What is Growth Hacking?

Growth hacking is defined as "the non-technical side of running growth experiments". It's the process of trial and error until you find a marketing channel that works. This article will show how growth hacking can be applied to help grow your company.

What Is Growth Hacking?

The term "growth hacking" was first used in 2013 by Sean Ellis, who defined it as a "specific set of marketing techniques that are executed with the sole purpose of driving awareness, traffic, leads, and sales of a product."

Growth hacking is characterized by low-cost or no-cost strategies that see an exponential return on investment. According to the creator himself, the most correct definition of the term is experiment-oriented marketing — finding new strategies to achieve success. In short, growth hacking involves developing new strategies focused on rapid growth for a business entity.

For example: obtain email addresses from people who visit your website by offering them something free. Another one would be promoting products on social media channels for reach but not necessarily engagement, such as Facebook Ads. Growth hacking can be thought of as identifying "triggers" that, when activated, promote growth — similar to leveraging modern, scientific thinking.

How Important Is Growth Hacking?

The business landscape is changing and companies are finding themselves adapting to the changes. One of the main challenges is finding new ways to grow and expand market share, or risk becoming irrelevant. Growth hacking has proven to be an effective means for companies to do this because it's a way to create more traffic, leads, or customers.

It not only provides companies with new customers but also helps them keep existing customers coming back for more. The most common challenge is the lack of knowledge of what exactly growth hacking entails.

The growth hacking process is complex and requires careful planning and attention to detail. The best way to get started is to start with the end goal in mind. Most people think about growth hacking as a way to increase the number of customers, but the end goal is to increase the amount of revenue your business generates.

Growth Hacking vs Digital Marketing

Growth hacking, in its simplest form, is the process of rapid experimentation across marketing channels with the goal of achieving hyper-growth.

Digital marketing is all about leveraging technology to create successful campaigns. Both require analytics and creativity, but the skill set required for each varies. Understanding the differences can help businesses develop an effective strategy for success.

Profile of a Growth Hacker

Growth hackers are obsessed with the customer and understand that the customer is the company's only asset. They understand that the customer is the most important part of the company, and it's the job of the growth hacker to ensure that the customer is happy.

The best growth hackers have an analytical mindset that is more focused on proving their hypothesis than anything else. To become a growth hacker you need:

• A growth hacker mindset — think and act differently from a product management mindset
• A background in product management — know the ins and outs of your product's overall strategy
• A track record of success in returns on marketing and customer acquisition investment
• A desire to learn more — commitment to learning psychology and marketing

Types of Growth Hacking

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to growth hacking. However, a few fundamentals apply to every business, usually through:

• Reducing customer acquisition cost — achieved by deploying creative channels that are both scalable and low-cost
• Maximizing lifetime value — achieved by maximizing customer lifetime value and minimizing churn rate
• Improving churn — achieved by improving the customer experience and creating a differentiated offering

How to Start With Growth Hacking? A 6-Step Process

1. The Funnel of Growth Hacking

Inspired by the sales funnel, it was created by Dave McClure, who called it the "pirate funnel" because the initials form AARRR: Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Revenue, and Referral.

2. Generating Ideas

The initial stage of the process, aiming to leverage growth across the funnel metrics. Possible sources: successful case research, benchmarking of reference companies, forums, and LinkedIn groups connected to the business.

3. Selection of Ideas

Ideas linked to the company's main objectives have priority — ranking each one based on their needs is essential.

4. Modeling of Experiments

The idea becomes a hypothesis. Modeling the experiment requires clarity on the growth barrier you want to overcome and the trigger you'll explore.

5. Conducting the Experiments

Putting the experiment into practice — applying the idea the way it was planned.

6. Results Analysis

Analyzing the results to know if the hypothesis was actually confirmed.

Wrapping Up

In today's business world, everyone is trying to get ahead of the competition. Growth hacking can give businesses an edge by utilizing analytics, A/B testing, and viral content to help with traffic generation. By implementing these strategies, they will have a better chance at success and growth.