The need for creative ways to establish one’s own company is great in view of the increasing competition. Growth requires individual concepts and ideas that adapt to the realities of the social media world. The prerequisites and possibilities for successful customer acquisition are diverse. Growth hacking offers valuable options to keep them and also to increase your own awareness.
Definition of growth hacking
The term has existed since 2010 and loosely translated means “growth tactics”. It goes back to the American entrepreneur and start-up coach Sean Ellis. The main aim of all strategies is to significantly increase the level of awareness of a company and thus to promote long-term sales.
The further spread of the term is thanks to the blogger and entrepreneur Andrew Chen. In 2012, he wrote a blog article on the topic, defining the required characteristics of a revenue-driven entrepreneur. A so-called growth hacker is therefore a complex strategist whose central topic is customer acquisition . The procedures required for this include diverse and clever tactics and ideas relating to the growth of online business.
The growth hacking process
In order to advance startups or companies, a shrewd hacker must be able to act experimentally and apply various growth hacking tips in the sense of marketing strategies.
To this end, he develops approaches that are essential in terms of winning and long-term customer loyalty. The five main phases are:
1st phase: acquisition
First of all, potential customers have to be made aware of the website. If the visitor is on the page, it should be designed interesting enough to look around in more detail.
2nd phase: registration
While relevant page content must exert a stimulus without any further obligations, the focus is on the visitor registering and getting to know other areas of the page.
3rd phase: customer loyalty
Once the registration has been successfully completed, it is important to bind the customer to the online business. This can be made possible through activities on the site or targeted incentives.
4th phase: motivation to buy
The next step is to be motivated to buy. In this way, the visitor becomes the actual customer and actively contributes to monetization.
5th phase: recommendation
Satisfied buyers are encouraged to recommend the company in their area and thus ensure additional interested visitors and potential future customers.
Examples of successful growth hacking
The most famous include Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, for example.
- Twitter: In its early days, the company found that users mostly only send tweets themselves when they have followed at least 30 different accounts. To stimulate this, Twitter regularly posted interesting profiles in the timelines and in this way activated “following” on a large scale.
- Facebook: One of the most successful rapid growth campaigns was tagging information. The company sent emails to people who had not yet registered stating that they had been “tagged” on images. The curiosity of many people was correspondingly great and resulted in a registration.
- Instagram: The company made it possible to share images posted simultaneously not only on its own portal, but also on the Twitter and Facebook platforms.
Requirements for targeted marketing
The crucial point is first of all the use of all relevant social networks. Depending on the target group, the focus can be on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ and also cover image networks such as Pinterest, Instagram or Flickr. The large video channels YouTube or Vimeo are also available for viral marketing strategies.
“Growth hacking is unthinkable without the classic standard methods of online marketing . Search engine optimization (SEO) is right at the top , but search engine advertising (SEA), social media and content marketing concepts are also part of the strategies,” says Stefan Sprung, Head of SEO at the SEO agency Second Elements . Anyone who is able to recognize the purchase-relevant triggers and generate a WOW effect has the best prerequisites for a targeted approach. The action of a hacker includes the so-called three P’s:
- Pull: With pull measures, customers are motivated to visit a page through appealing content. The implementation takes place, for example, through SEO or content marketing .
- Push: Push measures primarily aim to attract customers through advertising campaigns in the social media area.
- Product: A product must have sought-after and high-quality properties in order to be marketable in the long term.
6 tips for successful growth hacking
Tips for your own online business are primarily based on the type of company.
Tip 1: email marketing
E-mails offer an ideal way of transmitting information and making contact and are easy to implement.
Tip 2: Optimized landing pages
The more precise and informative the landing page, the more likely the customer will get the information that is important to him at a glance. There is no place for superfluous references on a landing page.
Tip 3: Simplified registration processes
Registration processes are often time-consuming and require extensive data entry. This scares many users off. Interested parties can register with their Facebook account. In addition, the classic alternative via name and email address is on request.
Tip 4: Slideshare
The LinedIn subsidiary is a platform for PowerPoint-savvy users.
Tip 5: search engines
A page that uses the right keywords and displays is found accordingly by the search engines. The better the placement, the greater the chance of gaining new visitors for your own site.
Tip 6: tracking solutions
Many customers only stay briefly on one page and often need several attempts before they buy a product. Tracking solutions enable the submission of information that actually interests the customer.
The further spread of the term is thanks to the blogger and entrepreneur Andrew Chen. In 2012, he wrote a blog article on the topic, defining the required characteristics of a revenue-driven entrepreneur. A so-called growth hacker is therefore a complex strategist whose central topic is customer acquisition . The procedures required for this include diverse and clever tactics and ideas relating to the growth of online business. The main aim of all strategies is to significantly increase the level of awareness of a company and thus to promote long-term sales.
If you want more information about growth hacking and are looking for more tips on this topic, we can recommend the following video:
Conclusion
The more hierarchical and larger a company, the more difficult it is to use unusual ideas outside the usual marketing paths. Anyone who thinks outside the box and is at home in social media has the best prerequisites for efficient growth ideas.
