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Bryan Ferguson | November 2013

Traditional marketers try to buy the attention of prospects. This is too slow, risky, and expensive for high growth focused companies.

Traditional Marketing • Direct Mail

• Email Blasts

• Print

• TV & Radio

Traditional marketing is too slow for rapid growth

Traditional

Marketing

Slow

Expensive

$

Dropbox Lesson

In 2009 Dropbox launched with paid search Cost per acquisition: $233 - $388 Price of product: $99. FAIL.

• PPC

• PR

• Events

• Cold Calling

Dropbox Lesson

Adwords didn’t create a lot of new users Very few searches for relevant keywords Very slow user acquisition channel

Start-ups and high growth companies are dismissing the high cost and lower life time value of traditional marketing for growth hacking.

Growth Hacking

It’s cheap

It’s efficient

It’s iterative

It’s practical

It’s scalable

Almost every company that is rapidly acquiring new users is lead by a growth team and a growth strategy.

RAPID

GROWTH

Funnel Optimization

Obsessing over testing, measuring and moving funnel metrics

Behavior Economics

Decoding user motivations to inspire and create viral growth.

Data Analytics

Rigorous, empirical, scientific approach to driving conversions and growth

Product Fit & UI

Constantly refining product experience for conversion and growth

Creative Growth Hacks

Out-of-the box solutions to rapidly acquire users with high retention

A growth hacker’s core mission is rapid growth

Market Dynamics

Pairing market trends, supply, demand and pricing to product fit and strategy.

While Growth Hacking is primarily focused on online companies and start-ups, examples of innovative growth

hacking can be seen in more traditional industries.

McDonalds – 1950s McDonalds was quick to understand the dynamics of America’s new interstate network as a new channel for reaching customers. They rapidly acquired new customers by setting up golden arches along highway exits.

Today, online distribution channels and social networks are being redrawn, creating massive change and opportunities for almost every industry to reach and connect with people

in new and innovate ways.

Acquisition People come to your site from various channels

Activation Users sign-up or create accounts

Retention Repeat use of product & features

Referral Growth via sharing & WOM

Revenue Monetize user behavior

Getting People to Your Site

Getting Users to the AHA Moment

Delivering Product Value Early and Often

Getting Users and Advocates to Share

Turning Users and Activity into Revenue

Acquisition People come to your site from various channels

Activation Users sign-up or create accounts

Retention Repeat use of product & features

Referral Growth via sharing & WOM

Revenue Monetize user behavior

15% Increase in Conversion Rate

5% Increase in New Accounts

Doubling return visits to site

2 Referrals per User

20% Increase in ASP

Have one clearly stated measurable goal for each point in the funnel

Examples

Acquisition People come to your site from various channels

Activation Users sign-up or create accounts

Retention Repeat use of product & features

Referral Growth via sharing & WOM

Revenue Monetize user behavior

AirBNB: auto-posted to Craigslist

Mint: Sign-up page for every finance topic

Zynga: built on top of Facebook

DropBox: easy sign-up with email notice to install

OKCupid: Signup process with animated guide

PayPal: $10 incentive to sign-up

Twitter: 30 Follower is the key to retention

Facebook: 7 Friends is the key to retention

Path: Friends send email when you are inactive

Dropbox: 500MB increase storage for referral

Hotmail: “P.S. I Love You. Get your free email at

Hotmail.com” at the bottom of every email.

Living Social: Free if 3 friends buy

Udemy: Your student – you get 100% of the sale

Identify or creatively engineer your unique hacks or data points that will drive conversion at each stage

Acquisition

Activation

Retention

Referral

Revenue

Unique Visitors

# of Pages

# of Clicks

Time on Site

Visitors by Source & Cost

Best Performing Source

Unique Visitors – Sign-up

Sign-up Conversion

New Account Creation

Opt-in Conversion

Email Click-Through Conversion

Logs in 3 Times of More

Returns to Complete Profile

Returns to Share

Returns to Use X Feature

Length of Use

Shares via Email

Shares via Social

Invites

Referral Conversion

Posts to FB, LinkedIn, Twitter Viral K Factor > 1

Paid Conversion

Leads by Source

Activation to Sales Conversion

Sales

Leads to Sales Conversion Revenue

Identify and track your key metrics – run experiments to improve

Use the right set of tools to build your experiments and

validate your assumptions

Website

Analytics

Google Analytics MOZ

Funnel

Measurement

KissMetrics MixPanel

Kontagent Trak.io Flurry

User

Survey

Survey Monkey Qualaroo

Landing Pages

& A/B Testing

Opimizely VMO (Visual Website

Optimizer) Unbounce CrazyEgg

PageSpeed Insights

Write down your hypothesis Assemble your resources and team Have a control group & setup and A/B testing Run your experiment Objectively review and measure your results Implement positive findings Optimize your experiment and repeat

Seeding a platform from zero is extremely challenging and the demise of most user-driven businesses. Here’s seven popular

growth hacks for gaining critical mass

Platform Seeding

Strategies

Bait User

Sign-up

Provide Stand

Alone Value

Pre-Populate

Platform Data

& Activity

Fake

Activity

Piggyback on

Underlying

Network

Recruit High

Profile Early

Adopters

Seed in Niche

Geo/Industry/

Existing

Network

Example:

Initially used

public domain

content

Example: airbnb auto-

posted to

Craigslist

Take a look at the innovations others in your industry have used to seed supply and demand on their platform

Provide Stand

Alone Value

Pre-Populate

Platform Data

& Activity

Fake Activity

on Platform

Piggyback on

Underlying

Network

Seed in Niche

Geo/Industry/

Existing

Network

Example:

First distributed

booking system

for restaurants

Example: Facebook

started with

student network

in Harvard

Example: PayPal’s

AutoLink with

eBay

Example:

Quora Interns

Answered

Questions

Example: YouTube

Pirated Early Content

Growth

Hacker

Growth

Team

Phase 1 Phase 2

Content

Writer

a

Graphic

Designer

Project

Manager

(leader)

I

Data

Analytics

Developer

Start with a growth hacker with broad skills and mature into a growth team with specialized roles and defined processes

Spans multiple functions Guerilla tactics Creative genius Obsessed with goals

Process oriented Specialized roles Formal planning

ALLOW DATA TO

DRIVE EVERYTHING

BE ANALYTICAL &

OBSESSIVE - TEST

EVERYTHING

ALWAYS DELIVER

PRODUCT VALUE

REMOVE EGO

FROM OUTCOME

BECOME

AGNOSTIC ON

METHOD

THINK OUTSIDE

THE BOX

G

1

Build your growth funnel

2

Identify your points of leverage

3

Clearly state your measurable goals

4

Define and track your key funnel metrics

5

Acquire the right tools

6

Run your experiments

7

Test, optimize, measure, repeat

8

Find your growth hacks

9

Build your growth team

10

Embrace the growth hacker mindset

"Marketing has always been about the same thing — who your customers are and where they are.“ Noah Kagan, Founder, APPSUMO

"A growth hacker works within the parameters of a scalable and repeatable method for growth, driven by product and inspired by data. A growth hacker lives at the intersection of data, product, and marketing.”

Aaron Ginn, HEAD OF GROWTH, STUMBLEUPON

“Growth hacking is a recognition that when you focus on understanding your users and how they discover and adopt your products, you can build features that help you acquire and retain more users, rather than just spending marketing dollars.“

Josh Elman, PARTNER AT GREYLOCK PARTNERS

"Growth Hacking is the process and mindset of searching for ways that your product to grow. It’s kind of like a mix between engineering and marketing. The key is to find untapped channels of customers that are motivated to use your product.”

Dan Martell, FOUNDER, CLARITY

"Virality isn’t luck. It’s not magic. And it’s not random. There’s a science behind why people talk and share. A recipe. A formula, even." Jonah Berger, AUTHOR OF “CONTAGIOUS”

Thank you!

About Bryan

As a veteran of high growth start-ups, Bryan has become an active writer on Sales 2.0,

Funnel Optimization and Growth Hacking. His eBook - 18 Keys to Revving Up Your Sales 2.0

Engine - is available on Amazon.

858-405-0249 BryanFerg@gmail.com

@Bryan_Ferguson www.linkedin.com/in/bryanrferguson/

Bryan’s Book

18 Keys to Revving up

Your Sales 2.0 Engine