Growth Hacking is the latest trend in the series of Internet Marketing developments and is gaining a lot of ground. It is a scientific marketing exercise to identify areas of high growth, branding, user acquisition opportunities and executing creative techniques to acquire users at a lower cost and higher branding. Read on nine best growth hacks to grow your startup business in 2020.
Table of Contents
What is Growth Hacking ?
Some popular brands such as Dropbox, Airbnb have perfected the art and have attracted millions of users. We have tried to decode the strategies used by popular companies to achieve disproportionate growth and mould it into a scientific exercise.
“Growth Hacking is a collection of creative strategies with a sole purpose to achieve disproportionate growth or recognition.”
Here are some steps for lean entrepreneurs to get started with Growth Hacking.
1. Market, Niche Research
Conduct a study of the current market conditions to understand the market potential. In addition, a little bit of additional ground research to identify any potential factors (local, national or international) that can affect your plans and product positioning need to be identified.
Your business’s current industry should be evaluated critically and potential ascertained. Also, look for potential opportunities left out by competitors and strategic gaps that we could fill and win. (An over Simplified Example would be Social Media Optimization gap left by competitors or LinkedIn Marketing etc.)
2. Consumer Behaviour Analysis
Study the latest psychological surveys and most recent online consumer behavioural patterns and evaluate potential areas to target. This is important to position the brand where the consumer has maximum attention.
(Over Simplified Example: Utilizing Snapchat over Instagram for certain industries)
The current behaviour of users on your website also needs to be studied and this includes but is not limited to all the basic aspects of bounce rate, referrer, duration spent and heat-maps. Potential UI/UX and any other deficiencies need to be identified.
(Over Simplified Example: Changing font type and size and using pop ups from right side instead of left
3. Ideation
Various avenues that are identified are sorted by the ease of reach. Let’s call it ER and rate it on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being the easiest to implement. Using the data, unique and catchy ways are identified in order to position the brand and get maximum conversion rate.
(Real Life Example: Local Deals Platform Offering a beer for 1 Rs to increase overall profit and conversion by 150%)
4. Opportunities to Target
As we have our ER index ready, bounce off the top hacks that you think may work with colleagues and identify potential fallacies previously unconsidered. After a critical evaluation, the best strategies that make the cut are shortlisted for execution.
The multiple strategies could be an offline branding + website redesign + marketing on social media. An integrated plan with timelines of execution is to be devised in order to ensure there is no drop of the ball.
5. Test, Execute, Analyse, Repeat
Try Various combinations in your dry run to a limited number of customers in order to single out the best performing assets. Here are a few tips to get you started. Choose the assets that emerge as winners from A/B test for final execution.
Constantly monitor results in order to make adjustments to the campaign. Typically, the adjustments take about a few weeks and a proper hack is ready to be taken to a large scale audience. Breakdown the Divide the steps into processeable stages (4 to be precise). This infographic will give you an insight into how growth hacking works.
According to studies, nine out of ten startups end up failing eventually. This is because launching a small business startup and growing it means overcoming challenges after challenges. Even if you’re confident enough to succeed, growing a business is a constant struggle and one single misstep could lead to failure. Read on 9 Growth Hacks to Grow Your Start Up business in 2020.
But with some growth hacking tips, you will be able to breeze through these challenges ensure that your business succeeds.
9 Growth Hacks to Grow Your Business
1. Automate as much as you can
To ensure that your small business remains productive, you can use tools or apps that automate manual and time-consuming processes. This is one of the most important growth hacking practices that every business should apply.
To do this, you need to assess your needs and find out which software would benefit your business. There are several apps you can use, depending on the processes you want to automate.
Here are some of the popular automation apps you can use:
- Hootsuite or Buffer – For scheduling and managing your social media
- Asana or Trello – For project management
- CRM – For managing your leads
- Zapier – For email marketing campaigns
- Leadformly – To automate your sales process
- Grammarly – For proofreading your content
- Xero – For bookkeeping and managing your finances
2. Don’t be afraid to invest
When you’re growing a business, you should invest more to get back more profit. You have to spend money if you want to make more money. Startups, in particular, need to invest in new technology, running social media and advertising campaigns, hiring top talents, managing legal documents, acquiring the latest equipment, and educating your staff on the latest and best practices in your business.
However, before you invest, it is crucial to have a solid plan in place so you know what you’ll get in return for your investment.
3. Train your employees on the software you are using
When you invest in tools to automate your tasks and streamline your business operations, it only follows that you train your employees on how to use these tools efficiently and leverage the technology to get the results that you need.
Most software offer free trial or free training to help new users understand how they work. Once your team is fully adept at using these tools, you’ll be able to delegate more tasks so that you can focus on other important aspects of your business.
4. Track customer engagement and buying intent
By using CRM and marketing automation tools, you’ll be able to monitor engagement levels of your prospects or leads. These engagement behaviors, such as webpage visit, content consumption, online events, and emails opened, reflects where the customer is in the sales funnel. The more your customers are engaged, the more ready they are to buy.
5. Invest in content marketing
Content marketing is one of the best ways to build a relationship with your customers and position your business as an authority in your space. You don’t have to always aim to sell to your customers. You can instead create content that is helpful to your audience and solves a problem they are facing. This way, your customer will keep coming back to you and be more engaged.
These are some of the content you can focus on in 2020:
- Blog articles
- Infographics
- Social media
- Video
- Animation
- Clips
- Surveys or polls
6. Maintain a killer blog
Blogging is one of the most important components of content marketing that you should pay attention to. Make sure that you regularly publish articles that focus on topics that offer solutions to common problems your readers are facing. Tutorials and guides are great article topics because readers are always looking for step-by-step solution to their problems.
Publishing your blog post should not end there. Share it on every social media channel that you use and send an email blast everytime a new article is posted. Increased exposure means more possible leads or customers.
7. Prioritize customer experience and satisfaction
One of the ranking factors in Google is customer experience. This is because it is a key factor in the customer’s decision-making process. People tend to spend more for a product if they are happy with their experience.
A good customer experience results in higher levels of customer satisfaction. According to studies, 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience. In fact, 49% of buyers tend to make impulse purchases after receiving a personalized customer experience. More happy customers means more sales.
8. Invest in top talent
If you’re just starting your business, it is never a good idea to skimp on the people you hire to run your growing business. This is the time when you need capable, resourceful, and skilled employees.
If you want your business to grow as soon as possible, hiring inexperienced employees will be just a waste of time. Invest in experienced staff who knows what to do even without you guiding all the time. Remember, you get what you pay for.
It might be tempting to pay less for hiring staff straight out of college, but what would they contribute to the growth of your business. What you need is top talent that would deliver high quality output. You’ll thank yourself later on for making that decision.
9. Outsource your tasks
If your tasks need specialized skills or you just need extra hands for your business, outsourcing some of your tasks can help you save time and money. The trick here is finding a reputable outsourcing partner who will provide you with experienced and skilled talents that your business needs.
For example, creating your website, running your ads, creating graphics, managing your social media, or managing your CRM are some of the tasks you can outsource. You can also delegate time-consuming tasks such as lead generation, data entry, or bookkeeping to your outsourcing partner.
Best Growth Hacks to Grow Your Startup : Conclusion
There is no “magic” solution that fits all businesses. Growth Hacks are all about testing, analysis & experimentation. Use these hacks and test them on your brand. See what works best for you.
If you have enjoyed our series on growth hacking, do let us know your opinion. If you have implemented any growth hacks and have an opinion, feel free to share your experience.
Launching a startup and trying to grow your small business require strategic planning and a lot of preparation. Embracing the growth hacks above can help you avoid making costly mistakes and make the growth process smoother and less bumpy.
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