What is Growth Hacking?

Simply put, it’s an approach that seeks the rapid growth of businesses with minimal cost and resources. Cool, eh?!

So why is this important to know? Well, because this approach is increasing in usage worldwide as more and more companies begin to realize the excellent results it offers as an online strategy -If you don’t have or like your online strategy we need to strike up a conversation in the comments below.

Next question: How can you add growth hacking ideas into your business model and make your business rise like a rocket? Well, here are some basic/high-level ideas to target.

Bet on a Freemium Model

Offer a free version of your product. This approach not only helps explain to your users the strengths of your products and services offered, but it lets them experience it for themselves. -Allow users to fall in love with your business, and don’t stop giving them personalized experiences; even after they finalize the sale. Two examples of this are with Netflix and Amazon Prime. Both offer a free service with additional features being part of a paid subscription.

Entertain your Users with Gamification

You don’t need to put a virtual poker table on your website home page, but you can make the small actions you want your users to perform more fun and light-hearted.

Remember what LinkedIn was doing with the little ball within your profile, and how it filled in as you created your profile? That’s gamification! You can also try adding a field in your contact form asking if users like puppies or kittens more. Just something to make the experience less about work and more about having fun.

Why is gamification a valuable tool? Because it improves user adoption and retention over time. People like playing games and an opportunity to play a game rather than work is an opportunity most will opt-into and stick with.

Design a Strategy Based on Referral Marketing

Strengthen the membership among your users’ friends. This technique is a widespread practice in e-commerce. Offer your customers a discount for each friend who registers on your website as a way to thank them. It’s a quick and free way to build a network of customers.

Develop a Link-building Strategy

Google used to like seeing links back to your website from other sites and locations around the web (still does in fact), but the caveat now is that the practice of guest blogging is quickly becoming a “no-no” in the all-seeing eyes of Google. So, to keep your link building strategy intact try this, try befriending bloggers and influencers to post on your behalf. Most times they’ll agree if you can connect with them and prove your content is relevant and engaging to their audience.

Sell with Stories of Urgency

Here’s what we mean.

• Old school: create a sense of urgency with a limited time offer (sale).
• Growth Hacker: Use client stories (preferably told by clients in their own words) to showcase how time critical the decision to buy really is (outside of a monetary gain [sale]). Ex: Client A says, “My failing marriage was saved because we bought a Roomba, now the house stays clean and we’re both much less stressed, 5-Stars all the way”. This example invokes the question, “do you want to save your marriage?”. Most folks here wouldn’t need to consider this answer for more than a few seconds, much fewer weeks! Our point here is if you can tailor your communication platform to help you tell more user stories like this one, you’re more likely to resonate with additional people with similar pain points and increase sales within the niche. Also, customers in a rush tend to be less price sensitive, so creating urgency is a highly effective tool from a few aspects.