This week I completed a Growth Marketing course with Entry level and here are some key skills I have developed.
As a digital marketer, I often face the challenge of scaling products and creating effective marketing funnels. While I had some skills in lead generation and growth marketing, I knew there was much more to learn. That’s when I found Entry Levels’ Growth/Digital Marketing course and decided to enroll.
During the course, I had several “ahaa moments” where I gained valuable insights.
My first “ah-ha moment” was the dream buyer analysis.
I realized the traditional way of creating customer profiles (i.e., crafting personas based on demographics, age, jobs, etc.) was often flawed because it only scratched the surface.
Here is an example of a customer persona template I created.
Download this Template and watch a tutorial on how to fill it HERE.
You can create a mostly correct persona by
- Using the previous knowledge you have about your customers to fill it.
- Conducting research or a market survey
- Finding marketing analytics to further reduce errors with crafting the personas.
Using this customer persona template worked for a while, but I noticed something was definitely missing. Normally, I would use this template to create primary and secondary audiences and then focus marketing efforts on the primary audience. However, in some cases (such as with SB), I noticed that most of the revenue came from the secondary audience. So, what did I do with this insight? I decided to intensify my marketing efforts with the primary audience by changing my strategies, while just applying the bare minimum efforts to the secondary audience. That was the main mistake I made with SB – I was marketing to a large percentage of people who might be problem aware or not, but they were not the converting audience.
It didn’t matter what tactics I deployed to nurture them, as I still experienced churn-outs. Although these churn-outs were mostly unregrettable because I also noticed that their expectations and my deliverables did not align, a churn-out is still a churn-out, and if the rate is high, it should be fixed.
Now, this is what the Entry Level taught me differently: the Pareto principle. The Pareto principle simply states that ‘80% of the results will come from 20% of your efforts’; that is, 80% of your revenue will come from 20% of your buyers (or less). That 20% of buyers are your ‘Dream Buyers’. I needed to grow SB’s revenue, increase customer retention and satisfaction, but I focused on the 80% instead of the 20%. Now I know better.
My second “ah-ha moment” was when I learned how to diagnose a funnel and optimize it for growth. First, I used the 5C’s analysis and Dream Buyer’s analysis to get an in-depth knowledge of the company and its customers. Then, I used Pirate metrics to diagnose the marketing funnel, identify problems, strategize, and optimize it for growth. It made complete sense to me, and I felt like I had struck gold.
After learning these techniques, I applied them to diagnose and break down the business processes of several online businesses, and it was an eye-opening experience. It has made it much easier to break down digital techniques.
With growth experiments, I have learned that our assumptions can sometimes be wrong. Let me share my experience with you.
Previously, discount programs did not work for SB. So, in one of my experiments, I hypothesized that an add-on service might work better than a discount service. However, the results of this experiment proved me wrong, as 80% of the respondents chose the discount. This left me wondering why the discount did not work in the first place. Then I tried connecting the dots. Maybe it was because we were marketing to the wrong dream buyers, or maybe the discount I offered previously wasn’t effective. I still do not know the factors responsible for this. The season when these discounts were offered could also be a factor, but who is to say what the exact factor or factors are if I don’t conduct more growth experiments in the future (and I love, love, love experiments)?
Click HERE to read about the outcome of one of my Growth Experiments.
In conclusion, the Growth Marketing course at Entry Level has helped me upskill in key areas. I now have expertise in Pirate Metrics, Dream Buyer Analysis, and analyzing growth funnels. I have a proven track record of running successful growth experiments and optimizing marketing strategies using the 5Cs framework. I have a deep understanding of diagnosing problems in marketing funnels and am adept at optimizing them for growth.
- In particular, I have extensive experience in utilizing Pirate Metrics to evaluate and optimize a company’s marketing efforts. By using metrics such as Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, and Revenue, I am able to analyze the effectiveness of different marketing strategies and make data-driven decisions.
- Additionally, I am now skilled in conducting Dream Buyer Analysis to identify and target ideal customers. By developing a detailed understanding of our target audience, I am able to craft messaging and campaigns that resonate with them and drive conversion.
- I have also become more proficient in analyzing growth funnels to identify areas for improvement and testing different approaches to optimize performance. I have experience running growth experiments effectively to test and iterate on different strategies.
- Finally, I have a solid foundation in using the 5Cs framework to develop effective marketing strategies. By considering Company, Customers, Competitors, Collaborators, and Context, I am able to develop data-driven and comprehensive marketing plans that achieve measurable results.
Overall, my expertise in Pirate Metrics, Dream Buyer Analysis, growth funnel analysis, and the 5Cs framework make me a strong candidate for any marketing position where data-driven decision-making and optimization for growth are key priorities.
