Get a plan to drive growth through innovation. We are moving towards mastery over things that matter, like innovation and marketing.
2 Things Matter To Founders Wanting to Drive Growth through Innovation
Founders Need:
- 1. Trustworthy innovation followed by
- 2. Efficient marketing to GROW their businesses.
That 1 – 2 combination must be thrown in the right order, but we’ll float back to that in a future post.
1. Trustworthy Innovation
Let’s hit #1 INNOVATION first. Trustworthy innovation is more than a strategy or tactic. It’s more than an idea. Innovation is a process.
Not only is the word process not sexy, it triggers contagious yawning because most founders have no bandwidth for boring, let alone the many daily decisions and problems they face.
But, just like tying your shoes, everything that moves you closer to customers takes either your time or your money.
However, we’re usually missing one or the other.
Why Should I Care About an Innovation Process?
A trustworthy innovation process pulls together what customers deem valuable [their needs] on the one hand and the job they are trying to do on the other, tying them together without missing a step. It’s a secure process because customers know their needs and those needs can be discovered.
For example, let’s say you needed new customers to come to you. What founder doesn’t want to be seen as the right choice? Consider how many steps are involved in a typical customer acquisition process. I’ll assume you know who your ideal customer is.
The First 4 Steps of a Customer Acquisition Process
Step 1: Find the Right Channels Fast!
→ Where are your prospects searching? Perplexity, Google [still the gorilla in 2025,] both? etc. Google Trends and SparkToro can help.
→ What social platforms are your future customers chatting it up on? X and LinkedIn are popular now for content because they give the best distribution.
→ Where are the best ways to use email? [growth-focused communities like this one?]
How about after acquiring an audience, do you build your own communities through email creating a moat with tools like Circle, Skool, Mighty Networks, etc.?
Search, social, and email are vying for our attention. They often get it. That’s because we are looking for a customer acquisition process that works. One that is reliable. Repeatable return on investment is reliable.
Step 2: Find a Repeatable Process Pronto!
→ Repeatability turns tactics into strategy. Someone paid for that learning. Paid by way of trial and error, learning and growth, or the privilege of partnership. Someone paid. Forward-thinking founders evaluate these strategies more closely.
→ Collin Rutherford’s Business Blitz newsletter is worth repeating.
Step 3: Count the Cost of Different Strategies
→ You could hire a sales team. Or a content manager. You could find a crackerjack paid ads ace. But evaluating those costs can be tricky.
→ Here’s a tool that can help with hiring overseas.
→ Many founders can’t afford [time or money] to mess up these evaluations too often before doing major damage to their businesses.
→ Seek the advice of people who’ve been down the road you’re considering. Count the cost. Let’s target the last step before the next post.
Step 4: Target the Right Customer Segments
→ Defining a market can be done in many ways. One fail-proof strategy is to segment around the customer’s needs instead of by arbitrary vertical markets, demographics, or even psychographics.
→ You can even layer archetypes over your customers’ needs using their values, attitudes, and outlook, but remember people know what they need. They may not know how your product/service can be used to do the thing they’re trying to do. But, they buy when their needs are met. That’s the point of taking time to define a market around customer needs.
You can get a sneak peek of defining a market through some extended content on the F.I.T. Future podcast where we:
- • Commit to community
- • Find customer needs BEFORE jumping in with ideas
- • Believe trustworthy innovation paves the way for Biz. Growth
Stay tuned for the Final 4 Steps of a Customer Acquisition Process to
Be seen as the right choice!
Wayne
