A primer to growth hacking. Starts with the story of one of the web's most legendary growth hacks, then gets into what growth hacking is and how you can put it to work for your company. Originally presented at Growth Hacking Asia Singapore in Nov 2014

1. Growth Hacking:
A Crash Course
@davelocity

2. Let’s start with a story

3. The year is 2008…

4. There’s a new product
It’s a product that tries to solve a problem a lot of people have

5. It’s gotten some traction
They consistently get users and they feel they’re at product-market fit

6. It’s time to go bigger
Time to scale up. Problem: the founders have zero marketing experience

7. So what’s next?
So they do what they think they’re “supposed to do” …

8. So what’s next?
Get PR coverage!

9. So what’s next?
Get PR coverage!
Buy ads!

10. So what’s next?
Get PR coverage!
Post on social media!
Buy ads!

11. So what’s next?
Get PR coverage!
Post on social media!
Buy ads!
Hire an SEM guru!

12. So what’s next?
Get PR coverage!
Post on social media!
Buy ads!
Hire an SEM guru!
And you know what, it worked.

13. So what’s next?
Hire an SEM guru! BUT
Get PR coverage!
Post on social media!
Buy ads!

14. So what’s next?
Customer acquisition FAIL
Get PR coverage!
Post on social media!
Buy ads!
Hire an SEM guru!
It worked, but the economics were totally broken. It’s possible to grow and fail.

15. So what’s next?
Customer acquisition FAIL
Get PR coverage!
e.g. ads
CPA = $388, LTV = $99
Post on social media!
Buy ads!
Hire an SEM guru!

16. “Okay, let’s regroup.
How about we…”
Back to the drawing board; otherwise they would’ve used up all their funding

17. “Okay, let’s regroup.
How about we…”
Hey, look at this data I found
Suddenly, a wild usage-data insight appears

18. “Okay, let’s regroup.
How about we…”
Our customers LOVE telling their
friends about us

19. “Okay, let’s regroup.
How about we…”
Is there a way we can help them
do that?

20. “Okay, let’s regroup.
How about we…”
How about a referral program?
Instead of paying for users, could they just amplify organic WOM behavior?

21. “Okay, Good let’s idea regroup.
How about we…”
J
Is there a way we can help them
do that?

22. “Okay, Good let’s idea regroup.
How about we…”
J
• 35% of signups came from referral program
Is there a way we can help them
do that?

23. “Okay, Good let’s idea regroup.
How about we…”
J
• 35% of signups came from referral program
• Customer base grew 40X in 15 months
Is there a way we can help them
do that?

24. “Okay, Good let’s idea regroup.
How about we…”
J
• 35% of signups came from referral program
• Customer base grew 40X in 15 months
• 15% MoM growth
Is there a way we can help them
do that?

25. True story
Source: “Startup Lessons Learned” by @drewhouston

26. Dropbox

27. Dropbox
(2008: 100K users)

28. Dropbox
(2014: 275M users)

29. How did they do that?

30. How did they do that?
They stumbled on a Growth Hack

31. How did they do that?
They stumbled on a Growth Hack
A fancy way to describe a tactic for
getting more customers by using a
certain combo of skills

32. How did they do that?
They stumbled on a Growth Hack
A fancy way to describe a tactic for
getting more customers by using a
certain combo of skills
Growth with skills, not money

33. Skills Needed To Find Growth Hacks
We can deconstruct what they did. There were 3 skills at play:

34. Skills Needed To Find Growth Hacks
MARKETING
Stats, measurement, copywriting, creative, channel analysis, etc

35. Skills Needed To Find Growth Hacks
MARKETING PRODUCT
Understanding user behavior, roadmap planning, managing resources

36. Skills Needed To Find Growth Hacks
MARKETING PRODUCT
TECH
Ability to create repeatable processes, engineering mindset (not nec. coding)

37. Skills Needed To Find Growth Hacks
MARKETING PRODUCT
Growth hacker
TECH
Growth hacks can be found at the intersection of the 3 skillsets

38. Growth Hackers
are people who have
all 3 skillsets

39. Growth Hackers
are people who have
all 3 skillsets

40. Growth Hackers
are people who have
all 3 skillsets
Growth Hacking
is the act of finding opportunities
using these 3 skillsets

41. How Growth Hacking Works

42. FIRST Your product has to be
ready for growth

43. FIRST Your product has to be
ready for growth
x = ✖
If you just launched, or biz model not defined, just stop.
You’re pouring gas on cold wood. Waste of resources. Start a fire first.

44. FIRST Your product has to be
ready for growth
x = ✖
x = ✔
But, if you have a small fire – you have traction, customers, revenue – go for it

45. Use data. Use the
Pirate Metrics framework
to visualize your funnel
SECOND
This is one of many frameworks you can use. I just find this to be the simplest

46. SECOND Use data. Use the
Pirate Metrics framework
to visualize your funnel
AARRR!
Based on “Startup Metrics for Pirates” by @dmc500hats

47. Acquisition
Note that each stage means different things to different companies

48. Acquisition
Activation
Everyone’s definition of Activation, Retention, etc is different.
The point is to define the metric and use GH skills to improve them

49. Acquisition
Activation
Retention

50. Acquisition
Activation
Retention
Referral

51. Acquisition
Activation
Retention
Referral
Revenue

52. Growth Hackers use their skills to
grow the number of people
at each stage
Acquisition
Activation
Retention
Referral
Revenue

53. Growth Hackers use their skills to
grow the number of people
at each stage
Acquisition
Activation
Retention
Referral
Revenue

54. 1. Acquisition

55. Acquisition
M
P
T
What channels are most effective?
What attracts people to our product?
How can we make it scalable?
How can each skill contribute to increasing the number of people at each stage?

56. Acquisition
M
P
T
Use analytics to rank channels
What attracts people to our product?
How can we make it scalable?
(This is just a small sample of what you could do for each skill)

57. Acquisition
M
P
T
Use analytics to rank channels
Study customer behavior for insights
How can we make it scalable?

58. Acquisition
M
P
T
Use analytics to rank channels
Study customer behavior for insights
Use available tech to make it easy

59. Acquisition
Hotmail
“P.S. I love you. Get Hotmail.”
M = “what channels can we use?” P = “how can we hook into product?”
T = “how can we make it scalable?”

60. Acquisition
Airbnb
Post to Craigslist
Via http://bit.ly/11wtYR4

61. 2. Activation

62. Activation
M
P
T
What messaging is most effective?
What factors have the most impact?
How can we implement?
At this stage, you want people to engage with product in a meaningful way

63. Activation
M
P
T
Measure and compare campaigns
What factors have the most impact?
How can we implement?
You have their attention; figure out what the best message is

64. Activation
M
P
T
Measure and compare campaigns
Understand what levers you have
How can we implement?
What assets do you have that can help you hook them in?

65. Activation
M
P
T
Measure and compare campaigns
Understand what levers you have
Use A/B testing tools
How can you use data to inform your decisions?

66. Activation
LinkedIn
Gamified profiles
LinkedIn hooks you by getting you committed to filling out your profile

67. Activation
A B
Ecommerce
A/B test product photos
How can you increase the # of people who browse multiple pages on your site?

68. 3. Retention

69. Retention
M
P
T
How can we stay top of mind?
What causes customers to churn?
What can we automate?
What MPT questions would you ask to increase # of ppl at this stage?

70. Retention
M
P
T
Audit available channels
What causes customers to churn?
What can we automate?
And here’s a small set of the things you could do to answer those questions

71. Retention
M
P
T
Audit available channels
Mine usage data for insights
What can we automate?

72. Retention
M
P
T
Audit available channels
Mine usage data for insights
Create processes or tools

73. Retention
Quora
Digest emails w/ cool content
Quora gets you to come back by teasing you with content
they know you’re interested in

74. Retention
Zynga
Email to churning players
Social games know they can make you come back by offering
you valuable in-game items for free

75. 4. Referral
At this point, you should have communicated your value so clearly that
referrals feel natural

76. Referral
M
P
T
What copy will provide the right nudge?
What incentives can we align?
What does the process look like?
Find growth hacks by thinking what MPT questions you can ask

77. Referral
M
P
T
Create campaigns to build awareness
What incentives can we align?
What does the process look like?
How do you compose messaging such that referring
friends has clear benefit to the user?

78. Referral
M
P
T
Create campaigns to build awareness
Build referral loop into usage
What does the process look like?
Is there a way to make referrals add value to core product usage?

79. Referral
M
P
T
Create campaigns to build awareness
Build referral loop into usage
Remove steps from the process
How do you make it as simple as possible?

80. Referral
Dropbox
Refer a friend and get 500 mb
The poster child of referral programs: you’d be stupid not to refer a friend

81. Referral
Facebook
Import your contacts
Value-based messaging: “find friends” and “add personal contacts”
Not “import your address book” – which has no clear benefit

82. 5. Revenue
How do we grow the # of people who make it to the bottom of the funnel?

83. Revenue
M
P
T
What message will trigger purchases?
What can we offer to increase orders?
How do we implement?
Again, we combine MPT skills to come up with ideas

84. Revenue
M
P
T
Design to address friction points
What can we offer to increase orders?
How do we implement?
And these are some of the activities we can do

85. Revenue
M
P
T
Design to address friction points
Play with limits of product offering
How do we implement?

86. Revenue
M
P
T
Design to address friction points
Play with limits of product offering
Use tools to help find opportunities

87. Revenue
Ecommerce
Cart abandonment emails
Via http://bit.ly/1Ft65Zv

88. Revenue
SaaS & Ecommerce
A/B test pricing page
Sometimes you’d be surprised what a simple copy change will do.
Via http://bit.ly/1zxx2HE

89. Ok, this is really important:

90. The best growth hack

91. The best growth hack
is to make your
product AWESOME

92. The best growth hack
is to make your
product AWESOME
you can’t save
a crappy product

93. The best growth hack
is to make your
product AWESOME
you can’t save
a crappy product
An amazing acquisition growth hack can’t save you
if you can’t get people to stick

94. The best growth hack
is to make your
product AWESOME
you can’t save
a crappy product
Same story here. Viddy hooked up to Facebook after some initial traction,
but the product wasn’t good enough

95. Your Growth Hacking formula:

96. Your Growth Hacking formula:
Traction
x
So much of growth hacking is based on usage data.
If you have no data, or traffic, or traction, you can’t run experiments

97. Your Growth Hacking formula:
x x
Traction GH skills
The confluence of MPT skills allows you to come up with ideas
that you wouldn’t have found in isolation

98. Your Growth Hacking formula:
x x
Traction GH skills Framework
Use some kind of framework so that you have metrics to watch and measure

99. Start with these:
Startup Metrics for Pirates
Quick Sprout
GrowthHackers.com
Dave McClure’s pirate metrics is a great start. Neil Patel’s Quick Sprout is great
for anyone new to marketing. GrowthHackers.com if you’re intermediate.

100. Follow me
@davelocity
GrowthHero.net