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Growth Hacking is the buzzword for many entrepreneurs for one simple reason: it is the navel of the business world. But, realistically, there is still a lot of ignorance and confusion about this term. What is it? What is its mission? Why do we relate it to Inbound Marketing?
In this post, we are going to start with its origin, so let's see what it is all about. Are you ready?
Defining Growth Hacking
Neil Patel, one of the most talked about names in online marketing, and one of the most recognised entrepreneurs under 30, tells us that "a growth marketer is someone who uses analytical, economical, creative and innovative ways to exponentially grow their company's customer base". Now, how do you do that? And what if you are a company with limited resources?
Growth marketers don't make the leap overnight. They research, test and practice until they hit the nail on the head and find something that multiplies their growth by 10, 20, or even more. This is known as Growth Hacking, a concept used to "describe experiments and processes aimed at building and maintaining a company's customer base".
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Now then..
why combine Growth Hacking with Inbound Marketing?
This is the big question that many companies are asking themselves as they move into digital marketing. While Growth Hacking describes experiments and processes to build the customer base, Inbound Marketing is the methodology capable of attracting them through useful, relevant content and adding value at each stage of the buyer's journey. If we take into account that Growth Hacking must be carried out through creative and innovative strategies, Inbound can be the tool that meets all these requirements:
- It is creative: it personalises each marketing action because it knows the tastes, hobbies, responsibilities, educational level, objectives, frustrations, age, geographical scope of consumers... It knows their profile (buyer persona) in depth to offer a unique experience and be there where the potential customer needs it: a message on social networks, a newsletter at the right time or the content offer they need to solve their problem.
- It is innovative: it breaks with traditional marketing schemes based on one-way communication (from company to customer) and places the consumer at the centre of the strategy. It is committed to interactive and multidirectional communication. It combines non-intrusive marketing and advertising techniques (newsletter, SEO, social networks...) with the aim of contacting a user at the beginning of their purchasing process and accompanying them to the end.
- Don't interrupt, help users: why suddenly appear in consumers' lives if you don't even know if they are interested in you? Inbound is perfect for attracting potential customers who need your products and services, so they arrive naturally, like a kind of better half destined to meet you in the online world. Your conquest techniques are no longer overwhelming, but engaging, patient and motivating. Ready to make your audience fall in love with you?
- It allows to know the user through their interactions, which helps companies to understand their needs, answer their questions and requirements successfully (give them what they want). All this is possible thanks to CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems, such as HubSpot CRM, which allow you to integrate your website and social networks, publish posts and track interactions and sales pipeline, etc. Moreover, it can be used simultaneously with other CRMs, such as Microsoft Dynamics. No problem!
Attract, convert, close and love, but don't give up.
how are you going to combine Growth Hacking with Inbound Marketing? Be careful!
To memorise the first term we need to go back several years, when Sean Allis mentioned it for the first time in the article 'Where are all of the growth hackers? Since then, it has become a very popular discipline in the USA. Its aim has always been to achieve revenue, users and popularity with the least effort and the least expense. It sounds great, but to boost these results you need something else: INBOUND!
Many startups are combining these two disciplines, as they are emerging in the market and do not have large financial resources. By now you have probably realised that both techniques share some characteristics and objectives: they seek to attract users, convert them into sales opportunities and, finally, into customers of the company through the combination of non-intrusive techniques. Of course, without making a large financial investment.
For this reason, some Growth Hacking techniques that are being used in Inbound are: Gamification:
- Gamification: Creation of small games and creative actions with products and services to seduce the user (a well-designed newsletter, a prize draw, a video using gifs and motion graphics, banners with a life of their own...) In return, the user receives a small reward (a discount, a content offer, a package...).
- Viralised content, how? Through a different tone and format. If until now you have been using nothing but text, take the opportunity to launch funny videos with a touch of humour and share them on your blog and social networks. You will see how they attract the user's attention.
If you are already using Inbound Marketing, you have probably already implemented Growth Hacking actions almost without realising it. The characteristics we have just mentioned are part of all those original, effective, creative and innovative actions that increase the return on investment (ROI) in your company.
The phases of Growth Hacking
Now that we know that this is one of the most fashionable topics in 2020 together with Inbound Marketing, we are going to summarise its phases:
- Detailed analysis of the product or service that the company wants to promote: What are its advantages and disadvantages? How does it fit in the market?
- Assessing its strong features to find functionalities that can be enhanced, e.g. creating an application.
- Add constant improvements and functionalities to products and services.
Whether you like it or not, growth hacking is having its moment. And that's why many companies are achieving impressive growth rates every year. One simple decision can change everything.
