The Layering Mindset

One of the biggest challenges I see with companies trying to grow their acquisition engine is that they are constantly looking for the silver bullet. The next big thing to explode their growth.

They move from tactic to tactic and channel to channel like a squirrel in the spring looking for buried food.

This isn't how you build long-term growth.

The harsh reality is that most companies don't stumble upon something that suddenly drives rapid growth.

The other harsh reality is that the spring squirrel approach becomes extremely frustrating for the marketing team, leadership, and everyone else involved, which leads to burnout and turnover.

The layering mindset.

To build long-term, sustainable growth, I recommend adopting a layering mindset.

The concept is quite simple: Every month, quarter, and year, you should be trying to find new layers to your growth.

A new layer might be a blog post that drives additional traffic and leads, it could also be a new free tool, a website that sends you referral traffic, a new targeting layer, a paid search term, and so on.

The problem is that this isn't sexy or quick.

It doesn't feel significant that a new layer brings in an additional 8 trial signups per month when you already have 5,000 per month. But, 8 trials here, 12 trials there, over and over, is what continues to add layers and create an acquisition engine that can survive the long run.

So, consider what your organization can do to shift this mindset and begin looking for layers that you can add.