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WHY DID WE WRITE THIS GUIDE?
There is a revolution taking place in the world of marketing, and we wanted to help people understand this new phenomenon. Those who understand growth hacking will have a competitive advantage that is hard to overstate, and we wanted to provide a robust framework for thinking about it.
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WHO IS THIS GUIDE FOR?
This guide is for entrepreneurs, founders, growth leads, or anyone else who is trying to grow a startup. If acquiring new customers (and retaining existing ones) is important to your business then you should read this guide. If customers matter to you, then growth hacking should matter to you.
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WHAT IS GROWTH HACKING?
Growth hacking is so misunderstood that there is a desperate need for this chapter. Few concepts have been as polarizing and revolutionary, simultaneously. Is it marketing in disguise? Is it a buzz phrase used to increase salaries? Is it the future of internet products? This chapter will clearly define what growth hacking really is. -
THE PROFILE OF A GROWTH HACKER
As this new world of growth hacking comes to prominence, and jobs begin to open up, individuals who are enticed by the possibility will wonder if they have what it takes to be a growth hacker. As with any career, certain kinds of individuals will flourish more than others, and this chapter debunks myths about who can and can’t be growth hackers. -
THE GROWTH HACKING PROCESS
Before we dive into the specific tactics that are at a growth hacker’s disposal, it will be helpful to first talk about the process of a growth hacker. There are definite steps that are going through a skilled growth hacker’s mind, either consciously or subconsciously, when they attempt to grow their company. This chapter will outline the six fundamental steps in the growth hacking process. -
THE GROWTH HACKER FUNNEL
A funnel is a way to guide something which is usually unwieldy and uncooperative, like people. If you are trying to grow a product then your task is to guide people towards a particular goal (signup, checkout, etc.). The problem is that people are unpredictable and full of free-will. If you are going to get people to do what you wish, en masse, then you must employ a funnel. This chapter will help you understand the funnel that growth hackers use. -
PULL TACTICS FOR GETTING VISITORS
The first way to get visitors to your site is to pull them in. This is where you give them a reason to come to you. You entice them, incentivize them, and draw them to you. This chapter will outline some of the various ways that growth hackers pull people into their world. -
PUSH TACTICS FOR GETTING VISITORS
A push tactic usually involves interrupting the content that is being consumed. You aren’t the tweet they want to read, but instead, you’re the tweet ad that they read on their stream. You aren’t the YouTube video they want to watch, but you are the pre-roll ad that they watch to get to the content they were after in the first place. Push methods may not seem as pure as pull methods, but they are valid tactics for a growth hacker, and this chapter will show you how to use them. -
PRODUCT TACTICS FOR GETTING VISITORS
The ability to use the product itself to get new visitors is one of the most exciting aspects of growth hacking. Pulling visitors into the top of your funnel is good, and so is pushing them in, but there is something magical about using the product itself to drive traffic. When done well, it can have a compounding effect which cannot be replicated with push and pull methods alone. This chapter will introduce you to the various ways that a product can create it’s own traffic. -
HOW TO ACTIVATE MEMBERS
By now, you’ve found a way to get visitors to come to your product, but if this is all you do then they will bounce at an incredibly high rate. Your goal is to activate them. Activation is the act of getting them to take an action in your product that you are guiding them toward. Activation is when they do something that you’ve decided beforehand would further your goals. This chapter will show you how the best startups are activating their traffic. -
HOW TO RETAIN USERS
Two chasms have already been crossed. You have successfully gotten visitors to your product using push, pull, or product methods. You have also successfully activated them by getting them to take certain actions within your product. It might seem like you are out of the woods, but there is one more necessary component to growth, retention. Retention is the act of getting your members to use your product in such a way that it becomes habitual. Many growth hackers actually consider retention the most important aspect of the funnel, and this chapter will help you master it. -
TOOLS AND TERMINOLOGY
Most growth hackers have a set of tools that they use to collect and analyze the data being produced by their products. This chapter will give you an overview of some of the most popular tools while also introducing you to some of the common jargon that is used to describe and understand the metrics.
Growth hacking is so misunderstood that there is a desperate need for this chapter. Few concepts have been as polarizing and revolutionary, simultaneously. Is it marketing in disguise? Is it a buzz phrase used to increase salaries? Is it the future of internet products? This chapter will clearly define what growth hacking really is.
As this new world of growth hacking comes to prominence, and jobs begin to open up, individuals who are enticed by the possibility will wonder if they have what it takes to be a growth hacker. As with any career, certain kinds of individuals will flourish more than others, and this chapter debunks myths about who can and can’t be growth hackers.
Before we dive into the specific tactics that are at a growth hacker’s disposal, it will be helpful to first talk about the process of a growth hacker. There are definite steps that are going through a skilled growth hacker’s mind, either consciously or subconsciously, when they attempt to grow their company. This chapter will outline the six fundamental steps in the growth hacking process.
A funnel is a way to guide something which is usually unwieldy and uncooperative, like people. If you are trying to grow a product then your task is to guide people towards a particular goal (signup, checkout, etc.). The problem is that people are unpredictable and full of free-will. If you are going to get people to do what you wish, en masse, then you must employ a funnel. This chapter will help you understand the funnel that growth hackers use.
The first way to get visitors to your site is to pull them in. This is where you give them a reason to come to you. You entice them, incentivize them, and draw them to you. This chapter will outline some of the various ways that growth hackers pull people into their world.
A push tactic usually involves interrupting the content that is being consumed. You aren’t the tweet they want to read, but instead, you’re the tweet ad that they read on their stream. You aren’t the YouTube video they want to watch, but you are the pre-roll ad that they watch to get to the content they were after in the first place. Push methods may not seem as pure as pull methods, but they are valid tactics for a growth hacker, and this chapter will show you how to use them.
The ability to use the product itself to get new visitors is one of the most exciting aspects of growth hacking. Pulling visitors into the top of your funnel is good, and so is pushing them in, but there is something magical about using the product itself to drive traffic. When done well, it can have a compounding effect which cannot be replicated with push and pull methods alone. This chapter will introduce you to the various ways that a product can create it’s own traffic.
By now, you’ve found a way to get visitors to come to your product, but if this is all you do then they will bounce at an incredibly high rate. Your goal is to activate them. Activation is the act of getting them to take an action in your product that you are guiding them toward. Activation is when they do something that you’ve decided beforehand would further your goals. This chapter will show you how the best startups are activating their traffic.
Two chasms have already been crossed. You have successfully gotten visitors to your product using push, pull, or product methods. You have also successfully activated them by getting them to take certain actions within your product. It might seem like you are out of the woods, but there is one more necessary component to growth, retention. Retention is the act of getting your members to use your product in such a way that it becomes habitual. Many growth hackers actually consider retention the most important aspect of the funnel, and this chapter will help you master it.
Most growth hackers have a set of tools that they use to collect and analyze the data being produced by their products. This chapter will give you an overview of some of the most popular tools while also introducing you to some of the common jargon that is used to describe and understand the metrics.