Growth Hacking and Marketing Methods Case Study

Growth hacking is a method in marketing that was established by technology startups that apply inventiveness, diagnostic rationality, and social metrics in order to retail goods and acquire disclosure. It could be viewed as a branch of the online advertising network, “as in many cases growth hackers are using techniques such as search engine optimization, website analytics, content marketing and A/B testing” (“The Definitive Guide to Growth Hacking” par. 2). Moreover, growth hackers aim their attention towards low-priced and groundbreaking replacements for outdated advertising, for example, exploiting social communications and viral advertising rather than purchasing public notices for sale by the means of more classical correspondence such as broadcasts, journals, and visual and audio entertainment. Growth hacking is predominantly significant for the establishment of the new ideas, as it permits for a “lean launch that focuses on growth first, budgets second. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Airbnb, and Dropbox are all companies that use growth hacking techniques” (“Growth Hacking” par. 2).

To my understanding, in contrast to the marketers, who conventionally are not as much of technical specialists, growth hackers pursue only one goal, which is to expand the organization where they work. This goal can be achieved by the means of a variation of strategies that are labeled ‘hacks’, due to an absence of better terms. These hacks usually are cheap and for the most cases entirely free; furthermore, they are intended to advance the viral constant.

Ryan Holiday, the author of the ‘Growth Hacker Marketing’, has stated that the advertising issues that are currently confronting many startups are a separate budget that is dedicated specifically to advertising and a classical advertising experience. In order to replenish the absence of monetary funds and advertising background, growth hackers address advertising with an emphasis on novelty, invention, scalability, and the relations with users. Nonetheless, the representatives of growth hacking do not insulate the plan and the efficiency of the output from advertising. Growth hackers aim their efforts towards building the impending development and expansion of the production, including “user acquisition, onboarding, monetization, retention, and virality, into the product itself. Fast Company used Twitter ‘Suggested Users List’ for an example; this was Twitter’s real secret: It built marketing into the product rather than building infrastructure to do a lot of marketing” (Biyani par. 2).

The essence of growth hacking appears to be in the persistent emphasis on growing as the only result that really makes a difference. Mark Zuckerberg, who is one of the creators of Facebook, is believed to have this attitude while creating Facebook. While the particular approaches diverge from organization to organization and from one business to the next, the mutual goal is always expansion. There are a few commanders that appeared to be a theme to as abundant disapproval and disputes as Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg. Stockholders have protested against his aspiration towards the growth of the company, and many have appealed that Zuckerberg is publically incompetent and inexperienced and youthful as well to be a director of a business that huge.

Nonetheless, despite this disapproval, Zuckerberg without doubts is one of the most prosperous magnates and impresarios in commercial history. His minor venture that was developed while Zuckerberg was a college undergraduate has evolved into a worldwide superior in the business and is advancing and escalating to this day.

Those organizations that have effectively applied the growth hacking technique possess a ‘viral circle’ frequently that is installed on the onboarding process as anticipated. Fresh consumers of the production naturally learn about the merchandise or maintenance by the means of their system. Moreover, by working with the merchandise or maintenance, the customers use it in common with their associates one after another. This circle of attentiveness, usage, and distribution is able to cause an ascending growth and expansion of the organization (Holiday The Secret That Defines Marketing Now par. 5).

‘Twitter’, ‘Facebook’, ‘Dropbox’, ‘Pinterest’, ‘YouTube’, ‘Groupon’, ‘Udemy’, and ‘Instagram’ appear to be the corporations that have been applying growth hacking methods in order to promote labels and advance incomes up to this day (Emerson par. 4). Moreover, applying growth hacking methods of marketing has also massively committed to the advancement and the extension of the social media, which densely utilizes the “methods of permission marketing; ‘friending’, ‘liking’, and ‘following’, all closely associates to the idea of Permission Marketing” (Barwise and Strong 20). For example, Facebook or YouTube offers primary instances of permission- based samples – either it offers to post, like, or repost, the user will have to send a friend request (or permission) to the likely anticipators. As a result, it could be observed that the combination of the growth hacking methods and the permission-based marketing appear to be one of the most efficient techniques towards marketing that is low-cost and effective. In the words of Ryan Holiday, advertising is not accidental; it is engineered with taking into account every little detail that may hinder the growth of the company (Holiday 44). The growth hackers plunge genuinely into the data that is accessible to them and perfect it until they receive supreme outcomes.

Works Cited

Barwise, Patrick and Colin Strong. “Permission-Based Mobile Advertising.” Journal of Interactive Marketing 16.1 (2002): 14-24. Print.

Biyani, Gagan 2013, Explained: The Actual Difference between Growth Hacking and Marketing. Web.

Emerson, Rip 2013, Chamath Palihapitiya on Growth Hacking and How to Create a Sustainable User Acquisition Engine. Web.

Growth Hacking 2015. Web.

Holiday, Ryan. Growth Hacker Marketing, London, United Kingdom: Portfolio, 2014. Print.

—. The Secret That Defines Marketing Now. 2013. Web.

The Definitive Guide to Growth Hacking. 2013. Web.