How Does Growth Hacker Marketing Work? (2022 Updated)

Growth or business concept

Growth hacker marketing refers to a specific type of marketing that focuses on organic growth.

What is growth hacking? Growth hacking is the art of engaging with customers in a way that leads to rapid customer growth. It can be applied to both B2B and B2C companies, but it’s especially effective for startups looking to grow quickly. This article will teach you five things you need to know about how growth hacking works, including what it is, the differences between marketing and growth hacking, what does a Growth Hacker do, and understanding the basics of b2b growth hacking.

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Various documents on the table describing analytics

What Really Is Growth Hacker Marketing?

Growth hacker marketing as a term has been used to define the rapid, non-traditional ways companies grow. This can include guerrilla marketing tactics or extensively utilizing your network of contacts and friends to drive brand awareness. Growth hackers are usually highly technical marketers who utilize data tools like Google Analytics & other social media management tools to track growth in real-time. Some examples would be tracking top-performing keywords that users search on their site or seeing which sites recently shared links about their brand via Twitter. Growth hackers don’t use old school strategies that traditional advertisers do – they instead rely heavily on testing new ideas through A/B tests, often at an extremely fast pace. Growth hacker marketing also consists of setting up goals and measuring them in real-time to understand what’s working & what isn’t.

In addition, Growth hacker marketing refers to an unconventional approach that aims to find creative ways of marketing a product, especially online. The objective is to increase the number of customers and maximize customer lifetime value by using strategies other than traditional advertising methods. 

Who Is A Growth Hacker?

A growth hacker is a marketing role that focuses on growing revenues for the business. They are data-driven, collaborative and creative individuals who take pride in keeping up with changing technology trends. A growth hacker uses analytics tools like Google Analytics or Mixpanel, which track users’ behavior online over time to iterate towards product optimizations to grow revenue. As more companies shift toward digital marketplaces, finding new ways to attract customers has become increasingly important; it’s no longer enough to have an attractive website or landing page (although both of those things help). And instead of spending money on traditional advertising methods like billboards or print ads, these rely heavily on social media sites and apps. Growth hackers also experiment with different marketing channels. They constantly test new ways to get people using their products, such as A/B testing of email campaigns or trying out a freemium model versus a premium version. Growth hacker marketing is more than just applying digital tools; it’s about leveraging data-driven information to create an efficient process for iterative product development that gives users the best possible experience while driving growth for your company’s bottom line.

Growth Hacking. Business phrase in 3D wooden alphabet letters on wood background
Growth Hacking. Business phrase in 3D wooden alphabet letters on wood background

What Does a Growth Hacker Do? 

A growth hacker is a person who uses different marketing strategies to grow their business. Growth hackers are responsible for finding creative new ways to increase the number of users, customers, or clients of an organization. A growth hacker may use any digital marketing strategy that they can think up to boost engagement and revenue across all platforms. They understand how important it is to track data always try out different tactics until something works. The only goal of these marketers is customer acquisition through effective experimentation with various methods like paid advertising, email outreach, social media posts and other forms of online promotion. Many tools are available now for tracking metrics, such as Google Analytics (see Growth Hacking tools section). Growth hackers can use these analytics and other available data to track the success or failure of their experiments. Growth hacker marketing is a relatively new concept, but it has become popular for its unique approach to marketing campaigns. Growth hackers can be found working at companies like Facebook, Uber, Airbnb etc., where they are using their skills to help launch products that contribute significantly to company revenue.

Importance of Growth Hacker Marketing

Growth hacker marketing involves taking advantage of ways to grow your business. Growth hackers use tools like Google Adwords, Facebook ads, and content marketing to help drive traffic. Growth hacker marketing is all about sending the right message in front of the right people at the right time to take action when they need it most. Growth Hackers work with product managers to ensure their products get users who want what they’re offering (and who will keep coming back). Growth Hacker Marketing has become a key part of many companies’ strategies because, if done correctly, it can increase profit margins by up to 100%. 

How Do You Know Which Growth Hacks Work Best?

 There is no one-size-fits-all solution, so it requires constant testing and learning from errors. Growth hacking is the technique of rapid experimentation across marketing channels and product development to find out what works best for your business in a way that scales up with growth. Growth hackers embrace failures as they come from trying new things quickly, so don’t be afraid to fail fast or break something until you get it right!

Successful Growth Hacking requires an experimental mindset where everyone involved focuses on quick tests rather than long term planning, making decisions based on speed instead of cost, moving faster than their competitors through innovative thinking and execution excellence. 

Growth Hackers must work closely with designers who can create engaging experiences for people to keep coming back again and again because these products need to be designed around how people behave and what they want, not just how the Growth Hacker wants them to behave and act. Growth Hacking is about asking why people are coming to your product in the first place and then figuring out a way to get more of those same kinds of users who have similar needs. Growth hacking only works if you know exactly where it’s taking you, so always think ahead to build sustainable growth that will pay off down the road instead of shortsighted tactics designed to boost numbers today.

Successful Growth Hackers must understand their customers’ problems better than anyone else. By catering directly to these pain points, Growth Hackers help build products that solve customers’ needs from day one while also ensuring they get back feedback from their users. Growth Hackers must also know how to build a product that people will love and be willing to pay for because they’re the ones who understand what is needed, not just wanted by potential customers. Growth Hacking isn’t about making your current users happy. Still, it’s about figuring out exactly what new prospects want most to get them excited enough, so they click on ads or buy whatever you’re offering immediately.

People are always going to talk bad behind Growth Hacker’s back, but if done correctly, using growth hacking techniques can help companies gain more devoted fans than ever before, meaning when something goes wrong, Growth Hackers have nothing left to worry about. A Growth Hacker doesn’t care whether people think they added value or not, Growth Hackers care about making sure people get exactly what they want and need. Growth hacking is the most powerful way to grow your business because it’s all about putting yourself in front of as many potential customers as possible without burning through resources or wasting time doing things that don’t help you reach new users.

Growth hacker marketing requires constant experimentation, so for this reason, it often works best when done by small teams instead of large ones where everyone needs to be on board with constantly trying new tactics until one takes off while also measuring each experiment’s success against stated goals. Growth hackers don’t believe in waiting around for their product to take hold before moving on to the next big thing because if growth stops, then Growth Hackers are the first to go. Growth hacking is all about getting ahead of your competitors. Still, it’s also about making sure users don’t get tired of using what you offer, so Growth Hacker’s must pay attention to metrics that matter, not just vanity stats.

A successful Growth Hacker knows they can fail fast or break something until they find a way for their product to go viral. This is how companies grow exponentially without spending too much money, which means Growth Hacker Marketing isn’t always pretty. Still, its results speak volumes by allowing teams to hit aggressive goals within shorter timeframes while building sustainable growth across every part of an organization with lasting impact instead of short term wins that burn out quickly and fade away into obscurity.

Successful growth hacker marketing requires an analytical mind that can break down what works and why Growth hackers need to make sure they waste time on things going nowhere because it is about thinking outside the box to reach a much larger audience. It isn’t complicated, but it does require having a clear idea of where your team wants to go, how you’re going to get there, and most importantly, when you’ll know if everything is working as planned or not. Growth hackers must also be pragmatic with their approach by understanding exactly who their customers are while always keeping an eye out for new opportunities that could help them grow even further. This is due to showing respect towards others opinions, especially during brainstorming sessions, without being too attached to any ideas that might have merit instead of rejecting them outright because Growth Hackers never know what could be the next big thing.

Tips
Man in formals looking at paper snippets

Differences Between Growth Hacking And Marketing

Growth hacking is more of a process applied to marketing, whereas marketing focuses on the campaign itself. 

Growth hacking has its methods and practices, typically done behind the scenes with little to no visibility for those who aren’t involved in growth hacking initiatives. Growth hackers often work directly with product teams or engineering divisions where marketers might not have this access. Growth hacking isn’t just about buying ads, influencers, email acquisition etc. Still, instead, some other forms of nonconventional tactics (e.g. free trials) are used as part of your strategy alongside these channels/tools to achieve specific business objectives, i.e. user activation/referrals/engagement etc. Marketing doesn’t involve direct engagement with product teams. 

Growth hacking is better suited to scale a business quickly in today’s competitive landscape, where marketing has its place in the initial stages of growth and when you have a well-established brand that can withstand lower conversion rates from current customers due to strong awareness. 

Growth hackers typically have their own goals they are accountable for, i.e. user activation/referrals etc. In contrast, marketers may be more concerned with revenue or users acquired (although these should align). 

Growth hackers often need technical skills and knowledge – this might make them hard to come by since there aren’t too many who fit this role yet, but we’re starting to see an increase of growth hacker roles within larger brands, e.g. Facebook, Twitter etc. Marketing departments also exist when growth hacking is used in conjunction with marketing. 

Growth hackers often work with data and analytics to improve their strategies. This helps them recognise key problem areas they need to address when scaling a business, such as why users aren’t converting/becoming customers, where traffic or leads are coming from, what channels don’t perform, etc. Marketing teams might not be focused on the same things but instead, look at more qualitative information such as customer feedback and sentiment about certain products/services. 

Growth hackers typically like solving problems quickly due to limited resources, which means they have little time to waste. That is, create dummy projects that can test out ideas before committing a significant budget, so there tends to be less planning involved than how marketers operate, e.g. longer lead times. Growth hackers like to be challenged and work with the same people over long periods. In contrast, marketers are typically more transient (although there might not always be a complete difference between them depending on how they’re positioned within an organisation). 

Growth hacking is still in its early days. Still, we’ve already seen some great examples of companies who have used growth hacking strategies successfully so far. Dropbox grew their user base from 100k-400k+ users per month using referral marketing by rewarding existing customers $100-$500 for each new customer they referred. This was more effective at acquiring new leads than traditional paid acquisition channels since referrals come directly through your brand advocates vs strangers that may or may not convert into customers.

Marketing team working on project
Marketing team working on project

In Conclusion

Growth Hacking is a great way to grow your company without spending tons of money. Still, it’s also about making sure you listen carefully to users to build something they’ll love instead of forcing people into using whatever product or service that was built, which can cause resentment and drive potential customers away quickly. Growth hacking requires an open mind while constantly trying new things until one idea becomes wildfire, which means Growth Hackers need a thick skin when dealing with criticism. Still, at the same time, Growth Hacker’s must always try their hardest not to get discouraged along the way by listening closely for any valuable feedback before moving on to another tactic altogether.

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