How to Be a Successful Growth Hacker
Growth hacking has become a mainstream topic for marketers, but what specific growth hacking techniques do you need to be successful? If you are involved with product development or marketing, you may already have a reasonable amount of growth hacking tools to help move your business efforts forward. However, it is helpful to have a clear understanding of what is at the core of growth hacking strategies to help add to your success.
What growth are you trying to hack? This isn’t a one size fits all scenario as growth hacking varies according to the company you are working with. Companies that successfully hack growth use specific ideas that work for their product or service. For example, Hotmail used “P.S. I love you. Get your free e-mail at Hotmail” as a tag at the bottom of each email that was sent out by users to help the service grow.
An organization may need to grow revenue, customer retention, engagement, or sign-ups, so there are different areas that you will focus on growing. You want to concentrate on one area at a time, so it is best to determine what areas of growth take priority.
Learn human behavior. Once you determine what area of business you are trying to grow, you need to learn more about human behavior and how it relates to your business. Growth hackers know that users and customers will drive business. It may be great to produce a new product or implement a new service, but if it isn’t reaching your audience it will most likely be unsuccessful.
Build a culture of growth. A company requires a team of people with similar goals to be able to grow. If the organization does not share the same goals for growth, a growth hacker will likely be unsuccessful. Not every employee needs to be a growth hacker, but they should understand the goals and reasons for using specific growth hacking techniques.
Growth hacking will cost. Time is money and it does take plenty of time to lay the groundwork and implement growth hacking strategies. Growth hacking doesn’t function specifically on free methods, but using tools that you pay for can help accelerate growth when used correctly. Look for different methods to acquire customers and reach different networks.
Be patient. Growth hacking does not happen overnight. It will take time to analyze and implement valuable strategies. Those who fail think it will be a quick fix to turning an organization around or helping a startup gain momentum. Recognize that growth hacking techniques can be complex.
Most growth hacking strategies take place in startups or smaller businesses, as large companies are usually opposed to what they see as a risk and just want to keep status quo. Using the tools and having the right mindset to hack growth can be a huge benefit to developing a successful business. Understanding the core strategies provides a solid foundation to be a successful growth hacker.
