Growth hacking usually involves a “positioning strategy”. It refers to all the strategies, marketing and digital tools, focused on increasing the number of users of a given product in the shortest possible time.
Growth hacking can be virtually applied to any business model, but it is specially related to technological enterprises –the so-called StartUps.
What is the difference between Digital Marketing and growth hacking?
Although they have a lot in common, digital marketing refers to online marketing actions, while growth hacking can be seen as the ability to create a leveraged growth resorting to any tool that might contribute to increasing a product or service scalability, either on-line or off-line.
A marketing specialist counts on many precious skills for any company. However, what most enterprises and StartUps actually need at the very beginning is a growth hacker, since they have to be competitive and show a quick growth at once, or else they’ll soon be gone.
See more: The difference between marketing and growth hacking.
What do you need to apply growth hacking?
Growth hacking can be applied to any kind of business, no matter how large or small, local or international, through a wide variety of tools and techniques. Despite this fact, every company that means to implement it will need:
- To have a clear idea of the current situation of sales and the needs of the Buyer Persona.
- To identify their value propositions.
- To use this value proposition to create viral strategies to attract new users.
- To analyze results and optimize strategies on a constant basis.
- To build customer loyalty.
As you’ll see, the sequence followed by growth hacking is very similar to that of Inbound marketing, as it’s user-centered, though its main focus is a fast and explosive growth.
Examples of growth hacking
As it happens with many technological concepts, sometimes it’s easier to provide an example than to define. Below you’ll find some which you must already be familiar with:
Dropbox
Dropbox growth strategy includes providing storage space in the cloud by simply inviting your contacts to use it. Actually, it was developed by Sean Ellis, who is widely regarded as the father of growth hacking.
Airbnb
Airbnb achieved a massive and incredibly fast growth thanks to a bot programmed to contact users and offer them the possibility of publishing their ads on Craigslist with a simple click.
Uber
Uber used such a successful growth hacking technique that nowadays thousands of services Apps are using it too. We’re talking about the really attractive discount coupons and/or free rides for each new referral.
Hotmail
Today the king of email is Gmail, beyond any doubt. Still, there was a time when Hotmail managed to double its user database from 500,000 to a million within just six months, without a dime spent. They simply added an invitation to sign up at the bottom of each email sent from a Hotmail account:
“PS I Love you. Get your free email at Hotmail“.
Read more: 23 Proven Growth Hacking Examples You Can Steal to Gain Traction.
Where to find a growth hacker?
The profile of a growth hacker combines expertise on digital marketing, business marketing and even programming. Besides this technical know-how, they are success-driven, results-oriented and creative, and they welcome challenges.
Although it doesn’t exist yet, there will soon be some sort of academic credential to certificate this kind of skills. However, an important part of growth hacking is basically the constant search for opportunities and new growth tools.
Do you need a growth hacker? Here at Workana you can hire online freelance growth hackers, experienced in speed growth strategies to start up your business.
Learn more about growth hacking
Growth hacking is an exciting and massive universe. In order to fully understand it and finally master it, you’ll have to keep updated about its tools and trends. Below there’s a list of some excellent resources about growth hacking that we’ve found:
- Why is growth hacking so important to your business? – By Entrepreneur
- The Definitive Guide to Growth Hacking – By Quick Sprout
- Growth hacking made simple: a step by step guide – By Neil Patel
- 7 Growth Hacking Examples to Inspire Your Own Marketing – Mention
- 23 Proven growth hacking examples you can steal – By Optin Monster
- Growth Hacking Explained: What Is It and How Can It Benefit You? – By Digital Marketing Institute
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