Growth Marketing

Growth marketing is testing, iterating and optimising until a business actually grows. It's how I've added year-on-year sales growth across my own companies — not theory from a book.

Traditional marketing chases brand awareness and new customers. Growth marketing cares about the whole life of a customer — engagement, retention, revenue — and keeps finding ways to lift each one. The point is a repeatable process you can keep tightening, not a one-off campaign.

At its core, growth marketing is using data to decide what to do next. Test a tactic, read the numbers, kill what doesn't work, double down on what does. Run that loop fast enough and you find the effective strategies long before a plan on paper would.

I still run that loop across my own portfolio companies. The work of improving engagement, retention and revenue never really finishes — the market moves, so the playbook has to move with it.

Where I focus

Acquisition

Bringing new customers in — social media, search engine marketing, influencer marketing, referral programs. Different channels suit different businesses; the job is finding yours.

Activation

Turning someone who's interested into someone who acts — signing up for a free trial, creating an account, making that first purchase. Most funnels leak here, which is exactly why it deserves the attention.

Retention

Keeping the customers you already won — ongoing value, real relationships, actually addressing their needs and concerns. Loyalty is what happens when you show up after the sale.

Referral

Giving existing customers a reason to bring in friends and family. Done well, it generates new business and deepens loyalty at the same time — customers who refer tend to stick around.

Revenue

Getting more from every customer — lifting average order value, upselling and cross-selling where it makes sense, and improving pricing and packaging.