10 Growth Tactics That Never Work: Insights from Elena Verna

Growth is a relatively new field in the tech industry, and there's a lot of interest in "growth hacks" and quick fixes to drive metrics. However, many popular tactics are ineffective or even counterproductive. In this article, we'll explore 10 growth tactics that consistently fail, based on insights from growth expert Elena Verna.

1. Hiring a Growth Team Too Early

Many startups make the mistake of hiring a dedicated growth team before they've achieved product-market fit. Elena advises:

"There is a huge misconception in the field that in order to get growth going you need a growth team. Absolutely not true. In order to get the growth going in the company, a founder and the founding team have to figure out how to make it grow to the first let's say a million, five million, 10 million in ARR."

She recommends waiting until you have:

• Solid product-market fit
• Enough data to analyze and run experiments on
• At least $1 million in ARR, ideally more

Until then, growth should be founder-led. Hiring a growth team prematurely is often a waste of resources.

2. Expecting a Growth Team to Fix a Declining Business

On the flip side, mature companies often make the mistake of hiring a growth team to reverse declining metrics. Elena cautions:

"If you have the overall business slowing down, your head of growth is destined to fail because the reason business is slowing down is much deeper than not having a growth team."

A growth team can potentially optimize and lift metrics by 10-15%, but they can't fix fundamental product or market issues. Address the root causes of the slowdown first before bringing in a growth team.

3. Rebranding or Redesigning to Drive Growth

Elena is emphatic that rebrands and redesigns, especially of marketing sites, rarely if ever drive meaningful growth:

"Never ever once have I seen a rebrand or redesign, especially of your marketing site, produce good performance results."

While there may be valid reasons to update branding or design, it should not be expected to directly drive growth metrics. These projects often consume significant resources and time while delivering lackluster results.

4. Blindly Copying Competitors

While it's important to be aware of what competitors are doing, blindly copying their tactics is rarely effective:

"Blatantly saying 'hey we're going to copy all of these best tactics or all of these flows because hey, they're doing better than us' - that's where things really go wrong."

Every product and user base is unique. What works for a competitor may not work for you. Use competitor research for inspiration, but always test and adapt tactics for your specific context.

5. Assuming Your Problems Are Unique

On the flip side, many teams waste time trying to solve problems from scratch, assuming their situation is unique. Elena advises:

"I'm very sorry to break it to all of you, but your problem is not unique. I am 99% sure of that. Your problem has been felt by somebody somewhere in probably many, many places."

Instead of reinventing the wheel, research how others have solved similar problems. Talk to peers in the industry. Look for existing frameworks and best practices you can adapt.

6. Over-Relying on Paid Acquisition Channels

Many growth teams focus heavily on paid channels like ads and SEO. While these can be valuable, Elena stresses the importance of building owned and earned channels:

"Your number one priority is to create your owned or your earned channel - a channel that you've earned and that nobody else can compete in but you."

Examples include:

• Virality and referrals
• User-generated content
• Community building

These channels are more sustainable and defensible in the long run compared to paid acquisition.

7. Not Evolving Your Growth Model

Even successful growth models eventually plateau. Elena advises:

"Every 18 months you need to introduce something new in order for it to continue evolving."

Constantly explore new growth loops, channels, and tactics. Aim to introduce a major new growth engine every 5 years or so. This ensures sustained growth as existing channels mature.

8. Not Leveraging Advisors

Elena strongly recommends working with advisors to accelerate learning and avoid common pitfalls:

"Hiring advisers is the biggest career amplification and your business amplification you can possibly do."

Advisors provide valuable outside perspective and pattern recognition from their experiences. Even experienced leaders can benefit from advisory relationships.

9. Over-Relying on Experimentation

While experimentation is a core part of growth, Elena cautions against testing everything:

"If every single one of your initiatives that you're doing on growth is an experiment, that's a problem."

Over-reliance on testing can paralyze teams and slow down progress. Use intuition and qualitative insights alongside quantitative testing. Not everything needs a rigorous A/B test.

10. Wasting Time on Low-Impact Optimizations

Finally, Elena shared a rapid-fire list of low-impact optimizations teams often waste time on:

• Color optimizations
• Adding third-party sign-up options
• Obsessing over individual emails
• Blindly simplifying flows without addressing root issues

Focus on high-leverage activities instead of getting bogged down in minor tweaks.

Key Takeaways

The overarching theme across these insights is to focus on fundamentals over quick fixes. Sustainable growth comes from:

• Building strong product-market fit
• Creating defensible, owned growth channels
• Constantly evolving your growth model
• Leveraging outside expertise
• Balancing experimentation with intuition and qualitative insights

By avoiding these common pitfalls and focusing on high-impact initiatives, growth teams can drive meaningful, sustainable results for their businesses.

Remember, there are no silver bullets in growth. It requires continuous learning, experimentation, and evolution. But by steering clear of these ineffective tactics, you'll be well-positioned to build a strong growth engine for your product or company.

Article created from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHwS2By9UKM