How can you reach your growth targets with growth hacking?

The Growth Hacking is on everyone's lips in the startup and digital marketing ecosystem. But what exactly is it? Much more than just a buzzword Growth Hacking has become an indispensable approach to accelerating business growth.

Based on rapid experimentation, test & learn and data, the Growth Hacking turns traditional marketing codes on their head.

Its aim: to identify the levers that work to generate maximum growth at minimum cost. But how do you go about it? What are the principles, steps and tools you need to master to hack your growth? We tell you all about it in this article.

All about growth hacking 

Growth Hacking is an innovative marketing approach designed to generate rapid, exponential growth. It enables you toacquire and retain as many users as possible, as quickly as possible and on a limited budget.

To achieve this, growth hacking uses creative, analytical and automated techniques at every stage of the AARRR funnel: acquisition, activation, retention, referral and revenue. Growth hackers are constantly on the lookout for new tactics to boost growth, based on testing and data analysis.

The origins of Growth Hacking

The term "Growth Hacker" was coined in 2010 by Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor Sean Ellis. He was looking for a replacement to manage his startup's marketing, but needed someone with a slightly innovative profile, ready to break with traditional marketing codes.

He theorized a new type of marketer, 100% focused on growth. The growth hacker relies on metrics analysis to identify and optimize a product's growth levers .

What are the advantages of growth hacking?

Why choose growth hacking over a traditional approach? This method promises short-term results, and offers a number of advantages: growth hacking enables you to achieve significant results with limited resources, by exploiting creative levers and underestimated opportunities. This makes it particularly suitable for start-ups.

By focusing on precise metrics at each stage of the funnel, you can quickly identify the most impactful actions and concentrate your efforts on them.

Advanced automation makes it possible to create autonomous, scalable growth mechanisms that generate more and more results without human intervention. The test & learn culture inherent in growth hacking fosters innovation and continuous improvement of the product and user experience.

How is growth hacking different from traditional marketing?

Where traditional marketing seeks to build a brand and reputation over the long term, growth hacking has a single objective : rapid, measurable growth. The methods used are different too:

• Growth hacking is data-driven and relies heavily on analytics to track and optimize actions.
• It relies on short test and iteration cycles to quickly identify what works.
• It often uses free or low-cost techniques, whereas traditional marketing generally requires substantial budgets.

The growth hacker has a 360° profile, and touches on everything: product, analytics, marketing, technology... to better "hack" each stage of the funnel. Growth hacking is therefore an approach particularly suited to startups and digital companies seeking rapid growth with limited resources. But its principles can be applied to a wide range of businesses!

The 5 Pillars of Growth Hacking: the AARRR funnel

To fully understand growth hacking, we need to look at the AARRR framework. This acronym represents the 5 key stages of the growth funnel on which every growth hacker must focus:

1. Acquisition: attract new visitors

The first step is to generate qualified traffic to the site or application. The growth hacker will test multiple acquisition channels: SEO, content marketing, social media, advertising, partnerships and so on. The aim is to find the most effective and profitable sources of traffic.

2. Activation: turning visitors into users

It's not enough to attract visitors; you must then "activate" them as users of the product. This involves optimizing landing pages, user paths, call-to-actions... Each step is measured and optimized to improve the activation rate.

3. Retention: keeping users coming back

The challenge is then to retain users over time, to avoid churn. Retention techniques include welcome emails, notifications, personalized content, loyalty programs... The aim is to increase customer lifetime and value.

4. Referral: generating word-of-mouth

A product that naturally generates buzz and recommendations will benefit from exponential viral growth. The growth hacker will therefore seek to integrate sharing and sponsorship mechanisms directly into the product, to encourage users to recommend it.

5. Revenue: monetizing Users

Finally, once the user base has been consolidated, the challenge is to monetize it effectively. The growth hacker will optimize conversion tunnels and prices to maximize revenues.

By working successively on these 5 pillars, the growth hacker maximizes the impact of his actions on overall growth. His data-driven approach enables him to make informed decisions quickly.

Implement a Growth Hacking Strategy in 4 Steps

Seduced by growth hacking? Here's a 4-step methodology for implementing your strategy.

Step 1: Define objectives and key metrics

It all starts with definingclear, measurable growth objectives. Do you primarily want to acquire new users? Improve retention? Increase revenue per customer? Be precise, quantify your objectives and define a time horizon.

Then identify the metrics that will enable you to track your progress. Choose 2-3 key performance indicators (KPIs) to track first, such as customer acquisition cost, activation rate or lifetime value.

Step 2: Analyze data and identify levers

Before jumping into action, take the time to analyze your data in detail. Use Analytics tools to understand your users' behavior and identify friction points in your funnel.

Identify pages with a high bounce rate, stages where users give up, least-used features... These are all opportunities for improvement!

Next, identify the main growth levers on which you will focus your efforts. Some techniques will be more appropriate than others, depending on your product and market.

Step 3: Prioritize and test growth hacking actions

You've identified a number of avenues, but where do you start? Prioritize your ideas according to their potential impact and ease of implementation. Start with quick wins!

Then adopt an agile growth hacking approach, working in small iterations. Launch your first experiments quickly, targeting a limited part of your audience. The aim is to validate the effectiveness of each action before generalizing it.

Rigorously monitor your metrics to measure the real impact of each test. Don't hesitate to adjust your hypotheses according to the results!

Step 4: Automate and sustain growth

To create a real growth machine, you need to automate as many tasks as possible. Use marketing automation tools to program your recurring actions: welcome emails, notifications, reactivation messages...

Document and share best practices within your team. The culture of growth hacking must spread throughout the company!

Finally, keep experimenting with new ideas. Growth hacking is a process of continuous improvementIt means constantly questioning what you've learned, and looking for new ways to grow.

By following this step-by-step methodology, you'll set yourself up for rapid, sustainable growth.

The Airbnb example: the cross-referencing expert

To make yourself known quickly, Airbnb relied on the best practices of growth hacking. In particular, the company used the referencing of its ads on Craigslist, the American leader in classified ads.

Each new host was encouraged to automatically publish their listing on Craigslist, with a link back to their Airbnb page. This technique generated a massive influx of qualified traffic, giving Airbnb a competitive edge in a highly competitive market.

This is the kind of cross-functional opportunity that growth hackers are looking for: devious ways of "hacking" growth by exploiting third-party platforms. The perfect technique for gaining visibility at low cost.

Prerequisites for implementing a growth hacking technique

To implement the growth hacking strategy in your company, surround yourself with experts who have mastered the subject. The skills of a good growth hacker lie at the crossroads of marketing, data analysis and web development:

• Mastery of the main acquisition channels (SEO, SEA, social networks, emailing...) to optimize brand visibility and engagement across different channels. 
• Knowledge of Analytics tools and tracking key metrics. Use tools like Google Analytics to track and analyze performance. This helps make data-driven decisions to improve strategies.
• Understanding product and UX issues: knowing how the product meets users' needs and optimizing their experience. Among other things, this helps boost customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Notions of front-end development (HTML, CSS, JavaScript). Know the basics of web development to collaborate effectively with developers. This enables you to make minor adjustments and understand technical constraints.
• Excellent analytical and critical thinking skills. Analyze data and evaluate information objectively. This helps to avoid bias and make informed decisions.
•  Creativity and innovation. Generating original ideas and transforming them into concrete solutions. This is the key to staying competitive and adding value.

You can also call on Bulldozer's experts to advise and support you in your growth. We offer you an in-depth diagnosis to identify opportunities for improvement and innovation. We then provide you with tools and resources resources (coaching, applicable model, network of experts) to quickly put your strategy into action.

Contact us to find out more about our consulting and support services!

Growth hacking is much more than just a strategy: it's a catalyst for growth. By combining creativity, analysis and automationthis approach is revolutionizing the way companies achieve their growth objectives.

Dropbox, Airbnb and LinkedIn have all proved that growth hacking can deliver spectacular results on a reasonable budget.