Introduction
When the world’s economy is uncertain, it may seem like growth hacking would be at a standstill. But in reality, business owners need to focus on more than their revenue numbers. Instead, they need to think about how they can grow their business as efficiently as possible—finding ways to attract customers and retain them even when budgets are tight. So what does growth hacking look like during this time? Here are four examples:
Positioning
Positioning is a way of describing your product or service in a way that resonates with your audience. The goal is to make sure that whatever you do, you can tell it in a simple way that allows people to understand what they are getting (or not getting) from you. If you can’t describe it, chances are no one will want it, and there’s no point in trying to sell anything.
Product viewability
Product viewability is the percentage of times a user sees your ad in an application or environment. While it’s not necessarily a good or bad thing, consider these two examples:
- You have a website where you sell clothes and want to increase sales. So you run ads on Facebook that say, “buy this shirt!” but only 2 out of 100 people click on them to go to your site. That means only 2% of users saw your ad, which could be better!
- On the other hand, let’s say you have a website that sells gold teeth veneers. You decide to run ads on Snapchat since they reach young adults who love partying hard—but if only 10% of those users see them (and then don’t buy anything), those are terrible results!
Growth hacking is not for every business.
Growth hacking is more than just a one-size-fits-all solution. It’s not a magic bullet; it isn’t a silver bullet. Growth hacking can help you reach your goals, but it takes time, money and patience (and lots of testing) to make it work for your business model.
Growth hacking only works for some businesses. For example, if you want to grow your customer base quickly and easily, then growth hacking is probably the wrong choice for you at this moment in time during this global recession.
Customer segmentation
Customer segmentation is a vital part of growth hacking. Knowing how your customers behave and their needs allow you to tailor your messaging, products and services to them. An excellent place to start is by segmenting your users into different categories based on the way they use your product or service. For example, suppose you’re an online retailer. In that case, you might want to break down your users into groups such as “first-time buyers” or “repeat customers” so that you can tailor different messages for each group’s interests.
Growth hacking can take many different forms.
Growth hacking can take many forms, but it always involves quickly getting a product or service to market. For example, a growth hacker might get their product in front of customers by hosting a meetup to share their story and find new users through word-of-mouth. Or they’ll do something as simple as adding a checkbox to their website where visitors can sign up for an email list on their way out.
The point is that growth hacking doesn’t have to involve any fancy software or complicated processes; it’s more of a philosophy than anything else. It means being creative and resourceful when looking for new ways to acquire customers, so you can test different strategies until you strike gold with one that works well for your business model.
Bottom-Line
There’s no doubt that growth hacking is a powerful tool for businesses of all sizes, and while I can’t predict the future, whatever it looks like will be different than today. As always, it’s up to you as a business leader to stay ahead of the curve with new ideas and strategies—but now more than ever, it’s essential to look outside your industry for inspiration!
Who am I?
I am Dotun Adeoye, a Business Growth Strategist & Author of the 5 Pillars of Business Growth.
I’ve built up my experience via serial entrepreneurship, consulting leadership roles in business growth, business development and product innovation in large companies worldwide in the last 29 years.
Today, I consult with large businesses on how to sustainably grow their businesses, sustain infinite growth, ensure business continuity and achieve a legacy.
Hire Dotun Adeoye to Speak Virtually or In – Person at your company’s event to cover this or other topics. You can also get in touch via +44 203 097 1718 or dotun at dotunadeoye.com.
