Growth hacking is an approach that requires an organization to employ all the innovation and strategies they can muster to grow exponentially. In business landscapes, the growth of an organization is based on its ability to get and retain as many customers as it can.
The Basics of Growth Hacking
Regardless of structure, most organizations expend resources on teams, research and production to get growth traction. Usually, growth is sourced by advertising on conventional medium (TV, outdoor, digital, etc.,) with large amounts of money and time spent on trying to target the right audience. However, smart organizations with the desire to grow have chosen to aim single-mindedly at growth by trying to get the most customers, utilizing a minimal budget, involving human psychology and testing various creative marketing techniques on their products.
This range of inexpensive strategies and innovations that use research, analytics, testing and resilience to acquire customers and retain them is what is known as Growth Hacking.
The term “growth hacking” was so conceived in 2010 by Sean Ellis, founder of GrowthHackers.((Marrs, Megan. Febraury 12, 2020. “Growth Hacking 101: What is it and How to do it” Wordstream. September 29, 2020. https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2015/06/02/growth-hacking)) And as the name suggests, these strategies are focused on hacking the system of growth and seeking other creative ways to sell products to consumers.
Growth Hackers vs Marketers
Growth is often hacked by figuring out the key factors that make a product flourish in an industry and intentionally seeking and testing various means of marketing to acquire and retain customers. These unconventional methods could be SEO, content marketing, product marketing, email targeting, and could also be a fusion of multiple methods.
Growth hackers aim to acquire customers, however, they should not be confused with marketers because unlike marketing, that’s not all they aim to do. Growth hacking involves more than sales, as all its efforts and innovations are all aimed to hack an effective growth system for a product.
Hacking growth may seem ambiguous at first glance, but a lot of organizations have been there before. Products like Airbnb, Hotmail and Dropbox are testimonies of growth hacking, and with their success, their strategies.
Techniques for Growth Hacking
Let’s take a look at some of the most common growth hacking strategies that you can start using immediately.
Blogging
A recent study found out that 81% of shoppers research online before buying.((Charbonneau, Katie. July 17, 2013. “81% of shoppers research online before buying.” Thorney Fallis September 29, 2020. https://thornleyfallis.com/81-of-shoppers-research-online-before-buying/)) This fact confirms keeping a blog as a certain avenue for customers to find you. It is on your blog that you create a landing page and call-to-action for customers that have searched the internet for services or products that you offer. It is also one of the simplest and least expensive growth strategies. A little budget could be spent on hiring help to optimize your site to be visible to search engines, but your blog remains as effective as how consistent you are in updating it.
Also, do not underestimate the benefits of guest blogging. Offer to write on a blog whose business is complementary to yours, and also invite a blogger with a complimentary niche to write on yours. This is a good strategy for expanding your reach and audience that would benefit two parties at once.
Use Every Platform Available
When sharing your content, do not just rely on staple social networks alone. There are other user-generated content sharing platforms asides Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
There exist platforms like Quora that record over 300 million monthly active users,((Foundatrion Team. 2020. “21 Quora Statistics Marketers Need to Know for 2020” Foundation Inc. September 29, 2020. https://foundationinc.co/lab/quora-statistics/)) and offer a field of users grouped into categories of interest by what answers they choose to read. These users can be targeted by providing answers to questions that relate to your product and adding links to your landing page.
The same strategy can be replicated on Reddit, an online forum that has a subforum for just about any topic you can think of. Find a subreddit that discusses topics relating to your products and engage the users there too.
Build Email Lists
You can seldom go wrong with an email strategy. A HubSpot survey on Email marketing submitted that 59% of consumers say marketing emails influence their purchase decisions.((Forsey, Caroline. July 23, 2020. “The Ultimate list of Email Marketing Stats for 2020” Hubspot. September 29, 2020. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/email-marketing-stats/)) Such a percentage driven by just one channel indicates that that channel should not be ignored. Email lists should work alongside a blog or website, as it would only take a CTA on your blog for potential customers to subscribe to your email.
Also, if you run a site with an e-commerce feature, prepare abandon cart emails for users who do not go all the way through the checkout with their purchases. According to SaleCycle,((Bustos, Linda. October 25, 2013. “Cart Abandonment Stats” Elasticpath. September 29, 2020. https://elasticpath.com/blog/cart-abandonment-stats-infographic/)) while the cart abandonment rate is generally high, almost 50% of abandon cart emails are opened and over one-third of those opened emails lead to a sale.
Work as a Team
The basic principle guiding growth hacking suggests that every move should be made towards growth. While the pillar that backs it is a mindset. This mindset is cultured to a set of attributes that should be considered when choosing a growth hacking team.
A team is very important because growth hacking should not be done by a single individual. It is most unlikely for a single individual to have all the expertise needed, but in a team, what member A lacks in one area, member B would be sure to make up for with their knowledge. Therefore, members with expertise in storytelling, marketing and general knowledge of life should make up a growth hacking team. They should also be bound by KPIs or OKRs, as that makes delivery much more goal-oriented.
Research
It pays to be curious and to do research about potential customers and competition. Analyses are the salt of growth hacking, and it is with data that a growth hacking team begins to understand how a product can grow.
Experiment
Resilience is also important. There is no works-for-all strategy that can be applied with guaranteed results, therefore growth hackers should make trials on every technique, elevate on a win, bounce right off the failures, and go at it again.
Test and try out everything. Growth Hacking is a creative approach, and no strategy should be unreasonably tossed aside. More so, by doing this, you would be able to create a perfect system of growth strategies that can therefore be automated.
Automate
Several online tools are available to automate your strategies. Search for tools that will help you in analyzing competition, researching customers, send marketing emails, blog posts, and various other content automatically, while you focus on consistent creation.
