I’m a teacher, so I’m now used to the faces of students who are scared to learn. More specifically, they’re scared to fail to learn. It’s ingrained early in our studies — As are good, Fs are bad, and you’d better learn the right answers before time runs out.
That mentality crashes and burns in the world of growth marketing. Few other areas of life encourage you to fail as often as you will with these types of campaigns. You’re still aiming for those high marks, of course, but growth marketing experiments encourage you to try, fail, learn, and try again.
The fear of failure kills more good ideas than poor strategy ever will. But growth marketing gives you a better way forward — if you’re willing to try. Here’s what growth marketing looks like in practice and how you can start learning today.
While traditional marketing might focus on awareness or running static campaigns, growth marketing extends across the full funnel, touching all aspects of the customer lifecycle from acquisition to retention.
That’s reflected in the long list of growth marketing tactics you can deploy, from retargeting and cross-targeting to email marketing and direct mail. Behind every tactic, growth marketing asks, “What’s actually working — and how do we scale it?”
Benefits of Growth Marketing
Growth marketing done well helps you create a system that delivers results and gets better with time. What other benefits can it deliver?
Scalable Results Through Testing
Growth marketing can deliver big wins that scale with your company. You earn those wins through consistent work and deliberate testing. You’re not throwing ideas at the wall; you’re learning which wall matters, what sticks, and why — which makes you a sharper marketer.
Testing lives and dies by analytics, so I encourage your marketing team to track data thoughtfully as they scale operations. McKinsey research backs up the value of analytics: Companies that effectively use analytics in service of marketing and sales performance are 1.5x more likely to achieve above-average growth rates than their peers.
Deeper Customer Understanding
Building, running, and testing growth marketing campaigns helps you deeply understand what your buyers want. You learn what they respond to, what turns them off, and how their behavior evolves.
That obsession with your customer leads to big benefits: Forrester research shows that customer-obsessed organizations reported 41% faster revenue growth, 49% faster profit growth, and 51% better customer retention than those in non-customer-obsessed organizations. And only 3% of respondent companies were categorized as “customer-obsessed.”
Nail this piece, and you’re operating in rarefied air.
Cross-Channel Impact
Connected channels compound impact: people engage more, convert faster, and feel like they’re in conversation with your brand, not being chased around by disconnected ads.
Staying cross-channel can help businesses of all types grow. For instance, research from Capital One shows that retailers using three or more channels increased consumer engagement 250% over single-channel retailers.
Whether you’re selling clothing or B2B SaaS software, you want your message to reach more people in more places.
That said, I’ve found growth marketing works best when your message shows up in places where it actually makes sense. Don’t be everywhere, but stay relevant across email, social, SMS, and in-app experiences.
Types of Growth Marketing Campaigns
There’s no single formula for a great growth marketing campaign, but most campaigns fall within one of these types.
Product-Led Growth (PLG)
Product-led growth (PLG) relies on the product to lead user acquisition, activation, conversion, and retention efforts. Instead of relying heavily on sales or marketing to push people through the funnel, PLG gives users direct access to the product and lets the product’s value drive growth.
Consider Slack as an example. You can create a workspace and start chatting with coworkers in just a few minutes. While you can add paid features, you can also use many of the typical functionalities within Slack from the get-go. You see immediate value delivery, can manage onboarding yourself, and learn as you use the product. So, when in-product prompts for upgrades or expansion appear, you're already primed to take advantage of the opportunity.
That said, product-led growth doesn‘t happen overnight, especially if your product wasn’t built for self-service from the start.
For one project, I supported early PLG efforts for a platform that had serious potential but wasn't quite ready for self-service. Users needed support just to get started, and onboarding required a human hand-off more often than not.
We couldn't flip a magic PLG switch, so we focused on what we could control: shortening time to value. Working with the product team, we tightened the onboarding flow so new users could reach their first “win” without waiting for a 15-minute implementation call. We also tinkered with in-product prompts and restructured documentation to be more action-oriented.
Those changes got us moving in the right direction and taught me that PLG is not a binary switch. It's a gradual shift from explaining value to letting the product prove that.
Referral and Viral Loops
Referral campaigns focus on incentivizing users to bring others into the mix. You've probably seen this before from many services in your daily life. For instance, a “give $10, get $10” offer from just about any local retailer or restaurant offers a solid example of referrals in real life.
Ideally, these campaigns drive growth by having current users help you acquire new users. The most successful campaigns take advantage of “viral loops” that drive adoption at exponential rates (aka “going viral”).
Where some marketers trip up with a referral program is they treat it like a set-it-and-forget-it opportunity. Instead, see how you can evolve a campaign midstream using engagement data to reach users’ social and emotional drivers — not just transactional ones.
That’s how Nikita Baksheev, head of marketing at Ronas IT, succeeded with a recent referral campaign. “Initially, customer retention rates were lower than expected, so we designed an experiment with targeted incentives — users earned more rewards for successful referrals,” he said.
“We used ‘smart messaging’ to highlight the mutual benefits of the referral program through personalized email sequences paired with targeted social media ads. After testing various communication styles and incentives, we made a data-driven pivot towards messaging emphasizing exclusivity and community.”
This midstream adjustment improved referral signups by 45% and kicked off a cycle of sustained growth while lowering customer acquisition costs.
Lifecycle Marketing
A common and powerful campaign, lifecycle marketing focuses on increasing retention, engagement, and long-term value by targeting outreach aligned to each customer stage in the marketing funnel.
For example: I recently left a few new dog treats in my Chewy cart. In minutes, I received the cart abandonment email reminding me to check out before my monthly Autoship was sent.
Other examples include:
- Welcome email series
- Reactivation emails
- Loyalty pushes
It’s all about engaging your customers where they are now — the right message at the right time and place. Gut instinct can help; data-backed decisions are better. That’s what Mike Zima, chief marketing officer at Zima Media, found when working with a recent client.
“What made it work was constant iteration A/B testing messaging at each funnel stage, suppressing low-value audiences, and coordinating ad creatives to match CRM lifecycle stages. Rather than guessing, we let the data shape the real story,” said Zima.
“By improving signal quality, we reduced cost-per-acquisition while increasing lead quality over time. The compounding effect came not from a single channel but from harmonizing data, messaging, and timing across the stack.”
Content-Led Acquisition
As a writer, I’m always partial to content-led initiatives. Pillar pages, landing pages, lead magnets like ebooks — I love educational content. Content-led acquisition focuses on ways to build awareness and trust while capturing demand. Educational resources, SEO, and organic traffic are hallmarks of content-led acquisition.
That said, content-led growth isn’t about churning out thousands of blog posts; it’s about delivering content that meets people where they are, with the right message at the right moment. That’s a lesson some may forget in the current fervor over AI-generated slop posts.
But Jayen Ashar, CTO at Scaleup Consulting, used AI wisely in a content-led motion to reach customers for a client’s betting analytics platform, where his team used AI to auto-generate social content and headlines based on trending player data.
“The key decision was to test dozens of variations across Twitter and email — some playful, some data-heavy — using GPT to rapidly iterate and personalize. We tracked CTR and conversion per segment, then doubled down on formats that resonated (e.g., “X player crushes this stat line – here's the bet”),” he said.
That process put AI to work positively. “What made it work was tight feedback loops: AI sped up content creation, but performance tracking let the AI optimise fast,” Ashar said. “We also coordinated the messaging across push, email, and social in real time during major sports events. That consistency, paired with AI-driven testing, boosted paid subscriber conversions by over 30% in 6 weeks.”
Community-Led Campaigns
Community-led campaigns drive growth through real users sharing, contributing, or co-creating content. You may also see this as “user-generated content” campaigns. Think hashtag campaigns, discussion boards, or community groups on Slack or Discord. It’s all about having your user espouse your value to help convince others to sign up.
Notably, community-led growth doesn‘t always start with an audience you already have. Sometimes, you build that audience by inviting people into the conversation before they’re even customers. That’s what Borets Stamenov, co-founder and CEO at SeekFast, discovered in a recent campaign.
“We ran a cold-email campaign that doubled as customer research, rather than just sales outreach. Instead of the usual “buy our product” emails, we posed an insightful, open-ended industry question relevant to our leads. Each response fed into tailored blog posts, webinars, and LinkedIn posts — all tagged and credited back to participants,” he said.
Stamenov found that this approach turned prospects into co-creators, not just leads.
“Engagement soared because people love sharing their opinions, especially publicly. As the content grew, organic traffic surged and conversions climbed steadily, compounding month-over-month,” he said.
“The key decision was treating outreach as collaboration, not sales. By involving leads directly in content creation, we boosted trust and opened doors across multiple channels. It transformed cold outreach into sustainable inbound growth.”
Elements of a Growth Marketing Campaign
A growth marketing approach requires repeatable elements you can use and tinker to develop the best system for your business. As I build and manage these campaigns, I’m evaluating these ingredients for your growth marketing recipe.
A/B Testing and Experimentation
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again (or so the old nursery rhyme goes). That idea lies at the heart of growth marketing. Experimentation is how you find the right people, messaging, and channels to reach users and drive growth.
In particular, do a ton of A/B testing while building your campaign. And while tools exist to let you run highly sophisticated or automated testing strategies, it starts with an inquisitive and curious mind — namely, yours. And the courage and humility to say, “Is this really the best way to say it?”
While supporting that PLG motion previously mentioned, our team tested dozens of copy sets and visual combinations across several channels. And each time we tweaked a line or dropped a word, the copywriter in me fretted. But, we approached the process with clear direction, testing one variable at a time and tracking results carefully. A well-designed experiment eased my concern and helped us reach a valuable niche audience more efficiently.
Multichannel Coordination
Your users’ lives are large and contain multitudes — especially their digital footprints. Email inboxes, For You tabs, forums and posts and closed groups, they all compete for attention.
Multichannel coordination is how you reach for their attention intelligently. Instead of copy-pasting the same message across every platform, you craft a story that feels cohesive wherever people experience it.
You’ve likely seen this during one buying experience or another. The ad is compelling and makes you want to learn more. And then the landing page is as dry as the Sahara. You can just feel it when the story is misaligned.
Your goal is to help people understand what you offer and why they should choose you. When things go sideways, I recommend people not produce more content but investigate what they run now. Are you pointing to the same core benefit? Do users even understand what you offer? Answer those questions and share your responses across your channel suite.
User Feedback Loops
I often find that many marketing teams (and leadership) are so eager to talk about themselves that they forget to listen back. Launching the growth marketing rocket ship is exciting, but to keep it orbiting, you need to listen constantly once you’re live.
In digital marketing, user feedback loops are constantly available. Surveys, behavioral data, chat transcripts, and comments on social media posts offer glimpses into better ways to appeal to your user base. I once had a Facebook ad that received one comment asking about how a feature actually worked … and then another and another. One quick tweak to ad copy, and the questions vanished.
Fast Learning Cycles
I know the siren call of perfection. You want to nail your campaign and show you understand your product and audience. But over time, I’ve found that audiences will teach you quickly. Your job is to learn just as quickly.
While I wouldn’t suggest rushing your campaign just to get things moving, I would suggest cutting the lag between insight and action. For example, adjusting ad copy and spend used to give me pause. How long should I run ads before responding to low engagement or conversion metrics? What do I change — or delete?
But typically, early engagement metrics will surface one or a few solid options for further investment. Shift budgets or change copy mid-flight to support higher performing variants. Buy yourself time and space to create new and better variants, too. Small moves beat perfection all day long.
Tips for Growth Marketing Campaigns
Your growth marketing campaign won’t be perfect out the gate, and it takes a willingness to engage and to learn if you want to improve. But, if you’re looking for solid tips to help you through your learning phase, here are a few powerful insights to bring to your next campaign.
Tip 1: Think ahead.
“Growth” doesn’t have to pertain to just growing your business — it can also be in service to your audience. The most resonant messages lead with the idea that “we are growing with you” and help people envision the future.
Linn Atiyeh, CEO of recruiting firm Bemana, followed this concept in a recent growth marketing campaign for manufacturing and equipment clients. Traditional campaigns focused on hiring for mechanical skills, but digital shifts made skills like PLC programming and robotics integration more vital — and harder to find.
“We saw the shift happening and knew we had to act quickly. So we launched a campaign that addressed the evolution both our clients and candidates were facing,” said Atiyeh.
“For employers, we framed hybrid technical roles as essential to future-proofing their workforce. For candidates, we provided guidance on the next skills to develop — certifications in controls, electrical troubleshooting, and even basic coding — positioning ourselves as a long-term partner, not just a placement firm.
“The reason this campaign resonated is that it wasn‘t just reactive — it was forward-looking. We weren’t just saying ‘we understand your current challenges,’ we were saying, ‘we see what‘s next, and we’re ready to help you get there.’”
Tip 2: Structure over spend.
Big budgets don’t equal success in growth marketing. The real secret sauce lies in organization, and how you structure your campaign makes the key difference.
Amber Porter, CEO of RankingCo, saw this exact issue pop up in a campaign for a boutique fashion store. Their traditional campaign structure was bleeding cash on underperforming product categories. Porter restructured the campaigns using category performance over individual brands instead.
“The restructuring systematically identified which product categories delivered the highest ROI, allowing us to shift budget allocation in real-time,” she said.
“This wasn‘t just a one-time fix — the campaign continued improving as our AI-powered tools learned which customer segments converted at the highest rates. The approach delivered a 20% sales increase beyond the client’s goal.”
Porter advises growth marketers to pay more attention to a campaign’s structure over ad spend alone.
“Too many businesses throw money at the problem instead of experimenting with how their campaigns are fundamentally organized. In digital marketing, it‘s rarely about spending more — it’s about spending smarter through continuous experimentation and audience refinement,” she said.
Tip 3: Kill your marketing darlings.
You can have the most creative, brilliant idea you’ve ever devised. But, in marketing, performance matters above all else.
Growth marketers should be ready to kill their darlings, even if they took weeks to build. Andrew Dunn, VP of marketing at Zentro Internet, shares more.
“At Zentro Internet, I spearheaded a multi-channel campaign that combined LinkedIn thought leadership content with targeted email nurture flows, which ultimately grew our B2B pipeline by 43%. We tested different messaging angles with small budget experiments first, finding that stories about IT leaders solving real problems performed 3x better than generic product pitches,” he said.
“I learned to let data guide our creative risks — like when we scrapped our planned corporate video series after early metrics showed our customer case study podcasts were driving more qualified leads.”
Examples of Growth Marketing Campaigns
What does growth marketing look like in practice? I’ve highlighted two campaigns that I feel really nail the spirit of growth marketing — both in driving results and engaging users and customers.
Deep Cognition
I’ve often discussed how a lack of trust in AI presents likely the largest barrier to implementing AI in companies — especially enterprises. Deep Cognition tackled that challenge head-on with a growth marketing campaign that turned a bold promise into a long-term referral engine.
John Pennypacker, the company’s VP of marketing and sales, explains the “Implementation Timeline Challenge” campaign.
“The campaign started with a bold claim: ‘Deploy AI in 30 days or implementation is free.’ This was a calculated risk, as most competitors quoted 6-9 month timelines. Behind this guarantee was our confidence in our platform‘s rapid deployment capabilities that we’d refined but hadn't effectively communicated,” he said.
Pennypacker deployed a multichannel approach that targeted decision-makers with tailored messaging. For instance, CTOs received technical validation through implementation webinars, while CFOs saw case studies highlighting accelerated ROI timelines.
“The campaign's effectiveness came from its sequential testing structure,” he continued. “We first validated messaging with a limited LinkedIn campaign, refined based on engagement metrics, then expanded to email sequences and eventually direct mail to key accounts.
“The compounding impact emerged as successful implementations created reference customers who participated in industry-specific case studies, which then fueled the next wave of acquisition.”
Pennypacker notes this campaign initiated a flywheel effect, where each successful implementation strengthened campaign messaging for the next prospect.
“Two years later, this campaign continues to generate referral business and has permanently shifted how we position against competitors in the enterprise AI space,” he said.
AIScreen
I’ve seen attempts at growth marketing stall because of perfectionism. “What if we don’t have the messaging right? Are we wasting time?”
You won’t just have the right message — you need to find it through experimentation. Nikita Sherbina, co-founder and CEO of AIScreen, shows how that process unfolded during a campaign for a B2B SaaS product built for remote teams.
“The audience was kind of all over the place … so instead of guessing, we tested three messages: saving time, smoother onboarding, and better team alignment. We ran different versions across LinkedIn, newsletter ads, and short-form content in Slack groups, just to see what stuck,” she said.
The signal came back clear: “Team alignment” outperformed every other message.
“Once we saw that, I pivoted everything — site copy, emails, paid ads — all toward that core message,” said Sherbina. “I also pushed for original content per channel rather than copy-pasting, which was a heavier lift but got way better traction.”
Iterating on messaging helped her team meet customers where they were and give them the right knowledge at the right time.
“What made it really work long-term was how we layered on smart retargeting with email follow-ups tied to what folks had clicked or watched. Demo signups jumped 40% in just a few months, and the data we collected helped us keep refining the whole flow,” she said.
“Honestly, it was the constant tweaking and listening to what people were reacting to that gave the campaign legs.”
Pro tip: When you’re ready to build your first or next growth marketing campaign, check out our growth marketing guide for a clear path to start and tips to succeed.
The only way to grow is to start.
Through this article (and several failed campaigns), I learned that growth marketing isn’t magic: it’s momentum. Teams that listen, test, and move win in this framework.
You don’t need a massive budget to run a brilliant campaign. Start with a hypothesis, a way to measure it, and the guts to try. Don’t be scared to fail; you can’t learn and grow if you never start. So, start now.
