Estimated Reading Time: 4-5 minutes
BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front): The Kay Prince, Director of Growth Marketing at Extreme Reach and SUM Advisory Board member, breaks down the critical role of growth marketing in aligning strategy with business goals to fuel long-term success.
Marketing departments often get stuck with the label of “cost-center.” But what if I told you that with the right mindset and the right person, your marketing team could shift to a strategic revenue growth driver? That’s where a growth marketer comes in.
Digital Marketing vs. Growth Marketing
Growth marketing isn’t just a fancy term for digital marketing—it’s a step beyond. Now don’t get me wrong—digital marketing is critical for any company’s success. SEO, SEM, email campaigns, social media, and website optimization are all essential pieces of the puzzle. But if you’re looking to elevate your company and truly maximize ROI, you need a growth marketer to focus on strategy, not just execution.
So, what’s the difference between digital and growth marketing? Think of digital marketing as hands-on execution across all your online channels: running paid ads, posting on social media, sending out email blasts, and optimizing content for search engines. These are the actions that get your message in front of your audience and grows brand awareness. But growth marketing? That’s the big-picture thinker. It’s about analyzing how all those touchpoints and channel personas work together across the entire customer journey and aligning them with business goals to drive growth.
The Role of Growth Marketers
A growth marketer takes a bird’s-eye view of your company’s strategy. Instead of just managing campaigns, they look at the broader business objectives and then work backwards to ensure that every marketing effort contributes to those goals. They’re the ones attributing revenue back to the customer journey and proving to executives that marketing isn’t just fluff or brand awareness—it’s a measurable driver of revenue.
What makes a growth marketer even more valuable is the need to work with product and sales. They don’t work in a silo—they’re constantly collaborating with teams. Why? Because they need to know where deals get stuck, what pain points customers experience, and how the sales team closes the deal. Growth marketers also work hand-in-hand with product and product marketing to understand how to position the product as the ultimate solution to those customer pain points.
The Superpower of a Growth Marketer
Essentially, a growth marketer is the perfect blend of digital marketing, product marketing, and marketing operations. Their superpower is the ability to take data from various departments and channels to create an attribution model that links every marketing touchpoint to revenue. This way, they can clearly demonstrate to the execs that marketing isn’t just a black hole for spending, but a key part of the company’s revenue engine.
In a world where showing ROI is king, a growth marketer is your best bet for transforming marketing into a strategic, data-driven powerhouse. If your company doesn’t have one yet, it’s time to consider making that hire.
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