October’s Top 10 Must-Reads for every Growth Marketer- Part 3
This list was originally posted on the growth marketing weekly digest that I share with my private email list. To get the full list of must-read articles every week click here.
1. 7 Principles To Mastering Growth Marketing
Estimated reading time: 13mins
A must-read to any growth marketer. In this article, Brian Balfour (former VP Growth @HubSpot), talks about the growing trend of the professional marketing community to look for quick shortcuts to growth. This done through hacks, tactics, tips and more. However, real sustainable growth doesn’t happen from a plug-and-play of an existing hack or solution. Most growth opportunities are a case and product specific and require mastering a growth marketing mindset and skills. In the article, Brain Balfour offers a series of principles that will help you developing a real growth marketer mindset.
Favorite quote:
“learning growth marketing is also learning problem-solving. The best “rules” aren’t shortcuts but a long term investment in integrating the principles of mastery into your career.”
Related reading:
There are many articles discussion the ‘T-shaped’ marketer that was mentioned in Brain Balfour. However, 2 of my favorite posts are Andrianes Pinantoan’s“How to hire a growth marketer” and Brain Balfour’s “How To Become A Customer Acquisition Expert”.
In regarding some current trends in growth marketing, you might also be interested in my latest blog post on “The Hysterical Marketing Phenomenon (and how to avoid it)”.
2. Clearbit’s Playbook for Growth in the API Economy
Estimated reading time: 8mins
A growth case-study of Clearbit, a company focused on building data APIs. Through their successful growth story, we can learn on building products (APIs) as a growth engine, using products as lead gen and more.
Favorite quote:
“Each integration is a new endpoint that extends the reach of the product. More endpoints mean more distribution and faster time-to-value for the most popular use cases. It’s a total win-win.”
3. Deconstructing the Mobile Marketing Funnel
(eBook)
This 25 pages eBook offers basic explanation and insights on several key topics related to mobile marketing including tips and tactics for improving conversion and engagement for all parts of the funnel.
Favorite quote:
“..hone your messaging so that it isn’t just noise to your app users; it’s highly targeted, relevant content that will not only drive users back to your app, but complete the virtuous cycle of them spending more time in it, leaving positive reviews, and encouraging more app users to find it for themselves.”
Related reading:
4. The Growth Marketer’s Guide to Aha! Moments
Estimated reading time: 9mins
Do you know what is the user journey or set of features that get your users to the ‘Aha!’ moment when using your product? If not (or if you do but haven’t optimized your product accordingly), this article is the quick-start guide for you. From identifying patterns in the data, talking to most engaged users or running surveys to churned users, to personalizing the onboarding and user journey to multiple user personas and more.
Favorite quote:
“don’t think of the Aha! moment as some singular holy grail that you must quest for. A number of factors can contribute to an Aha! moment and your understanding of what those factors are will improve as your user base grows.”
Related reading:
So much had been written and discussed about finding the Aha! moment and identifying user engagements that get them to keep using your product. Some of my favorite posts include the famous talk by Chamath Palihapitiya - “how we put Facebook on the path to 1 billion users”, “Facebook’s Aha Moment Is Simpler Than You Think”, “Onboarding With The IKEA Effect: How To Use UX Friction To Build Retention” and “How to Increase User Engagement Throughout the User Journey”.
5. Sean Ellis’ Secret Framework for Unlocking Organic Growth
Estimated reading time: 6mins
“The foundation of every sustainable growth engine is growth that happens naturally, through organic word of mouth.” This article shares Sean Ellis framework guide for unlocking organic growth. A must-read for every founder, entrepreneur, and marketer.
Favorite quote:
“Often the original intent users had is somewhat different from the core benefit that your product actually delivers. Part of the art of effective messaging is to tap into broad intent in the market and steer it toward your product’s must have benefit.”
Related reading:
See the previously recommended article and the related reading associated with it.
6. When Good Customers Leave: Troubleshooting Your Customer Retention Approach
Estimated reading time: 8mins
This article introduces the potential impact of customer retention on revenue growth and offers ways to improve customer retention where users’ might churn the most.
Favorite quote:
“When the majority of your interactions with a customer involve attempts at upselling with little extra value, then you can expect to lose some customers. It won’t take them long to find a competitor with a similar solution who doesn’t persistently hound them for money.”
Related reading:
As Retention and Engagement are two topics I’m very passionate about, I constantly share with you many articles related to these topics. Some of my favorite so far include: “How to Increase User Engagement Throughout the User Journey”, “A Guide to Proven Customer Retention Strategies” and “Minimum Viable Customer Retention”.
7. How to Use Snapchat Geofilters as a Growth Strategy
Estimated reading time: 5mins
An interesting case-study of the Snapchat Geofilters ads as a growth channel.
Favorite quote:
“Snapchat should instantly notify geofilter purchasers if demand has exceeded supply. Then the customer can purchase another geofilter immediately. Otherwise, this person may not purchase a replacement geofilter — and Snapchat’s income decreases.”
(Very true)
8. How to send good email - opens, clicks, conversions
Estimated reading time: 4mins
A good basic article on Email Marketing 101. The article includes some basic best practices for writing email campaigns that drive higher open rate, click rate and conversion.
Favorite quote:
“A badly-written email is about as effective as a love letter addressed “To whom it may concern.” Don’t waste your time writing them.”
Related reading:
For further reading, check out last week’s recommendations to the article “ How to Use Email to Drive Mobile Engagement”.
9. The Mixpanel iOS 10 Report
(eBook)
An interesting reading for mobile marketers. According to this report, over 66% of iOS users have already adopted the new iOS10 version. With such adoption rate, it’s important for mobile marketers to better understand the reasons users adopted the version, what it means for future versions, the future of Android, the future of operating systems (!) and what it means for your product.
Favorite quote:
“iOS 10 creates a new environment that allows fledgling apps to test their minimum viable product through iMessage extensions. Now, instead of building a fully native app, you can test and distil your app into an iMessage extension.”
(Bo RenProduct Manager, Tumblr)
Related reading:
One interesting topic discussed in this report relates to the use of messaging apps and it’s potential in replacing the way we use operating systems today. To showcase the potential use cases for messaging apps, read “The killer feature of messaging no one’s talking about”.
10. What Do A/B Testing & Presidential Polling Have in Common?
Estimated reading time: 15mins
Ending this week’s recommended reading list with a fun post on the correlation between the presidential campaign to A/B testing. A fun read.
Favorite quote:
“Sample size and margin of error are extremely important. In fact, they are often the only metrics provided when a poll is published. As important as sample size is to accurate prediction, it can become almost meaningless under the weight of too much bias.”
