In recent times, much has been said about the use of Growth Hacking in the most important startups in the world. This new concept arises within digital marketing and is currently being used by the main Internet businesses in the United States. At the same time, it is being adopted by other companies in the rest of the world.
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But What is Growth Hacking?
This concept is defined as a combination of curiosity, creativity and analytics that allows the number of users of a startup to grow in a hockey stick. These skills must be carried out by the founder and management team and be within the company’s philosophy (all workers must be aware of this trend in marketing).
Growth Hacking is a different way of looking at a market based on the need to find new ways of marketing to grow a business: it is not about specific techniques or tools.
This way of understanding marketing is the ideal one for startups due to the lack of resources, budget allocated to marketing products and making the brand known to the general public. In addition, it adapts perfectly to the Lean Start-up philosophy that these types of companies usually develop on a day-to-day basis.
The people who develop Growth Hacking strategies have a very specific profile, and that can be divided into three main blocks:
- They Are Analytical. Those who work on Growth Hacking optimally analyze even the smallest detail, both in their work and professional life. When something fails, they give it a thousand turns until they find the explanation for the error. They are always studying metrics. Even if there is no model, they make it up.
- They Are Creative People. Inventing marketing actions is not expensive. You have to think about it. Growth hackers have that gift of finding solutions to a specific problem through creativity, focusing on their resources. They are people who, by nature, dare to take risks.
- They are The kings of “why”. All changes are questioned, whether they are for the better or the worse. They are never left in doubt and, if they have to work harder to understand it, they stay until they find the solution.
How To Do Growth Hacking
Doing viral marketing campaigns through Growth Hacking is simple: in fact, everyone should test themselves to see if they are capable. You have to follow five concrete steps and make sure that each has been completed before moving on to the next one.
1 – Product / Market Fit
This is what is known as the “fit” between the product and the market. When starting a project, the first thing is to see if it will have acceptance in the market in which it will be put on sale. If not, better put the project aside.
It is essential to talk, in the first place, with testers (they are usually found among friends and close people) who say, honestly, whether or not they would buy the product.
It is better to invest in developing a product that can be sold than to devise marketing actions that make the brand known. Not a few have fallen into this trap: investing time, resources and money in marketing actions for a product that had no place, in any way, on the market.
2 – Grow Hack
In the United States, they call, in this way, the search for marketing actions that will position a brand in the market, but in which the product they sell and, above all, its use, have a prominent place.
It can be done if the actions of some markets are taken as a model, through social networks, showing videos of the use of the products on the wall of the followers, for example.
3 – Viralize
Once the marketing action is defined, it is necessary to make it known to the general public. Thousands of activities can be carried out (hence the creativity mentioned in previous paragraphs).
Why did Hotmail grow so much? Simply because it was the first platform to offer a free email account.
In this sense, we can take, as an example, the policy of Dropbox, which began to grow when it offered free space to those who invited friends to create an account; Spotify, after its integration with Facebook; or Airbnb, after its integration with Craigslist.
4 – Build Customer loyalty
We are giving the best after-sales service and working on the web and social media profiles to improve the user experience.
If they get loyal customers, they can become brand preceptors: people trust their friends much more when buying a product than in brand marketing actions.
5 – Back To The Start
Growth Hacking is a living and active entity that must evolve, as do other brands and customers’ needs.
At this point, it is time to analyze the results obtained with the different actions and ask yourself why they have worked and why not. It is necessary to move forward and find new methods to promote the company; if not, there is a risk that the competition will evolve and subtract users from the brand.
Why Start Growth Hacking in a Startup?
As you can see, Growth Hacking is working (and very well) for companies of all kinds. Perhaps the clearest examples are those of film and television, but due to the creative charge of the product.
It is not strange to come across examples of Growth Hacking on the street that are working perfectly for the different brands. And it is that every time, more SMEs are signing up for this promotion trend (without even knowing the term). They copy and adapt to what the big companies are doing and get more than acceptable results.
YouTube and social networks are great allies for those who have a small budget for the marketing and commercialization of the product. Having a channel with followers and profiles that work and that are an updated and two-way communication channel with the users of the products is key to developing these strategies.
The Internet is a perfect tool to raise passion regarding a product or service. Generating expectation is the most recurrent technique for the strategy to succeed. In addition, this process allows discovering new uses and new outlets for the products marketed by a specific brand.
