Growth Marketing Fundamentals

Learn how to grow any business systematically. Acquire, retain, and monetize customers like top Silicon Valley startups.

Created byLloyd Alexander

Last updated 9/2022

English

What you'll learn

How to use the funnel framework to systematically approach growth problems
How to identify the biggest opportunities that will grow your business today
How to break down business goals into actionable inputs that you can impact now
Methods for increasing traffic, retaining customers, and driving revenue
How to analyze viral growth and build a powerful referral program
How to create a spreadsheet model to predict future business growth
Quantitative research methods such as cohort analysis and user segmentation
Qualitative research methods for understanding customer behavior
How to calculate important business metrics like CAC, LTV, and payback period

Course content

7 sections • 62 lectures • 1h 56m total length

Get the most out of this course by setting a goal0:33
Set clear goals for this course to apply lessons as you go, whether you want to increase impact at work, break into marketing, or unlock growth for your business.
What is the growth marketing funnel?2:22
Trace the growth marketing funnel from awareness, interest, desire, and action to pirate metrics—acquisition, activation, retention, revenue, and referral—and learn to prioritize improvements.
Example: Walking through Udemy's funnel2:06
Explore how acquisition and activation drive signups, then boost retention with personalized emails, course recommendations, limited-time offers, urgency, and referral incentives.
Exercise: Break down the funnel of your favorite company0:12
Where in the funnel should I focus?4:12
Identify your top line goal and map it through the five-step funnel, breaking monthly recurring revenue into new and existing streams, then prioritize metrics with the ice model.
Using a quantitative growth model1:43
Convert the Gold tree into a spreadsheet to model six months of monthly recurring revenue, showing how traffic growth, visitor and lead conversion, and monetization affect MRR.
Exercise: Create a goal tree for your company0:13
Conclusion0:32
Sources & Resources0:16

Introduction1:09
Explore how to fuel growth through acquisition by identifying and optimizing acquisition channels like Facebook ads, display ads, content marketing, and viral strategies, and learn how to choose new channels.
General acquisition principles5:49
Align acquisition with growth stage, test channels to find a winner, and scale by prioritizing power-law channels while considering product, channel, and model fit and the full funnel.
Analyzing your existing acquisition channels0:17
Channel volume1:18
Analyze acquisition channels to identify top channels driving visitors and installs. Double down on the top one or two channels, apply SEO and channel-specific expertise, and switch when saturation occurs.
Exercise: Identify your company’s top acquisition channels0:21
Channel cost1:49
Analyze how to evaluate channel cost and calculate customer acquisition cost, balance spend with return, and use LTV to CAC and payback period to prevent cash flow issues.
Calculating CAC, LTV, and payback period2:38
Exercise: Calculate your CAC, LTV, and payback period0:16
Channel performance1:40
Examine your top two acquisition channels, optimize to lower customer acquisition cost, and assess down-funnel performance for long-term value; then optimize the funnel with landing pages and product improvements.
Channel performance: Spreadsheet walkthrough7:08
Analyze funnel metrics and channel performance—traffic, new buyers, revenue, CAC, gross margin, LTV, payback period, and LTV cap ratio—via a SaaS vs e-commerce spreadsheet walkthrough.
Segmentation0:47
Selecting new acquisition channels1:35
Exercise: Brainstorm new acquisition channels to test0:07
Conclusion0:35
Sources & Resources0:31

Introduction2:07
Define activation in your business and deliver the core value during onboarding to boost retention. Uncover activation opportunities and test hypotheses to improve acquisition efficiency.
Defining activation for your business10:16
Define activation by identifying your product's core value and the actions that deliver it, then measure and improve retention using cohort analysis.
Calculating your activation rate1:11
Exercise: Define activation for your business and calculate your activation rate0:31
Finding activation opportunities3:37
segment your data to uncover activation opportunities, spotlight seo at 2% activation, map the journey to sign-up and purchase, and lift it to 3% using the ice framework.
Exercise: Analyze your segmented activation rates. Do you see any opportunities?0:16
Improving activation4:07
Exercise: Choose one qualitative research method to inform your hypotheses0:13
The Funnel Optimization Cycle1:34
Conclusion0:46
Sources & Resources0:09

Introduction3:15
Define retention as turning activation into a habit that keeps customers coming back, enabling sustainable growth. Show how good retention flattens the birthday cake chart and reduces churn.
Defining retention for your business (and engagement)5:21
Define your retention action and retention frequency to determine how often a user must act to stay active and how engagement links to value through monthly active users.
Calculating retention metrics3:32
Exercise: Define retention for your business and calculate your retention rate0:27
Finding retention opportunities4:01
Learn to identify retention opportunities using cohort analysis and country segmentation, set actionable improvement goals, and optimize early, mid-term, and long-term retention through activation and onboarding strategies.
Exercise: Analyze your segmented retention rates. Do you see any opportunities?0:09
Improving retention1:33
Conclusion0:49
Sources & Resources0:09

Introduction1:03
Assess the revenue stage of the funnel and secure cash flow to sustain growth. Discover your revenue model, identify opportunities, and apply tactics to increase revenue.
Understanding your business model4:09
Analyze five core business model components—revenue sources, buyers, pricing, sales cycle, and cost of goods sold—and see how changes shape your funnel across freemium, e-commerce, and ad-supported models.
Calculating revenue metrics1:19
Exercise: Deconstruct your business model and calculate your key revenue metrics0:15
Finding revenue opportunities3:45
Break revenue into growth drivers—buyers, conversion rate, and average monthly spend (price, order size, orders); use RPV to identify opportunities, especially in the USA.
Exercise: Analyze your segmented revenue metrics0:03
Increasing revenue2:20
Conclusion0:43

Introduction2:44
Referral drives viral growth by turning one user into a network that invites friends, amplifying other channels and lowering acquisition costs, as with Dropbox and Skype.
Components of virality9:59
Growth depends on the viral coefficient (k factor) and viral cycle time, with higher k and shorter cycles accelerating referrals and overall growth through marketing channels.
Calculating virality1:07
Exercise: Calculate your viral coefficient0:11
Crafting a killer referral program2:16
Exercise: Come up with a referral program for your business0:05
Conclusion0:39

Requirements

A desire to learn how growing a business works — whether you’re a marketer, product manager, founder, or engineer
This is a foundational growth marketing course, so no previous experience is necessary

Description

Learn the fundamentals of growth marketing from a Silicon Valley marketer.

This course is for anyone who wants to understand how growing a business works. There’s a lot of mysticism around growth hacking, growth marketing, and digital marketing. But the fact is, growing any organization — whether it’s the next tech unicorn or a small business — is like building a well-oiled machine. And the blueprint for this machine is the growth marketing funnel.

This blueprint allows you to break down your growth machine into distinct parts that you can prioritize, optimize, and improve. Stop wondering where to focus, stop simply hoping initiatives will work, and start driving results systematically.

You will master the growth marketing funnel by the end of this course. And along the way, you'll learn the fundamentals of customer acquisition, retention, and monetization.

Included in this course:

23 high-quality video lectures
25 written lectures, complete with examples from well-known companies, wisdom from growth experts, and insights from my own experience
14 practical exercises that you can apply to your own business (or impress a future employer with) right away
4 ready-to-copy Google spreadsheet templates you can use for modelling growth, virality, and more
A curated collection of external resources where you can go even deeper on these concepts
The ability to ask me questions if you get stuck (I'll respond as soon as I can!)

This course is not highly tactical and does not contain growth hacks. Instead, it gives you a growth marketing foundation that you can use as a filter in a world where the best tactics are changing every day.

As well, the underlying concepts in this course are not new — what I offer is a synthesis of some of the greatest minds in growth marketing, combined with my own experience working at high growth startups.

I want to train you to think like a growth marketer. The funnel is how we’ll get there.

Ready to get started? Enroll now and learn skills that will unlock new growth in your business and your career.

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"...for anyone looking for an awesome digital marketing coach, this is your guy!"

— Rory R., former student of Lloyd's (and now, full-time digital marketer!)

Who this course is for:

Aspiring growth or digital marketers who want to break into the field.
Marketing professionals, product managers, or engineers who want to increase their impact at work or get a competitive edge
Entrepreneurs who want to grow their business and talk to investors intelligently about growth
More broadly: anyone who wants to understand how growing a business works

Growth Marketing Fundamentals

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Introduction to the growth marketing funnel9 lectures • 12min

Acquisition: Drive traffic to your product15 lectures • 26min

Activation: Get users to experience your core value11 lectures • 25min

Retention: Keep users coming back9 lectures • 19min

Revenue: Make money from your users8 lectures • 14min

Referral: Amplify your growth with virality7 lectures • 17min

Recap & next steps3 lectures • 4min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: