growth hacking: different tactics for different stages

Growth Hacking:Different Tactics for Different Stages@bernardjhuang

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

[email protected]

http://www.mushilabs.com/

https://twitter.com/bernardjhuang


mailto:[email protected]


What we’re going over today

TABLE OF CONTENTS

● What is growth hacking● Different startup stages● Early ● Mid● Late● Concluding thoughts

What is growth hacking

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

Every growth experiment begins with a clearly defined objective:

I want __________.

OBJECTIVE

More app installs

More prospects

More users

More clients

Then, we come up with guesses about how we can achieve our objective:

If I __________, then I’ll get __________.

HYPOTHESIS

If I get PR, then I’ll get more app

installs.

MORE EXAMPLES OF HYPOTHESIS

If I grow my Twitter following, then I’ll get more

prospects.

If I create unique content and post

it to Facebook, then I’ll get more

users.

If I pitch friends my services, then

I’ll get more clients.

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/

WHY USING ANALYTICS IS IMPORTANT

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

Different startup stages

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.

“How do we get our initial customers

and validate that they’ll pay us money?

Early stageconcepts, tactics & personal experience

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/


What’s the point of having a professional network… if you don’t use it?


I updated everyone on what I am working on right now.


Make it personal. Don’t just slap everyone into a bulk email sender, trust me.


Follow up, follow up, follow up.


Winner!

SCRAPED PROSPECTS - PERSONAL CASE STUDY


Got the contact infos.


Cold emailed everyone.


Follow up, follow up, follow up.


Winner! Conversion rate ~0.5%

“Now that we’ve proven that people want what we have, how do we get

more customers?

Mid stageobjectives, tactics & personal experience

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.


And follow up, follow up, follow up.


Winner!

INFLUENCERS - PERSONAL CASE STUDY

Getting influencers to write about you is also hustling. Provide value and be personal.

INFLUENCERS - PERSONAL CASE STUDY

Winner!

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

QUORA - PERSONAL CASE STUDY

And, that makes the quality of traffic is quite high.

“Now that you have more

customers… how do you scale?

Late stageobjectives, tactics & personal observations

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/

Concluding thoughts

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.

“Growth rarely happens overnight - keep experimenting, learning and

iterating.

WANT TO LEARN MORE GROWTH TACTICS?

@[email protected]

http://www.mushilabs.com

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growth hacking: different tactics for different stages

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