I’m going to share my thoughts about “Growth Marketing” and “Growth Hacking.”
The term “Growth Hacking” was first coined in 2010 by Sean Ellis, who is also the founder of GrowthHackers.com and co-author of Hacking Growth, which I reviewed in my previous email.
Despite the ubiquity of “Growth Hacking,” there’s a trend toward using “Growth Marketing.” Here’s why—and why I agree with this shift:
Hacks, tricks, and tips by definition are short-term solutions that people use for a quick win. According to Reforge, once discovered, optimized, and adopted by the masses, these tactics reach the stage of fatigue. Tactics that worked well in the past won’t necessarily have the same results in the future. As a growth leader, you should strive to be well equipped with knowledge and skills to be able to create or adapt a growth strategy for your own business model.
We have a big addiction problem in our industry. Hacktics, the tips, tricks, hacks, tools, and secrets that promise to solve our growth problems. … As a result, marketers now get the majority of their ‘learning’ through this hack-tic based content. As addictive as they are, prescription-based tactics and tools won’t solve your problem, and most importantly, help you become an elite marketer.
—Brian Balfour, the former VP Growth of HubSpot
Interestingly, Sean Ellis wrote on LinkedIn about why he thought “Growth Marketing” was not a replacement for “Growth Hacking.” Sean reasoned that the use of “marketing” could cause other groups to be a bit territorial.Your emphasis may be on growth, but rather than in marketing, you work in Product, Engineering, UX, or in a startup. Then what would be your title?
These are the top titles being used by tech companies:
Growth Product Manager
Growth Engineer
Growth UX
Growth Marketing Manager
Growth Lead
Head of Growth
My take on the two terms:
If you consider marketing to be a growth-driving process that has much broader meaning than just a functional team, then you can use “Growth Marketing.”
If you need a term that works best cross-functionally, then just use “Growth.”
However, we should avoid using “Growth Hacking” because the narrow meaning of “hacking” doesn’t reflect the current comprehensive scope of growth strategy and implementation.
Disclaimer: What I’m sharing here is my personal point of view and does not represent the views of my current and former employers.
This newsletter was previously sent on July 30, 2021
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