A growth artist’s dictionary
Introduction
Good strategy requires clear language. But in marketing, our core vocabulary—words like “content,” “demand,” and “growth”—has become fuzzy, leading to strategic misalignment and wasted effort. In engineering, a blueprint is a blueprint. This dictionary is my attempt to bring that same precision to our craft. These are my working definitions: a personal toolkit for a sharper, more honest conversation about what actually drives growth.
Part 1: The first principles
This section covers the foundational concepts that underpin any sound strategy. Get these right, and everything else gets easier.
The 4 P’s
The original laws of marketing physics: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. Most marketers dismiss them as a dusty concept, but they are the most powerful diagnostic tool we have. In an era of infinite tactics, the 4 P’s are the magnifying glass that forces you to be honest about the fundamentals before you spend a single dollar on promotion.
Products vs. services (the false dichotomy)
The modern reality is that this distinction is mostly a myth. The most successful companies don’t sell one or the other; they wrap their product in a service and their service in a product. A SaaS tool (Product) is useless without great support and onboarding (Service). A consulting engagement (Service) is more valuable when it delivers a tangible framework or tool (Product). Stop thinking in categories and start thinking about the complete solution.
Jobs to be done (JTBD)
The simple but profound idea that customers don't “buy” products; they “hire” them to make progress in their lives. No one wakes up wanting to buy a data security platform; they wake up wanting to reduce the risk of a catastrophic breach so they can sleep at night. JTBD is the true starting point for all marketing because it forces you to focus on the customer’s desired outcome, not your features.
Part 2: The modern marketing lexicon, reclaimed
This section redefines the core terms that have been twisted and misused by the broken playbook.
Authority
The most valuable asset a company can have. It’s the “air cover” that makes every other marketing and sales activity easier. It’s the reason a prospect thinks, “Oh, I’ve heard of them, they’re smart,” before you even enter the room. Authority is what turns a cold call into a warm conversation.
Content vs. “content marketing”
A tragic distinction the industry has failed to make.
Content: The asset. The tool. The thing of value itself—the insightful article, the podcast, the video.
“Content marketing”: The broken playbook. The misused promotion of using low-value, gated content to chase vanity “leads.” Don’t blame the tool (Content) for the failure of the tactic (“Content Marketing”).
Dark funnel
The modern answer to “Place” in the 4 P’s. It’s the unmeasurable ecosystem of podcasts, communities, Slack channels, and peer conversations where your high-trust customers actually learn, discover, and make decisions. You can’t track it, but it’s where the real influence happens.
Demand generation vs. lead generation
The fundamental shift in strategic goals.
Lead gen (the old way): The hunt for contact information. The prize is the email address.
Demand gen (the new way): The quest for mindshare. The prize is being the only company a buyer thinks of calling when they’re ready.
Growth vs. sales
The crucial difference between the engineer and the pilot.
The salesperson: The expert pilot who flies the plane, owns the relationship, and converts a known opportunity into revenue.
The growth person: The engineer who designs the entire plane, owns the system, and analyzes revenue as a whole engine to find points of friction and opportunity.
North star metric
A single, powerful metric that measures the core value a product delivers to customers, not just internal revenue goals. For Facebook, it was “daily active users.” For an e-commerce store, it might be “repeat purchases within 90 days.” It’s the compass that ensures the entire company is oriented around the customer’s success.
“Organic growth”
The misunderstood goal. It has become a sexy buzzword to escape the failures of old models. Its true, valuable form isn’t just about chasing leads; it’s about building a sustainable audience and Authority.
Revenue vs. growth
The critical distinction between short-term income and long-term health.
Revenue: The income generated from a transaction. It's a lagging indicator of past success.
Growth: The sustainable, systemic improvement of a business’s ability to deliver value. It’s a leading indicator of future success. You can have revenue without growth, but you can’t have sustainable growth without eventual revenue.
Part 3: The growth artist’s toolkit
This section defines the specific disciplines and modern strategies a Growth Artist wields.
Content engineering
The discipline of designing and building the underlying architecture of meaning for a brand. It’s the work behind the scenes to ensure every article, video, and social post is part of a strong, coherent growth narrative.
Decentralized branding
A model that values coherence over consistency. It means decoupling brand from rigid templates and top-down control to empower more people to create authentic, on-brand content. It's about letting the light in.
Growth marketing
An art that moves beyond traditional performance marketing by blending science with artistic bravery. It’s the practice of using data to inform hypotheses, but having the courage to run the bold experiments that lead to breakthroughs. No guts, no gusto.
Product-led growth (PLG)
The most complex hybrid model. It requires running two distinct engines at once: a “Stage Light” engine for user acquisition (often a free or low-cost self-serve product) and an “Authority” engine for high-touch enterprise sales.
Conclusion: Words create worlds
We can’t fix a broken system until we can accurately describe it. By using a clearer, more honest vocabulary, we can begin to engineer a more effective and authentic way of marketing. Words are the tools we use to build strategy. It’s time to sharpen them.
