When it comes to marketing for startups, growth hacking is one of the key factors that need to be in focus. Not only is it a revolutionary way of accelerating and structuring growth but also an excellent means of marketing.
Well, most people perceive it as online marketing but that’s not the case at all. Growth hacking is a completely different ball game which is here to stay and has proven its efficiency for startups as well as established corporations.
As Sean Ellis coined the term, “A person whose true north is growth. Everything they do is scrutinized by its potential impact on scalable growth.” (Ellis, 2010)
Furthermore, Andrew Chen introduced the term to a wider audience in a blog post titled, “Growth Hacker is the new VP Marketing” in which he defined the term and used the short term vacation rental platform Airbnb’s integration of Craigslist as an example. He wrote that growth hackers “are a hybrid of marketers and coders.”
In order to fully comprehend what a growth hacker does, it is vital that we understand the term itself first. “Hacker”, is a person that is more focused on the achievement of the objective rather than following the process that is laid out to achieve the objective.
That’s where the innovation part kicks in pretty much. When a person is expected to do things a certain way, there isn’t much room for new ideas. Growth hacking is all about innovation screening through the extras, and getting the job done by focusing on the resources at hand.
Seems like Growth Hacking has earned its place in tech terminology. Read on to find out all about it:
What you will learn:-
- What makes growth hacking so effective?
- How does it differ from marketing?
- The importance of graphics in growth hacking
- What’s the make up for a growth hacker?
Essential factors to put growth hacking into action
A lot of factors make growth hacking really effective, it’s basically the entire combination of these factors that drives the idea and makes the results fruitful.
Let’s discuss the major ones in depth.
- A wanted product – The mobile operating system, Android, is used worldwide and is known for its ease of use and amazing features. This software is popular and acclaimed because it has what users want. Designing a product that users want is the first step in order to put growth hacking into action. The product needs to be desirable.
- Visual Content – Just like how a thunderbolt of lightning is seen before it’s heard, visuals play an important part when it comes to Growth hacking. What the eye can see is what will form the basic perception that will arouse the user’s impulse to find out more.
- What’s Trending – It is essential to be aware of the current conditions and to analyze how and what can be changed. Performance needs to be measured and it is important to stay close to hat users are most inclined towards. Creating popularity is something to be taken very seriously when it comes to growth hacking.
- Creativity – A growth hacker needs to be creative and has to spend time brainstorming and structuring new means of delivering ideas. It is vital that we use our abilities to their full potential and map out ways to carry them out.
- Tools – The cherry on top for growth hacking is using your marketing tools in the best way possible. These tools are namely, Social media marketing, the current CRM that you are using or any other marketing tool that you use.
Now that we are aware of the basic structure that is needed to build this idea, let’s find out how images, and graphics play their part in growth hacking. It’s a universal fact that the human brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than the time it takes to decode text, which makes it important that we focus on the visuals that are related to the product.
Let’s take Instagram for instance, it has over a billion users and is one of the fastest growing social networks. There is not much decoding of text but a lot of visual sharing!
The audience needs to be engaged with the content and there is nothing interesting in reading huge chunks of texts. When using images though, some key points should be kept in mind. The quality of the images used makes a huge difference; you don’t want an amateur look! Setting up a stock imagery website is also a good idea.
It should be kept into account that the images used are in sync with the brand and the key message that is being delivered.
What’s the required skill set for a growth hacker?
Data analysis, programming and marketing skills are the basics to begin with, let’s talk about what skills are needed in order to stand out from the rest:
- Leadership – You can’t really become a leader unless you have followers, in order to become a growth hacker it is important that a person should know how to lead, plan and execute a plan.
- Passion – The idea is to completely occupy your mind with the task at hand and objective in mind. It requires ultimate focus and a willingness to witness the results. Consistency works like a charm when it comes to holding on to a particular approach.
- Analytical – Lastly, being able to analyze the current progress and predicting the future statistics is an ability that a growth hacker needs to adopt.
Growth hacking is practically perceived as a fancy word for marketing but it is far more effective and result driven. Its main focus is the objective of the corporations and what really needs to get done. It differs from the traditional marketing methods and is more of a mindset that is driven by a specific set of skills.
A growth hacker’s objective is to accelerate the number of users for a specific product- Isn’t that the same function marketing serves? No, not really there are a lot of non- marketing decisions that affect user growth. For example, building viral product features is not a marketing strategy, but almost the Holy Grail for a growth hacker.
Now its your turn…
You just saw how well images can be a huge factor in growth hacking success for entrepreneurs. But for you to get value from this ultimate guide, you need to take action on it.
Leave a quick comment below to let me know how you plan to implement the growth hacking success to your business.
Images: “Growth Hacking – Inscription on Red Road Sign on Sky Background / Shutterstock.com“
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