Prioritizing Market Research in Growth Marketing
In growth marketing, data analysis and market research can play a critical role in helping the business make impactful decisions while keeping the focus on long-term growth. Growth marketers can gain insights into their customers, their purchasing behavior and identify opportunities and strategies to drive growth (and not just focus on the top of the sales funnel). It’s about using the data to identify what’s working and what’s not.
According to a blog from Abmatic AI, “The importance of market research in growth marketing,” establishing clear goals and metrics is a key first step in utilizing data analysis. “One of the first steps in using data analysis for growth marketing is to establish clear goals and metrics. This may involve setting targets for customer acquisition, revenue growth, or other KPIs. By defining these goals and metrics, growth marketers can track progress and make adjustments as needed to ensure that they are on track to achieve their objectives.”
Another important aspect of data analysis in growth marketing is identifying key performance drivers. Abmatic observes, “By analyzing data on customer behavior and engagement, growth marketers can identify which factors are most closely correlated with success. This may involve analyzing website traffic, conversion rates, or customer feedback to identify which features or aspects of the product or service are most important to customers.”
Analyzing the data and gaining customer feedback are key strengths of a flexible growth marketing approach. As Mailchimp points out, in its blog “What Is Growth Marketing?,” growth marketing is a type of marketing optimization that goes beyond marketing a product and instead helps businesses grow by enabling customer loyalty: “Growth marketing is the process of using data gained through marketing campaigns and experimentation to drive growth. It can help you anticipate change and plan your strategies to make constant improvements.”
Mailchimp further notes how, “Growth marketing shortens the cycles of innovation rather than relying on extended efforts. Just-in-time campaigns and micro campaigns respond to the current moment’s needs.” After each campaign, data awaits to analyze and to improve the next steps of the campaign journey.
Focusing Growth Strategies on the Consumer
In “Turn Your Customer Obsession into Brand Strategies,” All Things Insights looked at the growing emphasis on the customer for brand growth. With brand awareness increasing in importance as a way to achieve growth, insight-led brand strategies are becoming more focused and targeted to the consumer. Consumers expect brands to know their preferences, and to help them select the best products or services to meet their needs. Consumer-centric initiatives can be leveraged to take the business to the next level, to that of customer obsession (to borrow a phrase from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos). A consumer-oriented approach to the business could be the pathway to growth and in turn a brand strategy led by insights could be the foundation on which the business is built.
In All Things Insights’ “Driving Consumer Focus,” we explored how putting the customer first is a time-honored tradition that remains current and relevant—but it can lead to so much more. Consumer focus is a strategy that focuses on understanding the needs and wants of customers in order to better meet their expectations. This approach involves gathering customer feedback, creating strategies based on consumer insights, and continuously improving products or services to provide value for the customer. It also involves adapting marketing messages and tactics according to what consumers want to drive sales growth. The goal of consumer focus is to develop strong relationships with customers, so they become loyal over time and recommend products or services from your company.
Taking an Agile Approach to Growth Marketing
Growth marketing involves using innovative strategies and tactics to acquire and retain customers, drive revenue, and achieve sustainable business growth. According to our query on ChatGPT, here are some best practices of growth marketing and how they relate to market research:
- Data-Driven Decision Making: Growth marketing relies heavily on data to inform strategy and decision-making. Market research provides valuable insights into customer preferences, behavior, and market trends, which can be leveraged to develop data-driven marketing campaigns. By analyzing market research data, growth marketers can identify opportunities, optimize campaigns, and measure the impact of their efforts more effectively.
- Continuous Experimentation: Growth marketers often employ a culture of experimentation, constantly testing different tactics, channels, and messaging to identify what resonates most with their target audience. Market research can help inform the design and execution of these experiments by providing insights into consumer preferences, pain points, and buying behavior. By testing hypotheses and gathering feedback from customers, growth marketers can refine their strategies and optimize performance over time.
- Customer-Centric Approach: Successful growth marketing strategies prioritize the needs and preferences of the customer. Market research helps in understanding customer segments, their motivations, and pain points, allowing growth marketers to tailor their messaging and offerings accordingly. By putting the customer at the center of their strategy, marketers can create more relevant and compelling campaigns that drive engagement and conversion.
- Multi-Channel Marketing: Growth marketing often involves leveraging multiple channels, including digital advertising, social media, email marketing, content marketing, and more. Market research can help identify which channels are most effective for reaching target audiences and engaging with them at different stages of the customer journey. By understanding where their audience spends time online and how they prefer to consume content, marketers can allocate resources more efficiently and maximize the impact of their campaigns.
- Agile Approach: Growth marketing requires agility and adaptability to respond quickly to changing market dynamics and consumer behavior. Market research provides real-time insights into market trends, competitor activities, and customer feedback, enabling marketers to adjust their strategies and tactics accordingly. By staying informed and proactive, marketers can capitalize on emerging opportunities and mitigate risks more effectively.
- Measuring and Optimizing Performance: Growth marketing is inherently focused on results and ROI. Market research helps in establishing key performance indicators (KPIs) and benchmarks for measuring the success of marketing campaigns. By tracking metrics such as customer acquisition cost (CAC), customer lifetime value (CLV), conversion rates, and engagement metrics, marketers can evaluate the effectiveness of their efforts and identify areas for improvement. This data-driven approach allows marketers to iterate and optimize their strategies to drive continuous growth.
Guiding Customer Growth Strategies
Market research plays a crucial role in informing and guiding growth marketing strategies by providing insights into customer behavior, market dynamics, and competitive landscape. By leveraging market research data, growth marketers can develop more targeted, effective, and scalable campaigns that drive sustainable business growth.
Ultimately, it seems that market research and growth marketing can go hand in hand for mutual success, and to drive each team to new heights while making the customer the central focus of all efforts. As Mailchimp reminds us, “Remember, a growth marketing plan extends beyond traditional marketing to form better relationships with customers, increase loyalty, and boost repeat purchases. Growth marketing should encompass many different types of marketing, from traditional marketing materials to your website, social media, and email marketing strategy.”
Video courtesy of Neil Patel
