Why your business should embrace growth hacking.

Growth hacking is here and it is happening. It’s the reason so many startups are looking at astronomical growth rates, and the reason why a continuously growing number of companies are as big as they are. Instagram, Facebook, AirBnB, Uber, Dropbox. Just a small grasp of businesses that use the technique and achieved maximum growth. And let’s face it, we know and probably use every single one of them. Now you know why you know them.

So what is growth hacking?

What’s in a name. The term was coined in 2010, and even though it refers to something illegal, it’s not. It comes down to using out-of-the-box solutions for achieving maximum financial growth as fast as possible.  It’s marketing, but at the same time it’s something different. Call it Schrödinger’s marketing strategy if you will. According to Postcron’s Elisabet Parera, it can be defined as:

“A hybrid between web development and an expert in digital marketing that additionally combines analytics, creativity, marketing techniques, product improvement, curiosity and social metrics. All this with the objective of making a startup’s number of users grow, increasing sales and gaining presence in the market.”

Growth hacking is understanding your product and realistically grasping the scalability of that product. After that, you use all means necessary to spread it across as many people as possible through using cheap, yet effective tools. Get your product out there! Many businesses give away discounts for inviting friends to use the product or by sharing it on Facebook or Instagram. It’s clever tricks like these that fully utilise today’s digitalised society almost cost-free. Once you’ve got the smart thinking figured out, you can start hacking away.

Smart thinking?

That’s right. There’s plenty of stuff that needs to be clear before throwing your products out there. Think stuff like finding the right customer base, finding out how you’re going to reach them, and how you’re going to get customers to actually use your product. And once they’ve bought your product, you’re not there yet. You want to have that sweet customer retention, always. You want customers to feel the need to keep using your product and spread the word on how happy they are with it. Think actions like giving away discounts if customers share your product across social channels, or offer other benefits for each purchase.

Embrace your creativity.

It is said that you can only use growth hacking as long as your creativity lasts. There’s just so many options, and even though it’s difficult to pinpoint an exact definition or application, it’s a huge concept with an even larger number of successes backing it up. Each case is unique, making growth hacking hard to do, but once you’ve got it figured out, success is practically guaranteed.

Want to learn all you need to know about growth hacking and discover how you can apply it to your business? Join us at Spaces Rode Olifant in The Hague on January 17th for a crash course on mastering the art of growth hacking. Get your tickets right here.