"Growth marketing" has an image problem. Say the words and people picture viral hacks, dark-pattern pop-ups and the one weird trick that 10x'd someone's signups. Real growth marketing is far less glamorous and far more durable: it's a disciplined system of experiments run across the whole customer journey, aimed at finding what reliably works and then doing more of it. Here's how I think about it.
Start with the funnel, not the channel
Most people jump straight to "should we do TikTok or LinkedIn?" — a channel question — before they understand where their growth actually leaks. Map the journey end to end: how people find you, what makes them try, what makes them stay, and what makes them tell others. Then find the single biggest leak. Pouring more traffic into a funnel that doesn't convert is just a more expensive way to lose people.
Pick one metric that matters
Growth gets diffuse fast — there are always ten numbers you could chase. Choose one that genuinely reflects delivered value: activated users, weekly active accounts, qualified pipeline, repeat purchases. A single north-star metric forces prioritisation and tells you whether all the activity is actually adding up to anything. Everything else is a supporting input, not the goal.
Run experiments, not campaigns
The core unit of growth marketing isn't the campaign — it's the experiment. Each one is a small, falsifiable bet: a hypothesis, a change, a metric, a verdict. Most will fail, and that's fine; the point is to learn cheaply and fast. A team that runs ten honest experiments a month will out-grow one that bets everything on a single big launch.
Hypothesis
"If we do X, then Y will improve, because Z." Specific enough to be wrong.
Test small
Ship the smallest version that can prove or kill the idea.
Measure
Compare against a baseline, not a hunch. Watch for the effect you predicted.
Decide
Double down, iterate, or drop it — then write down what you learned.
Retention is the real growth lever
Acquisition gets the attention, but retention is what compounds. A product people leave is a leaky bucket — no amount of acquisition fixes it, it just raises the water bill. Before optimising the top of the funnel, make sure the people you bring in have a reason to stay. Improving retention quietly multiplies the value of every other channel you run.
Favour channels that compound
Some channels you rent; some you own. Paid ads stop the moment you stop paying. But content, search visibility, referrals and partnerships keep working long after the effort — they build an asset instead of a bill. Paid has its place for speed and testing, but a growth system that leans on compounding channels gets cheaper and stronger over time, not more expensive.
Measure honestly
Vanity metrics feel good and teach you nothing. Impressions, total signups and follower counts rarely move the business. Look at cohorts — how each group of users behaves over time — and at the conversion between funnel stages. Honest measurement is uncomfortable because it shows what isn't working, which is exactly why it's the thing that makes growth real instead of theatrical.
Growth marketing isn't a trick you find — it's a habit you build: map the funnel, pick one metric, run small experiments, keep what compounds. Do that consistently and growth stops being luck.
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