Hello, would you like to grow your business?
Growth marketing is honestly an arbitrary term that could mean one of a hundred things these days.
You want to make more money selling your goods or services and reach more people?
Welcome to the definition of having a business — something marketers have slapped a fresh label on to seem novel. I’m being slightly facetious, but it’s intentional.
Because businesses throw money at growth all the time, only to wind up bleeding cash or wondering why nothing changed.
What “growth marketing” has come to mean
I’ve seen it firsthand:
CPC budgets torched by bots and sketchy competitors
Yelp punishing local businesses the second they cancel ads
Marketing bros selling snake oil dressed like SaaS
And the enterprise folks?
HBO Max — let’s be honest — has changed names more than Ethan Hunt changes disguises. Warner Bros. spent hundreds of millions rebranding — only to end up right back where they started.
It’s proof that even 9-figure marketing budgets can’t fix bad strategy.
That’s the landscape we’re all navigating.
It’s reactive, messy, and full of marketers selling recycled roadmaps based on outdated data and trend-chasing takes from LinkedIn pretenders.
What are you actually trying to grow?
Unless you’re running an enterprise brand, the answer is probably: revenue.
Not followers. Not impressions. Not email captures. Those are all byproducts of a good strategy. They’re late-stage ammo — for brands that already know who they are and have checked every box.
Because let’s be honest, 10k email opt-ins means little if you don’t know how to speak to your audience.
And the reality is: if it doesn’t make dollars, it doesn’t make sense.
Real growth strategy? It doesn’t start with generic AI prompts. It starts with a custom blueprint that understands what makes your business valuable in the first place.
Because your brand shouldn’t look like a McMansion.
I’m tryna make a dollar outta fifteen cents
Not every business has the luxury of throwing money at the problem until it goes away.
Most are trying to stretch a single dollar across a dozen needs — rent, payroll, product, ad spend — and still trying to show up like a brand that’s meant to last.
That’s not just hustle. That’s survival.
And that’s why treating marketing like a perfect 5:1 ROI equation is often a fantasy and counterproductive. You can’t always plug in a marketing dollar and expect five back.
Especially when the platforms are rigged, the algorithms shift weekly, and your competitor just got another round of funding to pour gasoline on your last three-months of strategy.
Real growth is about calculated momentum.
It’s knowing where to put pressure, how to build brand gravity over time, and when to say no to flashy trends that don’t move the needle. It’s working with the budget you’ve got and still building something that makes people feel something.
You don’t need a war chest.
You need clarity, conviction, and the right moves — even when the odds are stacked against you: an authentic story will outshine empty and thoughtless strategy, every time.
Websites, SEO, and strategic layers
SEO isn’t for everyone — but a solid website is.
And optimizing that site? Think woodwork. Every layer of varnish adds depth. If organic search has upside, setting your site up right is how you make sure your business is ready to be seen — and valued — like a finished piece, not raw lumber.
But let’s be honest — SEO is slow, technical, and a heavy-lift. If your business doesn’t need a dozen layers, don’t force them.
While going heavy might not make sense, a properly-built site out-the-gate creates surface area for opportunity. Even if traffic only trickles in?
Slow growth is better than no growth.
Copywriting got hit, then hit again
First, it was the spammy “make 10k/month writing blogs” bros.
Copywriting became a pyramid scheme. Each new copy guru spawned hundreds of mid-tier writers who flooded the market with a warped version of the oldest discipline in advertising.
Then AI came in and booted all the copy-pasters trying to fake it. Now every brand can spit out a mid-tier version of your voice without blinking.
But great copywriting doesn’t come from bots — it comes from humans who know your story backwards and forwards.
Copy is supposed to be evergreen. You’ll tweak it, sure — but great lines slap for decades. Ask McDonald’s:
“I’m lovin’ it.”
Content isn’t the game — it’s the bait
Let’s talk about the biggest rats’ nest marketers push: “content.”
Ask them what that even means and you’ll get a definition ripped off Wikipedia.
But you need it, oh boy do you.
And you actually do — but it’s like buying a boat.
B.O.A.T. = Bust Out Another Thousand
Enterprise level? BOAM.
Because content gets expensive fast, and volume isn’t the play anymore — partnerships are.
Influencers and creators reshaped distribution. Mass marketing is fading. Gen X VPs in lumbar-supported thrones have no idea what product’s trending on TikTok — or why they greenlit targeting ads to 10-year-olds.
You need content — but more than that, you need people who can help you do it without looking like a dork. Partnerships that meet your audience where they are — and actually land.
Because real recognizes real.
That’s the actual content marketing game now.
Growth marketing in 2025: receipts, not reach
We’re in the Age of Disregard — where brands blew up but lost their voice. Lost the customer. Lost the thread.
Now? Everyone’s keeping receipts.
You don’t win back trust with flashy Canva graphics or hacky search rankings. Not when there are twelve competitors offering the same service — faster, cheaper, maybe even better.
So what’s left?
What is growth marketing in 2025?
Assume the customer knows the game. Don’t sell less for more and call it innovation.
We’re in an era where anyone can launch anything. I could start an auto shop tomorrow. With marketing mojo, I could make it busy.
But would it be as good as a lifetime mechanic doing the same thing? Eh.
Private equity is gutting the soul out of family-run shops that built decades of trust. Replacing it with AI-averaged nonsense and branding based on data that forgets one key truth: emotion drives trust, trust drives purchase.
So what’s the play?
Build the best thing you can. Then market that.
The brands that truly stand behind what they offer don’t need hacks. Their growth feels inevitable. They’ll outshine the PE-backed orgs that sold the soul of the business for a quarterly profit.
Because they know what the folks committed to staying removed from a business don’t:
If you’re not growing authentically — what’s the point?