Strong Company Growth: Marketing vs. Growth

Do you rely on marketing to grow your business?

The term marketing is kind of outdated.

In the “start-up” world, also in the new business world, marketing is really thought of as just plain.. advertising.

High growth companies more often use the term GROWTH to define scaling their businesses. There’s a big difference between “marketing”, and “GROWTH” in business.

What’s the difference?

So where you might hire a marketing manager, or marketing agency, and they might successfully put your in brand, or your message, or your company in front of your target audience using pay click online ads, or an ad in a magazine, or a radio ad, or a TV commercial. They then tell you what a great job they’re doing, because so many people POTENTIALLY saw your message. That doesn’t always, in fact it rarely, makes you more profitable as a company.

Growth, however, gets far more realistic. Because it looks at everything from PROSPECT to NET DOLLARS IN YOUR BANK ACCOUNT.

For example, GROWTH for your company is not just about spreading your message, but spreading it to the right audience in the right volume, at the right time.

• Then, driving them back to your phone number, or your store front, or your website.
• Then, walking them through whatever sales process you have that converts a PROSPECT into a BUYER.
• Then, possibly UPSELLING them so that their average order value, or their day one order of value is as high as possible.
• Then, ONBOARDS them as a new customer so they feel like they got more value than they paid for, and so they know how to Consume your product, and shows them how to contact your company so they don’t feel left in the dark.
• Then, it encourages them to maybe leave you a good review online, or refer a friend, or come back soon to purchase more from you.

GROWTH is about all the actions that drive bottom line revenue.

How do Companies use Growth

More and more often I see smart companies discussing growth, as opposed to just marketing.

Because marketing is really just A PIECE of the whole “growth equation”, and smart entrepreneurs, are getting far more intelligent and holding every marketing effort accountable to certain numbers.

Because that’s the only way to turn a marketing campaign into bottom line Growth for your company.

Companies are also getting far more intelligent about the numbers they’re tracking. Because paying an agency $1 million, or $100,000, or $10,000, or even just $150, to market something for you, means NOTHING to your bottom line, if it does not get the RIGHT MESSAGE in front of the right audience, and then build a bond with that audience so that it assists them in making a trusted purchase from you, and then at least begins the process of converting that new customer into a crusader for your brand.

Company Marketing Vs. Growth Metrics

The metrics we use for MARKETING and GROWTH are considerably different.

A marketing metric might be number of clicks on a pay click add, or the number of phone calls from any kind of marketing effort.

Whereas a GROWTH METRIC would actually follow that dollar from the time it leaves your bank account to pay for whatever that marketing message is, all the way back to how long it takes for that dollar (plus profit) to come back into your bank account and stay there so I can be used to further grow your company.

So the next time you’re sitting down with your marketing manager, or with an agency that you hired, and they start confusing you with numbers that have NOTHING to do with answering the question about how long it takes for today’s marketing dollars… to be clearly tracked back into the company’s bank account.

In fact, the next time somebody starts giving you some convoluted numbers that distract you from understanding EXACTLY when you PROFIT from the dollars you spent today on the marketing they did for you… the moment they start confusing you, shut that conversation down, and force them to make it extremely simple for you to understand and to clearly see on paper when the PROFIT actually reaches your bank account.

If I spend $100 today – when does that $100 translate into REVENUE and wind up back in my bank account?

Because growth has nothing to do with just spreading a message. Growth has to do with predictably scaling a company, which requires 2 very important things:

1. Clearly defined metrics that you understand, and that are extremely accurate.
2. PROFIT coming back into your bank account account so that you can… keep increasing your SPEND, and keep reaching MORE AND MORE people with your message, and keep expanding your TEAM and product line to service those customers in a better way.

Now, I’m well aware there’s a LOT of branding experts, marketing agencies, and advertising gurus who will argue about everything I’ve said in this article.

And if you don’t agree with what I said here then definitely tell me in the comments. Because I challenge ANYONE who questions this…

Decisions That Grow Your Company

Because, no successful business person has ever grown a company without being able to make accurate decisions, quickly, when it comes to where to put “marketing dollars”. And the only way to know that is to have extremely clear metrics showing us… how quickly money returns into our bank account from each marketing dollar spent.

By the way… I’ve worked with some amazingly talented marketing agencies, and after tracking millions of dollars, I can tell you that the most EFFECTIVE people in that industry, are always those who have the SIMPLEST metrics that track DOLLARS OUT to DOLLARS IN.

If you’re in bed with a marketing agency who confuses the hell out of you every time they talk to you, or if you have people on your team helping you spread a message that is not profitable for your company, then I feel your frustration. I have ABSOLUTELY felt your pain in the past. My BEST advice to you, is to have a come to Jesus meeting with them, today. Work with them to deliver DAILY metrics that are crystal clear on exactly when you become profitable from every dollar you invest in marketing through them. 

The process of getting clear with that, will transform your company from a MARKETING focused company to a GROWTH focused company, and the amount you scale after that will literally amaze you.

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