- Ask CMO
- Posts
- 🛠️ 10 growth tactics that NEVER deliver results
🛠️ 10 growth tactics that NEVER deliver results
Plus: 3 frameworks that WILL drive growth
Hey there!
The AskCMO team spent the week digging up the best B2B marketing tools and trends so you don’t have to.
And the best part? You can catch up on all of it in the next 3 minutes.
In today’s Tools & Trends roundup:
How to build your ICP
Guide to affiliate influencer marketing
CMOs prepare for a Trump presidency in 2025
One thing the TikTok ban taught us about marketing…
10 growth tactics that never work
Should discounts be included in MRR?
Anthony Pierri breaks down a common mistake startups make when defining their Ideal Customer Profile (ICP): forgetting to focus on the actual work their product supports. If your ICP is missing this, you’re leaving money on the table.
🗝️ The key takeaways:
It’s all about the work: If you make software that supports outbound sales, your ICP must include companies doing outbound sales.
Firmographics aren’t enough: Company size, location, or revenue won’t matter if the company doesn’t do the functional activity your product is built for.
Demand generation’s role: Use marketing to help companies realize why they should start doing that work (and eventually buy your product). That’s the whole point of “demand gen.”
Looking for a way to measure the actual impact of your influencer partnerships? This article explains how combining affiliate marketing with influencer collaborations creates a win-win: creators get rewarded for driving sales, and you get clear performance metrics.
🗝️ The key takeaways:
Track everything that matters: Beyond just sales, monitor metrics like clicks, engagement rates, and total revenue generated to identify your top performers and help others improve.
Keep your content options open: From TikTok and Instagram to YouTube and Pinterest, choose platforms based on your audience.
Build long-term relationships: Successful affiliate influencers can become genuine brand ambassadors over time, creating a loyal community around your brand that goes beyond just paid promotions.
After watching several major brands get burned by political stances, marketing leaders are changing their game plan for Trump's second term.
🗝️ The key takeaways:
Marketing chiefs are actively avoiding politically charged moves after seeing how boycotts and backlash have affected major brands like Bud Light and McDonald's.
There's a push to break free from the "always-on" social media treadmill.
CMOs are prioritizing cultural relevance and authentic storytelling over mastering the latest social media trends or making political statements.
Growth veteran Elena Verna doesn't hold back as she shares the most common growth tactics that consistently fail to deliver results, despite being incredibly popular in the tech industry.
🗝️ The key takeaways:
Don't rush to hire a head of growth too early: Founders should lead growth until they hit at least $1M ARR and have a solid product-market fit. A growth hire won't fix fundamental product problems.
Stop obsessing over rebrands and redesigns: They almost always hurt performance initially and rarely drive meaningful growth. If you must do it, plan for 3-6 months of optimization afterward.
Building your own "earned" distribution channels (like viral loops or user-generated content) beats relying on paid channels every time: While paid marketing has its place, you don't want Google or Meta controlling your destiny.
Are discounted customers messing with your MRR calculations? This quick guide shows why including discounts in your MRR is risky business and how to fix it.
🗝️ The key takeaways:
Your MRR should reflect actual money in the bank, not theoretical full-price revenue.
Different discount types (promotional vs lifetime) need different MRR treatment.
Companies with honest MRR tracking see better outcomes.
That’s it for this week,
Speak soon,
The Ask CMO team
P.S. Do you (or someone you know) want to be interviewed for AskCMO? We’re looking for 2025 guests now. If you’re a CMO or senior-level marketer in B2B, please fill out this form and we’ll be in touch.
P.P.S. Did someone send this to you? What a legend. There’s more where this came from, subscribe here.