Growth Hacking: A Crash Course

Growth Hacking: A Crash Course

@davelocity

Let’s start with a story

The year is 2008…

There’s a new product

It’s a product that tries to solve a problem a lot of people have

It’s gotten some traction

They consistently get users and they feel they’re at product-market fit

It’s time to go bigger

Time to scale up. Problem: the founders have zero marketing experience

So what’s next?

So they do what they think they’re “supposed to do” …

So what’s next?

Get PR coverage!

So what’s next?

Get PR coverage!Buy ads!

So what’s next?

Get PR coverage!

Post on social media!

Buy ads!

So what’s next?

Get PR coverage!


Buy ads!

Hire an SEM guru!

So what’s next?

Get PR coverage!


Buy ads!

Hire an SEM guru!

And you know what, it worked.

So what’s next?

Get PR coverage!


Buy ads!

Hire an SEM guru!

BUT

So what’s next?

Get PR coverage!


Buy ads!

Hire an SEM guru!

Customer acquisition FAIL

It worked, but the economics were totally broken. It’s possible to grow and fail.

So what’s next?

Get PR coverage!


Buy ads!

Hire an SEM guru!

Customer acquisition FAIL

e.g. adsCPA = $388, LTV = $99

“Okay, let’s regroup.How about we…”

Back to the drawing board; otherwise they would’ve used up all their funding


Hey, look at this data I found

Suddenly, a wild usage-data insight appears


Our customers LOVE telling their friends about us


Is there a way we can help them do that?


How about a referral program?

Instead of paying for users, could they just amplify organic WOM behavior?



Good idea J



Good idea J•  35% of signups came from referral program




•  Customer base grew 40X in 15 months




•  Customer base grew 40X in 15 months•  15% MoM growth

True story

Source: “Startup Lessons Learned” by @drewhouston

Dropbox

Dropbox

(2008: 100K users)

Dropbox

(2014: 275M users)

How did they do that?

They stumbled on a Growth Hack




A fancy way to describe a tactic forgetting more customers by using a

certain combo of skills



A fancy way to describe a tactic forgetting more customers by using a

certain combo of skills

Growth with skills, not money

Skills Needed To Find Growth Hacks

We can deconstruct what they did. There were 3 skills at play:

MARKETING


Stats, measurement, copywriting, creative, channel analysis, etc

MARKETING PRODUCT


Understanding user behavior, roadmap planning, managing resources

MARKETING PRODUCT

TECH


Ability to create repeatable processes, engineering mindset (not nec. coding)

MARKETING PRODUCT

Growth hacker


TECH

Growth hacks can be found at the intersection of the 3 skillsets

Growth Hackersare people who have

all 3 skillsets


all 3 skillsets


all 3 skillsets

Growth Hackingis the act of finding opportunities

using these 3 skillsets

How Growth Hacking Works

FIRST Your product has to be ready for growth


x ✖ =

If you just launched, or biz model not defined, just stop. You’re pouring gas on cold wood. Waste of resources. Start a fire first.


x ✔ =

x ✖ =

But, if you have a small fire – you have traction, customers, revenue – go for it

Use data. Use the Pirate Metrics frameworkto visualize your funnel

SECOND

This is one of many frameworks you can use. I just find this to be the simplest

SECOND Use data. Use the Pirate Metrics frameworkto visualize your funnel

AARRR!

Based on “Startup Metrics for Pirates” by @dmc500hats

Acquisition

Note that each stage means different things to different companies

Acquisition

Activation

Everyone’s definition of Activation, Retention, etc is different.The point is to define the metric and use GH skills to improve them

Acquisition

Activation

Retention

Acquisition

Activation

Retention

Referral

Acquisition

Activation

Retention

Referral

Revenue

Acquisition

Activation

Retention

Referral

Revenue

Growth Hackers use their skills to grow the number of people

at each stage

Acquisition

Activation

Retention

Referral

Revenue

Growth Hackers use their skills to grow the number of people

at each stage

1. Acquisition

Acquisition

M

P

T

What channels are most effective?

What attracts people to our product?

How can we make it scalable?

How can each skill contribute to increasing the number of people at each stage?

Acquisition

M

P

T

Use analytics to rank channels

What attracts people to our product?


(This is just a small sample of what you could do for each skill)

Acquisition

M

P

T


Study customer behavior for insights


Acquisition

M

P

T


Study customer behavior for insights

Use available tech to make it easy

Acquisition

Hotmail“P.S. I love you. Get Hotmail.”

M = “what channels can we use?” P = “how can we hook into product?” T = “how can we make it scalable?”

Acquisition

AirbnbPost to Craigslist

Via http://bit.ly/11wtYR4

2. Activation

Activation

M

P

T

What messaging is most effective?

What factors have the most impact?

How can we implement?

At this stage, you want people to engage with product in a meaningful way

Activation

M

P

T

Measure and compare campaigns

What factors have the most impact?


You have their attention; figure out what the best message is

Activation

M

P

T


Understand what levers you have


What assets do you have that can help you hook them in?

Activation

M

P

T


Understand what levers you have

Use A/B testing tools

How can you use data to inform your decisions?

Activation

LinkedInGamified profiles

LinkedIn hooks you by getting you committed to filling out your profile

Activation

EcommerceA/B test product photos

A B

How can you increase the # of people who browse multiple pages on your site?

3. Retention

Retention

M

P

T

How can we stay top of mind?

What causes customers to churn?

What can we automate?

What MPT questions would you ask to increase # of ppl at this stage?

Retention

M

P

T

Audit available channels

What causes customers to churn?


And here’s a small set of the things you could do to answer those questions

Retention

M

P

T


Mine usage data for insights


Retention

M

P

T


Mine usage data for insights

Create processes or tools

Retention

QuoraDigest emails w/ cool content

Quora gets you to come back by teasing you with content they know you’re interested in

Retention

ZyngaEmail to churning players

Social games know they can make you come back by offeringyou valuable in-game items for free

4. Referral

At this point, you should have communicated your value so clearly thatreferrals feel natural

Referral

M

P

T

What copy will provide the right nudge?

What incentives can we align?

What does the process look like?

Find growth hacks by thinking what MPT questions you can ask

Referral

M

P

T

Create campaigns to build awareness

What incentives can we align?


How do you compose messaging such that referringfriends has clear benefit to the user?

Referral

M

P

T


Build referral loop into usage


Is there a way to make referrals add value to core product usage?

Referral

M

P

T


Build referral loop into usage

Remove steps from the process

How do you make it as simple as possible?

DropboxRefer a friend and get 500 mb

Referral

The poster child of referral programs: you’d be stupid not to refer a friend

FacebookImport your contacts

Referral

Value-based messaging: “find friends” and “add personal contacts”Not “import your address book” – which has no clear benefit

5. Revenue

How do we grow the # of people who make it to the bottom of the funnel?

Revenue

M

P

T

What message will trigger purchases?

What can we offer to increase orders?

How do we implement?

Again, we combine MPT skills to come up with ideas

Revenue

M

P

T

Design to address friction points

What can we offer to increase orders?


And these are some of the activities we can do

Revenue

M

P

T


Play with limits of product offering


Revenue

M

P

T


Play with limits of product offering

Use tools to help find opportunities

Revenue

EcommerceCart abandonment emails

Via http://bit.ly/1Ft65Zv

Revenue

SaaS & EcommerceA/B test pricing page

Sometimes you’d be surprised what a simple copy change will do.Via http://bit.ly/1zxx2HE

Ok, this is really important:

The best growth hack


is to make yourproduct AWESOME



you can’t savea crappy product




An amazing acquisition growth hack can’t save youif you can’t get people to stick




Same story here. Viddy hooked up to Facebook after some initial traction, but the product wasn’t good enough

Your Growth Hacking formula:


Traction

x

So much of growth hacking is based on usage data.If you have no data, or traffic, or traction, you can’t run experiments

x x


Traction GH skills

The confluence of MPT skills allows you to come up with ideas that you wouldn’t have found in isolation

x x


Traction GH skills Framework

Use some kind of framework so that you have metrics to watch and measure

Start with these:

Startup Metrics for Pirates

Quick Sprout

GrowthHackers.com

Dave McClure’s pirate metrics is a great start. Neil Patel’s Quick Sprout is great for anyone new to marketing. GrowthHackers.com if you’re intermediate.

Follow me

@davelocity

GrowthHero.net

Growth Hacking: A Crash Course

Technology

pr coverage

social media

growth hacksability

growth hacksstats

growth hacking

growth hackswe

sem guru

growth hackhow