within a general demographic. At best, it creates mainstream awareness and lays the groundwork for a sales team to work their magic. To appeal to different buyers along various stages of their journeys with your company, though, you’ll need to go beyond traditional methods.

Employing strategies that concentrate on growth throughout the entire sales funnel can keep multiple revenue sources flowing. That said, those growth marketing strategies need to make sense and be a cohesive fit. Here are four ways to create a growth-focused holistic marketing strategy for every stage of the funnel. 

1. Build Relationships

A holistic growth marketing strategy doesn’t ignore the importance of creating awareness. Still, it realizes there’s more to creating revenue streams than attracting attention. It’s about moving leads through the sales funnel and building long-term relationships as they become customers.

While a quarter-page ad in a magazine might get someone to visit your website, it won’t keep them there. Engaging content with how-to advice and insider tips might. Personalized advice would stand an even higher chance if it includes customized offers and ongoing email newsletters. What these tactics do is nurture leads from awareness to acquisition and activation.

Relationship-building methods recognize that only some leads will convert. Numbers tend to drop off as prospects get further down the line. But the quality of the leads increases as they move toward activation and, hopefully, retention. These are prospects and converted customers who are qualified and motivated to buy. And they’re willing to commit because they perceive high value in what your company offers and identify with its values.

2. Make Customers the Center of Your Campaigns

Digital marketing campaigns sometimes fail because those in charge don’t completely understand their target audiences. Doing inadequate market research, neglecting to thoroughly survey audiences, and going after the wrong buyer personas are reasons for strategic failures. A lack of relevant personalization also fits into the category of not understanding your audience.

When you’re designing holistic campaigns, it can be tempting to let your ideas drive what you do. But remember, leads and customers won’t care what your company says if it’s not about them. They need a reason to choose your solutions over the rest. For a “why” to be compelling, your audience must think your message reflects their identities and aspirations. 

Say the goal of your campaign is to increase the number of one-time buyers who become repeat purchasers. As a starting point, find out what moves customers beyond a single purchase. You can survey existing loyal customers and the audience segment you’re targeting. Use those insights to experiment with various messages and personalization tactics. Your initial ideas may be off, but letting customer feedback drive the campaign will lead to improved results.

3. Coordinate Marketing Activities

Imagine you’re driving down a street. There are several checkpoints along the way. The person at the first checkpoint tells you you’ll reach your destination in two miles. But the individual at the second checkpoint says you’ve got five more miles to go. And the person at the third says you’ve got 12.

Obviously, these mixed messages are frustrating and confusing. The driving experience is contradictory instead of coherent. With holistic growth marketing campaigns, you want people’s experiences to be the latter. Everything from your social media platforms to your blog posts and emails should be consistent. You must sync brand voice, promos, referral programs, and omnichannel delivery.

Otherwise, you risk losing more people than you’d like at various stages of the buyer’s journey. For instance, what if the things others are saying about your product don’t match the blurbs on your website? Integrated marketing activities include endorsements, digital PR, and customer testimonials. Today’s buyers encounter multiple touchpoints at every stage, so it pays to map out every potential contact.

When you do this, you can discover inconsistencies in the messages leads and customers receive. Perhaps your referral program touts the savings loyal clients can get. Nonetheless, recent price hikes and changes to the program’s reward structures have diluted the value of those savings. Why should customers advocate for your brand when the incentives aren’t sufficient? Adjusting and coordinating every campaign aspect increases your chances of success.

4. Rely on Data

When you’re executing and tweaking growth marketing strategies, you’re not letting your instincts rule. You’re relying on data because meeting your campaign goals means testing hypotheses. The insights you glean about your audiences come from a scientific process.

If you’re constantly making decisions based on what your gut says, you’ll create too many you-focused, inconsistent messages. Maybe the data from split tests on your emails says your audiences respond better to fear-of-missing-out messages. Your conversion rates go up when you use this format, but only at the activation stage. The data paints a different picture when it comes to increasing customer lifetime value.

At this stage, clients engage more with branding-oriented communications. Without data-driven insights, your marketing strategies probably won’t be as fruitful. Comprehensive campaigns depend on tangible information to customize content for different audiences and buyer stages. Growth marketers also use recent rather than historical data, allowing them to remain agile as client preferences evolve.  

Integrated Growth Marketing Strategies               

While conventional marketing strategies try to attract attention and drum up new business, growth-oriented strategies involve more moving parts. These approaches focus on turning leads into repeat customers and brand enthusiasts. Growth marketing methods also tend to use dynamic channels and touchpoints to meet a company’s goals. Without solid integration, though, those efforts can create less-than-ideal customer experiences. Focusing on relationships, client perspectives, the entire buyer’s journey, and data-driven insights helps businesses tie everything together. As a result, the marketing strategies you execute today can build a longer-lasting revenue flow for tomorrow.