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Check out the top 8 growth hacking strategies you need to try asap.

Everyone would work for themselves if they could. But, the fear of failure is often powerful enough to push people away from making that decision.

This is not surprising considering that 8 out of 10 small businesses fail, leaving the founder to pick up the pieces of the company.

It’s no secret that being an entrepreneur is one of the hardest types of jobs you can have. But, it’s always worthwhile in the end. However, the road to the top sure is a long one.

Is there anyone in the startup world who hasn’t heard about growth hacking?

Luckily, there are growth hacking strategies that can help take your startup to the next level.

1. Don’t Automate Everything

This may take you by surprise, but you shouldn’t automate everything that your business does. Sure, this may sound like a good idea on paper, but it comes with a glaring drawback:

Any automated communication your audience has with your business will be mechanical and dry unless you’re going to spend all of your early resources on building the automation and data gathering. With the ever-increasing number of businesses that use chatbots and voice AI to handle customer concerns, it’s getting difficult for consumers in some industries to speak with a human being.

Therefore, avoid automation on some forms of contact with your audience to create a more personalized atmosphere for your brand.

2. Set Clear, Attainable Growth Hacking Strategies

The race never stops if there’s no finish line. You need to set out clear (but realistic) goals, more commonly known as Key Performance Indicators “KPIs”, for your business in order to both stay on track and hold yourself accountable.

For example, if you plan on making X number of sales within the next six months, you’ll have a hard number that you can monitor and work toward. Without goals, you won’t have an effective way to measure productivity.

3. Hit Social Media Hard

It seems like everyone’s on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and even Pinterest these days.

One of the biggest growth hacking strategies that you can take advantage of is the use of social media. By incorporating multiple social media platforms into your marketing strategy, you’ll open up a brand new path to reach your audience.

Not only will you be able to provide them with relevant content that links back to your company’s site, you’ll also give your audience an additional method to find your business online.

4. Take Design Seriously

We live in a world where people judge everything by its appearance. Our society writes off vehicles, clothing, and even other people if the look doesn’t fit the bill.

This same rule applies when it comes to company websites. You could have the greatest content in the world, but if your formatting and overall site design are poor, nobody will ever take the time to look through it.

Therefore, you should invest in a quality design for your site that keeps your visitors interested and makes it easy for them to find what they’re looking for.

5. Hire Employees Who Have a Similar Vision

It can be hard to work toward your goals if you surround yourself with people who have different ambitions than you. This is especially true for business.

If your employees are lazy and content with doing the bare minimum that is necessary for them to get their checks, you might want to reconsider keeping them employed at your company.

But, if your workers are driven and have a burning desire to succeed just like you do, then everybody wins. Enthusiasm is contagious, so it’s best to have as much as possible in your company.

6. Content Is King

It’s debatable whether or not Bill Gates knew that this statement would still be relevant decades later when he said it. But, one thing is for sure: content still reigns supreme.

It’s an easy concept to understand. Put out great content and watch your numbers grow. But, getting your content to the “great” tier can prove difficult for many entrepreneurs.

Investing in quality content will have exponential returns for your company and provide you with the capital you need to scale your business.

7. Give Something for Free

Who doesn’t love getting something for free? There are very few people who would pass up the chance to get something at no cost as long as it has value to them.

While your offer may have no physical price tag attached to it, you’ll still cash in on benefits. A common business strategy is to provide free ebooks and other downloads to members of your audience.

The catch is that you’ll need their contact information in order to send it to them. Obtaining your site’s visitors’ email addresses will allow you to send them offers in the future, thus increasing your conversion rate.

But, you need to make sure that what you’re providing to your audience is relevant, high-quality, and offers something they can’t easily find on their own.

When done correctly, free offers have the potential to be one of the most effective growth hacking strategies.

8. Research Your Keywords

You can’t choose an arbitrary keyword, stuff it in a blog, and then expect to have a growth hacking strategy at your fingertips.

You need to do some research before you start putting your written content out there. If you choose a keyword that is too competitive, you might get beat by bigger businesses.

On the other hand, if you choose a keyword without enough competition, there will be hardly anyone searching for it.

Finding that sweet spot in the middle takes research. Luckily, Google offers a free tool to help you get started.

There Are Countless Other Growth Hacking Strategies

Methods to take your business to the next level aren’t limited to only this list. As your company scales, you’ll find more and more that you can do in order to keep growing, including many in this here publication.

Aaron Vick is the Chief Strategy Officer of Cicayda, a legal software company making sense of the discovery process by fully understand the data using real-time actionable analysis, immediate complex search results, and complex managed review workflows.

LinkedIn | Cicayda

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Original article published here by Aaron Vick, CDO Cicayda