GROWTH HACKINGLEAN MARKETING for STARTUPS
The following is adapted from posts
by Dave McClure, Andrew Chen,
Noah Kagan, Mattan Griffel,
Conrad Wadowski, and other
growth hackers
“PS: I love you. Get your
free e-mail at ???”
In 1996 co-workers Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith started Hotmail
They raised $300,000 from investors
But Hotmail’s launch was
unimpressive, and their
growth strategy was to buy
billboards and radio ads
Investor Timothy Draper
had a better idea
Put “PS: I love you. Get your
free e-mail at Hotmail” at
the bottom of each e-mail
Within hours, Hotmail’s
growth took the shape of a
classic hockey stick curve
When they sold to Microsoft 1.5 years
after launch, Hotmail had 12 milllion
users (of 70 million internet users at the
time!)
This story is not an anomaly
What we’re gonna cover
today:
q What is Growth Hacking?
q Growth Hacking Best Practices
Most startups find themselves facing
the same problem
GROWTH HACKINGWHAT IS GROWTH HACKING?
You launch a product and...
nothing happens.
GROWTH HACKINGWHAT IS GROWTH HACKING?
What do you do?
GROWTH HACKINGWHAT IS GROWTH HACKING?
You’re in the trough of sorrow
GROWTH HACKINGWHAT IS GROWTH HACKING?
Enter the growth hacker, but WTF is
Growth Hacking?
GROWTH HACKINGWHAT IS GROWTH HACKING?
Growth hacking is a set of tactics
and best practices for dealing
with user growth
GROWTH HACKINGWHAT IS GROWTH HACKING?
GROWTH HACKINGLEAN MARKETING FRAMEWORK
Most companies only track 3 things:
Traffic >> Users >> Revenue
GROWTH HACKING
• The magic is what happens in betweeen.
• The key is to map out the user lifecycle for
your product.
LEAN MARKETING FRAMEWORK
GROWTH HACKINGLEAN MARKETING FRAMEWORK
GROWTH HACKINGLEAN MARKETING FRAMEWORK
You need to measure conversions at each step
GROWTH HACKINGANALYTICS
GROWTH HACKINGANALYTICSAt first, your numbers will be really shitty
GROWTH HACKINGANALYTICS RESOURCES• Mixpanel
• Kissmetrics
• Unbounce
• Optimizely
• Vanity
Highrise wanted to test out
different homepages to see if they
could increase account signups
GROWTH HACKINGA/B TESTING
GROWTH HACKING
They created a “long form”
sales letter page
A/B TESTING
GROWTH HACKINGA/B TESTING
And ran an A/B test
The long-form design saw a
37.5% increase in account
signups.
GROWTH HACKINGA/B TESTING
GROWTH HACKING
Then they created a
testimonial page
A/B TESTING
GROWTH HACKINGA/B TESTING
It performed better
than the long-form
page
Then they tried
combining both
GROWTH HACKINGA/B TESTING
GROWTH HACKING
The testing doesn’t stop there
A/B TESTING
GROWTH HACKINGBEST PRACTICES
Minimalism
GROWTH HACKINGBEST PRACTICES
Social sign-in, with option for email
GROWTH HACKINGBEST PRACTICES
Embed form on home page
GROWTH HACKINGBEST PRACTICES
Say you won’t post on their wall
GROWTH HACKINGBEST PRACTICES
Relevant faces (celeb, customer, friend)
GROWTH HACKINGBEST PRACTICES
An interesting waiting screen
GROWTH HACKINGBEST PRACTICES
At least tell them to expect a wait
GROWTH HACKINGBEST PRACTICES
Import phone contacts and address books early on
GROWTH HACKINGBEST PRACTICES
Big, clear calls to action
GROWTH HACKINGBEST PRACTICES
And again scrolling down...
GROWTH HACKINGBEST PRACTICES
Large, relevant images (they’re easier to design too)
GROWTH HACKINGBEST PRACTICES
Say “it’s free!”
GROWTH HACKINGBEST PRACTICES
Consistent calls to action, above the fold
GROWTH HACKINGBEST PRACTICES
Social proof: quantity
GROWTH HACKINGBEST PRACTICES
Social proof: people
GROWTH HACKINGBEST PRACTICES
Social proof: brands
GROWTH HACKINGRESOURCES• Watch Dave McClure’s Startup Metrics for Pirates
• Quora has boards on Growth Hacks and Growth Hacking
• Andrew Chen has psoted a list of notable growth hackers
• Coming soon: Growth Hacking Pro, 8 hrs, $128
GROWTH HACKINGGROWTH HACKING PRO• Landing pages with Unbounce
• Analytics with Mixpanel
• A/B Tests
• 10 Day Drip email campaigns
• Aquisition
• SEO
• Monetization