12 STEPS TO EFFECTIVE GROWTH HACKING

by trigger (@wetriggergrowth)

UNSURE HOW TO CRACK THE CODE FOR HOW TO GET STARTED WITH GROWTH HACKING?

GOOD NEWS AHEAD

WE HAVE BROKEN DOWN THE PROCESS IN 12 EFFECTIVE STEPS THAT WILL KICK START YOUR GROWTH (HACKING) EFFORTS. READY?

1. HAVE A PRODUCT

PEOPLE WANT!

Having a product that is in demand is critical and the first element you must attend to considering all your marketing efforts. Straightforward, right?

RIGHT.

At the end of the day, no marketing budget can sell a product people dont want!

Remember when Coca Cola replaced their old recipe with a new formula? People didnt want a new flavour. They just wanted the old Coke they knew and loved!

LESSON LEARNED Make sure your product is wanted and not just good.

2. DEFINE YOUR OVERALL

BUSINESS GOALS

SUCCESSFUL GROWTH HACKING STARTS WITH BUSINESS GOALS THAT ARE SMART (SPECIFIC, MEASURABLE, ACHIEVABLE, REALISTIC AND TIME-BASED.

YOUR ULTIMATE GOAL IS TO MAXIMISE GROWTH AND PROFITS, BUT THERE ARE MULTIPLE WAYS TO GET THERE

EXAMPLES

If you have a startup you may want to break even or reach a critical mass of users or visitors.

Opposite, if you have an established business that has exhausted its growth potential, you may need to reach a new target audience or reposition your product.

DID YOU KNOWthat growth hacking is not only for startups? Check out this slide deck (image link).

http://www.slideshare.net/wetriggergrowth/growth-hacking-for-corporates-66966017?qid=9ca541ea-21f8-4020-8f12-fc7c7013bf82&v=&b=&from_search=1

3. CUT YOUR BUSINESS GOALS INTO

REALISTIC GROWTH HACKING GOALS

SOUNDS LIKE A DIFFICULT TASK? DONT WORRY, ITS NOT. LETS TAKE AN EXAMPLE TO ILLUSTRATE OUR POINT.

YOUR BUSINESS GOAL IS TO INCREASE TRAFFIC

This is a good goal, but its too broad for growth hacking purposes. You need one that is more concrete.

Remember! Growth hacking is based on rapid experimentation and specific results.

YOU NEED TO CREATE SMALL, ACTIONABLE MICRO GOALS THAT DEFINE WHAT YOURE GOING TO DO.

SO, IF WANT TO INCREASE YOUR WEBSITE TRAFFIC, DIFFERENT MICRO GOALS COULD BE:

- Increase content output by 50%

- Send 2x more emails to our list

- Boost website visitors by 35% in the next six weeks

4. ANALYSE PAST TRENDS

AND RESULTS

UNLESS YOUR PRODUCT IS COMPLETELY UNIQUE, THERE WILL ALWAYS BE SOMEONE WHO CAME BEFORE YOU.

SURPRISE.

DONT LET THIS ROCK YOUR BOAT. USE IT TO YOUR ADVANTAGE AND LOOK AT THEIR OPERATIONS AND RESULTS. THESE INSIGHTS WILL GIVE YOU AN IDEA

ABOUT WHAT WORKS AND WHAT DOESNT.

THESE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS YOU CAN LOOK INTO. FOR INSTANCE,

Are your competitors using paid traffic? Then you should try it to.

Are they creating lots of content? Consider doing the same.

Is there something none of your competitors are doing? Understand why.

BY LOOKING AT WHAT OTHERS ARE DOING, AND CONVERSELY NOT DOING, WILL SAVE YOU A GREAT DEAL OF TIME, ENERGY, AND RESOURCES.

5. IDENTIFY YOUR STRENGTHS

IN THE MARKETPLACE

HAVING A PRODUCT THAT PEOPLE WANT (STEP 1) IS THE FOUNDATION OF EVERY SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS.

SO, HOW CAN YOU MAKE SURE TO ACCOMMODATE YOUR CUSTOMERS NEEDS?

The best way to do that effectively is by understanding your strengths and assets in the marketplace

SO, FOR EXAMPLE

If you have a massive email list, you should try to discover new ways to engage it on an ongoing basis.

If your product has unique features that competitors dont offer, consider emphasising these in your marketing efforts.

6. GET THE TOOLS YOU NEED

TO MEASURE RESULTS

BUT HOW CAN YOU KNOW WHETHER OR NOT YOURE ACTUALLY ACHIEVING YOUR GROWTH RESULTS?

DEFINE THE VARIABLES THAT ARE NECESSARY TO TRACK THE RESULTS AND ASK YOURSELF

- Do you need to track incoming traffic by source?

- Do you need to know how many people watch your videos all the way through?

- Is it important to see how many people bounce from your website by leaving immediately?

AND ONE LAST CRUCIAL THING: IDENTIFY THE DATA YOU WILL BE MEASURING YOUR SUCCESS BY.

GET THE RIGHT SOFTWARE (e.g. Google Analytics, Heapanalytics, Mixpanel).

ARE YOU CAUGHT IN YOUR MARKETING EFFORTS? WE NEED TO TALK!

CONTACT US

mailto:contact@wepullthetrigger.com?subject=mailto:contact@wepullthetrigger.com?subject=

7. DEFINE YOUR EXPERIMENT

HURRAY!

Youve finally reached the step where the actual growth hacking process begins!

First element in defining your experiment is to write it down and the idea behind it.

EXAMPLE

We believe that publishing 10 blog posts/week will improve organic traffic by more than 15%.

This will help you make sure to focus on one thing at a time without losing track of your various objectives.

REMEMBER! GROWTH HACKING IS ABOUT LONG-TERM LEARNING, AND AS SUCH CONSTANT SPLIT-TESTING IS CRITICAL TO ANY EXPERIMENT.

8. DEFINE YOUR IDEAL TARGET AUDIENCE

WHO IS THE TARGET OF YOUR MARKETING EFFORTS?

and dont say everyone. You dont want to reach the broad masses. Really!

This will most likely result in a mixed bag of prospects who dont necessarily want your product, and that would be critical.

TARGET PEOPLE WHO INHERENTLY WANT WHAT YOURE OFFERING.

This gives you the highest ROI, and it will provide you with the possibility to faster confirm or reject your hypothesis.

LETS FINISH STEP 8 WITH AN EXAMPLE

Apple doesnt make computers for everyone. They have a smaller market share (12.8%) than both Hewlett-Packard (27.1%) and Dell (24.5%). However, one Apple Mac gives as much as 7x the profits that an HP PC does.

This is only possible because Apple has a clearly defined target audience.

9. PREPARE FOR BLAST OFF

AS MENTIONED BEFORE, GROWTH HACKING IS ABOUT RAPID EXPERIMENTATION.

THIS MEANS THAT THINGS CAN, AND OFTEN DO, GO SIDEWAYS.

Therefore, you need to schedule your growth hacking efforts.

Dont start experimenting with code of your website if you've got a large influx of traffic ahead.

10. EXECUTE THE EXPERIMENT

AFTER HAVING PREPARED AND PLANNED YOUR EXPERIMENT, ITS TIME TO PRESS THE START BUTTON.

THE GROWTH HACKING PROCESS CAN NOW FINALLY BEGIN!

IF YOUVE DONE EVERYTHING SO FAR, THIS SHOULD BE THE EASY PART!

Your analytics are in place (step 6), your hypothesis is clearly defined (step 7), and you know who youre trying to reach (step 8).

11. TEST AGAINST THE CONTROL

Even with all the planning youve been doing so far, its almost impossible to keep track of each and every variable.

PREVENT ANY MISUNDERSTANDINGS OF YOUR RESULTS BY ALWAYS KEEPING A CONTROL GROUP.

This group must receive marketing efforts consistent with what youve done in the past while you experiment with your test group.

This way, you'll be able to see which results are random and which are a direct consequence of what

you did. Once this is done, you can begin to

12. MAKE CONCLUSIONS AND

REPEAT THE STEPS

HAVING RUN YOUR EXPERIMENT, ITS TIME TO LOOK BACK AT YOUR HYPOTHESIS!

Was it correct? Were there any unexpected results?

If you failed to get the results you predicted, what did you learn from the experience?

IF YOUR EXPERIMENT DIDNT GO HOW YOU THOUGHT IT WOULD, DONT CONSIDER IT A FAILURE.

EVERY EXPERIENCE GIVES YOU KNOWLEDGE, AND THAT, ULTIMATELY, IS WHAT GROWTH HACKING IS REALLY ABOUT!

WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT GROWTH HACKING AND GET STARTED YOURSELF?

REACH OUT TO US contact@wepullthetrigger.com

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