10 marketing growth lever ideas

What others would you add?

Believe it or not, we’re one month away from the midpoint of 2024 🤯

In the spirit of this being a long holiday weekend for many, I’m going to make this newsletter a short + actionable one for you.

With that, let’s get to it…

1. Media spend

   This is the obvious one. Spend more ad dollars, drive more eyeballs (and potential interest) your way. But for many of us, this isn’t a realistic/scalable option.

2. Handraiser —> discovery call conversion rate (sales-led growth)

   This is the first one I always go to any time a company asks how they can increase marketing’s contribution to pipeline. It’s doing more with what you already have.

   
   After scheduling a demo, the typical company’s next step is to send a confirmation message saying “Great! A member of our team will be in touch within the next 48 hours!” This is the old way. Get a tool like Chili Piper, Calendly, or any other so that when a user submits a demo, they get to choose right there the date + time for the call. Easy instant 10-30% improvement in this conversion rate.

3. Handraiser —> “aha” moment conversion rate (product-led growth)

   Can you point to ONE specific moment or feature that, when seen/used by a user, gets them to the “aha” moment? (If not, before reading further, go determine that ASAP).

   
   Now how quickly/easy is it for a new user to get to that point? Are you guiding them to that point? Do they understand how the way you’re doing it is different/better than how they’re currently doing it? Make sure you’re checking these boxes.

4. ICP review

   Friendly reminder: TAM (total addressable market) ≠ ICP (ideal customer profile)

   
   If your audience is too broad, hone in on those who buy from you today. Their job titles/functions, industries, company sizes, etc.
   
   If your audience is too narrow, look at your customer data to see which aren’t currently in your “ICP”, see if they’re successfully using your product/service, then look into why they aren’t part of your targeting.

5. Offer

   Your offer should constantly be getting reviewed. Use W/L analysis data + market research to determine if you should look at testing/iterating things like price(s), plan(s), discounts, time-constrained promotions, etc.

6. Geo expansions/contractions

   Do you sell exclusively within the US and do well? Look into tangential markets like Canada, UK, and Australia (assuming your product/service can support those international needs).

   
   Do you sell to tens/hundreds of countries? Are any of those more work than they’re worth currently? Beware of spreading too thin. Just because you can sell to a certain market doesn’t mean you should.

7. New channels

   The *sexy* one here. The shiny new object. Other channels are good growth opportunities assuming that you’re at/near the point of diminishing returns on your strongest-performing channels. See the last sentence above in Geo expansions/contractions.

8. Stronger alignment with BDRs, Sales, and CSMs

   These groups are one of your best feedback mechanisms as they’re on the front every day talking to prospects and customers. Create a place for them to share market feedback with you without any fear of overstepping/being critical.

   
   Having this feedback loop provides you with the tweaks you can make to consistently make 1% improvements regularly (believe me, these add up).

9. Referral programs

   Word of mouth is one of the best growth drivers available. Happy customers WANT to tell others about you. So provide the avenues for them to do so (and be rewarded for it as well).
   
   Similarly, find partners who operate within the same ICP as you, but aren’t competitors to your product. For example, at Loxo we don’t include back office (payroll) features, so we partnered with a company that focuses solely on this with the same market and does it amazingly well. We send prospects their way when they need back office help. They send prospects our way when they need help with what our product solves for. Win-win.

10. Customer expansions

    Do you charge per user? If so, do you have a plan for how to expand as your customers add more employees?

    Do you charge based on tiers/feature sets? If so, do you have a plan for how to get “base” level customers on increased tiers?

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One LinkedIn post I bookmarked this week

The rule of thirds was burned into my head in high school photography class + I've never forgotten it. It's interesting to note the difference between video + photos though. I never knew how it applied to video, so this was enlightening to learn from Rayna.

For photos, having the focus be at one of the 4 "inside" corners (where the horizontal + vertical lines intersect) makes a world of a difference. And according to some back + forth with Rayna, that rule applies to video as well at more of a “201” level once you get these “101” level fundamentals down.

Link to Rayna’s post so you can watch the full video

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One podcast episode I enjoyed this week

“We’re in the business of being fundamentally different, not incrementally better.. It goes back to only fundamentally different gets customers to tell their friends.”

You don’t hear quotes like the above often from a Chief Product Officer at a banking institution. But that’s exactly how and why Nubank is taking off in Latin America. They’re doing things fundamentally different from how they’ve been done based on how it improves the experience for their customers.

And for anyone interested, here’s the playlist I add to each week with some of my favorite podcast episodes:

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See you next Saturday,
Sam