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Getting Intimate: Undressing the Growth Hacking Process

Undressing the Growth Hacking Process

What is Growth Hacking?

Growth hacking. What is it? How does it work? Who are the hackers and what are they hacking? These types of questions come with the territory, and while the term growth hacking itself is relatively new, the implemented philosophy behind it is not. Growth hacking is known as the art of producing rapid growth for small businesses and startups in order for them to gather enough traction to become sustainable and profitable as quickly as possible. Another common thought is that growth hackers replace marketers and vice-versa. Nope, not even close. These two do focus on increasing sales and growing a company, but it is the tactics, methods, and time of produced results that separate these two. Let’s look at where the word “growth hacking” came from, what drives these innovative thinkers, and provide a few topical examples to display how growth hacking can help grow small businesses into large corporations.

 

The Short and Sweet History of the Controversial ‘Growth Hacking’ Concept

The term “growth hacker” was first introduced by Sean Ellis back in 2010. When asked why he was compelled to coin the phrase, Sean gave credit to his frustrations of having to find a suitable marketing replacement for hiring, which could fill his shoes. Let me explain.

Over the course of his career, Sean served at a number of Internet companies, helping them to grow their businesses exponentially, with a few of his clients successfully launching IPOs. As a result, Sean became known as the go-to expert in the valley you could turn to when companies were ready to expand and grow. Obviously, in exchange for payment and other forms of equity, Ellis delivered extreme growth for businesses, earning him the title, “The Father of Growth.” He emerged as a one-man entrepreneurial dream shop, capable of designing operating systems, processes and reconstructing the mindsets of individuals to operate at his level in order for them to take his job. Once he had successfully completed the development of his growth model, he created the ability to hand the responsibility of operating his growth system to another professional, where he could walk away to enjoy other things.

This is what created the problem. When trying to identify replacements, Ellis many times received qualified applications that were authentic but did not showcase the required relevancy. These candidates were professional marketers, and they had experience in marketing, but they still lacked a certain spark Ellis needed to see. Sean knew his tactics were not taught at universities and they were not traditional moves typical marketers would make. Sean had an extreme in-depth understanding of the types of strategies that he incorporated, and he knew that if he allowed these types of marketers to take his position, the relationship would not work and the perfect puzzle would not fit properly together, as their skills were not the best match for his visions and implemented techniques.

Traditional marketers have a wide or non-concentrated area of expertise, making them a jack-of-all-trades but a master of none. And even though their skill set provides immense value, they do not provide what is needed most when a startup is being brought to life. During the first phase of a startup, “developing and managing a marketing team” or “handling outside vendors” or even “launching a strategic marketing plan in order to accomplish corporate goals” or other objectives that marketers focus on completing, none of which are needed. There is only one thing that a startup needs in the early stages. GROWTH!!!

When Sean went on the hunt for marketers, he most definitely found marketers. Therefore, Sean had to focus more on what he was looking for.  His watershed blog post titled, “Find a Growth Hacker for Your Startup,” ignited the virility of growth hacking as we know it today.

A growth hacker does not replace a marketer. A growth hacker is not at a step above or below a marketer. Growth hackers has differences that separate them from a marketer to put in terms that Sean used in his post to make the idea clear, “A growth hacker is a person whose true north is growth.”

growth

 

Grow Hackers are Addicted to Growth

Every decision that is made by a growth hacker is based on growth. Every plan, act, edge or inkling is centered around the objective of pure growth. Growth is the driving fuel of a Growth Hacker, and they live and die by their expressions and passion for growth. Sure, regular university graduate marketers are concerned with growth as a part of their business strategies as well, but not to the level or extent that a Growth Hack Expert (GHE) does. It is important to understand that the sole, singular and most obsessive purpose is on one specific goal and by not giving any energy, attention, or concern to anything else, they can be extremely effective at executing the objective that is most important at the beginning of startup’s journey: GROWTH!!!

This laser focus on growth has empowered the emergence of methods, tools, techniques, strategies and best practices that simply were unavailable to the traditional marketing repertoire, and as more innovations are introduced, the chasm between the two marketing disciplines becomes more intense.

 

Growth Hacking Redefines Products

Old-fashioned markers are very knowledgeable about traditional products, but the Internet has permitted a sweeping augmentation to what a product actually is. For more years than we can count, a product has always been regarded as a physical good, but now products can be bits and bytes that together form digital products. It used to be that products were objects like televisions, toothpaste, sofas, and appliances. Now Facebook is a product, Google is a product, and basically, the internet, in general, is a product in some form or fashion. Even your hosting services for your website is a product. Things are not tangible where you can touch, feel and hold them like you were able to in the past. Now, products instant, spontaneously moldable and adaptable to tailor the needs of a diversifying market. It is this digital evolution that has ultimately lead to the creation or need for new age growth hackers. The Internet provided the global community with an entirely new type of product.

The take on this changing definition of what products are, for the first time has allowed products to scale themselves, tailoring experiences. Sounds a little farfetched, but just listen? A new-aged product like Twitter allows you to directly share their version of the product with other people, no matter their global positioning. Can you share a cup of sugar so easily with your neighbor? For you to start enjoying the product, you have to share it with someone else in the first place. Would you share your toothpaste like this? A product like DropBox, for instance, can earn you free cloud storage if you convince another person to create an account with them. Can you couch offer you more seats for bringing extra guests home?

If you do not fully embrace this new positioning of products that the Internet has empowered, it will be extremely difficult for you to comprehend growth hacking concepts fully. Sean Ellis, the creator of the “growth hacker” term, was also the first to establish Dropbox’s growth. He comprehends what is intriguing about Internet products. And like him, growth hackers comprehend the existing potential of digital products to create growth, making it the software’s responsibility to convert the existing potential into existing reality.

 

Redefining Distribution the Growth Hack Way

Despite the necessity of products, it would be a huge mistake to constrict your focus on solar the products. The same Internet that redefined products has successfully redefined distribution. And it is important to understand this new distribution, not all of it, but a good chunk of it in order to know how to grow company products effectively. Professionals with the in-depth knowledge of how people operate and perceive online products will be able to use this understanding for the growth of a client’s startup.

The thing about the highway systems that were built throughout America starting back in the 1950s. Gas stations like Shell understood that the creation of these roads was also the creation of a funnel for customers to be directed in predictable directions, and they took full advantage of this. Soon enough, exits of interstate ramps are monopolized by these fueling stations even to this day. This is a clear example of what off-line growth hacking before the internet and before growth hacking was ever established.

The Internet is a modern day duplication to this example, but in a digital version. If you can identify the online channels that provide direction for people, information, and ideas, then you can establish your own Shell gas station where you know that it will receive heavy traffic. Here are some simple examples that will get the juices in your brain to propel you in the direction needed for growth:

  • Instead of interstates providing a route to brick-and-mortar businesses, reuse search engines like Google to find the path to virtual businesses. You can use SEO planning to target long-tail keywords – Those who properly employ SEO strategies are easily capturing the traffic of the inquirers were on that digital path.
  • Instead of streets that take us to the local theater, we elect to plug in a Roku box and browse Netflix. The people who graph this concept with a clear understanding are the individuals who will be able to perceive a product from a multitude of varying perspectives.
  • Instead of roads delivering routes to our friend’s house, we choose to be social using Twitter and Facebook. People will take notice of this as it is empowering with the capability of creating their own agenda and merging it into the conversation with implicitly and explicitly.

There are countless other examples of how the online infrastructure has allowed the creation of massive innovations of products that produce an opportunity for diverse product distribution. But the point of it is that for those who gather an accurate assessment of human activity online will experience the real growth advantages that others would never have thought to try in order to achieve similar results. All previous examples are easy to comprehend, there are hundreds of other examples to discover how their thinking led them to capitalize on an opportunity for growth, and that is where the role of a true growth hacker becomes beneficial.

 

Hacker No Hacking: What the “Hacker” in Growth Hacker Means?

There are several explanations and implications of the word hacker that would give you informative meaning to the word within a certain context. There are variations and meanings to how different types of hackers may operate.

The Inventive Hacker

This type in context is associated with the word hacker as it is used when you are referring to a person who is clever, unique or innovative enough to come up with new ways of making activities or tasks easier. They learn to be resourceful when creating solutions that others may have looked past unknowingly. A life hacker is a great example of this term, and similarly, the same approach can be identified with growth hackers because it is their overall tasks to use innovative thinking to develop a plan to acquire growth. Paths that lead to growth are very well hidden and not normally obvious, so it requires a delicate and intense amount of creativity to unveil their locations.

The Software Hacker

A hacker is aware that many times he/she is thought of as a software engineer or programmer, even though they may or may not be one. Growth hackers do employ software, databases, APIs and other associated tools to expand the startup. If the growth hacker also happens to be a programmer, they will have the capability of being worse efficient with making progress, although this skill is not requirements. Nonetheless, a growth hacker must have deep knowledge and understanding of technology in order to be successful. If the growth hacker is not a skilled programmer, they will still have to have a comprehension of programming in order for them to be able to coordinate with the people who actually write the code. Keep in mind, products are now digital and are delivered in the form of software or technology, and becoming a master of this technology will be critical for mastering growth.

The Illegal Hacker

The word hacker has been coined as a word use referred to a person who use unauthorized methods to gain access to a system simply put; they break into a system or database without receiving permission first. A growth hacker is not doing anything illegal in the literal sense of the word, but they will think outside the box and closely approach boundaries of what is considered normal or usual. A commonly used idea in computer hacking is “zero-day exploits,” which are security gaps that instantly creates a vulnerability when it is discovered. Simply put, there are zero, no days between the exposure of the gap and the exploitation of the security vulnerability. When new social platforms release/reveal their APIs, a growth hacker might use it to access visitor data of the platform before the API is repaired in order to close the gap that was used. Growth hackers search and hunt for solutions that can be used as an avenue for growth.

 

What does growth hacking look like in practice?

At this point, we have had a very philosophical exploration of growth hacking. We started with history, explored its definition of what makes the idea so innovative in the marketplace. But I’m sure by now you are thinking if there really is an example to help make this idea of growth hacking visibly clear.

Moving forward we will look at one of many already focused on companies that have greatly benefited from the growth hacks and provides a solid example and case study to see this type of startup business hacking in action. There are tons of examples but why not go with what is considered to be the poster child of real live growth hacking. Welcoming Airbnb to the spotlight for growth hacking 101. Most know AirBnB to allow people the option to rent out spare bedrooms in their house in the same way that hotels book rooms. The idea is innovative, the execution was amazing, but growth hacking is primarily responsible for their existence and their incredible ability to scale their growth.

They were able to use Craigslist, a platform that attracts millions of visitors in search of rooming accommodations, to empower their growth and to expand their user base exponentially. At the time that you complete a form to list the house on Airbnb, they provide an option to allow your posting to be posted on Craigslist and if selected, your listing will appear there as well, which in turn creates an inbound link for both you and Airbnb.

In hindsight, it seems ridiculously clear from a marketing standpoint, which will have you scratching your head as to why so many other and much larger companies had not already thought of saturating this platform with this type of cross-posting strategy, making Craigslist a popular shadow for acquiring new customers. Great question. The answer is revealed when you understand that Craigslist did not publish an APIs. Simply put, Craigslist had not up until this point created a way for companies to post to the service on their platform outside of visiting Craigslist itself. There was not an established digital system that enabled businesses and companies to easily employ their listings to appear on the Craigslist platform automatically. Instead, Airbnb had to use reverse engineering to analyze how Craigslist was structured and how it operates, then from there, they developed their product so that it has compatibility with the codebase of Craigslist. Accessing APIs are simple. Reverse engineering, however, is not.
Utilizing this case study, let’s think about how our philosophical discussions manifest into real results in terms of growth hacking.

  • First, Airbnb accomplishes something that traditional markers would not have ever envisioned, much less implemented. The way that marketing is leaning; a college or a bachelors degree is not going to equip you with the skill set of even the most basic and conceptual ideology to derive this type of deeply integrated idea concerning Craigslist, especially if APIs are the only way you know how to infiltrate a platform.
  • Secondly, Airbnb created their product so that it would be used as its own primary method of distribution, integrated into the framework of Craigslist. This was not an outside component of Airbnb’s business. It, in fact, was the central part of it. They did not execute an elaborate marketing plan and hope for traffic to swarm the product. The product itself generated its own massive amount of traffic.
  • Thirdly, Airbnb realized that Craigslist was just a distribution mechanism that they needed to hack. The information that is needed is not neatly stored in an easily accessible place, and the customers that they were targeting were already flocking to Craigslist in large numbers. So that is what caught their eye and drew them to the platform.
  • Fourth, they were brilliant. Simply put. Airbnb cannot research about other people who had used Craigslist as a way to cross promote their product. Because it had not been hacked yet. They developed these innovative ideas themselves. Then they got down to the action needed in order to execute a perfect fit, even when there was no guarantee that their idea was going to be successful.
  • Fifth, the growth mechanism was heavily based on technology. The team at Airbnb that executed the strategy were very knowledgeable in coding and had an in-depth understanding of how digital products are developed to reverse engineer the Craigslist platform.
  • Sixth, Airbnb took advantage of the vulnerabilities of an existing platform in order to establish its user base. There’s a reason why Craigslist did not create a public API. The owner of the website, Craig Newmark, is not interested in allowing you to perform these actions on his platform. Airbnb pushes the envelope to the edge of the boundaries by electing not to acquire permission or an API from Craigslist, and instead, moving forward with a plan that doesn’t even require granted permission or access in order to be executed.

As a matter fact, it appears that Craigslist has repaired the vulnerabilities that permitted this integration. In response, Airbnb has an answer under the FAQ tab, stating that they no longer post their ads on Craigslist. This provides a valuable lesson for growth hackers to take note of. In most cases, there will only be a limited lifespan of growth mechanisms to maximize their potential. It would not be smart for Airbnb to make the assumption that they would have the ability to post on Craigslist for the next decade as if the owner will be fully tolerant of them siphoning users from the platform little by little. But that’s perfectly fine. Taking complete advantage of this short-termed opportunity to provide them with the base of growth that became the momentum that boosted the business forward.

 

The Growing Future Of Internet Business Hacking

Growth hacking is an intriguing trend that provides us a miniature glimpse into the future of emerging Internet-based solutions. Many times there has been a barrier between the team responsible for creating the product, and the team responsible for securing users for the product. The colder it’s built. The marketers promote. That seems to be the magical solution that works best for a while. Now, those responsible for growth are being forced to learn what an API is, and those whose job it is the program are being forced to imagine the customer experience within the product. Two opposing worlds are colliding.
This beautiful cross-pollination between platforms, make perfect sense. If growth really is the bloodline of an organization, then why wouldn’t you integrate growth into every aspect of the organization. Even people who focus on growth need to be employed in the customer support department because angry customers need to be addressed with expansion in mind. And designers should develop with half of their attention on growth minimally because attractive creations alone does not always guarantee that users will find it amusing. The future of Internet companies and the collaborative teams that create them will not have any resemblance to how they operated in recent past.
A leaving though pertaining to the future of growth. For now, growth hacking is constrained to start-ups. Eventually, growth hacking will become fully merged with Fortune 500 companies. Startup companies generally have poor resources, nor have they developed relationships, the ones that will permit them the ability to be effective with the strategies employed by a traditional marketer, so their hand is somewhat forced to participate in growth hacking. Nonetheless, there is nothing about growth hacking that makes it inapplicable to large corporations. If growth hacking can prove to be successful without the use of resources, just imagine the capabilities, possibilities, and accomplishments that it would have if it did use the type of resources available to large corporations.Bringing it all back around full circle, startups and small businesses use growth hackers to scale and marketers to sustain. Instead of seeing the two as separate entities, marketers and growth hackers should be a part of every successful business plan moving into forward in the digital era.

This article was written by Eliav Lankri, CEO @ GH.A – Digital Marketing Agency for Startups & Businesses