Marketing as a Growth Strategy

Hey Marketers, 

How many times have you been on the receiving end of these?

• “Can you make this look pretty?”
• “Please print and bind 100 color copies ASAP.”
• “Just do whatever sales wants.”
• “It’s like advertising, right?”

As someone who has spent 15 years in Marketing, I have heard these statements far too many times. Sure, we can make a killer PPT deck and know how to use an enterprise multi-functional Canon printer (client shout-out) but that would only be scratching the surface of what we can truly do.

In the mid-2000s, the Internet became ubiquitous and millennial “savants” spawned the birth of modern social media platforms and blogging management systems. The savviest of brands figured out how to seamlessly publish content, distribute it to the masses, amass web traffic and generate leads with just a few clicks of a mouse. That was around the same time Marketing began to take away website management responsibilities from IT and flex their brainy muscles throughout the organization.

In Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, he claims the year people are born greatly influences the type of opportunities presented to you in life. I happen to agree. As someone who entered the workforce around the same time Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and WordPress became prevalent, I consider myself fortunate to have caught the wave before it began to rise and I am still surfing.

Technology advancements at the dawn of the century transformed the 4 P’s of traditional Marketing from an abstract concept to a viable and measurable growth strategy. Currently, marketers use software to process inputs and understand what their buyers’ want and subsequently develop value-added offerings to deliver solutions in an effort to attract, nurture and convert passive prospects into active customers.

Growth is absolutely critical to a company’s long-term survival. Whether it's increasing a customer base, diversifying a product mix, expanding geographic reach, transforming the digital ecosystem, generating a greater volume of qualified leads, pivoting away from an underperforming strategy, heightening employee advocacy, increasing social media mentions, or making more profit by reducing operational burdens, figuring out the best way forward is no easy task. 

Decisions around growth or lack of growth typically start with Finance but the rubber really hits the road when Marketing gets involved due to the amount of customer information and insights the department has access to. Once the data is analyzed, issues are diagnosed and the rectifications are hypothesized, a growth solution roadmap is established and set into motion. Results are measured often to validate assumptions and test new theories.

Companies like Dropbox, Harry’s, WhatsApp, and Slack all used Growth Marketing strategies to enter a crowded space and ramp up customer acquisition in a cost-effective manner. Dropbox and Harry’s used digital viral loops and referral-based marketing to spread the word, while WhatsApp listened to its users’ feedback and its competitors’ users’ feedback to create a superior product as a differentiator. Slack focused on establishing its product within a limited group of enterprise clients. Once implemented, Slack exhibited unparalleled customer service to help differentiate themselves among the many communication tools which ultimately led to plenty of early press coverage. Thus, kickstarting a word-of-mouth effect that has propelled the platform to more than 10 million daily active users.

As CEOs and Boards began to recognize Marketing’s direct impact to the bottom line, the CMO’s purview expanded to influence every aspect of an organization– including finance, product, research, customer service, communications, sales, and technology. This cross-functional perspective places marketers in a unique position to be the driver of holistic organizational change and architect of long-term sustainable revenue growth. More importantly, cascading a mindset of continuous growth to each and every employee will motivate and inspire colleagues in ways a paycheck cannot. 

From mindset to attitude, CMOs today are well-equipped to advance to the most senior levels of corporate leadership. CMOs are expected to bring together consumer advocacy, business development strategies, and growth leadership … all while simultaneously making things pretty ;) As a result, the CEO role has now emerged as an evident professional path for marketers eager to create the change and be the rising tide that lifts all boats.

Are CMOs on deck for the Chief Executive role? Let me know what you think in the comments below?

* * *

Allen Yesilevich, VP Marketing & Growth @ MC²

I lead the marketing, digital transformation, demand generation and growth efforts at MC², an award-winning globally-recognized brand experience solutions agency. I also write for Forbes. Connect with me on LinkedIn and Follow me on Twitter for my thoughts on experiential and growth strategies.