Marketing is a rapidly evolving activity and, as a marketer, you need to adapt to changing circumstances too. If you don’t, you’re basically handing over a competitive advantage to your competitors who are adapting. We reviewed current growth hacking best practices and have a few suggestions for you to consider implementing.
2016 is coming up, and the new year is going to see a lot of change in the industry. Being aware new trends, and catering for them into your strategy will help you to stay on top of your marketing game, and convert more effectively. While there is a lot of criticism of “growth hacking”, both as a strategy and conceptually, it indubitably has value. So, regardless of which side of the fence you’re on, the following tactics can contribute greatly to your company’s growth.
Transparency
Transparency is not a feature you’ll typically see in the corporate environment, but it is becoming increasingly popular among startups. Customers are becoming more and more curious about what actually goes on behind the closed doors of the companies they are purchasing services from; and rightfully so.
Imagine if you were your own client. Wouldn’t you like to be fed concrete numbers regarding the company’s success? We would assume so, simply because startups tend to work like restaurants. The concept of open kitchens are all the rage, and it’s pretty understandable as to why. People like to see what’s going on when they make a purchase, as opposed to just blindly trusting the process behind what they just paid for.
Buffer is an excellent example of displaying transparency. Their financial metrics and figures scream “transparency”, and it’s pretty obvious that it is important for them to be open with their customers, so that they know exactly what they’re getting into. This can be attributed to their value system, and displaying honesty with your clients is a phenomenal way to earn their trust.
Transparency aids you in representing your brand as genuinely as possible. So, choose an aspect, or aspects of your brand that you’d like to share with your customers.
Product Strategy
Several startups fail to understand what Product Strategy is, and what theirs is. Many of them just develop whatever the founders assume their customers will respond well to. This is problematic in that it doesn’t provide basic structure to use as a platform for one’s product. And let’s be honest:without a skeleton, we’d all collapse. This is why establishing Product Strategy is crucial. As you expose yourself to more and more vendors, you’ll really have to stand out in order to make a difference.
To help us understand product strategy, MarketingMix has written an article breaking down a product strategy. In time, a well developed Product Strategy will become even more important as a competitive advantage for your brand.
Social
Social is the main point of several different marketing strategies. You’ve probably already seen many startups use it as a top-of-the-funnel channel to bring in more traffic. Although, it’s worth mentioning that it’s even more crucial at the other end of the funnel. Startups tend to communicate with consumers in order to educate them, and also to improve upon their levels of satisfaction. Therefore, communication via social media not only benefits the consumer, in that they can have access to open communication with a brand, but also, it enables clients to give their two cents about a product so that the company can take their opinions into consideration in order to improve the product.
Additionally, many startups have started using Paid Acquisition through either Facebook Ads or Twitter Ads. What’s nice about these tools is that they are able to reach larger audiences, thereby converting their visitors more quickly and effectively.
To ensure that you stay on top of your game, make sure to stay up-to-date on your marketing strategies. Because the field is pretty fluid, old trends come back, and new ones are constantly established. Even if you’re not a fan of the hype associated with growth hacking, some of the trends it has to offer can help your company’s growth immensely.
Which growth hacking trend do you find to be the most useful?
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