Growth Marketing: What It Is, How It Works & The Growth Marketing Strategies You Actually Need

Growth marketing gets talked about a lot — usually as a buzzword, a vague idea, or a “growth hack” someone promises will change your business overnight. But the reality is far more grounded.

At Rise – Growth Marketing Collective, we define growth marketing simply as:a full-funnel, data-driven approach to marketing for growth — built to attract, convert and retain customers in a sustainable, measurable way.

This article gives you the clearest possible growth marketing definition, explains what growth marketing is, how a growth marketing strategy actually works, and the exact growth marketing tactics we implement with clients to deliver consistent results.

What Is Growth Marketing? (Growth Marketing Definition)

Growth marketing is a strategic, experimentation-led approach to driving revenue across the entire customer journey — from awareness to retention.It blends data, creativity, customer insight and continuous optimisation to unlock scalable marketing growth.

The biggest difference between traditional marketing vs. growth marketing?

Traditional marketing focuses mainly on acquisition.Growth marketing focuses on acquisition and retention, activation, monetisation, and referral.

A growth marketer looks at the entire revenue engine, not isolated channels or vanity metrics.

This aligns with widely accepted industry definitions — including those from HubSpot, where growth marketing is framed as an iterative, full-funnel strategy that prioritises long-term customer value.

Why Growth Marketing Matters for Modern Businesses

We’re in a world where customer acquisition is more expensive, attention is fragmented, and competition is increasing across every channel.

This is why growth in marketing is no longer optional — brands need a connected, measurable system, not siloed tactics.

Growth marketing matters because:

• You stop wasting spend on channels that don’t convert

• You fix the funnel leaks that keep you from scaling

• You generate profitable, predictable revenue growth

• You understand your customer deeply (and speak to them properly)

• You iterate, test and improve instead of “hoping for the best”

This is marketing for growth, not marketing for activity.

What Does a Growth Marketer Do?

A question that’s searched more and more:“What is a growth marketer?”or“What does a growth marketer actually do?”

A growth marketer:

• Builds and owns the full growth marketing strategy

• Runs experiments across acquisition, activation and retention

• Analyses funnel data to uncover bottlenecks

• Develops messaging aligned to the right awareness stage

• Optimises landing pages, onboarding flows and lifecycle programmes

• Improves CAC, LTV and conversion rates across the funnel

• Works cross-functionally with product, sales and design

In short:A growth marketer is responsible for building and optimising a sustainable system for marketing growth.

At Rise, this role is delivered by UK-based specialists within our collective — highly transparent, non-whitelabel, and deeply experienced across multiple channels.

How Growth Marketing Works (The Full-Funnel Model)

A strong growth marketing strategy is always full-funnel.

Here’s the journey a customer takes through a well-structured growth engine:

Awareness → Consideration → Conversion → Activation → Retention → Referral

Growth marketing ensures every step makes sense, every message aligns to awareness stage, and every channel supports the next.

This is the backbone of effective growth marketing strategies.

The Core Components of an Effective Growth Marketing Strategy

1. Clear, measurable growth goals

Growth marketing only works when goals are grounded in revenue.Examples of marketing growth goals:

• “Increase MQLs by 30% in 90 days”

• “Improve onboarding completion rate from 42% → 60%”

• “Reduce CAC by 20% while maintaining volume”

No vague KPIs. No guesswork.

2. Deep customer insight & awareness stage alignment

Growth marketing relies on understanding:

• pain points

• motivations

• buying triggers

• awareness levels

• decision barriers

One of the most common mistakes I see when auditing 7–8 figure companies:

Brands speak “product-aware” to an audience that is only “problem-aware”.This alone destroys performance.

3. Multi-channel execution that actually works together

Great growth marketing strategies typically include:

• SEO (to capture demand)

• Paid ads (to generate demand)

• CRO (to convert demand)

• Email & lifecycle (to retain and activate)

• Content (to educate and nurture)

• Data & analytics (to attribute, track and optimise)

This is why growth marketing is often referred to as “growth + marketing” — it brings everything together into a unified, measurable system.

4. Experimentation (the engine of growth marketing)

A proper growth marketing strategy always includes structured testing:

• A/B tests

• creative variations

• landing page tests

• pricing/onboarding trials

• audience segmentation tests

• channel experiments

HubSpot, Reforge and other industry leaders all highlight experimentation as the heartbeat of growth.

5. Conversion optimisation & customer journey design

Growth marketing improves:

• landing pages

• sign-up flows

• onboarding

• checkout

• loyalty programmes

• winback sequences

Better journeys = better conversion, lower CAC, higher LTV.This is the foundation of marketing for growth.

Growth Marketing Tactics (With Real Examples)

Here are proven, high-impact growth marketing tactics used by companies scaling fast:

1. Viral Referral Loops (Dropbox)

Reward users for sharing — still one of the most efficient growth engines ever built.

2. Product-Led Onboarding (Slack)

Remove friction and let product value drive activation.

3. Community-Driven Growth (Glossier)

Turn customers into advocates through social proof.

4. Marketplace Density Tactics (Airbnb)

Focus on supply-side value to drive demand.

These examples highlight the difference between shallow growth hacks and meaningful growth marketing strategies.

Common Growth Marketing Mistakes (and What They Cost You)

1. Focusing only on acquisition

This is the #1 killer of marketing growth.

2. Running isolated tactics instead of a growth system

Content, ads, SEO and email must work together.

3. Making decisions without data

No tracking = no scaling.

4. Misaligned messaging

If your message doesn’t match awareness stage, your funnel breaks.

5. No experimentation rhythm

Guessing is expensive. Testing is profitable.

Do You Need a Growth Marketing Consultant or Collective?

You should consider external support if:

• Performance is inconsistent

• You don’t know where your funnel is leaking

• You need channel specialists but not full-time staff

• You lack a growth roadmap

• Results are plateauing or declining

Rise is structured differently from most agencies:You meet the actual growth marketers and channel specialists doing the work.No whitelabeling. No hidden teams. Just transparency and expertise.

Start With a Free Growth & Website Audit

If you’re unsure where your marketing growth is stalling, a free audit will highlight:

• what’s working

• what’s not

• bottlenecks in the funnel

• opportunities for fast wins

• the growth marketing strategies you should prioritise
  

→ Get your free audit here:https://www.risemarketing.uk/free-website-audit

Speak to a Growth Marketing Specialist

Rise - Growth Marketing Collective is a team of digital marketing and growth marketing specialists. Get in touch to find out how it can work for your business.

Book a call or call us on +44 (0)333 050 9280