Growth Hacking, A New Marketing Reality?

Definition Of Growth Hacking

Growth Hacking, a new fashionable Anglicism, is a concept that consists of rethinking your digital marketing with one and only objective: exponentially boosting your business’s growth.

The strategy consists in finding an innovative element that will make it possible to transform a weakness into a powerful driver of growth by combining original and, above all, inexpensive digital tactics and strategies.

Growth Hacking can therefore be considered a lever for prospects’ rapid acquisition and engagement. The difference with traditional marketing is precisely a perpetual questioning that consists of knowing how to evolve quickly, in line with a more dynamic digital environment, and always with a constant growth objective. Social media, therefore, play a vital role in this digital marketing strategy and, more particularly, in Inbound marketing.

Some Stars Of Growth Hacking

Hotmail And Its Signature Phrase: An Early Case Of Growth Hacking

In 1996, this courier service, which was only in its infancy, had relatively weak growth. They then realized that 80% of new users had registered thanks to friends via word of mouth. They then had the idea of ​​inserting a message at the end of each email sent from Hotmail: “PS: I love you. Get your free email and Hotmail.» Today this type of action is expected. This operation had the effect of considerably boosting the number of users (3000 per day). In 6 months, Hotmail generated 1 million subscribers and 12 million in 18 months, to be later bought by Microsoft for 400 million dollars.

Twitter: Account Recommendations To Follow

The company has faced the problem of the flight of its users after a few days of using the application. Rather than implementing a classic follow-up strategy via e-mailings, Twitter looked for the cause of the problem and realized that the new subscribers had few followers and had yet to be able to identify existing accounts to follow. They then quickly lost interest due to a lack of interactivity. To remedy this, Twitter has set up recommendations for accounts to follow.

Indeed, if a user followed between 5 and 10 people on the same day of his registration, his activity on Twitter would be stimulated, and the probability that he would become a regular on the network would increase. The company has therefore managed to make its platform more dynamic and significantly improve the number of active accounts by focusing more on retaining subscribers rather than acquiring new users.

Who Can Do Growth Hacking?

Growth Hacking is a technique for optimizing the sales and reputation of a company or its products, which is intended to be original and, above all, inexpensive. It is, therefore, more associated with young start-ups or SMEs that need more funds to invest in a traditional marketing strategy and wish to compete with large multinationals with much more budget, within particular budgets devoted to advertising. However, today Growth Hacking can be found everywhere, in any company.

Also Read: Seven Ways To Optimize Marketing Strategies

How To Do Growth Hacking: What Techniques?

To do Growth Hacking, there are no standard tools. However, trends like progressive engagement via freemium or virality, relying on social media or sponsorship techniques, are common. Doing Growth Hacking is, above all, a question of creativity. It is about finding an innovative strategy that will allow you to reach your target without spending large sums of money. Here are 3 Hack examples commonly used by companies:

The Great Trader

Many companies such as Netflix, Dropbox, or Freshbooks have used this Hack to get new customers or users by offering their products for free and letting them sell on their own. Netflix, for example, offers one month of free access to its products. This technique also works in BtoB. It allows users to test the product before buying it. It is much easier for a company to spend money on a full version once the product or service is integrated.

The Exclusive Invite

This Hack is part of the logic of supply and demand. If the supply availability of a product is limited, the need for it increases. Pinterest used this limited offer technique through the exclusive invite. In its early days, this application was only usable by invitation. The user was then put on a waiting list to be then able to join the network. This, therefore, suggests that being a member of it is an honor. Elitism is also one of the ways to attract users.

The Paid Recommendation

The word-of-mouth technique not only increases the company’s reputation but also generates a recommendation made by the customer himself. (And therefore fully understood.) Uber, for example, has integrated it into its strategy: when a user tests the product on another user’s recommendation, both receive credit for their future purchases.

The “Limits” Of Growth Hacking

Growth Hacking propels a company to help it grow fast and strong. In the longer term, this solution found by the company will tend to run out of steam and will no longer generate as much growth as at the beginning, while its cost will remain the same! The company will, therefore, quickly have to move on. So it’s not a lasting solution.

To set up a Growth Hacking solution, the cost of the investment must be taken into account. Admittedly, one of the advantages of this technique is the marketing expense at a lower price compared to a traditional marketing strategy. In any case, that doesn’t imply that it is free! Some companies have even needed to create a whole new business, as was the case with Mint, a leading personal finance blog. This wealth management tool has boosted its growth by creating its blog and therefore implementing a content strategy targeting young professionals, known to be unreceptive to traditional finance advice.

Social media widely relies on educational and visual content, and the application could take advantage of this success. To sum up, Growth Hacking is now essential to integrate into your marketing strategy. She allowed LinkedIn to go from 2 million to 200,000 million members in a very short time! All you need is an open mind to original and alternative ideas. A good follow-up of the behavior of its prospects/customers and a good dose of audacity can also prove helpful!

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