TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION IN DIGITAL MARKETING

New digital marketing terminology. What is growth hacking?[1]

 Growth hacking isn’t used as a buzz word, but it is a controversial concept used in digital marketing strategy and that needs an explanation. The term ‘growth hacker’ was first used in 2010 by Sean Ellis[2], founder of growthhackers.com (discussion forum on the topic ‘Growth hacking’ for marketers and web developers). The reason why Sean used the word was his frustration while recruiting for his replacement. He was receiving many resumes of traditional marketers with invaluable marketing experiences and relevant business degrees but with very broad focus. None of the applicants met the most important requirement, and that is someone who can develop strategies for growth in a start-up business. He therefore changed the position headline for ‘Growth hacker’ and started receiving relevant applicants for a job offer. Growth hacking is typically used in a start-up environment as a new marketing approach where there are no marketing resources and budget. The only thing that matters early in start-ups life is the growth. Micah Baldwin, founder of Graphic.ly says: ‘Growth Hackers aren't much more than technical marketers who use data to make decisions.’ This means that data driven information gives growth hackers right impulse to act in forming the existing product. Jesse Farmer, co-founder of Dev BootCamp, describes growth hacker as ‘Part engineer, part marketer, part data scientist, and part product designer. Most people imagine growth hacking is some big grand thing, but it's thousands of tiny, effective, thoughtful decisions and experiments.’


Ryan Holiday in his speech at DMX Dublin 2014 noted that if you built a brand from an old marketingmindset, the questions would be: ‘How can we get people to hear about our product or how do we increase awareness?’ Growth hacker approaches this question in a slightly different way- ‘How do we get users?; How do we get people to sign up for, interact with and join our service?; and How do we improve our product based on that interaction?’[3]. Ryan Holiday demonstrates that mainstream media often doesn’t drive users, it drives attention and this is only effective for status purposes. There are different methods in approaching potential or existing users. This section will reflect on the experts’ opinions and case studies of global companies that used growth hacking methods and grew from tiny start-ups to a huge success. Strategies differ based on a product, but most common might be platform integration, A/B testing, pay-per-click advertising, blogs, affiliate marketing. In other words, everything that is trackable and scalable. Techniques that are used by growth hackers might seem to be a bit controversial, but these tactics have built some of the biggest global brands such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Dropbox, Twitter, AirBnb or Zynga.One of the best examples related to platform integration is by AirBnb, company where users create their profile to search for a short term accommodation. AirBnb as a start up business asked simple question: ‘How can we use other platform that is significantly bigger in size- number of users to generate thousands of users immediately? (Ryan Holiday, 2014)’ Platform integration is about filling the gaps and leveraging strengths of the product. AirBnb integrated its platform with Craiclist, well-known website for job advertisements, housing or a place for buyers and sellers. Software engineers at AirBnb coded a set of tools that allowed their users automatically syndicate their posts on Craiclist which is considered to be a free advertising. This smart integration leaded to an extreme traffic and brought millions of users to AirBnb. Now, the question would be: ‘Is this method legal? Interviewing growth hackers at several companies showed that if the company (in this case Cracklist) isn’t technically feasible enough of blocking third party to integrate its platform, then this method is considered to be legal.

Aaron Gin, growth hacker at StumbleUpon[4], website that provides its users with web content recommendations for ranking, describes his everyday job duties as follows: ‘I consider growth hacking a mindset because hacking is the core tactical attitude towards finding growth. Hacking is essentially taking advantage of something for your own gain, aka you are finding tactical arbitrage before someone else does. From this foundation, tactics and your day-to-day may change based upon finding the best strategy to grow.[5]’ Nir Eyal suggested the idea of fans contributing to an author when they feel they have a stake in the author’s work or cause. This is the approach that leaded Nir to a product fit. Nir Eyal used his blog and social media as well as discussion forums for entrepreneurs to get opinions about his upcoming book and give possibility to edit it while still writing it. The result was unexpected- majority of his blog subscribers bought his book immediately after its release as they felt they are part of it. He mentioned that marketers should not worry about the outcome, but the process. [6] 

Value empathy is about seeing things through the users’ eyes. When sending out links for login or signing up to our users, we should first think and answer the following question: ‘What should the copy on this landing page be if the user who is landing wants to feel welcomed and comfortable, energized, challenged, etc.?’

To end this section with some deep sense, Ryan Holiday in his book 'The Obstacle is the Way' noted the following: 

'There is not good or bad, there is only the perception. We don’t control the world around us; we control how we respond to it. The obstacle is the way! What stands in a way, that’s the way!' 

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[1] Interview Transcript, (Ryan Holiday, 2013), ‘Growth Hacker Marketing’

[2] See https://www.growthhacker.tv/, Episode 78

[3] See DMX Dublin 2014, http://www.dmxdublin.com/

[4]See https://www.stumbleupon.com/return

[5] Interview Transcript, (Ryan Holiday, 2013), ‘Growth Hacker Marketing’

[6] See https://www.growthhacker.tv/, Episode 121

BOOK RECOMMENDATION:


1) RYAN HOLIDAY: ‘Growth Hacker Marketing: A Primer on the Futurcommunie of PR, Marketing, and Advertising’ (September 2013).

Buy on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Growth-Hacker-Marketing-Advertising-Portfolio-ebook/dp/B00BPDR3JM 

                              DMX Dublin 2014

The biggest digital marketing conference on the12th March 2014 at Aviva stadium in DUBLIN.

Another brilliant event organized my The Marketing Institute. Marketing directors coming from reputable firms and discussing today's business communication shift from traditional marketing to digital marketing.

Discussion was focused on web analytics, strong online presence, digital marketing objectives and sales targets as well as Growth hacking. The event inspired me and as I'm completing my 2nd year of my bachelor degree in marketing, I decided to write my Main thesis on the topic Growth hacking. The summary of my main thesis will be posted on my blog sometimes at the end of June 2014 as I'm about to start collecting relevant material. Main highlights were companies such as:

•     Ryan Holiday, Marketing director at American Apparel 
•     Don O'Leary, Sales director at Twitter for UK & Ireland  
•     Kevin King, Global practice chair at Edelman digital   
•     Tessa Barrera, Head of Social Media at Lexis previously working as Global Community Manager for Red Bull 

Now, think about that! What is happening in today's business communication? Firms are not only trying to be present physically on high street, but also in digital space. This is crucial, but also hard to reach! The reasons are 2: audience and media fragmentation these days. Thousands of questions come to my mind when implementing marketing campaign in order to enhance brand image as well as its awareness. Budget doesn't play that big role any longer, but FOCUS! You can start your business and use Facebook ads and be successful in selling your products. Using appropriate filter within the target segment and audience demographics can enhance your not only awareness but sales target. Some of the companies try to go viral with 'internet content marketing' strategy (example- Coca Cola Zero- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDiZOnzajNU- Unlock the 007 in you campaign or WestJet and their Christmas campaign https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIEIvi2MuEk!) It is more than truth that when you have a low budget you get to be creative more as you try to identify missing resources to complete your desired action! This applies in every day life, not just only in business. Few months ago, I had 36 cents in my bank account for approximately 3 weeks which isn't fun at all. I quit my job as I felt like it was a right decision, but it turned out to be a huuuge mistake. BUT, instead of being down, I took a sit one evening & created SWOT/ situation analysis to see my weaknesses and strengths. This leaded me to identify THE potential for improving my situation. The easiest thing would be to ask your parents or friends (potential investors) to help you out and you'll pay them back later. More difficult would be to find a new job- as there's no guarantee that you'll find it immediately and also it takes a lot of time for applying, attending interviews and then waiting for their response. We all know the process! My decision was to find a job as soon as possible, but something related to my degree in marketing. While I was applying for a job, I got a temporary job offer as mystery shopper- market research in several companies. 2 weeks after I started to apply for a new job, I actually got one! But don't call this LUCK, this is called VISION! Every person in the world has to think about the vision, goals, objectives, in order to complete their desires and compete with him/herself. Surprise yourself as sometimes you might not be aware of what you're capable of. Take a sit and think- IT IS THAT EASY!

More info about DMX: http://www.dmxdublin.com/