Jim Huffman - The Growth Marketers Playbook: A Strategic Guide to Growing a Business in Todays Digital World

It doesnt matter that my business idea wasnt perfect.

The main thing is, I made it happen. It was 2011 and I built the website myself. No coders. No agency.

To clarify, it was just a simple WordPress site with some plug-ins, but to me it was a thing of beauty. It was about to change the world. And my website was live!

Damn, was I wrong.

Sadly, this is where that story ends. That finished product was the main highlight. The users never arrived. Investors never called. We never filed an IPO. Today, the domain is just a tombstone inside my GoDaddy graveyard. #RIP

Since then, I have grown four startups that generate over a million dollars in sales per month. Ive mentored founders whove worked at Google, Apple and Techstars on growth and led growth marketing workshops at companies like Mattel, FedEx, Oreo, Clorox and more. I have helped market a launch of a Netflix special in over 130 countries.

As I write this book, I am running growth for an e-commerce brand thats grown from 500 subscribers and $10,000 a month to over 75,000 paying customers and seven figures in sales per month.

I havent done this with one trick or tactic. I dont have a magic SEO hack that will change your life. Ive used various channels, including search engine optimization (SEO), email marketing, referral marketing and paid social ads to drive growth. Its the principles of growth that got me to this point. That is what I hope to pass on to you through this book.

But, first, why did my first product fail, you ask?

Why didnt my website get traffic? The truth is that it never stood a chance. Connecting potential customers to the product was never a part of the strategy or my vision. Building a thoughtful acquisition strategy was not a priority. I was naive and just assumed that customers would magically appear after I built a shiny website.

It didnt fail because of the idea. It failed because I undervalued the importance of connecting my product to a market that would care about it.

In most startups, the problem isnt the product or the service you offer, its the distribution strategy. In other words, I didnt build a product with growth in mind.

Unfortunately, this isnt uncommon. You might have a decent business idea bouncing around in your head. Then you muster up the energy and the team to execute on it and turn it into a workable prototype. Congrats, you have a working web app! Your mom will be proud. Whats next?

How do you connect your new product with the world? Did you assume that simply because you took the initiative to make something, people will flock to it?

The truth is, this is how most people approach marketing. They put their growth strategy on the back-burner. They assume that because theyre building the greatest thing since the iPhone, marketing will take care of itself.

Dont get me wrong: The most important thing is a product that truly solves a problem in a way thats 10 times better than the next best solution.

But that product should also come with validated customer demand and a distribution strategy to get it in front of them. How will you connect this product with users in an organic and seamless way? Do you have a strategy other than run Facebook ads to acquire users?

This sounds so simple and obvious, but its constantly forgotten. Worse, people think theyre doing this, but instead theyre implementing a below-average marketing and growth strategy.

Dont agree? Take it from Dave McClure, founder of 500 Startups and former head of marketing at PayPal. He says this:

The Valley skill set that should be in highest demand and greatest scarcity is neither engineering nor design, but rather internet marketing.

How did I go from building a crappy website that barely got any users to helping startups grow to millions of dollars in sales and teaching Fortune 500 companies how to run growth? Thats what well break down in this book, including the following topics:

• How to be customer-focused in every aspect of marketing
• How to run your growth team when its 10 people or just you
• How to build a conversion funnel that works
• How to scale your growth strategy
• Best practices for acquiring users, converting customers and scaling growth

There is a plethora of marketing, growth-hacking and startup books out there, so how will this book actually help you? Where does this book fit in with all the other options?

First, this isnt marketing. Its growth marketing. Wait, what is growth marketing? Dave Gerhardt of Drift, a conversational marketing tool, defines growth marketing as the following, Growth marketing is all about one thing: attracting more engaged customers. And while traditional marketing focuses on the top of the funnel, the growth marketing job description requires focusing on the entire funnel.

Said another way, marketing is about the first touchpoint and getting people to your website. Growth marketing is about the entire funnel: Getting people to the site, activating them, getting them to return and getting them to refer. The more you can control the entire experience, the more powerful youll be as a marketer.

How is this marketing book different from all the others?

Its not about one persons growth story. Its not about high-level theories. Its about actual on-the-job advice for growing your online business. Thoughtful insight and advice along with the mistakes to avoid.

If this book was a dog it would be a mutt. A scrappy, friendly mutt named Oliver, made of the best parts of all breeds.

Its part marketing playbook (reference chapter 7).

Its part growth philosophy book (reference chapter 3).

Its part database and resources (reference chapter 9).

Plus, it has a little touch of motivation (check the last chapter).

Most importantly, this book is a resource that gives you the confidence to grow your business the right way.

It contains actionable advice and recommendations you can implement or use along every phase of your companys growth: clear examples, recommended tools and an approach for growing your website. Plus, youll find case studies, marketing tool recommendations, 101 growth ideas to test and 11 quotes to help light a fire under your butt to get started.