Are you familiar with the word growth hacking?
For most of you, it will be a new term. This term is getting popular in the IT industry for the last few years.
Do you want to know what it is about?
Most of you know, what a hacking means. It is a popular term but we think it as an illegal offense.
But actually, it is not true. Hacking means a process of doing something quicker and smarter.
A hacker is a person who can do a job well. He finds some faster way to do a process using some shortcuts.
Now you got an idea of the term Hacking. Don’t take that term in the wrong sense again. Hacking is a special ability to get things done in an innovative manner. A hacker can use his ability in many creative ways.
Growth Hacking Definition:
Now let’s get an idea about Growth Hacking.
Growth hacking is a technique which uses creativity, analysis and social thinking in selling a product.
The term is popular among online marketing. A growth hacker attracts more customers to a product. He uses more new techniques to increase the number of customers and bring more income to a company.
Now you might be thinking that what is the function of the marketing team in a company?
They also do the same thing. A company’s marketing team develops new techniques to attract more consumers.
Then, what is the need for growth hacking team in a company?
To be more specific a growth hacker is a combination of marketer and a coder. He finds new business tactics by analyzing data and after various tests, implements it.
His findings are for the growth of the product. Traditional marketing focuses on steady growth but growth hackers work to get rapid growth.
How does it work?
Growth hacking is a serious process. He is the one who can make your company’s future bright. When you hire someone as a growth hacker, check whether he got the following qualities.
Qualities Growth Hacker Should Possess:
Hire a growth hacker with great web developing skill and a good mindset.
He should have knowledge about a wide range of online marketing topics.
Hire an expert in many specific areas related to your business and can control your business with proper strategies.
Hire someone with great technical knowledge.
Growth hackers work as a team. So, if one got stuck in a place there will be another one with an idea.
They work for the growth of the company in certain areas where marketing is weak. A growth hacking team have to pass through several steps
Develop a new idea:
After thorough research and market study, they develop new ideas
Organize:
After discussions and conclusion, they evaluate future impacts and finalize with resources
Testing:
Before implementing any idea, they test it for accuracy. If that idea fails in test then redevelop it into a new effective one
Analysis:
Here they compare test result and find solutions if any of them fails
Optimization:
Uses new methods to correct failed strategies and remodel it
Repeat:
Repeat the same process on any other weak area to promote growth
There are many examples where growth hacking created magic. Facebook is a great example of that.
Some other examples where this technique worked well are Dropbox, Uber, Spotify etc. Here I am going to explain some useful techniques for growth hacking. These will help you to get exponential growth in your business.
Create a great customer base:
It is a difficult task. To achieve this, a growth hacker needs to study what customers expect from your product. Get feedback from them.
Study their behavioral pattern from psychological surveys. This helps to position your brand where customers have maximum attention.
In addition to this, study current marketing conditions so that you will get an idea of marketing possibilities. Also, check your competitor’s strategies to know about current marketing trends.
A detailed analysis will help to implement some beneficial strategies for your business.
You can also develop effective strategies to attract your competitor’s customers. Offer them something attractive better than your competitor’s offers.
Basically, once they tried your product and they like it, you don’t have to apply any strategies. But making them use it the first time is a difficult task. That’s where growth hackers help you.
Use social media content:
Social media is a strong tool for marketing. Add social media contents that explain your company or product’s excellence in your website. You can easily connect with prospective customers through this. It also helps to built trust in your brand.
Get rid of those boring testimonials which are an old style. Use social reviews, interviews, and tweets related to your product cleverly.
They will give you a positive result for sure. Otherwise, create your own blog or content about the product and share it on social media.
You can integrate your site with social media networks. It helps them to sign in to your site easily. Many sites are incorporating this idea.
It is a tedious task to enter all your information to sign up everywhere. Some sites don’t have their individual sign-ups. They only allow to sign in through social media sites.
Referral programs are very good for promotion:
Most of you are familiar with this program’ Refer a friend’. But when you see that you won’t connect it with growth hacking.
It’s a common technique to attract more customers. Many companies implement this technique to get new users and retain an existing one.
Many sites and companies offer rewards or discounts when you refer somebody. This is a chain process and the company will get more customers.
When users get something valuable for just referring someone then why not?
Another option is to give some exciting offers to follow them on social media. Both these techniques are implemented by ‘dropbox’. They gave free storage space for one who follows them on social media.
The same applies for referring a friend. It is one of the topmost company now.
Make money by offering free trial:
Many companies use this technique. As a human being, we all love to accept something free. So, companies use this as a marketing technique.
Have you tried something for free?
If you like it you will buy that again. That’s how this technique works.
When a company offers free trial most of us try it by signing up. That will increase the product’s popularity. If we like it, we will subscribe to it by paying money.
Many companies like spotify, prezi, and other apps use this technique. They earn money from advertisement and premium subscription.
When you use it for free, you have to get used to those annoying ads. But the company is making money from those ads. Premium users pay a monthly subscription and they don’t have to listen to those ads.
Be in limelight:
How is that possible?
There are a lot of companies and everyone tries hard to grab costumer’s attention.
In order to achieve this, growth hackers develop new strategies. They analyze all marketing trends. After a detailed study, they develop new strategies.
Facebook and Twitter are the most familiar examples of this technique. If there is nothing new, users won’t come back.
Offer something that excites them to make them come back. When Twitter was first created, a lot of users signed up. But, they weren’t interested to come back again.
Do you want to how they solved this issue?
They changed their signup procedure. When a new user signs-up to twitter, they have to follow at least 10 people.
This made a remarkable change and increased quality traffic towards that site. Users got more interested and they came back again and again. It’s always about the first impression.
Use persuasive techniques:
This is an effective growth hacking technique.
Are you a frequent traveler?
When you check flight tickets on sites they will inform you about price variation by sending messages. Most of the sites use this technique. Have you noted them before?
Sites show messages like ‘Limited Availability, book your tickets’ or they show’ 2 seats available hurry’. We book tickets as soon as we see this message.
We don’t want to lose that opportunity. Some sites offer tickets at attractive prices. Those are limited period offers.
Most of us fell in that strategy. Sites like Ticket master, Groupons, make my trip, goibibo uses these techniques.
The persuasive technique is a famous psychological move to attract more customers. This added the sale of a product by pushing users with attractive offers.
Organize contests and campaigns:
Nowadays campaigns and contests play an important role in marketing a product. There are tools through which you can post this on social media.
You don’t have to invest money for ads if you use tools like these. Give attractive prizes for winners. Tell them to follow the brand on various social media platforms to participate in the contest.
Airbnb conducted a popular campaign as part of their promotion. It was ‘Live their Campaign’. This helped them a lot to increase their brand value. Also, they made an attractive app for the convenience of users.
Choose a person who can influence users:
This is a well-known strategy. Most brands have their own brand ambassadors. Their job is to influence people and make them believe in your product. Connecting with an influencer is very important if you want to widen your product reach.
All popular brands employ someone as their ambassador. Users trust their judgments and experiences. You can offer them free products in exchange for promoting your brands.
Give ads on social media and other platforms with their experience with your product. You will get some good result with the help of that person.
Offer something valuable for signups:
Whenever you search about something on the web, most sites say to sign-up. If you want that data badly you will sign up into that site. This is an effective growth hacking strategy.
After signing up, you will be in their database, accepting to maintain future communications.
Many companies also offer a discount when you sign-up. As a consumer, I will accept that offer for sure.
If I am getting a benefit from signing up then why not. This is the common mentality of most of the customers. Nobody rejects that proposal.
Many companies are there who uses this strategy. Mr. Wonderful is one of them. It’s a graphic design company who sends positive messages to your mail daily.
You can download their images, background etc. and use them to promote your brand. They made a profit by employing this simple technique.
Entertain users:
It’s a bit difficult task. To entertain users, you have to develop new ideas. Some sites make them believe that it is their own site. If they think that they own a site, they are going to use it further.
Conduct app-in surveys. Through this, you can get direct feedback from users. If there is anything to improve you can work for that. If they get what they want they will use your app.
Notify about New features. Send push messages or notification about any new features or updates. It will help new users to explore more from your product or app.
Target the users based on their interest. Send them notifications related to their interest. Don’t send intriguing messages.
Conclusion:
Now you got an idea about growth hacking and various hacking techniques. Implement these proven techniques to enhance your business. These strategies will help start-up entrepreneurs and well- established corporates to conquer new heights. Try to find something innovative other than those old used techniques.
Growth hacking strategies are unlimited. Next time when your company faces a problem, you know how to deal with it. There is no magic solution for any business. Test, analysis and repeat the strategies. If you don’t take any risk, you can’t be a winner. So, face it bravely.