By , Jonathan Long
Published August 01, 2016
There is no doubt that you have heard of growth hacking recently. It’s much more than a trendy buzzword in the startup world, though -- it’s an essential component of growing and scaling a business.
Growth hacking is the process of building explosive momentum that takes your business off the ground quickly. While it’s generally discussed in the startup world, it’s very possible to use growth hacking to kick-start a stagnant company, as well. I’ve noticed a large percentage of the companies I consult with are terrified by the term growth hacking, so I wanted to break the process down into four simple steps.
Every business is going to have a monumental goal, such as building a brand that generates $10 million in annual sale, but achieving a lofty goal like that will require flawless execution of several micro goals. Some examples:
Related: The Definitive Guide for Growth Hacking (Infographic)
Home runs are exciting in the game of baseball, but they are few and far between. Consistently hitting singles and playing smart wins the game. You need to adapt this same strategy when attacking your main goal.
The majority of your goals from the first step will involve numbers, as demonstrated in the examples above. When you know your numbers inside and out, it enables you to make calculated decisions that lead to explosive growth.
Numbers never lie.
Some examples of data you want to track and analyze:
You could be great at mapping out micro goals and analyzing data, but if your conversion funnel isn’t creative, you won’t get off the ground.
Related: 4 Growth Hacking Strategies That Work Like Magic
There isn’t an easy conversion funnel solution that will work for everyone. Each business has different products, services and target customers. For example, an email sequence that’s designed to nurture and then convert leads into sales, will have dramatically different copy across different industries.
If you are targeting C-level executives for a B2B service, your emails will be very to-the-point, while copy that’s targeting Millennials and pushing them to convert on a tech product might be a little more aggressive with some sarcasm thrown in.
Some businesses will rely heavily on email marketing, while others will drive the majority of their funnel traffic using social media. Knowing your target market will play a huge role in whether or not you are able to put together a creative funnel that converts.
An example of a funnel, from top to bottom, would be:
You have to split-test everything. This is where the most noticeable gains can be made. Again, numbers don’t lie. While you might think a blue rectangle “submit” button looks the best on your landing page, through split-testing you might discover that a round orange button is responsible for a much higher conversion rate.
Related: How Growth Hacking Is Redefining Marketing
Never assume; always test.
From your landing page layouts and color schemes, to different call-to-actions, marketing channels, ad copy and email subject lines -- you need to be split-testing everything.
I love talking about different growth hacking strategies -- Tweet me if you ever want to bounce ideas around.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/growth-hacking-simplified-in-4-steps