There may not be a shortcut to success, but there are techniques that can make the path a little smoother.
Entrepreneurs are usually bootstrapped in terms of their time and money. A fallout from this can be the lack of marketing know-how or the ability to hire a marketing professional. This is where growth hacking can come in handy.
What is growth hacking?
“Growth hacking is the use of out of the box thinking and technology to achieve massive growth in a short time.” It involves a lot of experimentation with marketing and product or service development to identify the best ways to grow your business as quickly as possible. You will want to try a lot of ideas, track their progress and move quickly from one to the next if one isn’t working.
There are some things to keep in mind before you try growth hacking:
Make sure your product or service solves a problem
An example of this is Uber and their ability to offer people who don’t have cars an alternative to the traditional taxi system.
Offer something for free
When Dropbox got started, they offered free storage to each person who joined and they continue to offer 2 GB of storage for free. People love getting things for free, and when you need them to try a new product or service, you want to remove the barrier of cost so that they try it and then realize it is worth an investment.
Make your product or service easy and fun to use
In today’s world, we have choices for everything and people tend to prefer a product or service that is easy and fun to use.
Be the best
There may be a lot of competition in your space, but your chance of survival depends on your ability to be the best and to communicate your differences to your target market.
Use competition to your advantage
Collaborating with your competition can give you an edge. Airbnb used to advertise on Craigslist to expand their reach, and Instagram allows cross promotion on other social platforms to maintain their position as the go-to photo sharing platform.
No customer is too small
Keep all of your customers in mind and cater to the small ones because they are key for your growth hacking strategy. Eventbrite continues to show support for their smallest customers by offering free service for any event that is free to attend.
Be scalable
Before you try growth hacking, you need to be prepared to grow. If your business isn’t ready for growth, it can have a negative effect on the quality of your product or service, which can negatively affect your brand and drive customers away.
Growth hacking won’t work for every business, and it may depend on the stage your business is in. There is no one size fits all formula, so have your goals in mind, try growth hacking strategies and continue to learn as you grow.