Have you ever wondered how start-ups with low or no marketing budget go viral within a short period? Old marketing people would tell you this is due to superior marketing strategies and high sales. But according to Sean Ellis, it is a growth hack.
So What Are Growth Hacks And Are They Legal?
Growth hack is one of the most talked after term in the marketing world. It is a word that emerged in the Silicon Valley in 2011 and spread virally. Andrew Chen introduced the term growth hack in his blog post “Growth Hacker is the new VP Marketing“.
Sean Ellis along with Everette Taylor in 2013 started GrowthHackers which is an online community and software as a service that helps manage growth experimentation.
Growth hack can be defined as the rapid experimentation across various marketing channels and make products that are most efficient and effective in growing businesses within a very short period.
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Growth hacking focuses on long time profits rather that short-term gain. It focuses on long-term sustainability rather than short-term sustainability. Growth hacks are the reason why start-ups like Tinder and Airbnb got so huge.
Unlike other hacks it is not illegal; it is just clever marketing tricks that help your business get unbelievable amounts of success within a short period. Growth hacking is another name for online marketing.
Instead of paying some more to attract a few customers growth hacker is concentrated on drawing a huge amount of customers with only a small sum of money.
What Does A Growth Hacker Do?
According to Andrew Chen, a growth hacker can be defined as a hybrid of marketer and coder who answer common questions like ‘How do I get customers for my product? Using:
- A/B Tests
- Landing Pages
- Viral Factor
- Email Deliverability
- Open Graph
Growth hackers focus on low-cost alternative methods like:
- Targeted Advertising
- Viral Marketing
Growth hackers are not traditional marketers. Growth hackers are data and results-oriented individuals who only care about the end results. They concentrate solely on increasing your business gains. Strategies and tactics are tailored by growth hackers to increase sales.
Growth hacks and business hacks are different than conventional marketing. It just doesn’t concentrate on promotion.
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A successful start-up and a competitor marketer need to be a savvy growth hacker to succeed in today’s world. Growth hackers have a plan with the ultimate goal of growth in financial terms.
Growth hackers regularly analyze their strategies and find ways to improve their profits. Growth hacks is a dream come true for any startup or small business with a low marketing budget.
You can hire professional growth hacking companies for your startup.
How To Become A Growth Hacker?
Being growth hacker is not an easy job. It needs a lot of patients and time. Below are some of the ways you can become a growth hacker.
- Read everything you can find out about growth hacks and growth hacking.
- Study the basic facts about marketing to understand growth hacks better.
- Growth hacking techniques are always changing, therefore keep yourself informed about new growth hack tips and always be desperate to learn more.
- Most growth hackers are analytical people and give great values to the actual numbers, therefore learn analytics.
- Learn from an experienced growth hacker to understand the ethics and techniques of growth hacking.
- Analyze your every step and tactics to understand how it will help your business grow.
- Master growth hacking by learning and practicing it more.
What Are The Best Growth Hack Tricks And Growth Hacking Tools For Online Businesses?
Find A Good Partner:
Integrating with brands and sites is one of the best growth hacks ever. Get a promoter or endorsement from a well-known brand.
Team up with social media sites and the best brands in your business to experience large scale fast growth within a short period and provide additional utility for your clients and subscribers. This is one of the most effective growth hack idea around.
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For example, PayPal was founded in 1998 and in 2003 it collaborated with ebay. Around seventy percent of all ebay auctions accept PayPal payments. This led the company to rise so quickly.
After partnering with ebay, PayPal was placed next to MasterCard and Visa. Their sales increased drastically. PayPal is a billion dollar company now.
This is how effective integration is also a growth hack.
Put Up Logos Of The Brands You Work With:
Brand logos can be used as a hacking tool. Put up the logos of the brands your company partners with and also big media sources that have spoken or written about you.
Highly recognized logos help customers to trust your product or services. It is one of the best, growth hacks for start-ups.
Displaying logos of famous brands associated with you helps build confidence especially if you are new in the business.
For example, if your brand or website is associated with big giants like Gmail, Yahoo Mail, or Outlook put up their logos on your page for more activity.
Go Viral:
Nothing can be as effective as going viral. Many experts call going viral the best hack ever. The end objective of a growth hack is to go viral and increase sales rapidly.
A viral loop starts with ten customers and brings ten more. When a viral coefficient is equal to one, it means that each client brings one more customer to your business.
Going viral means that the results of your marketing plans are doubled. However, sometimes going viral may prove disastrous for your brand. Certain brands and services are only for a particular group. Therefore, who the product is marketed to is important.
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The closer the viral coefficient is to one, the greater are the chances that your message is being sent to a sufficient number of people.
Building a viral loop that will work accurately is close to impossible, but there are many ways in which a functional viral loop can be created. Below are ways in which viral loops can be created:
- Put up content on social media sites.
- Catch up with emerging trends.
- Make sure your offers are of outstanding values when compared to similar brands in the game.
- Use infographics to generate interest.
- Be creative with your content and infographics, being eccentric may generate more audience.
- Get an influencer.
- Study your target group in-depth before tailoring strategies.
For example, Airbnb provides vacation rentals between its users and it has become a billion-dollar company.
Initially, it was an email campaign in the first stages of growth-hacking which helped to boost the website and become huge. Airbnb’s was involved with Craigslist.
Craigslist was used by Airbnb’s to find listings of houses for rent and then they asked these renters to place their ads on Airbnb. It earned them thousands of users within a short period, and the site went viral.
Now, millions of users book accommodation at Airbnb every holiday season. Below is a chart which shows the sharp growth of users of Airbnb throughout the years.
(Source dadaviz.com)
Put Up Positive Reviews And Testimonials:
Nothing boasts business more than positive reviews and testimonials. Put up as many reviews and testimonials as you can. Make sure to put the best ones on.
Pay For Reviews:
Get paid reviews for your website and your app. You can use SponsoredReviews to get paid reviews.
Improve Your Site’s Speed:
A slow site turns users off more than anything. Even two seconds of delay can make your user’s loose interest in your site.
It is estimated that just by increasing the speed of your site can get 15% -21% more traffic. With this hack, you can increase your traffic up by at least fifteen percent.
Ideally, your site should load in 3 seconds. But, that is not the case with most sites, and it is due to large numbers of HTTP requests, a significant number of plugins you have on your page and large images.
Target A Particular Group Of Customers:
To get your products universally accepted, they first have to be loved by the small group of people who are your target audience.
Geoffrey Moore says in his book that products either get the attention of the 15% of the people targeted or they just fail.
When you launch a product; first experiment with your target audience, that way the chances of success of the product becomes higher.
The aura of exclusivity around a product can attracts more clients and is one of the most successful growth hacks for startups.
However exclusive products can also cause suspicion and skepticism in the minds of the customer, therefore it is advisable to offer a short demo before the official launch.
Get Guest Bloggers To Blog About You:
Guest posting is another good idea. Find bloggers who target your kind of audience and ask them to blog about your products. You can pay them to produce positive articles about your products and services.
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Over To You
I have given you some of the best business hacks and growth hacks for startups used by growth hacking professionals around the world.
What are you waiting for? Start implementing these growth hack tips and ideas to enjoy unbelievable success for your startups.
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