Why you need a growth hacker for your business
‘When you stop growing you start dying.’ This may have been written by William S. Burroughs in 1953, but it could easily describe the situation most businesses find themselves in today, with gaining and keeping customers being the single most important measure of success.
Whether you’re a start-up, a small or medium enterprise or larger and more established business, you can likely benefit from a growth hacking strategy simply because of the unique opportunities and approaches growth hackers use to drive customer acquisition and retention.
What is a growth hacker?
The term ‘growth hacker’ was invented in 2010 by author and consultant Sean Ellis, who described a growth hacker as ‘a person whose true north is growth. Everything they do is scrutinized by its potential impact on scalable growth...’ (Ellis 2010). To do this, growth hackers adopt a highly responsive, data-driven approach, harnessing the power of the latest marketing technologies to operate at a scale and speed far beyond that of traditional marketing methods.
What does a growth hacker do?
Put simply, growth hacking is about tracking and analysing customer journeys, identifying opportunities and applying data in order to come up with the most effective way of leveraging these opportunities. Whereas traditional marketing may only focus on customer acquisition, growth hackers may just as easily focus on cross-selling or upselling to existing customers, if these tactics are found to be effective ways to drive growth. They are constantly experimenting and innovating to keep growing.
Do I need a growth hacker?
If you’re on board with the what and the how of growth hacking but still on the fence about the why, here are some things to consider:
- It’s cost-effective
Growth hacking is all about efficiency, focusing only on those channels or methods that are going to deliver the required results. Growth hackers also tend to be allrounders in terms of their skillsets, relying on their creativity to identify opportunities and their technical capabilities to operate at scale. This means your company can invest resources in a single individual rather than several specialists. - It’s measurable
Growth hackers operate by continually testing ideas, tracking the results and adapting or improving based on what the data says. This is ideal when you’re looking to demonstrate return on investment (ROI) for your marketing efforts. - It’s unique
Growth hackers work via constant iteration; they may test new ideas and run several experiments in the same time it would take a traditional marketing team to roll out a single campaign, but this doesn’t mean that they will be competing with your existing marketing efforts. In fact, by focusing on responsive, agile implementations, a growth hacker may actually create capacity in your business by freeing up your marketing team to focus on their overall strategic objectives.
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References
Ellis, S. 2010. ‘Find a Growth Hacker for Your Business’. Startup Marketing [Online] Available: https://www.startup-marketing.com/where-are-all-the-growth-hackers/. (Accessed 21 April 2022).
Gasteren, W. 2021. ‘Growth Hacking: What Is It & How Does It Work?’ Grow with Ward [Online] Available: https://growwithward.com/what-is-growth-hacking/. (Accessed 21 April 2022).
Hart, M. 2022. ‘The Growth Hacking Playbook: Your Ultimate List of Growth Hack Resources’. Hubspot [Online] Available: https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/growth-hacking-websites. (Accessed 21 April 2022).
Patel, N. 2022. ‘Growth Hacking Made Simple: A Step-by-Step Guide’. Neil Patel Digital [Online] Available: https://neilpatel.com/what-is-growth-hacking/. (Accessed 21 April 2022).