growth hacking: different tactics for different stages
TRANSCRIPT
I am Bernard HuangI’m a co-founder at Mushi Labs, a boutique SEO agency. I was the growth hacker at 42Floors, played online poker professionally and co-owned a restaurant.
You can find me:
@bernardjhuang
TABLE OF CONTENTS
● What is growth hacking● Different startup stages● Early ● Mid● Late● Concluding thoughts
Growth hacking is a mindset, a way of thinking about marketing through data and experimentation.
WHAT IS GROWTH HACKING
http://leadlifewell.com/
The best way to describe this way of thinking is with the scientific method:1. objective2. hypothesis3. experiment4. results
SCIENTIFIC METHOD
Then, we come up with guesses about how we can achieve our objective:
If I __________, then I’ll get __________.
HYPOTHESIS
Now, we figure out if you’re hypothesis is right or wrong.
Important things to remember during experimentation:● use analytics● gather enough data to be statistically
significance
EXPERIMENT
THE IMPORTANCE OF ANALYTICS
“If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it”
Lord Kelvin
https://en.wikipedia.org/
THE IMPORTANCE OF STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE
Don’t end your experiments before collecting enough data to make your results statistically significant.
https://www.kissmetrics.com/
WHY STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE IS
IMPORTANT
Ad #1 and #2 are the SAME.
But since we haven’t collected enough data, Adwords is telling us that Ad #2 is ~2.5x better?!
RESULTS
Did your experiment work as planned?
More importantly, what did you learn?
http://rishidean.com/
The key to successful growth hacking is to iterate on your experiments non-stop:● incentivize social referrals● instagram influencer cross promotions● posting content to forums (reddit, quora)● facebook cpc to homepage● facebook page post engagement to content
ITERATE, ITERATE, ITERATE
Startups can be categorized into 3 stages:● early (problem/solution fit)● mid (product/market fit)● late (scale)
DIFFERENT STARTUP STAGES
DIFFERENT STARTUP STAGES
http://tweakyourbiz.com/
The goal of each stage of startup is different… which means growth tactics will change as you grow.
Find your initial customers and validate purchasing intent:● get in front of potential customers● outbound● very manual● many 1:1 interactions
EARLY - CONCEPTS
Manual outreach
Remember to ask for $$$ or else they aren’t actually your customers.
EARLY - TACTICS
Initial customers almost always come your existing network.
EXPORT LINKEDIN - PERSONAL CASE STUDY
http://salesman.red/
EXPORT LINKEDIN - PERSONAL CASE STUDY
What’s the point of having a professional network… if you don’t use it?
EXPORT LINKEDIN - PERSONAL CASE STUDY
Make it personal. Don’t just slap everyone into a bulk email sender, trust me.
Experiment with new ways to acquire customers:● inbound / outbound● borrow other people’s audiences
MID - OBJECTIVES
Paid acquisition● Adwords, Facebook, etc.
Borrow audiences through inbound or outbound hustling● PR, Quora, forums / communities,
influencers
MID - TACTICS
Adwords● high quality traffic● limited by search volume● can be expensive
PAID ACQUISITION - PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
Facebook● persona targeting can provide decent
quality traffic● disruptive experience● not too expensive
PAID ACQUISITION - PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
FACEBOOK ADS - PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
Facebook paid promotion can go a long way if you’re audience is on FB and you have precise targeting.
PR - PERSONAL CASE STUDY
Getting PR is pure hustle. Ask friends for intros to journalists or personalize cold pitches for relevant writers.
INFLUENCERS - PERSONAL CASE STUDY
Getting influencers to write about you is also hustling. Provide value and be personal.
Answering questions on Quora can be a grind but a lot of people go to Quora because they’re looking for answers.
QUORA - PERSONAL CASE STUDY
Optimize and amplify what’s working. And really think about how to keep your customers around.
LATE - CONCEPTS
2x traffic20,000 visitors
10% conversion rate
=
2,000 users
OPTIMIZATION - PERSONAL OBSERVATION
2x conversion10,000 visitors
20% conversion rate
=
2,000 users
Is it easier to get more traffic or increase conversion rate?
REALLY THINK ABOUT CUSTOMER RETENTION
RATES
It can cost a company up to 5x as much to get new customers vs. keeping old ones.
https://sauce.ly/
MID
Try new ways to get in front of potential customers and convert them.
LATE
Make what you’re already doing better and focus on customer retention.
WHICH STAGE ARE YOU?
EARLY
Talk to people and make sure they want to buy your stuff.
WANT TO LEARN MORE GROWTH TACTICS?
http://www.mushilabs.com
Connect with me