Growth hacking: what established companies can learn from startups

As previously outlined, content marketing isn’t a fad. Times have changed for marketers and will continue to do so almost daily. Following the successes of startups like Pinterest and Twitter, today’s savvy (or just plain broke) marketers are turning to growth hacking instead of traditional marketing techniques.

Growth hacking is defined as using conventional and unconventional tactics to grow a user base startup-style. Some examples you may be familiar with include Twitter’s “Who to Follow” prompter and Dropbox’s rewarding more storage space to users who invited friends to use the platform.

But these tactics aren’t just for startups. They’re actually the new MO of marketing. And at the core, they’re all about knowing who your customers are, where they reside on the web and what motivates them.

So how can well-established companies get in on relationship building the new-school way? The good news is you may already be practicing growth hacking without realizing it. If not, here are a few ways to get started:

Analyze this – today’s marketers have data coming out of their ears. Use this to your advantage by monitoring and optimizing all content based on click-through rates, Facebook likes, open rates, A/B testing for emails, etc. To avoid being completely overwhelmed, focus on a few key metrics and optimize accordingly.

Build sharing into everything – from social sharing icons on emails to “Click to Tweet” functionality on blog posts, make it as easy as possible for people to spread love for your brand.

Bribe without shame – incentivize your top influencers and fans with swag, points, free downloads, whatever motivates them to boost social proof for your organization.

Focus on content – content marketing is here to stay, but the key is quality. Focus on creating high-quality content with consistency. Create an editorial board so you can divide and conquer without letting your quality suffer.

Encourage participation – most people want to be a part of something larger than themselves. Give them a platform to shine through sharing, providing ideas or simply rating your products and chances are your brand will shine too.

Want to learn more about growth hacking for your business? Contact me at [email protected].