What does a system for SaaS growth look like?


We often talk about building a system for growth (growth marketing). But I know that a lot of people who aren't marketers hear that and think 'Right, but you mean you've got a spreadsheet?'
And boy. Do we have spreadsheets!
But the point of systematic growth is that we're taking in a whole lot of variables and outputting a (hopefully) positive number.
Each of those variables is impacted by the actual output of a marketer: an ad set, a content hub, a cold outreach campaign, an onboarding flow update.
The fundamental structure of systematic growth within any company should be:
- Overall strategy
- Individual and timely tactics married to the strategy
What would a growth strategy look like as a formula?
I'm totally fascinated by systemising things mostly because you can improve on systems with good tests and smart changes.
And that makes the work of a marketer more straightforward to predict.
Over the Christmas break, I saw the video at the top of this post by E-commerce growth agency Common Thread Collective.
It's on one of their landing pages. I think putting that out there in advance of a customer even engaging with you is incredibly bold.
But when you're dealing with systems, you can afford to share the top level workings. After all, the system itself is just numbers without the individual tactics that make up each stage of the customer journey.
I'm sharing it here because I'm going to refer to it often. I may even record one of my own someday soon!

Key Takeaways
- Make growth systematic – I think this is my single favourite thing to say about SaaS growth
- Communicate what you do clearly – as a lead, I know exactly what kind of expertise I'm buying because of this video
- Marry tactics to strategies – always always marry tactics to a broader strategy
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