Growth hacking - what is it and what is it?

Can a newly established company with a small budget record huge growth in a very short time? Yes, and a growth hacker will undoubtedly prove helpful in this. It combines the features of a good marketer who knows the company's goals and a great IT specialist who knows what hacking is. Growth hacking contributed to the building of such powers as Facebook and Twitter and challenged the classic principles of marketing!

What is hacking and is everything legal?

We do not associate a hacker and the hacking performed by him with something legal. Often when we think about a hacker, we see a genius computer scientist stealing data from clients of the world's largest banks, breaking complex codes and security. So is what the growth hacker does legal?

The term growth hacker itself was coined in 2010 by Sean Ellis, a man who acquired user bases for the largest companies in Silicon Valley. Ellis explained that a growth hacker is a person who aims to achieve growth for the company. A little later, the definition was developed by Neil Patel:

Considering the meaning of the word "hack" it's a hack - shorten), growth hacking can be defined as a shortcut to traditional (slow) marketing techniques.

Patel also added that a growth hacker is not someone better than a marketer, and growth hacking itself is not an alternative to marketing - it's just something completely different.

What is growth hacking?

Growth hacking is activities strongly oriented towards the growth of a given company and primarily using a network tool. What height are we talking about? Almost everything - conversions, sales, reach, etc. It is also about increasing your customer base. Every marketing activity is aimed at this kind of growth, so what makes growth hacking different from traditional internet marketing?

First of all, it covers all non-standard, unconventional operations that are carried out with a low investment. Growth hacking, therefore, does not generally use advertising or other Internet marketing methods of operation. In growth hacking, the pace of operation and the possibility of using less official solutions (e.g. using gaps in IT systems to obtain data, etc.) are of great importance.

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How does a growth hacker work?

Growth hacker focuses primarily on tests - he analyzes a lot, thanks to which he is able to create efficient strategies. They are just one step away from the desired height. Such an understanding of the work of a growth hacker, however, is a considerable simplification. Justin McGill made attempts to systematize the growth hacker activities.

He divided the areas of work in terms of ways of interacting with internet users. Using this method, he distinguished activities such as acquiring, activating, detaining, sending back and income. We will briefly characterize each of them.

1. Acquisition - these are all techniques aimed at increasing the customer base of a given company. McGill mentions, inter alia, activities such as attracting famous bloggers to co-create the website, focusing on the interaction of website visitors with administrators, gaining user opinions about the website through surveys, improving the effectiveness of all call-to-action buttons on the website.

2. Activation - here you will find simplification of subscribing to the newsletter, giving small gifts to users who will join the community, collecting good user opinions about the website and the offer, making them a kind of brand ambassador.

3. Retention - if new members of the community have been recruited, they should be taken care of. Growth hackers are eager to maintain contacts with regular recipients of the offer, prepare special content for them and an element of gamification - games and contests.

4. Referral - is a method that rewards users for sending, sharing or recommending a specific page.

5. Revenue - here, first of all, in the final point, attention is focused on users who, for example, did not make a purchase. By tracking their behavior and reasons for resignation, you will avoid future mistakes.

Growth hacking - who needs it?

Growth hacking can bring great success, as exemplified by Facebook, which started its dynamic development thanks to growth hacking. Due to the low cost of growth hacking compared to expensive advertising, it is recommended for start-ups and start-ups. The unconventionality and creativity of the solutions used also give it an advantage over traditional internet marketing. Thanks to the analysis and focusing on efficiency, those who have opted for growth hacking can count on quick and dynamic development.

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