Growth Hacking Mix: The Contemporary Marketing and Revenue Booster

Many business leaders engage in core business activities that are not widely known or understood, whether it is a universal concept or an entrepreneur's intuition that guides them on the path of productivity, efficiency, and profitability- they do not know. Growth hacking is one such activity that is widely deployed but not always fully understood. To fully leverage growth hacking, a critical understanding of its scope and how it can be used at a deeper level is necessary.

Growth hacking is a data-driven marketing approach that focuses on identifying the most effective and efficient ways to grow a business. It brings a multiplying effect on the business by leveraging growth levers that can have a significant impact on the overall growth of the business.

Growth Levers

Growth levers are the specific strategies or tactics that can be used to drive growth in a business. They include acquisition, activation, retention, revenue, and referral.?

- Acquisition: This prioritizes attracting new users or customers to the business. This can be done through various channels such as social media, SEO, content marketing, paid advertising, and others.

- Activation: This focuses on converting the acquired users or customers into active users or customers. This can be done by optimizing the user onboarding process, making the product or service easy to use, and providing a seamless user experience.

- Retention: This hinges on keeping the active users or customers engaged with the business over the long term. This can be achieved by providing excellent customer service, offering personalized experiences, and providing regular updates and new features.

- Revenue: This involves increasing the revenue generated by each user or customer. This can be achieved by upselling or cross-selling products or services, offering premium features, or introducing subscription models.

- Referral: This lever focuses on turning active users or customers into advocates who will refer new users or customers to the business. This can be achieved by offering incentives for referrals, providing excellent customer service, and building a strong brand that people want to share.

Brand Story as a Tool in Growth Hacking.

The brand story is an essential element in growth hacking as it helps a company to connect with its target audience, differentiate itself from competitors, and create a lasting impression in the minds of customers. In the case of KFC, the brand story played a significant role in the company's growth and success.

KFC's brand story dates back to its founder, Colonel Harland Sanders, who started selling fried chicken from his roadside restaurant in the 1930s. Sanders' passion for cooking and the unique blend of spices in his fried chicken recipe became popular, and he started franchising his business. As KFC grew, the company's brand story continued to focus on Sanders' commitment to quality ingredients and exceptional customer service.

KFC's growth hacking strategy centered on its brand story by leveraging its unique selling proposition, which was its "finger-licking good" chicken recipe. The company used creative marketing campaigns to amplify its brand story and connect with customers. For instance, in 2015, KFC launched a campaign featuring a series of TV ads that showed people singing a reworded version of the song "My Way" with the lyrics "It's Finger Lickin' Good." The campaign helped to reinforce KFC's brand story and create a lasting impression in the minds of customers.

KFC's growth hacking strategy also focused on leveraging its brand story to create customer loyalty. The company developed a loyalty program that rewards customers for their purchases and engagement with the brand. Through this program, KFC was able to build a database of loyal customers and personalize their experience with the brand.

Take a look at these three growth hack ideas inspired by real companies. (Reference - https://www.crazyegg.com/blog/growth-hacking/)

1. Airbnb

You might be familiar with the famous couch-surfing connection company now, but did you know that?Airbnb?got its start on Craigslist? This is what I mean by chasing attention like Gary Vee. Airbnb realized that most of its target audience was searching for places to stay on Craigslist.

The company had already proved its ability to be creative,?especially during the Obama-McCain election, but it started to gain traction in a big way when it began to post its listings on Craigslist.

Using the Craigslist hack, Airbnb scaled from 50,000 listings to 550,000 listings.

2. Google+

While it’s true that Google+ isn’t the most popular social media platform out there, I applaud its growth hacking strategy in the beginning. Instead of flinging open the doors, Google only offered accounts to a select few.

In other words, it was invite only. And people were scrambling for invitations.

Exclusivity is a great growth hack when you can’t accommodate tons of customers during your launch, or if you want to rev up the interest for a new product or service. People tend to want something that’s only available in limited quantities or spots.

3. Dropbox

Dropbox?is my go-to example for growth hacking. The company used free storage space to convince customers to spread the word about the service. If you want to get the full scoop, check out the video I created about Dropbox’s amazing growth hack.

The Uniqueness of Growth Hacking for Businesses.

The uniqueness of embarking on growth hacking lies in its focus on using unconventional, low-cost, and creative methods to achieve rapid business growth. Growth hacking is centered around experimentation, iteration, and data-driven decision-making, allowing businesses to quickly test and scale new ideas.

Unlike traditional marketing, which can be expensive and time-consuming, growth hacking focuses on identifying the most effective and efficient ways to acquire and retain customers. By utilizing digital channels, such as social media, email marketing, and content marketing, businesses can reach a wider audience and increase engagement.

Additionally, growth hacking encourages cross-functional collaboration, bringing together teams from marketing, product, engineering, and data analysis to work together toward a common goal of driving growth. This approach allows for a more holistic and integrated approach to growth, with each team contributing their unique skills and expertise.

Overall, growth hacking provides a unique and innovative approach to business growth, focused on speed, efficiency, and experimentation. By leveraging technology and data, businesses can rapidly scale their operations and achieve exponential growth. Also, growth hacking can bring a multiplying effect on the business by driving exponential growth in user acquisition, engagement, and revenue.