There are many terms that show up every once and while and everyone seems to keep using them in conversations or in business meetings but only a few understand what they are actually talking about. Have you ever found yourself in such a situation? The new trending term that rises among startups is Growth Hacking. Forget about “pivoting” forget about “iterating” and focus on Growth Hacking because this is what’s hot at the moment. So probably by now you have either heard of this term a million times already or you haven’t heard of it at all. No matter which story describes your situation best, growth hacking is here to stay and it is the reason why we see so many start-ups present unbelievable growth rates every year. So let’s dig in the essentials of Growth Hacking and explain what it actually is in a simple way.

What is Growth Hacking?

Growth Hacking is commonly used among start-ups in order to describe various strategies that are exclusively focused on growth. This term is usually used in the early stage of start-ups when they want try to accomplish massive growth in a short time and in an inexpensive way. Essentially the main target of growth hacking is to acquire as many clients as possible while spending as little as possible, and that is why it is so common among start-ups and companies that are trying to grow fast. The term was given by Sean Ellis the CEO of GrowHackers back in 2010.

What are Growth Hackers?

Growth Hackers could be described as the ones in charge of finding creative, low-cost strategies that can assist companies acquire new clients or retain old ones. There is a solid connection between growth hacking and marketing and therefore sometimes growth hackers are also called growth marketers, but the truth is that growth hackers are more. In simple words anyone involved in any operations that have to do with products & services could be considered a growth hacker. Here are a few characteristics of Growth Hackers:

• Growth hackers are obsessive and thoroughly analytical with their job.
• They focus only on the strategies that have to do with expanding the business.
• They make assumptions, prioritise the tasks, test innovative strategies and analyse in order to understand what is working and what isn’t.
• Good Growth Hackers must be able to Set Priorities, Identify Channels for Customer Acquisition, Measure Success and Scale Growth.

How Growth Hacking Works?

Now that we have a more clear image of what Growth Hacking actually is, it is time to see how it works. Essentially Growth Hacking for companies is understanding the reasons why they grow and finding ways to start making that happen on purpose. The most common growth hacking strategy used is that of raising brand awareness in order to get traffic and visitors converting those visitors into users and retaining those users into happy and loyal customers. In simple words the basic elements of growth hacking are acquisition, activation, retention, referral and revenue.

How to Start Growth Hacking?

But how do you start Growth Hacking your company? The first thing you have to do is understand the why’s and the how’s. Once you understand why and how your company has grown up until now it is time to start acting. Keep updating your products and services and embrace customer feedback in order to make improvements. Strategise,  market, keep results of success and failure and evaluate. Once you have found the growth hacking elements that work for your company focus on them as much as you can.

There are many well known companies that began as start-ups and used growth hacking in order to grow fast such as Dropbox and Hotmail etc. Growth Hacking is here to stay and the best thing companies can do is adapt to this new reality or other will overpass them eventually.