The new job title of Growth Hacker is firmly established in Silicon Valley’s culture, and if you aren’t around that area – like me – you’ve probably come across this term many a time on Twitter and LinkedIn as well.
Growth hacking describes the smart, self-propelling tactics used in marketing to grow a business without massive marketing resources. It tends to rely on technology (automation is the watchword) and metrics (success growth hackers acquire millions of users in just a few years). Some will say growth hacking operates in a totally different mindset as marketing, although I prefer Zahara Jade's definition of it as 'traditional marketing with a twist". It's also closely linked to social media as these platforms allow companies to grow their brand quickly with limited resources. And with social media analytics, startups can see exactly how quickly they are progressing.
Even though growth hacking is considered a buzzword nowadays, the term has been used ever since 2010 by then advisor at Performable, Sean Ellis in a reference article Find a Growth Hacker for Your Startup.
So what do you need to know about Growth Hacking? We learned from the best in the latest installment of our top blog tips series:
- Jon Yongfook (@yongfook), entrepreneur and founder of Beatrix.
- Zahara Jade (@HireInfluence), entrepreneur, writer, and Community Manager for HireInfluence.
- Gagan Biyani (@gaganbiyani), serial entrepreneur, co-founder of Growth Hackers Conference and CEO of Sprig
- Zach Bulygo (@zachcb1), Content Manager at Kissmetrics.
- Alex Minchin (@alexminchin), Founder of ZestDigital
Discover some tips and success stories from growth hackers that shows us how to think outside the box and be seriously analytical at the same time.
1. Viral Acquisition: Dropbox
Viral customer acquisition, or simply viral acquisition, consists in a viral takeoff based on network effects.
Viral Acquisition success story: Dropbox
Dropbox offered free storage space for those who shared the service with friends, which contributed to fast-growing success that resulted in over 200 million users in the first 4 years only.
“Friend referrals instill more trust than an advertisement ever could. Furthermore, the sender has an incentive to spread the word about Dropbox—getting extra space. The referee also has an incentive for signing up—more space than if they just signed up through the normal process. This total costs Dropbox 1GB of space – far less than a Google AdWords buy.” - Zach Bulygo on Kissmetrics’ Blog
2. Organic Search: LinkedIn
Some success stories do happen overnight, but their strategy also proves sustainable thanks to slow and steady growth techniques such as SEO.
LinkedIn implemented a technique that allowed users to create public profiles, which also enabled them to appear in Google search results and increase awareness, and subscriptions.
“Anytime you search for a person’s name, company or title, it’s likely that one of the first results you’ll see will be a LinkedIn profile. Before LinkedIn, searching your own name usually meant digging through a number of other search results before finding a page that was actually about you, but LinkedIn has changed the whole game.” - Mark Hayes in Growth Devil’s Blog
3. Influencer marketing: NordicTrack
Influencer marketing has always been one of the most powerful marketing techniques in the history of offline and digital publicity and will surely continue being so.
NordicTrack had their big win when they successfully managed to creating the “world’s largest treadmill dance ever” with 40 professional dancers and YouTube influencers showing how much fun fitness can be. The viral video counts almost 4 million views!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=mkQDEfYT4wA
“The influencer marketer is perhaps the most creative, innovative, unique and highly tailored marketing strategy to date, and the ideal growth hacking strategy for any startup. Campaigns can range from small scale to full-scale hands on launches.” - Zahara Jade in HireInfluence
How good a Growth Hacker are you and which is the next Growth Hacking trick you want to try out for your company?
Do not hesitate to share with us @Talkwalker! Talkwalker’s advanced social media analytics can help you uncover valuable insights and deliver the metrics you will need to measure your marketing performance. Contact us for a free demo!
