eCommerce Glossary: Growth Hacking

Glossary

Growth Hacking Explained by a Growth Hacker

What is Growth Hacking?

Businesses that have an online presence have the potential to reach many people at once. But start-ups or small companies often have a tight budget. They require marketing strategies that will help them grow without draining all available funds. This is where growth hacking is used.

Growth hacking is the use of specific strategies to enhance the growth of businesses. The term was coined in 2010 by Sean Ellis who helped several businesses gain many clients over a very short period.

Growth hacking is usually used by start-ups who wish to boost their brand, especially within a short period. Growth hacking is also cost-effective and therefore it is of great help to start-ups who can only afford to work with a small budget. Growth hacking focuses on bringing in more users or customers quickly, but without spending too much.

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A growth hacker is a professional who uses various growth hacking strategies to bring in new customers and convert them into long term customers. A growth hacker is also known as a growth marketer. However, growth hackers work beyond just marketing campaigns.

Growth hackers primarily focus on strategies that can stimulate actual and significant growth. Growth hackers try to come up with creative ways of boosting the growth of the entire business, and not just specific products or services. They test several different strategies and prioritize the most suitable ones. Growth hackers can quickly identify channels for marketing growth and constantly analyze different customer acquisition methods.

5 Step Guide to The Growth Hacking Process

Growth Hacking Strategy

The process for applying growth hacking strategies to your business is quite simple. But it involves proper research. You will also need to analyze the impact each strategy has on your brand. A professional marketing growth hacker will use the following steps to achieve the desired results.

Step 1: Create a Quality Product

This might seem to be a very simple thing, or even irrelevant, but it is really important. Companies do invest a lot in product conceptualization and creation. But you have to assess the value of the product and what appeal it will have to your target audience. An only mediocre product can be made popular. But that will require a lot of advertising, which is bound to be expensive.

With start-ups that have low capital, this is not a feasible option. Therefore, the product or the service has to be exceptional for growth hacking to work. You should also be creating a product that people want. Start a conversation and have people take surveys before you invest too much of the funding. It is important to understand if people like the idea of the product.

Step 2: Pick Your Target Audience

Do not try to create a product for a large number of people. Your target audience can be large, but it has to be specific. If you try to create something that will have the same appeal for everyone, it's not going to work. You will not be able to reach everybody with one product. It is important to target smaller groups of people first and then slowly expand the reach. Once clients start coming in, they will influence more people to take a look at your products.

It is easier to convert specific groups of people into loyal customers than to try and do so to a large number. Growth hacking is about prioritizing and understanding what growth rate is ideal. Once you reach your initial target rate, expand the product reach by using different methods and more channels. The best way to figure out your target audience is by analyzing who will find the products most beneficial.

Create a profile for your ideal customer and then target those groups that fit the description. Be as elaborate as possible but do not include any vague prerequisites. Your first customers will be those who have an interest in the product.

Step 3: Acquiring Potential Customers

The acquisition is an important aspect of growth hacking. To ensure this, growth hacking has to make use of marketing strategies that will make the product extremely popular within a very short period. If a product or service goes viral, you stand the chance to get clients through word of mouth.

The entire experience of the service or product has to be something that will keep attracting people. You should also make sure that customers are paying. Acquisitions do require investment. But if you can convert interested people into paying customers, then you will make a profit.

Step 4: Activate and Increase Conversions

People are not going to pay for a product or service if they are not sure about it. Therefore it is not a good idea to ask for payment information as soon as they check out what your brand has to offer. Instead, you can ask your potential clients to sign up for a newsletter or create an account on your website. They can also opt-in to receive information about the products. Once they see what products are available, it will be easier for you to convert them to paying customers.

Step 5: Hold on to Customers

Once you have to pay customers, it is important to retain them. Do not invest too much in bringing in new customers. Growth hacking is about analyzing what works best and having long term customers is one of the best ways to ensure a brand's success. While it is important to enhance user experience and create more products, it is also important to stick to the strategies that work. These strategies are what brought you the customers, in the first place. You should pay attention to the existing customers and come up with products that will continue to cater to their needs while working on ways to attract new people.

Growth hackers concentrate on the product and the channels that can be used to promote it. You can use growth hacking on your own as well. You will simply have to conduct extensive research and analyze every aspect of your brand.