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Many people are building good businesses. A few ambitious souls find themselves building something more. It is a vibrant business ecosystem consisting of multiple independent but related parts. Ryan Bettencourt, CEO of Growth Collective and CEO of Legion Works, is a great example of the latter kind of entrepreneur, and if there is such a term, he is a polypreneur (literally, “one who bets on more than one business”). ). Legion is an ecosystem of inspired ventures that includes Growth Collective, plus Dealify, Hello Bar, Expedition, and Subscribers. These venture companies provide ambitious companies, fast-growing startups, and marketing agencies with a suite of tools, services, and diverse expertise to help them grow more effectively and efficiently. .
Growth marketing can be a confusing title in a world where popular marketing images emphasize brand building, awareness, and the involvement of influencers, creatives, and celebrities. But underneath the stage, so to speak, lies a sophisticated technology framework that answers the question: What communication channels best connect buyers and sellers? This is where growth marketing comes into play.
Growth marketing is a set of technology disciplines designed to meet the unique needs of startups that require rapid growth. And Growth Collective, the flagship of the Legion ecosystem, has a unique role to play. It's a freelance talent marketplace that provides growth marketing expertise with a focus on startups and the agencies that serve them. For example, at Growth Collective, the following in-demand specialties illustrate the emergence of growth marketing as a fundamentally new toolkit created to help young companies grow rapidly.
- Google Ads Expert
- PPC consultant
- email marketing consultant
- SEO consultant
- growth marketing consultant
- content marketing consultant
- Google Analytics Consultant
- web flow experts
- Google Tag Manager Consultant
- social media consultant
Growth marketing is an art and a science, and while it's lesser known, it's clearly just as important as traditional narrative marketing. Mr. Bettencourt was happy to share his thoughts on his best practices for growth marketing. Highlights of the conversation include:
Welcome, Ryan. Let's start with some general questions. What do you think about marketing?I think about this as follows. This means driving interest in your company, products, and service offerings with the right people, the right message, and the right time. Marketing is simply the art and science of attracting the right companies and people who will find maximum value in your product or service. Marketing done right requires clear goals, an understanding of your target customer, a specific and defined budget, and clear tactics to reach the people who most value what you offer and can spend the money. . ”
There's a reason your company is called Growth Collective. Why isn't it called “Marketing Collective”? “Growth marketing has a clear focus on driving growth. It assumes that you own your brand and understand your target market, and it does not focus solely on increasing awareness. The concept of growth marketing was born from start-up companies that wanted to grow quickly in a scalable way with limited budgets. Marketing involves the entire process from creating awareness to driving deals. However, we are focused on helping companies find growth marketers with the experience and expertise to condense funnels to drive deal growth (purchases) as quickly and affordably as possible. I am.”
What is growth marketing and why is it so timely and important? “It focuses on growth, which is usually done online and combines the art and science of marketing. Right now, most businesses have to find ways to grow with less money. An unknown part of the economy In this environment, companies are finding it difficult and expensive to raise debt and equity, and the ROI of some of the oldest and most established online marketing channels is decreasing. We need to combine the art of marketing with the science (data and analytics) of understanding what is working and what isn't in order to continue to make prudent investments in growth marketing. is required.”
What's the starting point for a strong growth marketing strategy? And what are the 3-4 things you're getting wrong?Most companies build a marketing channel, put money into it, and hope it works. A better approach is to set clear growth goals, identify your available budget, decide on a small number of channels to test, and ensure you have experts in place to test those channels. In the long run, the latter approach allows for more affordable and predictable growth. ”
Can you give me an example of what marketing strategy tactics look like from a growth marketing perspective? “of course. A Series B fintech company came to us looking to purchase paid search while separately seeking to hire a full-time CMO. They had available capital, but they also had very aggressive growth goals. We helped them rethink their approach. They ultimately plan on hiring some he CMO to oversee their growth efforts while securing more funding for channel testing and execution by bringing in channel experts. I realized that. He found that paid search didn't add to his ROI, but paid social and his SEO did. Without experts testing your channels, you would have spent all of your budget on paid search without seeing any significant growth. A good growth marketing strategy discovers and expands on the right channels to drive growth. ”
You point out the importance of leveraging the right channels in the right way. But how do you choose, and what kind of expertise and budget do you typically need? “Each online marketing channel is different and requires different budgets and time for testing. The key is to have strategic marketers identify a small number of channels and involve experts who can quickly test these channels to determine which channels work and which don't. please do not. What looks like a winner, or what “logically” should be a winner, is often not. ”
Could you give me another example, perhaps on the agency side?We cooperate with many agencies. One is a U.S.-based agency with 100 employees and seasonal customers. They found it difficult to manage the ebb and flow of service to their customers. Thanks to us, they learned to scale up and down paid search and paid social depending on the season. This has dramatically increased profitability while retaining experts to serve customers. We work with other agencies who cannot afford to hire certain channel experts full-time. We were able to provide some great agencies with new channel fractional expertise, allowing them to retain clients longer and add new revenue streams. ”
What are Growth Collective's most popular online marketing channels and why? “Channels that can be tested, measured, and optimized are the key to successful growth marketing. Brand marketing can be difficult to test and measure, but channels like paid search, paid social, email marketing, influencer marketing, etc. is ideal.”
If a client could only invest in one marketing channel, what would you suggest? “Email marketing. It has the highest ROI of any channel available and is an excellent way to connect with customers throughout the marketing funnel, from increasing awareness to converting customers to gaining loyalty.” “It's a great way to get additional revenue from your customers by showing them. You can help them solve their problems.”
What advice do you have for startup CEOs in the freelance space?Three pieces of advice have helped me. 1) Find a market where you can provide great service to both freelancers and clients, even if it's small, and expand from there. 2) Aim for the long term, as there will be fundamental (rather than temporary) changes in the way work is done. 3) Network like crazy and find great people who know your field. ”
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