The Big Human Guide to Growth Marketing

In this blog:

• What is Growth Marketing?

• Why is Growth Marketing Important? (Benefits of Growth Marketing)

• Key Components of Growth Marketing (The AARRR Framework in Growth Marketing)

• Why Growth Marketing & Product Go Hand-in-Hand

• Growth Marketing Examples

• Best Practices For Building a Successful Growth Marketing Strategy

Growth marketing isn’t about quick wins — it’s about building momentum that lasts. It combines data, experimentation, and full-funnel thinking to drive long-term growth and deeper customer relationships. If you’re looking to scale with purpose, this is the playbook. 

Strategic, data-driven marketing is how we do things at Big Human. As a full-service creative and marketing agency, we help forward-thinking brands grow smarter. Reach out if you're looking for a growth marketing partner.

What is Growth Marketing? How does it differ from Growth Hacking, Performance Marketing, and Brand Marketing?

Digital marketing moves fast — and its subfields come with a lot of terminology. Let’s clear up a few key terms to make sure we’re all using the same language.

Growth marketing is a data-driven, iterative approach to growing your business — not just by attracting new customers, but by keeping them. It spans the entire customer journey, from the first click to repeat purchase, and uses experimentation, analysis, and cross-channel execution to drive measurable, sustainable growth. 

It’s often confused with growth hacking, which focuses on short-term wins — rapid-fire experiments to generate a spike in users, revenue, or engagement. Growth hacking can be flashy, but it’s not always built to last. (A good growth marketing strategy employs some growth marketing tactics as experimentation to learn and iterate quickly.)

Then there’s performance marketing — a term often used to describe highly trackable, ROI-focused tactics like paid intelligence, affiliate marketing, or programmatic display. Performance marketing is also part of growth marketing, but it’s just one slice of the pie.

And finally: brand marketing. Where growth focuses on numbers, brand marketing builds meaning — the story, emotion, and identity that make people loyal to a company. 

At Big Human, we don’t believe in pitting growth vs. brand. A beautiful brand without growth is an unsustainable business. But a company that leans too hard into growth without brand? That’s a short-term win with no staying power. The best marketing strategies blend performance with purpose — making sure your brand is discoverable, compelling, and conversion-ready at every touchpoint.

Why is Growth Marketing Important?

If you want growth that sticks — not just spikes and dips — growth marketing is essential. It helps you grow in a way that feels less like guesswork and more like a reliable, repeatable system. Rather than just banking on big campaigns or momentary gains, growth marketing concentrates on building meaningful, lasting relationships with your customer base.

Successful growth marketing looks at the big picture — not just getting people in the door, but turning them into true-blue brand advocates. By tapping into data and ongoing testing, our growth marketing team gets clear insights into what’s driving the most impact, so we can make better decisions, stretch your budgets further, and keep evolving your growth marketing strategies as they go.

Benefits of Growth Marketing

It helps you grow smarter, not just bigger.

Growth marketing isn’t about chasing quick wins or throwing money at ads and hoping for the best. It’s about understanding what’s really driving results and using those insights to build long-term momentum — the kind of growth that compounds over time.

You gain actionable insights into your target audience.

Growth marketing campaigns are built on tangible data and consistent testing, so you’re always learning about your target audience — what they care about and how to connect with them.

It works across all your channels.

Growth marketing isn’t limited to one platform — it connects the dots between your email, social media, SEO, and paid efforts to create a bigger impact.

It makes your budget work harder for you.

A bigger budget doesn’t necessarily mean bigger results. Because growth marketing focuses on what actually works, it makes it easier to figure out where to invest your resources, helping you spend more effectively.

It scales with your business.

There’s a reason growth marketing is a proven approach. It’s designed to scale alongside you, whether you’re just starting out or planning for the next stage of growth.

You’re always improving.

Growth marketing is a limitless cycle of testing, learning, and refining. You never stand still, and your results keep getting better.

Key Components of Growth Marketing

Growth marketing’s core components are designed to attract, engage, retain, and convert first-time buyers into loyal, lifelong customers. Here are the essential elements of growth marketing.

Full-Funnel Focus

A strong growth marketing strategy looks at the entire customer lifecycle: Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, and Revenue (yes, that’s the AARRR framework — we’ll get into that later).

Also, silos don’t exist in a growth marketing strategy. It combines paid ads, SEO, social media, email marketing, content marketing, referral programs, and more, so every touchpoint works together.

Data-Driven Decision Making

Growth marketing runs on data. You’re constantly gathering insights to understand what’s working, what’s not, how to improve, and where the biggest opportunities are.

Testing & Experimentation

Growth marketing teams know nothing is set in stone. They live by testing — A/B tests, multivariate tests, and rapid-fire experiments — to find what resonates with customers and scale it up.

Customer Feedback & Personalization

Successful growth marketing tailors experiences to the user. Segmentation, personalization, and targeted messaging make growth marketing campaigns more relevant and effective.

Automation & Scalability

Automate where it counts, and you get agility and flexibility. That means you can move faster and scale bigger, without losing consistency or quality.

Continuous Optimization

You’ll never hear “set it and forget it” in growth marketing. It’s about regularly refining, iterating, and improving your growth marketing campaigns and strategy based on real performance data.

The AARRR Framework in Growth Marketing 

AARRR is the framework behind every high-performing growth strategy. 

AARRR stands for Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, and Revenue. It helps map the entire customer journey — from how users first discover your brand to how they stick around, refer others, and generate revenue. Growth marketing teams use the AARRR framework to optimize every stage of the customer journey, pushing them to think beyond “just get more customers” and instead, “transform them into brand believers.”

Let’s break it down:

Acquisition: How New People Find You

This is focused on building brand awareness through paid ads, organic search, social media, partnerships, or other channels that put your brand in front of the right audience.

Activation: When Curiosity Turns to Action

Think of this as the first meaningful step someone takes, like signing up for your newsletter, starting a free trial, or creating an account. It’s their first taste of the value you offer.

Retention: Maintaining Engagement Over Time

This is where you deepen the relationship, using personalized email campaigns, push notifications, product updates, or community-building efforts that encourage your target audience to come back again and again.

Referral: When Happy Customers Spread the Word

If you’re delivering a great customer experience, people naturally want to share it. Referral programs, incentives, and easy shareability help turn your customers into advocates.

Revenue: Turning Engagement Into Steady Growth

Here’s where your growth marketing efforts pay off. Through purchases, upgrades, and repeat business, you’ll drive steady, long-term revenue.

TL;DR: Together, these stages create a full-funnel approach that turns curiosity into loyalty — and loyalty into sustainable growth.

Why Growth Marketing & Product Go Hand-in-Hand

Growth marketing doesn’t stop at the ad click or email open — it extends into the product itself. Whether it’s optimizing onboarding flows, reducing drop-off points, or building features that drive referrals, real growth happens when marketing and product work as one. 

Your marketing data should inform product decisions, and your product experience should reinforce your marketing promise. At Big Human, we partner within our cross-functional teams to make sure growth isn’t just an external push — it’s embedded into the user experience.

Growth Marketing Examples

Growth marketing isn’t just one tactic — it’s a mix of digital marketing strategies working together to attract new customers, keep existing ones engaged, and turn loyalty into lasting growth. Here are (just a few) tactics for what that looks like in practice.

Referral Programs

Reward customers with discounts or special perks when they refer friends. It’s a win-win: you get new customers, and they get rewards in return.

Personalized Emails

Send email marketing campaigns that speak directly to your customers’ needs, like product recommendations or special offers based on their past actions. The more targeted and personalized your campaign, the better.

A/B Testing

Test different versions of paid ads, email campaigns, and website content to see what works best, then double down on what’s powering results.

Social Media Campaigns

Engage your audience through targeted ads, standout content, or strategic partnerships to boost visibility, spark engagement, and grow your brand’s reach.

Retention Plans

Turn one-time buyers into loyal fans with thoughtful product updates, personalized reminders, and rewards that keep them engaged.

Customer Journey Optimization

Test and iterate to ensure that every step of the customer experience is smooth and enjoyable — from the first visit to repeat purchases.

Best Practices For Building a Successful Growth Marketing Strategy

There’s no one-size-fits-all formula for growth marketing; every brand is different. But there are some tried-and-true principles that can set you up for success. (By the way, if you’re looking for recommendations, reach out to us to learn more about our growth marketing services). 

Whether you’re building your growth marketing strategy from scratch or looking to fine-tune your approach, here are a few best practices.

Start with clear goals tied to measurable outcomes.

What does success look like to you? Are you aiming for more sign-ups, higher retentions, or better referral rates? Clearly defined goals should shape every part of your strategy.

Know your audience inside and out.

You can’t create growth marketing campaigns for your customers without first knowing who they are. Dig into their needs, pain points, preferences, and behaviors. The better you understand them, the more your campaigns will resonate and convert. We love a good data-driven approach paired with human-centric insights (such as empathy mapping, stakeholder interviews, and user testing). 

Build (and constantly refine) your marketing funnel.

Map out every stage of the customer journey using the AARRR framework. Bonus points for those who put together a visualization in order to track key metrics on a regular basis with a data-driven approach. Identify drop-off points, spot opportunities, and make improvements to your overall strategy.

Test, test, and then test again. Make data your guide.

Successful growth marketing thrives on experimentation. Run A/B tests, try new channels, and play with messaging. Lean into what works, ditch what doesn’t, and keep iterating. Track everything. (Yes, we mean everything.) Let performance data guide your decisions, and don’t be afraid to pivot when the numbers tell you to.

Automate where it counts.

Automating frees you up to focus on strategy while ensuring you’re consistently nurturing leads and customer relationships. Consider tactics like email flows or onboarding sequences.

Personalize the experience.

Customers appreciate it when they feel like you’re talking directly to them. Tailor your messaging and growth marketing campaigns to different segments of your target audience. Personalization builds stronger connections and boosts engagement.

Prioritize retention and referrals.

Acquisition is only the first step in the marketing funnel. Focus just as much on keeping your audience engaged and motivating them to spread the word. Your North Star goal should be rooted in building a loyal and engaged userbase. 

Stay adaptable.

Just like your brand, the market (and your target audience) will evolve. Stay flexible, keep learning, and be open to adjusting your growth marketing strategy. Growth marketing isn’t static — it’s iterative by design. The most effective strategies evolve constantly, driven by real data, customer insights, and a willingness to adapt. 

Growth Strategy from the Ground Up

At Big Human, we bring full-funnel thinking to all of our growth marketing strategies, but there’s no plug-and-play here. Every company has different goals, audiences, and challenges, so we build custom growth strategies from the ground up — all tailored to your brand, product, and where you are in your journey. We scale up the tactics that best suit your needs, moving with intention to make growth marketing work harder for you.

If you need a hand building your growth marketing strategy, send us a message.