You must have heard the term growth hacking a lot of times.
Some people swear by it while others call it a buzzword. But no matter what people think, we can tell you one thing – growth hacking is real.
Coined by Sean Ellis in 2010, Growth Hacking is “a process of rapid experimentation across marketing funnel, product development, sales segments, and other areas to identify the most efficient ways to grow a business.”
In simpler words, growth hacking means finding ways to grow your business efficiently. It applies to companies that must rely on cheaper yet effective ways to market themselves. If you’re a company that cannot sponsor the next awards ceremony, growth hacking is for you.
In this article, the five growth hacking methods that we’ll discuss which your business can use are:
- Understand your users.
- Create free content to help them.
- Encourage users to consume more.
- Encourage sharing to go viral.
- Collect feedback.
Right. Let’s dive into each of them.
- Understand Your Users
When asked “Who are your customers?”, many business owners say, “Everybody.” But as the popular saying goes, if everybody is your customer, then no one is your customer.
No product can have everyone as a customer; not even a soap. Soaps differ by price, quality, and benefits. If different soaps cater to different users, how can you sell your product to everyone.
Your business will only grow if your product solves a specific problem for a specific user base. To know this specific problem, you must talk to your users. Spend time observing them. Collect stories, emotions and ideas.
These insights will show you how you can make your product more useful for your customers. It will also help you improve marketing and conversions.
Takeaway: Understand your user as a person. No brainstorming in your office cubicle or boardroom is useful without these insights.
- Create free content to help them.
Your customers want to trust you BEFORE they buy from you. This trust comes when you prove that you understand their problems and are able to solve them.
The most effective way to deliver this proof is to create free content to address your customers’ pain points. Let this content provide interesting perspectives rather than being a document curated from search results on Google.
“Don’t just tell me what’s going on, tell me how you feel about it and why I should care. Thought leaders sift through the mess to give us context and perspective, because what we need is not more content but more true insights.” — Ann Headley, MarketingProfs.
Takeaway: Give out your best content in exchange for an email address and you’ll soon build a large audience which you can turn into customers.
- Encourage users to consume more.
You cannot grow your business if customers use your product once and never return. You’ll keep spending tremendous resources to onboard new customers and eventually burn out.
Instead, make your customers purchase over and over again from you. For instance, making your offering subscription-based will mean users don’t have to spend a lump sum of money. And you will consistently generate revenue from existing customers along with new ones. Thus, your users and you are happy.
To track and follow up on user consumption, it’s important for your team to utilize CRM software to the fullest. Set up manual processes and train your team to track user consumption and what to do to upsell to existing customers.
Takeaway: It’s up to twenty-five times less expensive to retain customers than to acquire new ones. Delight existing customers and they’ll bring more users to buy your product.
“Check out how Enjay’s CRM software can help your business grow by up to 40 percent.”
- Induce them to share.
By paying $10 to each new customer and $10 to the customer who referred them, PayPal hacked early growth to tens of millions of users before they no longer needed to provide the bonus.
Dropbox allows users to get more space if they invite friends. Uber does the same with cab rides.
Reward your customers to share your product with their circles and bring users onboard.
But remember that your customers will only share your product if they’re delighted with it. Use a CRM software to track your customers’ issues quickly, and provide them with remarkable customer service. The result will be your product going viral in no time.
Takeaway: Reward your customers for referring others to use your product. Word of mouth is the most effective marketing strategy today.
- Collect Feedback
Most companies flounder here. They focus so much on sales that they forget to check whether the product performs according to expectations. This leads to a massive churn in users which results in huge losses for the company.
The most important aspect for your company to grow is making your product deliver what it promises. Collect feedback at various touchpoints from customers about their experience. Use a CRM to consolidate this feedback and draw analyses on them.
A CRM software will not just help you solve problems, but also help you set manual processes to prevent them from occurring.
Takeaway: Collect feedback from customers and work on it to improve customer experience. This is the most proven growth hack to make your business scale up quickly.
“Want to know how a CRM software can help you streamline your business operations? Connect with us for a free demo.”
