How to Think Like a Growth Hacker
3 growth hacking secrets traditional marketers need to learn
There’s a natural tension between growth hackers and marketers, but it’s time for this to change.
Growth hackers are the cool new kids. They proclaim the traditional marketing playbook is irrelevant, they are the new marketers, and growth is our new north star.
Marketers view growth hackers with the same healthy skepticism as social media gurus and SEO ninjas. They dislike growth hackers’ short-term focus and risk-tolerance.
In reality, neither short-term growth nor long-term brand development are enough in isolation.
It’s time to stop slinging words, and start joining forces.
What (or who) is a growth hacker?
Growth hackers were birthed in early-stage tech start-ups. They had no time, no money and no brand reputation.
They had two options: grow fast or become extinct.
Brand building, community engagement and event sponsorship take too long. Mass media campaigns are too expensive.
Desperation leads to innovation.
This baptism of fire created growth hackers who used inventive and unique practices to create “hacks” to spread their products, acquire new users and increase revenue, without spending money.
Technical backgrounds over marketing theory
Growth hackers often have technical backgrounds. In a recent list of 50 Growth Stars, only 10% held marketing degrees. Twice as many held computer science, physics and economics degrees. This helps them see opportunities where marketers can not.
Their techniques are called hacks because they often involve bending or breaking, existing systems to achieve high growth at low cost.
Growth hackers combine laser-focus with curiosity and creativity. (TWEET THIS)
A shared super power
Despite their differences, marketers and growth hackers have one powerful strength in common: creativity.
- Brand marketers craft stories to form emotional connections.
- Growth hackers find unique opportunities to create growth.
Our creative powers combined are unstoppable.
Rather than becoming archenemies, marketers and growth hackers must join forces and learn from each other.
Unlocking the secrets of a growth hacking mindset
Successful growth hacks are rarely replicable. The first mover gets the greatest advantage.
A growth hacker understands novel hacks have limited lifespans. If it’s successful, it won’t take long before your competitors follow and the results decrease.
You can’t simply learn popular growth hacks and apply them straight to your own business.
Instead learn the mindset so you’re able to move at the same speed of a hacker.
Growth hacking is a mindset. Anyone, in any business, in any industry, can do it, right now. ~ Asa Cox, Growth Hacking Nation
There’s three key secrets of a growth hacking mindset that any marketer can learn, without learning to code:
Growth hacking secret #1: Laser focus
The most important skill growth hackers can teach marketers is how to ruthlessly prioritise. By necessity, growth hackers are laser focused on growth.
They can’t afford to wait to see if longer term activities activities will pay off. They need to see results, and fast.
Growth hackers are not only data-driven, they know which metrics matter the most. They don’t get bogged down with big data. Instead they relentlessly focus on one or two critical metrics such as growth or daily user engagement.
“Growth hacking is marketing in it’s purest form, you strip away everything and focus entirely on growth” ~Rod Austin, founder Growthority
Growth hackers know revenue can be a lagging metric. Declining daily engagement can highlight issues before the revenue drops off, especially in subscription based SaaS companies.
Growth hacking secret #2: Kill the silos
Growth hack folk-lore includes many examples of re-engineering product to increase growth. Uber integrated with Craigslist to leverage an existing community. Twitter designed their interface to help new users follow at least 30 people in the first days of signing-up.
While digital marketers focus on external levers and filling the top of the lead funnel, growth hackers consider the product the key marketing channel.
Growth hackers sit between product design and marketing, with the ability to critically question both. ~ Mark Hayes, author of The Growth Hacker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Growth hackers aren’t constrained by traditional marketing departments. Growth hackers cross inter-departmental lines with ease, helping companies buy-in into the mission of growth.
Growth hacking secret #3: Marketing is a science
Marketers are protective of their brands for good reason. They’ve taken years, perhaps decades, to build and can all come crashing down in an instant. Risk adverse marketers see growth hackers as cowboys.
Growth hackers are actually scientists. They love experimenting. Failure is learning, another piece of data to guide future experiments.
Growth hackers don’t guess. They test. ~ Sean Ellis, Growthhackers.com, original growth hacker and former head of growth for Dropbox
Growth hackers have learnt to fail fast, but in controlled ways. They’re learnt to experiment small before scaling bigger. They look to find patterns to build produce repeatable, scalable models.
Growth hackers seek actions with low risk, high reward. They quickly kill any ideas that don’t work. (TWEET THIS)
Don’t throw out the marketing playbook just yet
Are the days of traditional marketing numbered?
Short answer is no. Branding and long-term thinking still holds a valuable place in the marketer’s toolkit.
The long answer is maybe.
Growth hacking has debunked the marketing myth rapid growth requires huge budgets. But most traditional marketing wisdom still holds true:
Marketers know human behaviour is irrational. It can’t always be fitted into predictable models. We make decisions emotionally, even we we’re buying B2B products. We have to look at rational and emotional levers to create change.
Marketers know you need a great product, if you skip to growth, you can cause more harm than good.
Marketers know data doesn’t have all the answers. Some moments are priceless.
How do you put a metric on the feeling of getting engaged for De Beers? Or driving the autobahn for Porsche?
These moments aren’t data points. They have the power to turn a customer into a lifelong fan.
However, if marketers can’t adjust to the speed, agility and measurability growth hackers excel at, they will be disrupted.
Growth hackers are already learning what happens after the hack. Traditional marketing wisdom helps move from high-growth start-ups into successful later stage companies. Growth hackers are beginning to value the qualitative as well as the quantitative:
Get very good at qualitative research. Be able to uncover prospects’ motivations, fears and decision making criteria and how to apply this information for more effective growth experiments. ~ Sean Ellis, Growthhackers.com
The future of (growth) marketing
Brand marketing and growth hacking are complimentary. Growth hacks have been proven to work in high-growth start-ups. It’s yet to be seen how they suit later stage companies.
To build a true and loyal user base you have to keep laser focused on growth and brand. They cannot be mutually exclusive. ~ Cali Pitchel “Does your startup suffer from growth hacking disorder?
It’s not time to burn the marketing rulebook, it’s time to embrace the new kids on the block.
In the future, the best marketing teams will hold onto traditional marketing wisdom while adopting growth hacking mindsets. They’ll breakdown silos to leverage the largest impacts of growth hacks. They’ll combine the best of both short-term growth and long-term brand.
I’m Nicole Williams, CMO of SilverStripe and founder of Tech Marketer. I’m a traditional marketer who grew up in the world of mass media but has fallen in love with Agile marketing and growth hacking. I blog about marketing, tech and creativity, you can check out my other stories here.
Brain imagery thanks to NICHD on Flickr, shared under Creative Commons.
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