Growth hacking such a buzz word but seems like no one can come to an agreement on
what it really is. Some say it's when marketing meets product development. And others say it's
all about analytics and experimentation. Others say Growth Hacking is
bullshit
So what is it then? Let's take a look at one of the most cited examples: Dropbox
who use the refer-a-friend for free space campaign to help increase the
growth to twenty percent per month. (Growth hack)
what made this so clever - was that dropbox realized that rather than pay
google adwords 350 dollars for customer -- they could simply leverage the cheap cost of
storage space. Giving out free space was cheap and everyone referred everyone for
it
Another great example is Airbnb who after some clever reverse-engineering
allowed their users to auto post the ads onto craigslist -- WITHOUT the approval of
Craigslist -- This was ingenious! AirB&B knew that a huge portion of their target
market gathered on craigslist and tapping into it skyrocketed their growth (Growth Hacking)
Because of examples like these -- Growth Hacking seems to be associated formerly with
startups. But i don't really agree with that notion
Let's break down the term. Growth Hacking. Growth: this one is simple.
The process of increasing in physical size
Hacking: You're probably thinking software hacking. I understand why but I'd
like to subscribe to something different
Hacking: someone who's willing to skirt or break the rules to achieve a singular
goal. Put these together and we have someone who's going to do pretty much
whatever it takes to grow
There's nothing in there about startups. In fact, Growth Hacking can even involve large corporations
Let's go back to 1970 - The FIFA world cup in mexico.
Adidas and Puma were fighting tooth and nail to win our as many athlete
endorsements as possible. But this was beginning to get expensive.
To avoid further financial bleeding
they agreed on what's come to be known as the Pele Pact. The legendary
The legendary player was off-limits for either company to use for promotional or advertising
purposes but this is where Puma employed their Growth Hack. Just before the World Cup Final
a Puma representative secretly approached Pele and made
a very cost-effective deal
The match was about to begin. The world was watching.
And just as the referee was about to blow the whistle
Pele asked for a moment the tie his shoelaces!!
The camera zoomed in and the entire world watched as probably laced up is
brand-new pumas the world's greatest football player was now publicly affiliated with Puma.
Now looking back at these growth hack examples you notice
that all of these products have something crucial in common
all of them had already found product-market fit before the
implemented their growth hacks. Growth Hacking isn't really possible if your product
hasn't picked up stride yet. Think of it as trying to pour gasoline on to a fire.
The fire is your product. The gasoline is your Growth Hack. If there aren't any flames..
The fuel isn't really going to do much, is it?
So before anything else validate your product and find a product market fit.
Once you do, you can go out there to find your gasoline
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