27 :: Growth Hacking

Is your traction as hackable as your systems?

🚪TL;DR:
I’m such a fan of hacks that I co-authored a book solely dedicated to career hacks across the areas of productivity, mindset, and attitude. I guess it is really not surprising that the concept of growth hacking caught my attention from the very first time I heard of it back in 2017. The more we experiment and share our learnings with others, the higher the likelihood of helping ourselves or whoever comes next to avoid the same mistakes and accelerate growth through shortcuts. And this applies to all areas, actually. The same way that any field requiring innovation also applies to marketing. If the previous issue already covered some marketing innovations, growth hacking fully embraces it.

🧠 What is it?
Growth hacking is a digital marketing strategy focused on rapid experimentation across various channels and product tuning to identify the most efficient ways to grow a business. It is also sometimes referred to as growth marketing and blends creativity, analytics, and technology to acquire and retain customers through a conversion funnel. Unlike traditional marketing, growth hacking prioritizes scalable, repeatable tactics that can deliver exponential growth in a short period of time and cost-effective ways. It's about finding unconventional solutions to drive user acquisition, engagement, and ultimately, revenue, often leveraging data-driven insights and viral loops after achieving product-market fit. An example would be incentivizing existing users to bring in new users through referral programs - like Revolut does when it offers you a some money in exchange for each friend you refer as a new customer.

“A growth hacker is a person whose true north is growth. Everything they do is scrutinized by its potential impact on scalable growth.”

Sean Ellis, ex-Head of Growth at Dropbox & Growth Hacking Expert

📦 Why is it relevant?
Innovators and innovation teams often face the challenge of limited resources and need to find creative, cost-effective ways to reach their target audience and gain traction. So growth hacking is particularly relevant because it provides a framework for efficiently scaling ideas and innovations. It offers a toolkit of strategies and techniques that allow them to experiment, iterate, and rapidly test their hypotheses, enabling them to identify what works and what doesn't in dynamic market landscapes. By leveraging growth hacking principles, it is possible to accelerate growth, gain valuable insights into customer behavior and, ultimately, drive sustainable innovation success.

🧶 Where to learn more about it:
Sean’s resources are a good starting point to learn more about growth hacking from its origins. There is also Growth Tribe, who have great content starting from the basics and offers cool insights about how to put it into practice. If you want a more in-depth exploration, at growthhackers.com you will find a community of growth hackers you can join or just sign up for their newsletter or annual conference. They also have an annual report about the current state of growth hacking in the industry which is quite interesting (the last one was 2023’s, here).

See you next Tuesday! 👋