Getting Started with Growth Hacking & How it Works?
Growth hacking is a term that gained popularity over a decade ago. We’ve all heard the word and know it has something to do with marketing, but it’s not marketing in the traditional sense.
Growth hacking is more of an umbrella word that just refers to growth tactics. Particularly in early-stage start-ups and enterprises with limited resources looking for cost-effective strategies to build their company, grow their user base, and retain users.
What is Growth Hacking?
A growth hacker is simply someone who investigates new growth potential for products and/or businesses using a data-driven approach and an experiment-based strategy. Isn’t that more akin to marketing? In a way, yes, yet there is a significant difference that can exist.
There are three major distinctions that distinguish growth hackers.
- While marketers focus on day-to-day growth and other activities, growth hackers focus and find the next great opportunity.
- Growth hackers are data-driven and have an experimental-based approach.
- Growth hackers are more knowledgeable about technology and abilities like automation and programming languages, among other things.
How Does Growth Hacking Work?
Growth hacking uses resource-light and cost-effective digital marketing techniques to help build and maintain an active user base, sell items, and get awareness.
Consider the following scenario: You operate a SaaS firm that caters to financial needs.
Now, this product is a well-researched and well-built solution to answer your target audience’s concerns, and we know that a well-built and studied product is bound to sell.
So the first condition is to have a product that people are willing to spend money on. Once we know that the consumers are willing to pay, we move on to the next phase, which is to collect continuous feedback from your users and update the product accordingly.
Because this is a new product, it will lack users and exposure. A variety of growth hacking strategies you can do to raise your awareness and retain users:
- Pre-Launch Email List
- Launch on Product Hunt
- Leverage Referral Marketing
- Make New Brand Partnerships
- Attend Community Events
- Leverage Adjacent Markets
- Build a Social Media Community
- Follow Your Competitors
- Create an Aggressive Content Strategy
- Do Guest Posting
- Work with Influencers
- Cash the Trends
- Use HARO for Press Opportunities
- Send Gifts to Your Customers
Framework for Growth Hacking
These are a few questions you should ask yourself before beginning to help structure and measure growth.
- What is the Objective?
The first step in achieving your objectives is to identify them. Understand what you want to achieve using growth hacking.
- Explore New Ideas
Do some research for ideas, and then expand on what you find. Understand what succeeded and why.
- Identifying the Priorities
What is the most essential aim you want to achieve for your company through growth hacking? Or, more specifically, where does your company need to improve the most right now? These are topics to think about while you develop your growth hacking approach.
However, be practical. Growth hacking isn’t magic and won’t work overnight so set attainable targets.
- Explore New Strategies
Put your concept to the test! Create a hypothesis based on your selected strategy.
- Analyze Results and Repeat
Did your plan get the desired result? Were there any unexpected consequences? Was your assumption correct? Analyze the entire outcome and consequences of the executed growth hacking technique. Take that data and apply it to your next approach. Continue to apply what you’ve learned and try new things until you notice a meaningful difference.
This amount of experimentation may look daunting or even unfamiliar to typical marketers. In some cases you’re probably already doing Growth Hacking without realizing it; if you’re testing variables and learning from the results, you’re a Growth Hacker.
At the end of the day, growth hacking is all about increasing your business’s leads, customers, and revenue.