Growth marketing is vital for startups and large companies

Every marketing team and manager has faced the challenge of growth. You're firing on all cylinders, you have your traffic acquisition campaigns set up and you're converting at a good clip. And then your CEO comes to you and says - how do we grow? How do we improve our conversions, grow our sales, and scale the business? 

That's the crux of the problem that growth marketing comes to solve. And often you need either an in-house growth marketer or an outside marketing consultant to take a look at your marketing campaigns and discover growth opportunities. 

Growth hacking was particularly popular with early-stage startups back when the term was first coined by Sean Ellis in 2010 but it has benefited companies of all sizes.

It was a response to the notion that marketing was too broad and not based on data. People were complaining about terms like "branding" or "brand marketing" that made marketers sound magicians and weren't focused on actual metrics. 

Larger companies have a different set of challenges and such a diverse channel mix that it's can be even harder to look at the entire funnel. Some brands even set up their own growth team that helps with customer acquisition, conversion rate optimization, setting up A/B tests, and optimizing the user experience along the entire sales funnel. 

What is a growth marketer?

A growth marketer is someone who runs iterative tests throughout the marketing funnel in order to increase user growth, improve retention, and monetize new channels. Growth marketing is a subset of traditional marketing and it's much more focused on data, experimentation, automation, and taking a full-funnel approach.

What does the growth marketing role entail?

At its core, the goal of any growth marketer or growth hacker is to be responsible for the entire marketing funnel. From awareness and acquisition all the way down to activation, revenue, retention, revenue, and the referral phases.

Traditional marketers always stayed at the surface and were primarily focused on the awareness and user acquisition stages of the growth funnel. 

The traditional approach in digital marketing involved launching a marketing campaign and seeing how to optimize it to meet certain KPIs. Growth marketing evolved to include looking at the customer experience throughout the funnel and using specific growth marketing tactics to optimize it.

Growth marketing is a combination of three distinct areas of marketing - creative marketing, software engineering & automation, and data analytics & testing. And the growth mindset is to use these three areas to optimize the entire customer journey.

Here are three main objectives of a growth marketer.

1. Create a better product-market fit

The first important objective is to make sure that there is a product-market fit. That's usually half the battle and if optimized can immediately have an effect on the entire funnel. It sometimes involves changing the entire marketing strategy of the firm, switching to different acquisition channels, or improving the user experience on the site. 

2. Improve your conversion rate

One of the main jobs of a growth marketer or a growth marketing agency is to improve the conversion rate on the website. That includes testing different copy, different designs, adding more social proof, simplifying the checkout process, and optimizing the product and category pages. 

3. Optimize each marketing channel

The last objective of a growth marketer is to optimize each marketing channel you're using. It could be paid social, Google ads, content marketing, social media marketing, or improving your email flows. 

The skills & knowledge that every great growth marketer should have

We've all heard of the T-shaped marketer model but what does it actually mean? A lot of companies expect a marketer to do a variety of jobs and pack all these different marketing disciplines into one job description. A lot of companies want a specialist but end up hiring a generalist. 

That's where the idea of a t-shaped marketer comes in. The best growth marketer needs to have general knowledge about a variety of areas in marketing like email marketing or content marketing, and in-depth knowledge in two main acquisition channels - organic traffic (SEO) and paid advertising. 

Data analytics 

A successful growth marketer needs to have a passion for analyzing data. They need to know analytics tools (Google Analytics or the equivalent) like the back of their hand and keep track of all the main funnel metrics for your business.

Optimization

The ideal growth marketer should use the data they gather to optimize your website and marketing funnel. They should use marketing automation and their technical skills to improve conversion rates for each stage of your funnel. Conversion optimization as it at the core of growth marketing and there's always a CRO marketer on a growth marketing team.

Basic design

The right growth expert should have an eye for design and be able to work with graphic designers and content marketers on various projects. Knowing Adobe Photoshop or Figma is always a plus.

Experimentation

The right marketer for your project should be able to set up A/B tests and optimize various elements of your funnel. It could be a landing page for your referral program, or a call to action button on a promotional email, or the copy and creative on a social media campaign.

Understanding of marketing

Your head of growth should know traditional marketing principles like market research, messaging, positioning, and omnichannel strategies, and be able to use them to grow your customer base.

People skills

Marketers often work with a variety of people and they need to be excellent communicators and be able to be the glue in a marketing team. And each project usually involves a cross-functional team with a wide range of personalities, especially in larger organizations.

Any combination of these marketing skills could make it onto a growth marketer job description. The exact requirements are up to each company.

Growth marketer job requirements

• Passion and determination to solve complex problems
• Understanding of digital marketing, advertising, and audience targeting. 
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills
• Knowledge of a variety of marketing tools
• Strong analytical skills

Average growth marketer salaries

The average base salary for a growth marketer is $88,262 as of January 26, 2023, but the salary range typically falls between $70,814 and $103,290.

How to hire a growth marketing expert with proven results

Thinking of hiring a growth marketer for your startup? Your marketing manager is overwhelmed and needs an expert to take a look at the entire funnel? Are you disappointed with all the growth marketer candidates you've seen so far and want someone with industry experience? 

Here's a step-by-step process that will help you find the right candidate.

1. Decide on your growth goals

The first step is to decide what you want to achieve. Is this going to be a full-time hire or a freelancer? What problem are you solving for - user growth, retention, or a combination of both? And what's your budget for the project?

2. Write the job description

Next, write down all the various tasks, responsibilities, and channels you're hoping your candidate will manage. Be sure to include the project scope, expectations, and a salary range. 

3. Ask your network

Now that you have a job description you should reach out to your professional network and see if anyone knows of someone who would fit. 

4. Post the job online

You can always use online groups, Slack channels, and job boards to source candidates. The problem here is that you might get a ton of unqualified people applying to your job and would have to spend hours sifting through applications.

5. Use Mayple

We created Mayple to make the process of finding the perfect marketing talent really easy. We match your business with the ideal growth marketing hire that has a proven success record in your specific industry or niche. It's like having a Head of Growth in your corner. 

Mayple is the best place to find your next growth marketer hire.

Extensive vetting process

Gone are the days when you had to look through phony testimonials and call professional references. Mayple’s vetting process is unlike any other. We have an extensive assessment of the marketer’s skill, we look at their data and their track record, and we have them pass a preliminary assignment or mini-project.

We have 600+ marketing experts that have worked with some of the world's biggest brands. Work with our hand-picked team of ideal candidates and growth marketing freelancers and get the results you've been waiting for. 

Unbiased monitoring

We don’t just your brand with an expert marketer, we monitor their progress and have regular calls to make sure that you are satisfied with their work. Joining Mayple is like having a team of marketing veterans at your side. We brainstorm solutions, send ideas to the experts and do everything we can to make sure you meet your ROI goals.

Full visibility & transparency

One of the greatest challenges of working with digital marketing agencies and growth specialists is that it’s hard to view all the data in one place. This is especially true of a growth strategy that includes many different channels.

Sometimes asking for a better dashboard or a site design change is like pulling teeth. With Mayple, we’ve built a system to display all the relevant data for you in one place that makes it easier for both the brand and for our conversion rate experts to make the right decisions.

A fraction of the cost of a marketing agency

Marketing agencies often charge an arm and a leg for growth marketing and have a ton of other clients they are servicing. At Mayple, you can get a growth marketer with proven industry experience at a fraction of the cost.

And you also get a dedicated member of the Mayple team to monitor your project and make sure that everything is firing on all cylinders. With Mayple, your brand gets the expertise and attention it deserves to succeed.

Hiring growth marketers has never been easier. 

Mayple makes it easy to find the perfect marketer

Our onboarding process is very simple.

No need for a drawn-out interview process. We make the hiring process a cakewalk. 

Step 1 - you fill out a quick marketing brief about your business. You provide information like your ideal customer personas, business goals, campaigns you’ve done so far, and what you are looking to achieve.

Step 2 - we match you with an expert growth marketer.

Step 3 - Mayple’s growth marketing expert presents their marketing plan for your business.

Step 4 - Once you approve the plan, we get to work. Sit back and watch the magic happen.

Want to hire the top growth marketing experts for your business? Get Started Today.