GROWTH HACKING

Accelerate your business with these expert tips on "Growth hacking, for growth". Analyse and discover this TIP!

Your new company needs to grow in sales very fast in order to cross the valley of death in the shortest possible time, and exceed the sales volume that allows you to go into profit (break-even point).

Growth hacking are all the techniques, actions that allow you to accelerate your sales, using few resources at the same time. What you have to achieve is that, with the minimum possible expense and effort, you can quickly and noticeably increase the volume of users, or income, or impacts, of your company.

How to grow fast in sales by leveraging programming + marketing and a lot of creativity?

New technologies, media, database mining, new channels open up new opportunities that, if well exploited, allow you to accelerate your sales. It is the ability to programme creative software solutions to accelerate the growth of your business.

These skills are even more necessary in the startup world to make them more attractive to potential investors, since what business angels like most are projects that grow exponentially, and this can be achieved with growth hacking. 

It is fashionable in Digital Marketing and you should apply it to your project.

The most important of all and what we must always bear in mind is that we always seek the minimum use of resources, therefore, the techniques employed will always have a use of creativity and a series of qualities you need to work on to be a good growth hacker.

QUALITIES:

• BE ANALYTICAL

  • Analysing everything is key to understanding whether the techniques you try work or not.
  • You have to be analytical and smart, look for key metrics and targeting to analyse success and know when to scrap something or persevere.

• BE CREATIVE

  • Creativity is key for a Growth Hacker as Growth Hacking is about finding new ways to grow, so if everyone else is doing the same thing, our ability to grow will be limited.

• MULTI-DISCIPLINARY

  • Knowing a little bit about everything and the more the better is key to being able to develop better growth techniques.
  • Take advantage of the experts we introduce you to in the acceleration programmes. 

• CURIOSITY

  • Curiosity for everything, lateral thinking, observing all sectors to pick up new ideas.

• AGILITY

  • To be a good Growth Hacker you have to try things fast and see if they work.
  • Analysing just enough is necessary; losing agility in going to market by analysing too much is crude and inefficient.

Growth hackers experiment ruthlessly and try new things until they find what works for them.

Always putting the same offer for Mother's Day doesn't work!

Instead, it is advisable to test advertising creatives to see what kind of image your customer segment prefers, test different email marketing and re-marketing campaigns and find out whether they find it more pleasant if the voice-over in the YouTube advert is a man or a woman, or if they like the registration button on your landing page better in red than in blue.

• In this community you can get good ideas (see+). 
• This guide is great (see+).

In order to carry out a strategy of growth hackingYou must have a deep knowledge of your business, your customer, the channels to reach them, and take advantage of technological changes: each social network is creating new ways of segmenting and impacting its users, be aware of the changes!

EXAMPLE OF COMPANIES THAT ACHIEVED ACCELERATED GROWTH:

The most vocal was Hotmail, which included in its emails a link so that others could obtain the free online mail service.

A good example is Airbnb, two years old, it was facing a serious problem, it needed to increase its user base, and that was precisely what a very popular online classified ads company in the United States, craigslist, had.

Their strategy was to offer anyone who placed a sleeping space on Airbnb to also put their ad on craigslist... without notifying craigslist.

HOW DID THEY DO IT?

Basically, by creating a specific bot that replicated craigslist's databases, de facto making users of one site also users of the other. And, in this integration, Airbnb had everything to gain, as its ads were more attractive, better presented and had better photos than those of craigslist.

The result was that users gradually forgot about craigslist and went straight to Airbnb. By the time craigslist discovered the move and took IT measures to avoid the situation, it was too late. There are good examples using content generation strategies with blogs or sending emails to customer listing databases...

Growth hacking is the new marketing method to quickly increase the number of users of a product with reduced costs. Through simple actions, such as search engine optimisation (SEO), website analytics or Internet advertising, companies can achieve high relevance while budget is of secondary importance.

Hence, growth hacking, is the best marketing we can do when we have no budget, it is the new marketing method to quickly increase the number of users of a product with reduced costs.

Through simple actions, such as search engine optimisation (SEO), website analytics or Internet advertising, you can achieve great relevance, leaving the budget in the background. The right time to apply these techniques is when you have validated your business model, it is a mistake to think that you can set up a company just by doing growth hacking.

If you haven't located your target and validated your value proposition and your channels, these techniques are of no use. So it's back to Sprint 1 of the Acceleration Programme!!!!

• Video (see+).

Growth hacking is a combination of marketing, product, and analytics, all focused on rapid and efficient growth. But it is essential to have a solid foundation on which to build that growth.

There are no magic solutions; sustainable growth comes from hard work, adaptation and constant learning.

Practical advice for entrepreneurs to apply growth hacking:

• VALIDATE YOUR IDEA (+)

Before investing resources in growth hacking tactics, make sure your product or service has a real market demand. Use methods such as customer interviews, MVPs (Minimum Viable Products), or A/B tests (+).

2. IDENTIFIES CHANNELS (+) MORE EFFECTIVE

Not all channels are equally effective for all businesses. You might find that SEO works wonderfully for your startup, while social media marketing doesn't do much. Focus your efforts where it really matters.

• USES AUTOMATION

Automate processes wherever you can to save time and resources. Tools such as chatbots (+) for customer service or automated email marketing platforms can be extremely useful.

• BE CREATIVE BUT MEASURABLE

Creativity is essential, but so is measuring the results of your actions. Use metrics and KPIs (+) to assess what is really working.

• ITERA

Growth hacking is not a set of magic tricks that work overnight. It is an iterative process of trial and error. Don't be afraid to fail; learn from your mistakes and move on.

• MAINTAIN A CUSTOMER FOCUS

Listen to your customers. Conduct surveys, monitor social media, and maintain a customer-centric approach in all your growth hacking strategies.

• ADAPTS AND EVOLVES

The digital world is constantly changing. What works today may not work tomorrow. Stay up to date and be willing to adapt to new strategies and tactics.

• INTEGRATED WITH YOUR PRODUCT

Remember that one of the best engines of growth can be your own product. Features that encourage recommendation, repeat purchase or virality can be extremely effective.

• DON'T FORGET THE RETURN ON INVESTMENT (ROI) (+)

Every action should be measured in terms of return on investment. If a strategy is consuming more resources than it generates, it is time to re-evaluate.

• BE PATIENT

Results often take time. Don't expect overnight success. Be persistent and maintain a long-term growth mindset.

PRACTICAL EXAMPLES OF GROWTH HACKING:

The concept of "Growth Hacking" has become an important crucial strategy for startups and early stage companies seeking rapid growth with minimal investment.

SEVERAL CASES ILLUSTRATE HOW THIS STRATEGY CAN BE SUCCESSFULLY IMPLEMENTED:

• DROPBOX - REFERRAL PROGRAMME

Dropbox offered additional free storage for both the referring user and the user who joined by invitation. This win-win approach made its user base skyrocket.

• AIRBNB - CRAIGSLIST INTEGRATION

Airbnb allowed its users to post their ads directly on Craigslist, even though Craigslist did not have a public API. This increased the visibility of the ads and attracted more users to Airbnb.

• HOTMAIL - "PS I LOVE YOU

In its early days, every email sent through Hotmail included a line at the end that read "PS: I love you. Get your free email at Hotmail" and redirected to the Hotmail registration page. This viral tactic was incredibly effective.

• PAYPAL - CASH BONUSES

PayPal offered $10 for both the referrer and the referred. This incentive scheme enabled PayPal to gain a huge number of new users in a very short time.

• LINKEDIN - "GROWTH LOOP" THROUGH EMAIL INVITATIONS

LinkedIn incentivised new users to invite their contacts to join the network. Each new member who joined expanded the network, which in turn made the platform more valuable to future members.

6. SLACK - FOCUS ON USER EXPERIENCE

Slack focused on making their product so intuitive and easy to use that teams would want to invite other members. Their focus on user experience meant that they grew primarily through word of mouth.

• ISNTAGRAM - USE OF HASHTAGS AND SHARING ON OTHER SOCIAL NETWORKS

Instagram made it easy to share photos not only within its platform but also on other social networks and used hashtags to encourage interaction. This helped Instagram achieve mass adoption in a very short period of time.

PRACTICAL ADVICE:

Identify the Most Effective Growth Channel: Not all growth channels will work for your business. Find the most effective one and focus your efforts there.

1. A/B testing: Always A/B test to understand which tactics work best.
2. Metrics and KPIs: keep a clear record of key metrics and KPIs to assess the impact of your growth hacking efforts.
3. Itera and Escala: Once you find a tactic that works, try to scale it while keeping an eye on ROI.
4. Creativity: don't be afraid to be creative and try something completely new. Growth hacking often involves thinking outside the box.

Growth hacking is not a magic bullet, but with the right strategies, you can significantly accelerate the growth of your business.

Using a language model such as artificial intelligence can be a valuable tool in the process of discovering or refining growth hacking strategies for a new venture.. 

HERE ARE SOME WAYS IN WHICH YOU COULD DO THIS:

• ANALYSIS OF THE CURRENT SITUATION:

  • Identification of Target Audience: you can start by asking questions about how to identify your target audience or how to segment it.
  • Channel Assessment: ask about the different acquisition channels and which might be the most effective for your type of business.

• IDEA GENERATION:

  • Brainstorming (+): use the chat to generate a list of possible growth hacking tactics specific to your industry.
  • Competition Analysis: ask for an analysis of how competitors might be applying growth hacking and how you can differentiate yourself.
  • Technologies and Tools: ask about which tools could help you implement and measure the impact of your strategies.

• EVALUATION OF IDEAS:

  • A/B testing: get advice on how to set up and analyse A/B tests for different tactics.
  • Metrics: ask what KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) you should be monitoring.

• IMPLEMENTATION:

  • Roadmap: Once you have chosen one or more tactics, ask for a detailed action plan or roadmap.
  • Continuous Reviews: use the chat to follow up, ask for advice on optimisations and how to adapt to the results obtained.

• EDUCATION AND UPDATING:

  • Current Trends: stay up to date by asking about the latest trends in growth hacking.
  • Case studies: asks for examples of how other companies have successfully implemented growth hacking strategies.

• INTERACTION WITH THE TEAM:

  • Team Education: use the answers and resources provided to educate your team about growth hacking.
  • Team Problem Solving: if you encounter obstacles, use the chat to look for solutions or additional perspectives that might not have been considered.

By using artificial intelligence in this way, you can tap into a wide range of knowledge and insights that might not be immediately available to your team, especially if you are a startup or small business with limited resources.