Barri Coen | Nov 21 | 4 min read

Growth Marketing Strategy: How to Plan, Prioritise and Execute

Growth Marketing Strategy: How to Plan, Prioritise and Execute

Growth marketing has become one of the most overused terms in the industry, yet one of the least understood.

Founders hear it everywhere. Marketers put it in their LinkedIn headlines. Agencies shout about it like it's the silver bullet.

But here's the truth: Growth marketing isn't a tactic. It's not a channel. It's not "just acquisition." It's a way of building your marketing function so it scales sustainably with fewer guesses and more clarity.

At Marketing Swat - Growth Marketing Collective, we specialise in helping startups and scaleups build a growth function that actually works: lean, transparent, structured, and focused on business impact over vanity metrics.

This guide breaks down everything you need to know about growth marketing, including frameworks, strategies, examples, and how to execute it inside your own business.

What Is Growth Marketing? (The Modern Definition)

Growth marketing is a full-funnel, experiment-led approach to acquiring, activating, retaining and monetising customers sustainably.

Unlike traditional marketing which focuses on top-of-funnel activity, growth marketing pulls every lever across the customer journey:

  • Acquisition
  • Activation
  • Engagement
  • Retention
  • Revenue
  • Referral

Growth marketers don't optimise ads. They optimise systems.

The Marketing Swat Definition

Growth marketing is the process of understanding where your biggest opportunities for growth are, prioritising them, and running experiments to unlock consistent, compounding results.

It's structured. It's strategic. And it's far more operational than most people assume.

Why Growth Marketing Matters

Noise has never been higher. Budgets have never been tighter. Competition has never been fiercer.

Growth marketing gives companies the clarity they need to:

  • Spend money where it actually impacts revenue
  • Diagnose what is slowing growth down
  • Build predictable growth engines
  • Prioritise the right channels at the right time
  • Reduce wasted spend
  • Scale efficiently with smaller, smarter teams

Most companies don't struggle with growth. They struggle with prioritisation.

Growth marketing solves that.

Growth Marketing vs Traditional Marketing

Traditional marketing focuses on:

  • Top-of-funnel brand building
  • Campaign-heavy activity
  • Long planning cycles
  • Large media spend
  • Lower accountability

Growth marketing focuses on:

  • Full-funnel optimisation
  • Fast experimentation
  • Data and insight-driven decisions
  • Cross-functional collaboration
  • ROI-first execution

Traditional marketing builds attention. Growth marketing turns attention into revenue.

Both matter, but only one builds a scalable engine.