Growth Hacker Marketing: Definition and Thoughts

EVANGELIST

It was only a matter of time before someone smart came along and said, “It doesn’t have to be this way. The tools of the Internet and social media have made it possible to track, test, iterate, and improve marketing to the point where these enormous gambles are not only unnecessary, but insanely counterproductive.” That person was the first growth hacker.

DEFINITION

A growth hacker is someone who has thrown out the playbook of traditional marketing and replaced it with only what is testable, traceable, and scalable. Their tools are e-mails, pay-per-click ads, blogs, and platform APIs instead of commercials, publicity, and money. While their marketing brethren chase vague notions like “branding” and “mind share,” growth hackers relentlessly pursue users and growth— and when they do it right, those users beget more users, who beget more users. They are the inventors, operators, and mechanics of their own self-sustaining and self-propagating growth machine that can take a start-up from nothing to something.

Holiday, Ryan (2013-09-05). Growth Hacker Marketing: A Primer on the Future of PR, Marketing and Advertising (Kindle Locations 183-189). Profile Books. Kindle Edition.

Has this changed marketing as the majority knew it?

It has been evolving naturally for some time, the way we market our products and services. If you are not at least an arm’s length away from understanding the basis of being a growth hacker, it might be time to get there.

Ryan holiday’s book,Growth Hacker Marketing: A Primer on the Future of PR, Marketing, and Advertising gives us an understanding of the fundamentals. The days are truly gone where we get a product or open a store, do a press release, place an ad in the local paper or even use the basic social media platforms, sit back cross our fingers and watch revenue come in.

Technology has changed this. Consumerism has changed this. Knowledge has changed this. Evolution has changed this.

The book breaks down some Lean Launch Pad terminology and concepts into laymen terms e.g PMF(Product Market Fit) explaining how they fit into the Marketing jigsaw puzzle.

Whilst this has been happening for a while now, it is clear that adaption and implementation on a serious level is yet to take place in many private and public organisations.

This post by default looks like a book review, and to be honest I have not quite finished the book and is not intended that way. That being said I do recommend it, especially for those that may be junior starting out in the field.

I feel a combination of both ‘traditional marketing’ if that’s what you like to call it, combined with the Growth Hacking way has genuine benefits, especially in the transition phases launching a new product or service.

We essentially use science to grow versus using guess-work and money not knowing.

Refreshing: A Young Boy Reading a BOOK

Sitting at breakfast with my better half on a Sunday morning. We find a spot outside in the strip, beach side suburb where we live. I go in order our breakfast, come outside and sit down. We look to our left and see a young boy – let’s call him Jack, perhaps 8 years of age – squatting like a monk on the tall bench seat next to us.
I said to Elle, “How refreshing is that? Seeing a young boy immersing himself into a thick paperback book.” These were my first comments followed by “more kids need to embrace this.”
In today’s tech world this is a rarity. It is either an iPad, iPhone, reader, computer and so on. The pure form of an actual book, although dwindling, will never be replaced. To hold the book, the touch, the smell of the original way that it was expressed is irreplaceable.
I went to say that Jack will be the clever one if he keeps that up.

20 reasons why children should read more books.

Although electronic devices increase the ability to multitask, there is always a distraction element – you can switch screens, play a game at the same time, check emails (if at that age you have one) and surf the web.
Concentrating on the one task and taking the information from the book in this case provides Jack with the ability to learn and process the information properly. It was so refreshing to see.
As Jack, his Mum and their friend got up from the table to leave I expressed to his Mum our thoughts, her reply:

“That means so much to me, thank you. It really does.” She then called Jack and said “Did you hear that? These people said how nice it is to see you reading an actual book.”

We walked away feeling like it had made her day. Not that this is the moral of the story, however it was evident that Jack’s Mum had a fight on her hands with an illness. Maybe, just maybe she has a little ammunition to use against Jack next time he wants to play on his iPad!

Sentiments that have been talked about many times before. Such a rarity to see!

POSTING: Timing is Everything

Social Media is conducted at lightning-speed scrolling on your preferred device. Without quoting the exact statistic it is clear that mobile phones are the most commonly used device to view your social media on.
The aim of the game is to post well-thought out content at the right time. Think carefully about your timing in order to avoid wasting your time.

A common mistake is for business to under-index their posts by not posting at the right time. @garyvee highlights this in one of his most recent books Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook
– coincidentally containing a case study on the company I currently work for.

Nestle posted a Kit Kat advertisement prior to the Super Bowl with great native content, hitting the mark. However, when I say prior to the Super Bowl I mean well before the Super Bowl. It was 6am EST, early enough, think of the San Fransisco 49ers fans.. it was 3am in their timezone! Now, of course there will be a few super excited fanatics who can’t sleep getting up and waiting for kick off, but most of civilized people are getting some shut-eye at this time.

Point being, Know your customers’ social habits and post accordingly. Remember they are scrolling super-fast over hundreds of status updates, tweets, ‘grams – you name it.

Get your timing right and your content right… Touchdown!!