What I learned in One Month of Growth Marketing
Below, I will be talking about everything I learned in just one full month of Growth Marketing where I will be sharing the most important things for you to know.
Week 1:
Growth sits at the intersection of marketing, product, and engineering—because it touches every part of the customer journey. Let’s break it down using the AARRR framework:
Awareness: People discover your brand (e.g., ads, social media, PR)
Acquisition: They visit your site or app (e.g., installs, sign-ups, traffic)
Activation: They have a great first experience (e.g., first purchase, account creation)
Retention: They keep coming back (e.g., loyalty programs, repeat visits)
Revenue: You earn from them (e.g., sales, subscriptions, upsells)
Referral: They bring others in (e.g., word of mouth, shares, reviews)
Optimizing each stage helps attract the right users, deliver strong experiences, build loyalty, drive revenue, and fuel referrals—creating sustainable, long-term growth.
To drive exceptional growth, focus on three core principles:
Define and deliver value: Know what makes your product truly valuable to users.
Accelerate time-to-value: Help users experience that value as quickly as possible.
Increase value frequency: Ensure they keep experiencing that value regularly.
These principles build stronger user engagement and long-term growth.
Week 2:
Acquisition
The process of attracting and converting new customers to grow your customer base.
Common tactics include promotions, ads, social media campaigns, influencer partnerships, and lead generation. Today, social media advertising is one of the most popular methods, thanks to the rise of social platforms.
Retention
The process of keeping existing customers engaged and encouraging repeat purchases to build loyalty and increase lifetime value.
Examples include loyalty programs, personalized offers, email marketing, great customer service, and regular follow-ups.
In short: Acquisition brings customers in—Retention keeps them coming back.
I had the opportunity to explore both retention and acquisition through a project on the skincare brand Summer Fridays. Check it out here: Summer Fridays Project
Week 3:
This week, I explored the channel matrix to better understand the strengths and trade-offs of various marketing channels.
Key takeaways:
Facebook & TikTok Ads: Strong all-around—great targeting, control, and scalability.
Viral Marketing: Low cost but unpredictable; high risk, high reward.
Content Marketing: Long-term strategy that requires consistency to pay off.
Sponsorships: Boost visibility, but often expensive with limited targeting.
Sales/Promotions: Quick and controllable results, but labor-intensive and hard to scale.
Each channel serves a purpose—it’s all about choosing the right one for your goals.
Another project I worked on was an optimization exercise, where I learned how to evaluate constraints and define clear optimization goals. Check it out here.
Below I will attach how I built my trial channel matrix.
A few key takeaways:
It helped me clearly compare channels by cost, scalability, and control.
It made it easier to match strategies to specific goals—like using content for long-term growth vs. paid ads for quick wins.
Most importantly, it reinforced that there’s no one-size-fits-all—the right channel depends on your goals, audience, and resources.
Week 4:
I created a growth strategy exercise for Zesto where I defined mock optimization priorities and constraints, selected acquisition channels, generated growth ideas, and developed a RICE framework to prioritize initiatives. Heres what it looked like:
Back:
Over recent projects, I’ve deepened my understanding of growth marketing by working hands-on with key concepts and frameworks. I explored retention and acquisition through a project on the skincare brand Summer Fridays, testing strategies to attract and keep customers. I built a detailed channel matrix to evaluate marketing channels based on cost, scalability, and control, helping me match tactics to specific goals—from content marketing’s long-term brand building to paid ads’ quick wins. Additionally, I completed an optimization exercise focused on evaluating constraints and defining clear goals. Most recently, I developed a comprehensive growth strategy for Zesto, where I prioritized initiatives using the RICE framework, selected acquisition channels, and brainstormed growth ideas—all while balancing constraints and optimization priorities. These experiences reinforced that successful growth depends on tailoring strategies to objectives, audience, and available resources.