Growth is usually the desired outcome of a successful marketing effort. We market our products and services to prospects hoping to convert them to customers who will then contribute to our company’s revenue (and growth) goals.
But many companies don’t truly understand how to create and sustain growth within their organizations – in other words, how to get beyond the occasional “growth spurts” that they either can’t fully explain or that can’t be sustained over time.
Companies which understand the “secret sauce” of growth and who prioritize their long-term investment in it typically are committed to three basic elements that can propel healthy growth: (1) creativity, (2) analytics, and (3) purpose.
Creativity is what provides the truly breakthrough ideas that drive innovation and imaginative marketing campaigns. It starts with being bold and dreaming big, and by not only delighting customers and putting them front and center in all of your messaging, but also by introducing new ways that they can think about your products and services relative to meeting their needs.
Creativity is the true difference-maker between marketing and messaging that causes customers to stop, consider and change their buying behavior, vs. messages and campaigns that don’t really offer anything new and better.
Secondly, analytics are coming into their own as a necessary marketing tool, providing horsepower and precision to discover what customers really want and how they want it. Data analytics can point marketers in the right direction in terms of customer interests, intentions and unmet needs, and can serve as the anchor for marketers to determine which insights matter most to their prospective customers.
Finally, if growth-driven companies throw in purpose – on top of creativity and analytics – they can add an emotional element to customers’ purchasing decisions. Let your customers know what is important to you, what your organization stands for and what you collectively believe in. These kinds of messages should be “baked into” your marketing and communications as well as into your company’s overall culture.
Creativity, the use of smart analytics, and a publicly displayed purpose that guides the important decisions your company makes can combine for a powerful and hopefully irresistible motivator for customers and prospects to choose you over your competition.