2022: What do Growth Hackers do?

Growth hacking is a strategy that focuses on continuous growth. It usually refers to techniques for early-stage startups.

Growth hacking aims to acquire as many users as possible while keeping the budget as low as possible. It was conceptualized by Sean Ellis of the startup GrowthHackers in 2010.

What is a Growth Hacker?

A growth hacker works with businesses to improve the efficiency of their operations by acquiring and retaining customers.

This discipline thrives on analytical skills and is focused on developing strategies that can help grow a company. The ideal growth hacker has a passion for analyzing and improving their company’s operations.

How Growth Hackers Works

For every startup, it’s essential to figure out why they’re growing and what strategies they should implement to make that happen. Most of the time, growth hacking involves creating a strategy that works seamlessly together with your existing operations.

Creating a product and testing it to see if people want it is the first step in growth hacking. Doing so will help gather data on your key buyer personas.

Follow a consistent product development schedule to ensure that your product is constantly updated and monitored. Doing so will help you keep track of the project’s success and its results.

Most growth hacking strategies focus on three main areas: content marketing, product marketing, and advertising.

Creating a blog is a typical content marketing activity. Other activities include creating valuable content, guest blogging, and building a stronger connection with users. This can be done through various means, such as email marketing and search engine marketing.

One of the most common strategies that growth hackers implement is through an invite-only signup system. This method eliminates the fear of missing out and allows hackers to enjoy the process more. They can also use other strategies such as pay-per-click marketing.

Some of the notable cases of successful growth hacking include Dropbox and Craigslist. These companies rewarded their existing users with additional storage for signing up.

Inspiring growth hacking examples

Dropbox

One of the most successful startups globally is Dropbox, which started as a small startup and is now worth more than $10 billion.

In response to the growing number of users, Dropbox’s growth hackers rewarded users with 250MB of storage space for creating an account. This strategy led to a 60% spike in new registrations within days.

Instead of paying for ads, Dropbox used an incentive program that sends users to their contacts through a simple link. The goal was to make the users feel committed and less likely to go elsewhere.

Dropbox is still one of the most notable cases of referral marketing. The program was successful because both the customer and the person they recommended were rewarded.

Airbnb

In 2008, Airbnb came up with the disruptive idea of allowing people to crash at their place when hotels are sold out.

Their growth hackers started with a combination of word of mouth and PR coverage to reach their target audience.

After finding a simple way to increase the number of bookings, they started hiring local photographers to improve the photos listing on their site.

The API reverse engineering method provided the genius hack that helped propel Airbnb’s growth. The API reverse engineering method allowed its users to post their listings on Craigslist, giving them access to its massive user base. It gave the company an advantage over the competition.

Sometimes, it is so simple that it’s hard to believe that something as simple as taking better pictures can be so powerful. However, creativity and innovation are the keys to successful growth hacking.

Instagram

One of the most successful growth hacking techniques is identifying a product-market fit (PMF). This strategy involves coming up with an offering that’s right for the market.

They gave customers something they already wanted: a place to share their photos.

The rise of smartphones and the availability of digital cameras has democratized photography. As a result, people became more inclined to share their experiences and lives.

Instagram was one of the first products to improve its social interaction features. Its continuous growth allowed users to interact with their photos and share them across various platforms.

Through influencer marketing, Instagram was able to get positive reviews from tech influencers and journalists, which helped boost its app’s popularity.

The foundation of any successful growth strategy is identifying a product-market fit. Doing in-depth market research is the key to creating the right product for the customer.

Dollar Shave Club

One of our favorite examples of growth hacking is Dollar Shave Club, which used a video to promote its service, which sends people new razor blades every month for just $1. The video quickly gained 19 million views and made it a household name. You can see the video here.

Buzzfeed

In 2013, Buzzfeed’s growth hackers launched a strategy that involved getting students to use the Duolingo app to translate articles from their website to their native languages. This method was cheaper than traditional mass translation.

Even though the company’s articles are mainly in English, they could still successfully convert thousands of them into other languages.

3 easy growth hacking tips for B2B companies to get your creative juice flowing

1. Creating repurposable content 

Most B2B companies’ content is usually articles, webinars, and ebooks. These types of content provide clear value to the prospect, and they should have a relationship to the company’s offerings.

Creating an article first is an excellent strategy for building a list of articles that can be easily repurposed into other forms. This method can also benefit you in terms of search engine rankings.

2. Creative use of Linkedin

To successfully growth hack a B2B SaaS business, you need to target the right audience. One of the best platforms to do this is LinkedIn, which allows advertisers to create hyper-targeted ads.

With LinkedIn’s hyper-targeting capabilities, you’ll be able to find the ideal audience for your growth hacking strategy.

3. Competitor targeting with Google Ads

If you’re trying to compete in a crowded market, then you or your growth hackers need to be creative in how you generate leads and sales.

One of the most effective ways to target competitors is through Google ads. This method involves bidding for their competitors’ branded keywords.

One strategy that works well is creating a comparison post that uses paid ads to bid on their competitors’ branded keywords. While this method is very powerful, it’ll require some careful planning.

One more effective strategy is using trademarked words in your ad text. This method will allow you to highlight the difference between your product and theirs.

You should also make sure that your landing page is optimized for the traffic from this type of ad. Having a comparison table will help you stand out from the competition.

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This article about growth hackers is written by our artificial intelligence, William the Growthland AI. All facts stated in this post are double-checked and approved by a real human.