How to Become a Growth Marketer in 2021 (for Free)

There’s a daunting range of content on the web that teaches you how to market your product or service more effectively. But most of it regurgitates the same thing, and only a little is of high quality. Even then, it’s easy to learn pockets of knowledge but not understand how it is all connected. 

In this article, I will share some of the top free articles, guides, and content that you can use to become a full-stack expert growth marketing manager

Click here to get a free copy of these courses.

What is Growth Marketing

The Growth Marketing Handbook

Julian Shapiro’s guide to Growth Marketing is arguably the single best resource available online to help you understand the concept of growth marketing and how to do it practically. He simply describes it as “This handbook explains how to acquire customers for your site or app then get them to purchase”. Read it first.

How to think about strategy

• Hurree’s Essential Guide to Marketing Strategy
• HubSpot’s Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Complete Marketing Strategy in 2021
• Mayple’s Ultimate Guide to Marketing Strategy: How to 10X Your ROI
• CoSchedule’s Marketing Strategy Guide: How to Plan Yours in 12 Steps With a Template

Process & Strategy > Tactics. Marketing channels on their own mean nothing if you don’t understand how they fit in terms of the bigger picture or your commercial objectives. It’s like running a race; it doesn’t matter how fast you run if you’re running in the wrong direction.

Customer Research

How to Do Market Research: A Guide and Template

Over the past few years, I’ve consulted, mentored, and helped 100+ startups. One of the patterns I’ve identified of successful startups is how well they understand their customers. 

Understanding how your business solves your customer needs is imperative to any successful campaign. These resources will help you understand who your customer is, what problems they face and how to become a customer-focused company.

Messaging

Strategic Communication: How to Develop Strategic Messaging and Positioning

Understanding how to effectively communicate your value proposition and ensuring it’s consistent is incredibly important and often misunderstood. For a lot of founders, they understand how they want to articulate their brand but getting it down on paper is difficult.

This document will help you understand how to get those thoughts down on paper and ensure everything is consistent across all marketing channels.

Analytics

The Ultimate Guide to Google Analytics in 2021

Google Analytics Academy – Google Analytics for Beginners

Understanding where people come from and how they behave when they visit your website, app or platform is extremely crucial, and the best part is you don’t need to spend tons of money on fancy software. Simply understanding how to use Google Analytics will give you a holistic understanding of your users and how you can make better decisions based on their behavior.

Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing

Building Your Social Media Marketing Strategy for 2021

Discover our interview with Social Media Expert Kassy Cho!

Are you posting content online that doesn’t get much engagement or result in any sales? Use these guides to help understand what content to post to attract users and make articles that convert.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

SEO in 2021: The Definitive Guide

One of my favourite and most underrated channels, SEO allows for organic growth in a scalable fashion. It can be challenging to stay updated as search engines become more sophisticated and the rules of the game keep changing. 

Backlino helps you understand what needs to be done and the core foundation to become competitive on the Search Engine Results Page.

Content Marketing

Content marketing can help improve brand awareness and drive users to your platform, app, and website. It’s a channel that ties in with others such as paid and SEO. 

Unfortunately, most people think that content marketing is just blog articles when there are different ways to be creative you can take advantage of based on the stages of your user journey.

Google ads

Start with Google Ads Skillshop

Continue with Google Ads Masterclass

Many £million businesses use Google Ads as their primary customer acquisition channel. It can be an incredibly effective channel and a straightforward way to burn through cash if done incorrectly. This guide will teach you from 0 – expert.

Facebook Ads
Facebook Advertising Training

Advertising on Facebook

Facebook’s Official Training Courses

If your business model is B2C, you may find that Facebook is a more appropriate channel for customer acquisition. Like Google Ads, you can quickly burn cash if you don’t do this well. Use these resources to find ways to create ads that convert clients.

Influencer Marketing

Influencer Marketing with Sprout Social

One of the most provocative and misinterpreted marketing methods, influencer marketing, is often used in a brand awareness capacity and is considered a high-risk, high-reward channel. Having spent millions on influencers, I’ve found you have to be very careful with approaching this method and understanding how it fits your overall marketing strategy.

Cold Email

HBR’s Guide to Cold Emailing

Yesware: 10 Cold Email Examples & Why They Work [2021]

People don’t hate cold email. People hate emails that don’t add value to their life. Email as a marketing channel has a higher ROI than nearly every other channel. The biggest mistake I see people making is sending generic sales emails to thousands of people and then getting disappointed when no one replies, or worse – their emails get junked.

Sending highly customized emails to the right people using terms that make sense to them can be a great way of raising awareness of your brand. Use these resources to make sure you don’t annoy people and get the conversation started. 

Summary

There are very few businesses where a single channel produces all the growth. For most of our clients, we find that using multiple channels working together has the best results. Through continuous experimentation and iteration, you will have a powerful and loyal client base who will appreciate your knowledge of the field. Once you have that, you can leverage it into a strong brand that is all about quality work and getting things done.

We hope you enjoyed our guide to becoming a growth marketing expert, if you would like further assistance in learning more about it, feel free to reach out to us at [email protected].   

Click here to download the sheet: Growth Marketing Manager Learning Sheet