Growth Hacking and Marketing

Name: Growth Hacking and Marketing
Author: Allen Stafford

Get acquainted with the basics of growth hacking and marketing.

Preview the first lesson free — get full access to all 6 lessons.

Course: On-Demand

(gentle music) Let's look at the fundamentals of growth hacking and how it can be used in marketing. This lesson will introduce you to the concept of growth hacking, how it compares to traditional marketing, and how you can use it to grow your business. You'll also gain insights into how growth hackers leverage their customers to rapidly scale their products or brands. The term growth hacking describes how companies, like startups, grow their businesses fast with one hack at a time. You could also think of it as growth marketing since the goal is to use digital marketing tools to grow your company fast through rapid experimentation and measurement. Growth hacking involves focusing on a single product or part of your business and growing it with efficiency and speed. The concept extends beyond the marketing department, requiring all business leaders to take part. Growth hacking is a mindset that requires a total commitment by marketing and leadership. It's not a one-size-fits-all strategy. For example, in the late 2000s, Dropbox was trying to establish its global presence in the cloud storage market. Like many startups, it used online advertising to drive traffic to its website and attract new customers. After hiring its first marketer, Sean Ellis, the company began using growth hacking to transform its marketing strategy. Ellis wound up taking a page from PayPal's growth strategy. At the time, PayPal offered a refer a friend program. In exchange for referring a friend to PayPal, PayPal deposited $10 into the referring person's account. Ellis, through a series of experiments, used a similar approach. He offered free storage space for every friend who was referred to the platform and signed up for the free cloud storage. The win-win growth hack meant that the person referring would receive more storage and Dropbox would grow its membership base and the opportunity to increase revenue from each subscriber. This hack increased Dropbox signups by 60%. Ellis said effective growth hackers are disciplined to follow a process of prioritizing ideas. They can test, analyze, and identify those ideas that are effective for growth, removing ideas that didn't contribute to it. Ellis wrote that "a growth hacker is a person whose true north is growth." But there's no one-size-fits-all approach to growth hacking and there's no specific roadmap or process for quick scaling. Instead, growth hacking is a mindset based on discipline, experimentation, and focusing on the one thing that will scale a company for customer and revenue growth. Growth hacking is also about fitting the product or service to the customer's needs. For example, Groupon used a sense of urgency to generate business. Their hack included posting a deal and only allowing people to purchase it once they reached a certain number of purchasers within a certain period. This growth hack encouraged shoppers to share the deal with friends, driving sales and generating more revenue for their website. Dropbox and Groupon both focused on a single metric, accelerating their growth to increase their customer base and revenue. They showed discipline and experimented and analyzed their data as they moved toward exponential growth.

Beginner Provider : Allen Stafford 6 Lessons · 18m in Arabic, German, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Urdu, Chinese

Course Description

Despite how it may sound, growth hacking doesn’t have anything to do with splicing into a computer. Instead, it’s about using “hacks”, or techniques you can use to do something more efficiently. In this case, it’s using the digital marketing tools at your disposal to rapidly scale your product or brand. Growth hacking sets itself apart from classical marketing techniques by putting an emphasis on experimentation and innovation.

These lessons on Growth Hacking and Marketing aim to introduce you to growth hacking and how a growth hacker differs from a marketer. You will come to understand the foundations of growth hacking, learning how a pair of companies leveraged growth hacking to become successful. You’ll learn how growth hackers leverage customers to scale their products and brands, how growth hacking bridges marketing and customer experience for fast growth, and how innovation and experimentation serve as the pillars that prop up growth hacking as a marketing technique.

What You'll Learn

Define growth hacking and explain how it differs from a traditional marketer's role
Differentiate growth marketing from traditional marketing techniques
Compare the growth hacking strategies of start-ups versus established or mature brands
Recognize the importance of innovation and experimentation as the foundation of growth hacking
Examine how a pair of companies leveraged growth hacking to become successful
Apply techniques for leveraging customers to scale a product or brand

Key Takeaways

Growth hacking is not about computer hacking; it refers to techniques used to do something more efficiently, applying digital marketing tools to rapidly scale a product or brand.
Growth hacking sets itself apart from classical marketing by placing an emphasis on experimentation and innovation.
Innovation and experimentation serve as the pillars, or foundation, that support growth hacking as a marketing technique.
Growth hackers leverage customers to scale their products and brands, bridging marketing and customer experience for fast growth.
Growth hacking strategies differ between start-ups and mature, established brands.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is growth hacking, according to this course?

The course explains that growth hacking is not about splicing into a computer; it is about using "hacks," or techniques, to do something more efficiently. In this case, it means using the digital marketing tools at your disposal to rapidly scale your product or brand.

How is growth hacking different from traditional marketing?

Growth hacking sets itself apart from classical marketing techniques by putting an emphasis on experimentation and innovation. The course includes a lesson dedicated to Traditional Marketing vs. Growth Hacking and an objective to differentiate growth marketing from traditional marketing.

What topics does this course cover?

It covers what growth hacking is, traditional marketing vs. growth hacking, the foundation of growth hacking (innovation and experimentation), leveraging your customers to scale your product or brand, and growth hacking for start-ups vs. mature brands, followed by a Test Your Knowledge lesson.

Will this course show real company examples?

Yes. The course states you will come to understand the foundations of growth hacking by learning how a pair of companies leveraged growth hacking to become successful.

How does this course end?

The course concludes with a "Test Your Knowledge" lesson to check your understanding of the material.