An expression created by American entrepreneur Sean Ellis, growth hacking does not have a literal translation, but the idea behind it is to carry out experiment-oriented marketing. The two words, in a way, explain the concept growth (growth) and exploration (hacking ) as the practice consists of taking advantage of market gaps to uncover opportunities and develop exponential growth strategies.
What is growth hacking for, and how does it work?
The word “hacker” usually has a negative attribution, but the term refers to an individual who seeks more detailed knowledge beyond the ordinary.
Growth hacking is a way of doing marketing based on opportunity studies and testing. The professional who follows this strategy analyzes the situation from where the company is to where it wants to go. The main goal of growth hacking is accelerated growth. For this, it uses a methodology focused on testing and conversion optimization. The concept is similar to that of Digital Marketing. Still, as Marcelo Toledo, author, and startup developer, explains, growth hacking is a little more comprehensive and is not limited to marketing management actions. The professional needs to consult other sectors of the company, such as product development, finance, business operations, and even human resources. Therefore, it is the scope where product development and marketing strategies meet.
What are the advantages of investing in growth hacking?
Now that you understand better what growth hacking consists of, its responsibilities, and how it differs from marketing, learn about five benefits of investing in this strategy.
Fast growth
The main objective of growth hacking is to promote the accelerated growth of companies. The professional analyzes different areas of the organization, propose improvements, and works on campaigns to close deals and gain market share. Strategies generally involve low costs and creativity, the genuine demands of any startup.
Scalability
The second benefit we highlight is the ability to increase bottom-line results without burdening the company while keeping costs down. Airbnb is an example of this, as the service provided by the company is the integration made between property owners and people who want to rent.
Operating costs and processes are not expected to grow much even though the company has consecutive increases in the number of customers making scalability possible while maintaining profitability.
Sales predictability
Due to the use of digital Marketing and results from measurement techniques, the growth hacker can predict sales in a given period based on transaction history and stored data.
virtualization
Another essential feature is having a more giant sales funnel than the one generally adopted in Digital Marketing, with a specific emphasis on the recommendation. The use of virtualization techniques, such as referring friends through social networks, makes the company known in the market more quickly and at meager costs.
Choice of alternatives
Through product development and marketing integration, growth hacking can identify the best opportunities and apply the right tools to promote the growth of organizations. To be implemented with mastery, with each decision the company needs to make, the growth hacker must ask himself what will be the impacts of this choice and other alternatives for the growth of the business.