It doesn’t matter on the type of business you have or the industry that you work in, growth hacking is hugely important. There’s a huge focus on the long term growth of businesses as of late, with entrepreneurs investing as much of their profit as they can back into developing and evolving the business as a whole. This isn’t something that has to cost a lot of money and it isn’t something that has to be too difficult, not when growth hackers have found ways to bring in more customers without breaking the bank. Everything a growth hacker does is aimed at growing the business, which means ensuring that as many people as possible see the products and services that are being offered. Many growth hacking strategies can be executed by anyone who has the skills and tools to do so, which means that it’s not reserved solely for professionals. With a good understanding of growth hacking, anyone can boost the reach of a product and garner more leads.

Understanding Growth Hacking and Growth Hacker Aims

For a growth hacker, the focus is consumer growth and finding scalable ways to bring in more users. The idea of growth hacking started with small startups, those who where looking for growth in a short amount of time. With limited budgets and little to no revenue, startups had to get creative and supercharge their business in a cost effective way. Since then, it has reached larger companies and now the biggest businesses in the world implement growth hacking strategies. Though a growth hacker does not need any specialist training or experience, to be successful you need to combine the skills of a marketer and an engineer. You need to understand how to market a product, but in a way that’s going to reach a lot of people in a short amount of time. Using a variety of tools and techniques, a growth hacker can successfully test and utilise marketing ideas to ensure a greater consumer reach.

10 Growth Hacking Strategies Everyone Should Be Trying

There’s certainly no shortage of growth hacking strategies out there, many of which successfully achieve the results that businesses and growth hackers are looking for. Some of these growth hacking strategies work well for a range of different businesses and therefore are continually repeated to achieve even better results, whereas others are used one time before a growth hacker moves on. Of course, there are inevitably unsuccessful growth hacking strategies but these often lead to the successful ones. A lot of people make the mistake of assuming that getting started with growth hacking is a time consuming and complex task, but that really isn’t the case. In fact, there are a number of growth hacking strategies that work quickly and these are often those that work best. Remember, growth hacking is about getting results in a short amount of time. This means that you’ll be able to supercharge your business sooner rather than later, without having to wait and worry about not reaching enough consumers. To get you started with growth hacking, here are the fastest growth hacking strategies to supercharge your business.

1 Double Ended Referrals

This is a growth hacking strategy that a lot of well known businesses have used, including Dropbox, and so it certainly works for companies such as https://ultimatebanners.co and the like. This double ended referral strategy strategy works by ensuring the person making the referral and the person taking up the referral are both benefited. For example, the friend sending the link gets something for free and the friend using the link also gets something for free. It’s a win win situation that encourages existing users to make a referral, as they will be getting something in return. It grows the business by enticing more people to use a service, as well as getting the business name out there.

2 Make Sure Your Business is Visible and Easy to Access

If someone cannot see or access your business, they won’t be able to use it and they will therefore take their interest elsewhere. Though it sounds simple, it’s something that a lot of people forget about when trying to growth hack their business. When Hotmail first started, every outgoing email had a message and a link taking them back to the Hotmail website. This not only drove traffic to Hotmail and marketed the brand name to a wide audience, but it also ensured everyone could sign up to the platform extremely easily. From just receiving a single email, people were aware of what Hotmail was and how to access it. Users weren’t expected to go out of their way to find out more.

3 Random Acts of Kindness

There’s no denying that customers are bombarded with emails offering products, services and deals. These emails are often ignored and unread, simply because people have so many to sift through and a lot of them are worthless or advertising something they are just not interested in. However, customers pay a lot of attention when they receive something for free with no strings attached. This is a random act of kindness from a business and it’s a great way to growth hack. It works by sending customers an email notification, letting them know that they have been given something that’s completely free. Though the business won’t make any money, it does portray the company in a good light. It also reminds customers of who you are and what you do.

4 Deliver Great, Trusted Products

If you truly want people to recommend and reuse a business, you need to have a great product that people can trust. Growth hacking strategies only work if your product appeals to the target market, which is why capitalising on trust is key. This is why websites such as Amazon and eBay give customers the chance to leave reviews, ratings and feedback. It shows potential customers that trusted, high quality products are being offered and it can convince someone to make a purchase if they are on the fence.

5 Reward Loyal Customers

Though there should always be a focus on bringing in new customers, it’s important to keep the ones you have. Rather than simply focusing on user acquisition, focus on retaining the customers you already have. This can easily be done with a loyalty program, one that rewards regular customers. You may choose to offer a discount after a certain number of purchases or the chance to win something for free. The key with loyalty programs is to give customers a reason to use the business time and time again.

6 Piggybacking

Piggybacking on an existing successful network is a great way to growth hack a business, and it’s something that Spotify started out doing. Originally, Spotify songs would play on someone’s Facebook feed. As so many people use Facebook, it didn’t take long before people were wondering what Spotify was all about and trying it for themselves. This is a growth hacking strategy that works well if you have a business that adds value to another business. If you have a product that will compliment another product, you can piggyback on its success.

7 Create a Sense of Urgency

You’ll find that a lot of customers ‘um and ah’ before making a purchase, with some talking themselves out of it altogether. However, this is less likely to happen if there’s a sense of urgency. Urgency is a great way to motivate someone to make a sale, which is why countdown timers and short term deals work well. If someone thinks that they only have a limited amount of time to save money, they are much more likely to buy quickly. Groupon is a good example of how well this works, as it gives a countdown to show how long left a deal is valid for. It encourages customers to make a purchase before the deal runs out.

8 Think Like a Puffer Fish

Puffer fish have a really interesting survival tactic, one that you can build upon to growth hack a business. They change their appearance when faced with a difficult or dangerous situation, growing three times as big as it normally is to make a strong and threatening statement. This idea can be used in growth hacking, as a way to convince potential customers that the business is a lot larger and stronger than it actually is. For example, you could buy and display telephone numbers in different countries to imply that you have an international reach. By doing so, even small startups can portray themselves as large and successful companies.

9 Play Into FOMO

Everyone has dealt with the fear of missing out at some point, going out with friends even though we were tired just so we didn’t miss a fun joke or heading to the cinema to see a popular film we had no interest in. FOMO isn’t just something that people deal with in their personal lives, but also in the way they shop. You can attract new customers by making them feel insecure about potentially missing out on a fantastic product. This can be done by only offering a limited number of products at a time or only offering a service to members. It’s all about making a product or service seem exclusive, something that customers won’t want to miss out on. When Gmail first launched, it used FOMO to drum up interest by only allowing those who were specifically invited to use the platform.

10 Offer Basic Services for Free

When you are trying to grow a business, you need to think about how to distribute your services and products in a way that digital users will enjoy. After all, advertising and marketing is hugely reliant on the digital world. It’s the only way some consumers search and buy, with many people opting to remain in the online world completely. A lot of businesses tap into new customers by offering basic services for free. It’s something that Spotify has done for many years and with great success. By offering basic services for free, Spotify attracts a large number of people. Knowing that they won’t have to pay anything people go ahead and use the platform, and before long it’s their ‘go to’ place for music. However, free users do have to listen to advertisements. These adverts make Spotify money, whilst encouraging users to pay for a version of Spotify that is advertisement free. Not only is the company making money from ad revenue on the free version, but also from user subscriptions on the paid version.

These are just ten of the top ways to supercharge a business using growth hacking strategies, but there are many more. A lot of growth hacking is trial and error, finding out what works and what doesn’t. Though there are many growth hacking strategies already being used by other businesses, that is not to say that there aren’t a number of others to uncover. With technology and the digital world constantly evolving, there are always more growth hacking strategies to try. When it comes to growth hacking, it’s all about using the resources that you already have. Rather than paying out a tonne of money for a brand new strategy or investing in a technique you are not sure will work, growth hacking allows you to use what’s already at your disposal. Not every growth hacking strategy will work for every business, as some just aren’t relevant to the service or product that you are offering. However, there will always be techniques that work for you.

Most businesses find that utilising a handful of growth hacking strategies is enough to give them the boost that they are looking for, but there’s really no limit on how far you can go. Some people will choose to focus on one or two strategies at a time, whereas others will go all out and implement a lot.