GROWTH MARKETING 101: MY FIRST ARTICLE

As I start writing this Growth Marketing 101 article, I recall the time I first wrote my blog in Social Media Trend Asia. It was 2012 and I was working at a boutique social media and search agency. It’s July 2017 at the time of writing, and it’s hard to believe what has changed in the industry in the past few years.
In 2017, Facebook is still dominating the world, while new channels like Instagram and Snapchat have become part of the top 10 most popular channels in the world. In 2012, I actually thought that Facebook’s popularity may last no longer than 10 years, yet it has shown a remarkable growth so far.
HOW DID THESE NEW TECHNOLOGY START-UPS GROW?
Here are some compelling reasons:
- Companies have an awesome product that everyone will fall in love with immediately
- Companies have very successful, experienced growth marketing teams
- Companies build steady revenue and user volume growth
However, there are also some random cases. (I call it random because the reasons for the success can be quite ambiguous):
- Companies build a somewhat ordinary product, yet somehow garner more than 100 million users
- Companies without a solid growth marketing team, yet everyone knows and use their products
- Companies with $0 net revenue, yet somehow receives over $10 million in investments
Can we not say that it was just because of a luck? Then, what could be possible reasons? They identified the product/market/channel/… fit at the right time. They formed the cross-functional growth marketing team when it mattered most. They hired highly knowledgeable experts when they could make the biggest impact. And so forth.
Unless you are new to the startup industry, we all know what product/market fit means and the method to identify it. Some of you might already have been experienced working with the growth marketing team. Probably you are reading this article because you want to become an expert establishing a unicorn startup.
GROWTH MARKETING AT THE RIGHT TIMING
Have you noticed that I repeatedly emphasise the timing? Yes, it’s the answer and the right timing really depends on your business strategy at each stage, type of product, target market, audience segment etc.
There is no simple, single answer for the path to success. However, there are ways to ease the journey to your successful growth marketing pathway.
In this Growth Marketing 101 series, I will share the methods unicorn experts utilized, easy-to-use templates, free/freemium tools that will help save your time and money, team matters, a guide to build north star metrics, etc, leading you to build a sustainable business.
I’d love to hear your thoughts — please share it in the comments below.
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Thank you!
