6 Step Growth Strategy
Hello, readers and fellow Praxians! This week, I’ll walk you through a six-step process for creating a growth strategy. The goal is to develop three comprehensive marketing ideas for your business or product.
Step 1 - Get to Know the Business
Once you’ve chosen a business, start by understanding the big picture of how it operates. You can do this by answering questions such as:
Where does the business generate most of its revenue—locally, online, or a mix?
Does the business have any natural competitors? Who are they?
How do the business’s prices and products compare to competitors?
What do customers think about the business? (If possible, read reviews to gain insights.)
Is the business currently doing any marketing? If so, what kind?
(View full list here)
Step 2 - Set up Optimization Priorities and Constraints
Since you can only optimize for one thing at a time, you need to determine the highest priority for your business. Some common priorities include:
Learning – Gaining insights to refine your approach.
Cost Efficiency – Maximizing impact with minimal spending.
Rapid Implementation – Quickly testing and executing ideas.
For example, when creating a growth strategy for Sweet Bee Coffee, I prioritized cost efficiency because it’s a small business with limited funds, making cost-effective channels essential.
Next, identify the three biggest constraints that could limit your strategy. These might include:
Reaching the target audience
Limited team resources
Budget restrictions
Step 3 - Select Two Acquisition Channels
Choose two marketing channels that best align with your priorities and constraints. One helpful approach is to create a channel matrix to evaluate and compare different options.
(View my last post on how to create a channel matrix here)
Step 4 - Growth Hypothesis
Once you’ve selected two acquisition channels, brainstorm three ideas for each. For example:
Content Marketing:
Create a series of posts focused on local events to attract the community.
Share aesthetic images showcasing drinks and decor.
Use “POV” content to highlight the daily life of the owner.
Facebook Ads:
Promote new or specialty menu items.
Advertise community events.
Share the business’s story to build emotional connection and brand recall.
Step 5 - Prioritize Ideas Using RICE
Rank each idea on a scale of 1 to 10 using the RICE framework:
Reach – How large is the potential audience?
Impact – How significant would success be for the business?
Confidence – How certain are you about the idea’s effectiveness?
Ease – How simple and quick is implementation?
This version of RICE is a hybrid between the original RICE scoring model and the ICE model.
Step 6 - Summary of Idea
Now that you’ve identified the highest-scoring ideas, the final step is to summarize the top three. Outline how each idea will be executed and how it aligns with your priorities and constraints.
For example:
Menu Ads – Create a series of ads showcasing new or specialty menu items. This approach has high reach with minimal effort. It aligns with key priorities by being budget-friendly, easy to implement, and effectively targeting the local audience on Facebook.