38 levers for growth for marketers - inspired from this webinar

(some of the levers below are only applicable for SaaS businesses like PLG )

Name Used by 🌶 Cost Speed Experts Company Stage Type
Webinars 🔥 💵 Fast Any stage Content/ Brand
Virality (invite others in product) ❌ 💵 Fast Plg experts Any stage PLG/Engineering
Powered by (viral PLG loop) 🔥 💵 Fast Any stage PLG/Engineering
Cold email/call outreach 🔥🔥 💵 Fast Cold emails experts Any stage “Outbound” (while typically reserved for sales this can also be done now with AI SDRs from the marketing department
Newsletter 🔥 💵 Fast Any stage Content
Product Hunt ❌ 💵 Fast Any stage Marketplace
Company social account 🔥🔥 💵 Fast/Medium Any stage Brand
Benchmarks/reports 🔥 💵 Medium >$1m Content
Affiliates ❌ 💵 Medium >$1m Brand
Blog/Content 🔥 💵 Medium/Slow >$1m Content
Programmatic SEO ❌ 💵 Medium/Slow >$1m Content
AppExchanges 🔥 💵💵 Medium/Slow Any stage Influence
Comparison Pages 🔥 💵 Fast/Medium Any stage Content
ABM 🔥 💵 Medium >$1M Outbound /debatable if this is a strategy or a growth play (can be both)
Founder brand 🔥🔥 💵 Slow Founder brand experts Any stage Brand
Retarget Ads 🔥 💵💵 Fast >$3M Paid
Google Ads 🔥 💵💵💵 Fast >$3m Paid
Lookalike ads (Meta) ❌ 💵💵💵 Fast >$3m Paid
Linkedin ads 🔥🔥 💵💵💵 Fast Paid agencies >$3m Paid
Influencers 🔥🔥 💵💵 Fast Any stage Paid
Partner co-marketing 🔥 💵💵 Fast >$5m Influence
Sponsorships of newsletters/podcasts 🔥 💵💵 Fast >$3m Paid
Scrappy dinners /lunches/roundatbles 🔥 💵 Slow Any stage Events
Trade shows booths , here’s where we’re going in 2025 🔥 💵💵💵 Fast >$3M Paid/Events
Guerrila marketing at events 🔥🔥 💵 Medium Any stage Events
User conferences 2025 our first one 🔥 💵💵 Slow >$3m Events
Podcast 🔥 💵 Slow Any stage Content
Review websites ❌ 💵💵 Slow >$3M Influence
Organic SEO 🔥 💵💵 Slow >$1M Content
Book ❌ 💵💵 Slow >$3M Content
Community 🔥🔥 💵💵 Slow Any stage Influence
Magazine ❌ 💵💵 Slow >$3M Content
PR ❌ 💵💵💵 Slow >$5M Content
Free tools ❌ 💵💵 Slow Any stage PLG
TV/print Advertising ❌ 💵💵💵💵 Medium >$30M Brand
Billboard 🔥 💵💵 Slow >$10M Brand
Youtube 🔥 💵💵 Slow Any stage Brand
Customer marketing ✅ 💵💵 Medium Any stage Influence

Another big growth lever is acquisitions, but this usually falls outside the remit of marketers

Other resources helpful to marketers: CRO, Outbound Lead Gen, Brand, Website, Messaging/Positioning . We will create resources for those parts of their work as well , stay tuned

This document is part of the a broader initiative that’s work in progress by Alina Vandenberghe (me) to share everything I learned about marketing in the past 9 years while working directly with the top marketing teams that bought Chili Piper products (the company I founded)