Growth roundup: Recruiting a team, writing successful newsletters, 14 questions for paid search ads

“The growth industry is definitely maturing. Less hacks, more teams, more focus on velocity,” Ward van Gasteren, founder of Grow with Ward told us in an interview this week. “Everybody within the field is getting to know the best practices very quickly and implementing them even quicker. So then what?”

Working with a growth professional can alleviate some of the pressure on founders who are finding their way. In our discussion, van Gasteren spoke about the importance of knowledge — qualitative feedback, systemic approaches and when/how to experiment.

This week in TechCrunch’s growth marketing roundup, you’ll also find two guest columns from Stewart Hillhouse and Sam Richard’s take on how to hire a growth team. Below you’ll find recommendations of growth marketers from the community. If there’s a growth marketer that you’ve enjoyed working with, please fill out our survey.

Marketer: Maksym Podsolonko, Fractional CMO

Recommended by: Anonymous

Testimonial: “They provide hands-on marketing support and take full ownership of the marketing function. Ideal for companies that don’t need a full-time CMO.”

Marketer: Tate Lowry, Ranq

Recommended by: Anonymous

Testimonial: “They have been on my radar since their co-owner sold the e-comm website Here Pup. Tate and Perrin knew exactly what my site needed to ensure a realistic growth. They didn’t blow up any promises, they didn’t nickel and dime me along the way. Honest and genuine agencies that actually map out how they can and will help you are far and few between.”

Help TechCrunch find the best growth marketers for startups.

Provide a recommendation in this quick survey and we’ll share the results with everybody.

Demand Curve: Tested tactics for growing newsletters: Stewart Hillhouse, senior content lead at Demand Curve, talks through tactics for email newsletters. Hillhouse tells us that newsletters have nearly 40x ROI, but you have to work in order to achieve that. This article discusses the 60% rule for pop-ups, the strategy behind email timing and the importance of quality over quantity. Hillhouse mentions, “We’ve seen very little correlation between volume of emails and the resulting conversion rate.”

(Extra Crunch) Demand Curve: Questions you need to answer in your paid search ads: Hillhouse also wrote an Extra Crunch article this week about the 14 questions you should be answering with your paid search ads. One question he mentions revolves around acceptance and how “Going shopping in real life is a social activity. Shoppers will peer into the carts of others, compare their tastes and ask those with them for input.” Let’s be honest — we’ve all done it. Hillhouse answers how this behavior can be replicated for online shopping.

(Extra Crunch) How to hire and structure a growth team: Sam Richard, senior director of growth at OpenView, provides insights on what questions you should be asking when you’re hiring a growth leader. Richard says, “A strong growth-minded hire will already have a feel for benchmarks and should be able to identify which growth lever in your customer journey needs the most help.”

How Ward van Gasteren thinks about growth hacking today: In this interview, Ward van Gasteren spoke about common misconceptions regarding growth hacking, like how it’s assumed to be a perfect approach. But, we were told, “The hard data that you see in your analytics tools can only tell you what is slowing down your growth … not why your growth slows down there.”

Is there a startup growth marketing expert that you want us to know about? Let us know by filling out our survey.