Traditional online marketing is not enough anymore. Companies, especially those in an early stage, must focus on rapid growth, and often, the only goal that matters is overall growth.
Growth hacking is a relatively new term in the online marketing world which means fast-paced growth for a company, by fast cycles of testing and implementing new ideas and disciplines in order to scale up quickly — always with growth in mind and with the support of the newest technology available.
Who are growth hackers and why do we need them?
A growth hacker is not only a marketing specialist, but also someone who has an understanding of data analytics, A/B testing, and programming. In other words, a growth hacker is a hybrid of a developer and marketer in one. Often a growth hacker does not necessarily need to have coding skills, but they will work closely with developers. So let’s have a look at where growth hacking started and what made this trend grow so fast!
Growth Hacking strategy
Growth hacking strategy can differ a lot depending on the company size. For bigger companies, a growth hacking strategy might mean huge billboards with creatives, but for smaller companies with less money in hand it can be a creative collaboration with another company.
Fresh startups and companies with relatively small budgets often have to find very creative ways to save money in marketing efforts. When there is not enough in the budget for paid ads, one has to think outside of the box.
In online marketing for most of the startups, money and time are the most crucial players in the game. With growth hacking, fast growth is the main goal.
Growth Hacking tactics
1. New visitors
While implementing growth hacking tactics, it is important to keep in mind the goal: growth. The first step to reaching this goal is to get new users/visitors.
There are various tactics for gaining new users in growth hacking.
The most common growth hacking tactics in online marketing are called Push and Pull tactics.
Push tactics can include anything from direct sales to flyers — anything where the growth hacker has to bring the company in front of the target audience’s eyes, whether online or offline.
With pull tactics, growth hackers search for ways to get visitors onto their website by offering solutions and answers they need. In other words, the users will find the product/service by searching for solutions to their questions and problems.
Often these push and pull tactics are crossed with modern marketing tactics, but the most important difference between a growth hacker and a marketer is the willingness to experiment with different approaches and test them in very fast cycles. After that, they identify the one that works the most and double down on it.
2. Storytelling and activity
A good starting point for that is to create a community around your company — people who are interested in your product or service. This can be achieved by sharing high-quality content, participating in meet-ups, organizing webinars, and finding creative ways to collaborate with influencers on social media. Nowadays live content such as stories on Facebook and Instagram are particularly popular and attract a lot of views and traffic to landing pages. Most important is to start thinking where your audience is today and how to communicate with them most naturally.
3. Case studies, video & visual content
Case studies are a great way to win credibility among visitors and customers. Making your stories public shows the value that your service/product provides and helps to build authority and trust.
In-house case studies, such as “How did we boost our traffic by 200% in 30 days,” or “This is how we increased our conversions to 2%” provide good personal content. Such traction case studies are interesting for many professionals as well.
Visual content, such as infographics, are popular due to the simplicity. Infographics provide a quick overview of a certain topic in an easy and understandable way. Well-made infographics on important topics get a lot of views and are very easy shareable, which again can bring new visitors to your website.
Lastly, think about including video content in your next email marketing campaign. As mentioned before, while infographics are an “easy to digest” medium, you should also think about video content, which is one step further from just visuals.
Depending on the service or product, video content can introduce solutions and explanations to various topics and problems or new features. Video might be a good add-on to your existing blog-post about a certain topic.
How to build a growth hacking culture within your team?
You may wonder how startup unicorns such as AirBnb, Uber, and Hubspot were able to build such significant growth in a short period of time. Their main focus was growth and their teams had a corresponding mindset. Being open-minded, creative, strategic, and eager for success are essential fundamentals for a growth hacking team.
In order to build a growth hacking mindset within a team, the goals have to be clear for every team member. Unlike traditional marketing teams, where marketers focus on a lot of metrics, growth hacking teams focus on very few “end-numbers,” those KPIs that are the only ones that matter for the company — for example, revenue, new customers, or the customer acquisition cost (CAC).
The above-listed growth hacking tactics are examples of how to switch the mindset for growth from a traditional/conservative marketing point of view. The main focus on growth hacking is testing different methods and implementing various A/B tests before choosing a few that work best.
Below, we listed some great growth hacking tools for you to start with. They’re grouped by categories: Market Research, Traffic Acquisition, UX tools, and growth hacking agencies.
Must-have Growth hacking tools:
Market research and user feedback tools:
Mopinion is a great tool for growth hacking that collects feedback online and gives valuable information about target groups, opinions, and feedback.
Qualaroo is a user research automation tool that provides valuable insights and can be used for growth hacking as well.
Hellonext is a tool that gathers user feedback in one platform and can be used in growth hacking tactics.
Pickfu is a poll tool that helps to gather user feedback on an business idea or anything else related to it.
Survata is a platform that offers Ad Measurement and Market Research services.
Traffic Acquisition/Growth hacking tools:
OutGrow is a tool that enables you to set up polls, quizzes, assessments, and calculators easily.
Linkresearchtools helps you to analyse your links and quickly discover broken ones. Moreover, the tool helps you to discover good backlink prospects.
Xovi offers various SEO tools from keyword analysis to on-page optimization.
Serpstat is a growth hacking tool that helps to boost your marketing efforts and grow your traffic.
UX tools:
Mockflow is a platform where users can brainstorm UX and UI ideas.
Sessioncam is a tool that helps to understand better how users interact on your website.
Justinmind is a prototyping tool that helps to design wireframes without a single code.
Uxpin is a design tool that helps you to design wireframes and interfaces.
Usertesting is a UX-tool that helps to discover important insights from your target users.
Growth Hacking agencies:
Bammboo is a growth hacking agency focusing on customer development and growth hacking.
Rainmakers is a growth hacking agency with a focus on Data. The team consists of growth hackers and data scientists.
Madkings is a growth marketing agency that helps to enhance your growth strategy and learn more about growth hacking itself.
Growthrocks is a growth agency that provides services in all marketing funnel phases.
Hackabu is an agency that provides various services from growth hacking to public relations.
Growthzone is a growth hacking agency that provides services in analytics, SEO, and overall in online marketing.
Growth hacking courses
For developing a growth hacking mindset and understanding the tips and tricks behind, a growth hacking course is a good starting point. There are plenty of growth hacking courses available and we have listed some very good ones for you to have a look at.
1. Become great at growth – course
This is a great course about growth hacking with good materials. This course is executed by industry experts, which gives you all of the insider knowledge and tips on how to drive faster growth. Have a look at the course here.
2. Growth master training course
This is a growth hacking course that is executed by the founder of GrowthHackers Sean Ellis. In this growth hacking course, you will be able to receive a certificate as well. Check the course out!
3. Growth Hacking Course: Learn the Process and Growth Hacks
In this free growth hacking course, you will learn the growth hacking processes and principles. Created by Rishabh Dev. Read more about the course here.
4. Growth hacking course – With personal Coaching
This is a great growth hacking course where you will learn about various online tools that can help you to become a better growth hacker. The growth hacking course also includes personal coaching sessions and you will be able to work in team projects.
5. Growth marketing immersive -course
In this growth hacking course, you will learn growth hacking strategies that can help you to grow your business further. The course includes online workshops and one-to-one coaching sessions. You will also learn tools for growth hacking and get lifelong access to all of the materials.
6. Growth Hacking with Digital Marketing
This growth hacking course will teach you to create customer action funnels, analyse data in google analytics, use a data-driven approach for better decision making and many more. Read more about the course here.
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