Growth Hacking 101

By: Greg LenzFounder, Reverse Information LLC

What Is Growth Hacking?

"Acquiring and engaging users combining traditional marketing and analytical skills with product development skills."-Josh Elman Head of Growth at Twitter

"Growth hacking is acquiring, retaining, and monetizing users more effectively. A growth hacker is an individual who can, from end-to-end, collect data, ideate, plan, execute, and deploy the necessary tactics and strategies to hit goals."-Matt Humphrey VP of Merchandise Rearden Commerece

Growth Hacking Process...

Here's what you'll be looking at:

-Attention-Acquisition-Engagement-Retention-Referral

Think of a Door...

Attention

Attention

What channels do you have available?

-Social Media-SEO-Paid Search, Display, and Mobile-Retargeting-Inbound Marketing & Content Partnerships-Email-PR-Conferences and Teaching (Udemy & 37 Signals)

Acquisition

Acquisition

-Social Credibility-Content Marketing-Landing Pages-Ebooks, Whitepapers, Reports-Free Consultation/Analysis-Webinars-Free Trials-Drip Campaigns

Engagement

Either with your product or your users

Engagement

This is where VIRALITY happens

-Do you deliver a great experience? If not, why?-Observe power users and collect feedback-Iterate, Test, Measure, and Repeat-Identify the tipping point

Referral

You want this...

Not This

Referral

Much of this comes from the value of your product...however

-If your product is consumer facing, be DAMN sure it is sharable via social networks

-Instead of forms for ebooks, whitepapers, and webinars, enable "Pay With A Tweet" or a Facebook share

-Enterprise: Content marketing is a MUST. Make sure your happy clients can refer you by sharing an interesting blog post. (Speaking Engagements)

Retention

Awesome User Experience

What patterns do your power users have in common?

How to bring them back and guide their re-engagement:

-Email-Mobile Push-Display Retargeting (Adroll, Retargeter, PerfectAudience for Facebook)

Retention Example

A Growth Hackers Responsibilities

Test

Measure

Analyze

Growth Hacking Process

-Track: Determine what needs to be tracked-Understand: Look at data. Usage patterns.-Prioritize: Highest potential for growth-Design: Design features and flows-Build: Code and Deploy-Measure

REPEAT

Growth Hacker's Primary Goal

Steepen The Learning Curve

So turn this...

Into This...

Growth Hackers are not Growth Teams

Growth Hacker vs Growth Team

1976 NCAA Champion Indiana Hoosiers

The Difference

Growth Hacker

-Broad Skills-ASAP-Grey Areas-Guerilla Tactics

Growth Team

-Specialized Roles-Process-Focus on culture-Black and white

Growth Team

-Product Manager (Leader)-Designer-Developer-Data Scientist / Analytics Specialist-Copy Writer

Total transparency amongst the teamIdeas should come from everyone

2 Kinds of Growth Hackers

Winner

-Volatile-Runs through brick walls-Obsessed with meeting the goal

Zen

-Emotionless-Detached from outcome-Focuses on the process

What does a growth hacker do?● Run social media● A/B Testing● Design banner ads● Create a company’s branding or logo● Observe Users CONSTANTLY● Generates ideas for consumer value propositions● Builds landing pages● Design new signup flows● Generate weekly email campaigns● Add alt tags to images for a tiny SEO boost● Guest Blog Posting● Manage an Adwords Account

Growth Hacker Mindset

Ideate by intuition...BUT

● Data is everything● No sacred cows● Agnostic on method, religous on metric● ABT: Always Be Testing● Focus● Deliver user value ALWAYS

Categorize Your Users

-Super-High-Normal-Low

Put your focus on moving users into the next category

Path To Success Is 2 Steps

Know Your Goal

Find Leverage

Know Your Goal

Have one clearly stated measurable goal

-10% Increase in Conversion Rate?-10% Increase in Email Signups?-1 Whitepaper Download/Visitor?-7 Demos Scheduled/100 Visitors?-Doubling time on site?-2 Referrals/User?-20% Increase in order size?

Where are you getting that goal?

Is it an industry average?

An example: Lookcraft.com

Went from 10 to 50% conversion to email by redesigning their process

Lookcraft Homepage

Determining a Good Goal

-Spy on your competitors

-Talk to friends in the industry

-Monitor message boards (WarriorForum.com)

Find Your Points of Leverage

-Facebook (7 Friends)-Twitter (30 Followers)-AirBNB (Craigslist)-Paypal ($10)-LivingSocial (3 Friends Buy = Free)-Hotmail (PS. I Love You)-Enterprise (CRO, Content Marketing, Events, Conferences) Leads360.com

Advice to Growth Hackers

-Go from hunch to metrics-A/B Test everything-Early results are not always conclusive-Embrace failure (1/8 tests drive change)-Do a retrospective on each test-Optimize for revenue not conversions-Never stop pushing...but

Be patient

Growth Hacking Tools

Analytics:

-Google Analytics (Free)-Mixpanel-Kissmetrics-Visual Website Optimizer-Optimizely

Ad Spying

-Moat (Banners & Free)-WhatRunsWhere (Banners and Landing Pages)-Mixrank (Banners and Landing Pages)-Adbeat (Banners)-SocialAdNinja (Fbook Ads)-SEMRush (SEO & PPC)-SpyFu (SEO & PPC)-KeywordSpy (PPC)-iSpionage (PPC)

Cheap Banners, Fbook Ads, and Landing Pages

-Fiverr-Odesk-Elance-WarriorForums-99Designs

Cheap Ad Networks

-SiteScout (Banners)-ClickCertain (Banners)-BuySellAds (Banners)-BuyAds (Banners)-DirectCPV (PPV)-MediaTraffic (PPV)-TrafficVance (PPV)-Google, Yahoo, Bing, AOL (PPC)

Gathering Feedback

-Olark-UserTesting.com-EasyUsability.com-Survey Monkey-CrazyEgg

Landing Page Testing

-Unbounce-Instapage-LanderApp-Weebly (Free)-MaxInbound (Wordpress)-Premise (Wordpress)-OptimizePress (Wordpress)-Hubspot (Expensive but comprehensive)

Email Autoresponders

-Mailchimp (Free)-Aweber-GetResponse-Exact Target-iContact-VerticalResponse (Social, Email, and Survey)-Hubspot (Expensive but all inclusive)

Growth Hackers Indy Schedule

1) Display and CRO: Banners, LP's, and Copy2) Email Marketing3) Content Marketing & Social Media4) SEO: On page, Off page, & Linkbuilding6) Paid Search7) PPV & Affiliate Marketing

Actionable Advice...

Is there anything I can help you with?