Teach yourself to Growth Hack

TLDR: If you can’t apply your research at work, create a side project and test your ideas on it. Scroll to the bottom for a 'getting started' list to follow.

Last week I shared a post about growth hacking my life, from security guard to growth hacker via Cambridge University and the Silicone Roundabout in just 8 years. You can read it here if you haven’t seen it. Following that post, I have been repeatedly asked two questions:

“How did you teach yourself growth hacking?”

&

“How did you get into Cambridge with no A-levels?”

I’m going to answer the latter first, because while it’s not directly a ‘growth hack’ it follows the same principles.

To get into any University, you need certain grades to meet their criteria. I decided that I didn’t have time to take 4 A-Levels over a period of two years to reach that criteria, so I opted for an access course. It’s an intense, one-year course that technically gives you the same UCAS points as completing multiple A levels but in half the time.

As I didn’t have any financial support, I had to find a job that let me work around those hours so I took a security job: early mornings, late nights. I swapped day shifts with (eager!) colleagues who preferred not getting up at 5am or working until past midnight. That way, I went to college either following an early morning shift or just before I went to work for the night. Sometimes both.

This woman knows what I’m talking about

Cambridge University, more than anything else, are looking for exceptional people who care about what they do and are fully engaged with the subject they’re applying for. Knowing this, I did extra-curricular activities wherever possible. I wrote a blog, I ran social media groups in my preferred subject and I read every relevant book I could get my hands on. I knew that they wanted to see dedication, so I demonstrated it every single day.

When it came time to interview, I was putting in 40 hours a week at work, 40 hours a week at my course and every spare moment on extra-curricular stuff. There was nobody more dedicated, and I got my place.

Back to Growth Hacking

The term itself was fairly new as I entered the world of marketing. I first heard it on a (now incredibly dated) Perry Belcher video in which he stated that it was a particular 'trick' used to gain repeated customers, that would work for any business.

It was complete 'internet marketer' BS, but it got me interested and I did what I always do – I learned and applied. I went away, I read everything I could and I applied that learning in as many ways as possible.

Important note: It’s the application that I want to push here as the key. You can read every book on the market, but unless you put it into practice it’s just theory.

Newsflash: There is no ‘one simple trick’

Putting it into practice

In my early days, I was fairly lucky working for small companies that were happy for me to do whatever it takes to grow. The first company I employed any such techniques for was Futurecoin, the UK’s first ever Bitcoin ATM. At the start it was just me, the founder and no playbook as to how we were going to get these things installed. This was way, way before the public cared about Bitcoin (beyond reading horror stories about the Silk Road). From there I worked with a brand-new music festival, for years as the only marketing person, with some acquaintances from university. I had to grow it using any method I could find; often with little to no budget.

At this point you might be thinking “that’s great for you but I have a full-time job...” – while working these jobs I completed my degree, writing 5000 words-worth of essays a week for my bi-weekly supervision sessions with a world-leading academic. If you really want to get things done, you can.

I absolutely was lucky to find people with small companies that trusted in my abilities (well, a mix of trust and a lack of other options!), but you can forge the same situation in your spare time by creating a business of your own to test with.

Create an Experiment

This is the crux of the article. For anyone looking to learn growth hacking without having the luxury of a marketing job (and a boss who trusts them to run tests and apply their learning) – create your own environment to do so.

Do the reading, get the research under your belt and create your own product / website / idea to test it on.  As I now work on a project basis with clients, instead of full-time positions at startups, I do this every time I want to test something.

When I was developing my Instagram automation strategy I didn’t risk client accounts. I created my own and grew them, had them banned, lost my work, started again. I run experiments and SEO tests on my own website every time Google changes their algorithm. I create a testing environment to play with and apply the lessons learned to my clients.

Hello darkness my old friend…

I am not, sadly, given thousands in budget by startup founders saying “hey Alfie, do what you want with it! We just like seeing the data you bring back”. It doesn’t work that way, as much as I would love it to!

(If you’re reading this and want to do the above for me, please slide into my DMs immediately).

If you read, learn and apply that learning - even for an hour a day after work - you can gain the skills and mindset needed to get into growth hacking. It will take time, occasionally it’ll be a pain in your backside, but stick at it. The application of your learning is where you growth and any growth comes with growing pains.

Get Started

For those of you struggling with getting started, follow the list below (including some reading suggestions) for a real basic intro to growth hacking:

1)   Pick three subjects you’re interested in, do some keyword and trend research to see what the demand is like (there's a great Tim Ferris guide for this) and create some kind of product or service around one of them.

You don’t have to develop anything; it can just be an idea that people sign up to know more about “leave your email if you’d be interested in X”. It can even be dropshipping from Aliexpress. The business is not hugely important.

2)   Read ‘Hacking Growth’ by Sean Ellis for a background in the subject, then read ‘Traction’ by Gabriel Weinberg & Justin Mares.

3)   Apply the Bullseye technique from Traction to your idea from step 1. Develop your idea alongside traction strategies. Come up with ideas and tests for the 19 growth channels. Learn how to use those channels as you test your ideas.

Congratulations, there’s an intro to growth hacking for minimum outlay. You might even build a viable side-business off the back of it.