IMAGE: ISTOCK - DILOK KLAISATAPORN
If brand is how you look and sound, growth is what keeps you moving. One gives your business identity; the other gives it momentum. Together, they create something that can last. Today we’re talking about the precision and momentum of Growth Marketing.
WHAT GROWTH MARKETING REALLY MEANS
Growth marketing is not a campaign, it’s a process. It’s about building systems that identify what works, double down on it, and cut what doesn’t. It’s scientific in approach but creative in execution, part data, part instinct, and always about outcomes.
The purpose of growth marketing is to move one of three needles: to acquire new customers, retain existing ones, or increase the lifetime value of each. Everything else, advertising, social media, SEO, email and partnerships, sits beneath those three goals.
SHORT-TERM GROWTH – LEARNING FAST
The short-term horizon is where you experiment and get quick feedback. The time scale here is days or weeks, not months.
A shooting ground might test two versions of an ad: one promoting introductory lessons, another focused on confi dencebuilding coaching.
A gunroom might compare two subject lines for its cartridge servicing offer. A rifle stock maker could test small wording changes on a landing page to see which produces more enquiries.
The aim is not simply to win a quick sale, though that often happens. It’s to learn, to discover which channel delivers, which offer resonates, and which message converts. Once you know that, you can scale what works and stop wasting time and money on what doesn’t.
MEDIUM-TERM GROWTH – BUILDING RETENTION
After the first cycle of short-term learning, growth becomes about systems. This is the medium-term horizon, the part that takes patience and structure.
It’s where you build the processes that turn one-off buyers into loyal customers. It might begin with a carefully planned email journey that introduces new members to the full range of services at your shooting ground, or a “points for purchases” loyalty scheme that rewards repeat custom. It could be as simple as creating a referral structure that encourages existing clients to bring a friend.
These things don’t deliver immediate spikes in revenue, but over the course of three to six months they start to reshape the economics of the business. They increase repeat visits, improve retention and raise the lifetime value of each customer. They make your growth more predictable, and they give your marketing spend a compounding effect that builds stability as well as sales.
LONG-TERM GROWTH – COMPOUNDING ASSETS
Beyond the medium term lies the real prize: the long-term horizon, where your marketing effort begins to generate its own momentum. This is where you build the assets that keep working even when you stop spending.
In the gun trade, that might mean developing a library of well-written guides on rifle calibres, stalking preparation or proofing standards, content that steadily ranks on Google and brings in new readers, and therefore new potential customers, month after month. It could mean producing high-quality instructional videos or interviews that build a following on YouTube, or creating a monthly newsletter that becomes the go-to source for your audience.
Some businesses take this further by fostering community. They host small events, sponsor shoots, or nurture an online group where customers can meet, discuss and share. Over time, these efforts create brand gravity, a sense of belonging that makes customers part of something bigger than the next transaction.
None of this happens overnight. You won’t see it on a weekly report. But once those channels mature, they change the economics of your marketing forever. Your inbound demand rises, your cost per lead falls, and your competitors are left wondering how you keep growing without constantly spending on ads.
THE DISCIPLINE OF GROWTH
What makes growth marketing powerful is its discipline. Every activity is measurable. You know what’s working and what isn’t. That doesn’t mean you drown in data; it means you choose the numbers that actually matter. In the short term, it might be conversion rate or cost per lead. In the medium term, retention rate or average order value. In the long term, organic traffic, search rankings and branded search volume. The numbers don’t replace intuition; they sharpen it.
This kind of accountability gives you the confidence to invest properly and the courage to stop what’s not working. Yet many shooting businesses still underestimate it. They believe they’re “doing marketing” because they post on social media or print a catalogue each season. But that’s not growth, that’s noise.
Growth marketing is different because it’s continuous. It’s a feedback loop: test, learn, improve, repeat. Done properly, it turns marketing from a cost into a profit centre. The discipline isn’t in the data itself, but in the rhythm of using it.
WHEN BRAND MEETS GROWTH
In Part Two, we said that brand is the face of growth. Here’s what that means in practice: brand attracts attention and earns trust; growth converts that attention into measurable results. A strong brand lifts every growth metric. It makes ads perform better, emails get opened, and websites convert. But growth gives brand credibility, it proves the story you’re telling.
The relationship works both ways. Without brand, growth feels cold and transactional, like shouting into the void. Without growth, brand becomes theatre, all performance and no substance. The real value lies in the balance. Brand opens the door and growth walks through it, turning reputation into results and visibility into sales.
THE RHYTHM OF PROGRESS
To make this real, think of growth as a rolling rhythm, not a one-off project. Every ninety days, test something new that teaches you about your market, refine one part of your customer journey that improves retention, and build one long-term asset that compounds over time. That steady cycle keeps your business moving: something new feeding the pipeline, something proven driving loyalty, and something lasting building authority.
The gun trade is becoming more competitive and more digital. Attention is harder to win, and loyalty is easier to lose. Businesses that rely solely on reputation are discovering that reputation doesn’t travel as fast as the internet. Growth marketing gives you the structure and discipline to compete. It’s measurable, adaptable and relentless.
It’s not glamorous, but it’s the work that keeps good businesses alive, the difference between surviving on reputation and growing by design. As always, I’m happy to help. Reach out to me via Instagramor drop me an email.
GET IN TOUCH
monty@mk38.co.uk
Instagram @MontyShoots