Growth Hacking for Start Ups
- 3. Why UK Tech Start Ups? • London is Europe’s largest hub of technology start-ups (Smith, 2014) and in the first three-quarters of 2014, $1.02 billion in funding for fledging technology companies in London has been raised from venture capital firms (Murad, 2014) • Google Ventures launched a $100 million fund in July 2014, dedicated to European businesses and based in East London’s ‘Silicon Roundabout Start-Up District’ (BBC, 2014) • The Government’s TechCity UK Report (TechCity UK, 2013) also states that this growth is predicted to expand by 11% every year until 2016, creating a digital economy worth £221 billion
- 4. Technological Change (in Context) To make $1 billion… 46 years Oil Tycoon John D Rockefeller 14 years Michael Dell 12 years Bill Gates 4 years Founder of Yahoo 3 years Founder of eBay 2 years Founder of Groupon
- 5. ‘Old’ Product Marketing Approach
- 6. ‘Old’ Digital Marketing Approach
- 7. What is Growth Hacking? • Sean Ellis devised the term ‘Growth Hacking’ in 2010 • Ellis (2014) says “Startups live and die by their ability to drive customer acquisition growth. Of course many startups are doomed to failure and can’t grow because they never reach product/market fit. But even with product/market fit, traction is tough. Startups are under extreme resource constraints and need to figure out how to break through the noise to let their target customers know they have a superior solution for a critical problem…the best growth hacks take advantage of the unique opportunities available in a connected world where digital experiences can spread rapidly.” • Chen (2011) expands this view to describe growth hacking as a “…hybrid of marketer and coder, one who looks at the traditional question of “How do I get customers for my product?” and answers with A/B tests, landing pages, viral factor, email deliverability, and Open Graph. On top of this, they layer the discipline of direct marketing, with its emphasis on quantitative measurement, scenario modelling via spreadsheets, and a lot of database queries. If a startup is pre-product/market fit, growth hackers can make sure virality is embedded at the core of a product.”
- 8. What is Growth Hacking? Source: Econsultancy (2014)
- 9. BUT….
- 10. Key Concepts (Strategic Level) • Lean start-ups • Marketing technology • Agile marketing
- 11. Lean Start Ups Source: Blank (2013)
- 13. Ten Commandments of Agile Marketing 1. Immerse yourself in the customer experience 2. Know the fitness landscape you are competing in 3. Develop rules of thumb for how to compete in your fitness landscape 4. Make extensive use of pilots and prototypes 5. Conduct smart experiments using new technologies 6. Focus on asking the right questions 7. Use behavioural qualitative market research and econometrics to sharpen selection 8. Use qualitative research to improve your intuition 9. Define and communicate the intent of new offers clearly, with a process of briefing and back briefing 10. Give individuals in marketing and other functions freedom to adjust their actions in line with the intent Source: Freeling (2011)
- 14. Key Concepts (Tactical Level) • Product/ Market Fit • User Data Analysis • Conversion Rate Optimisation • Viral Growth • Retention scalable Growth
- 16. Research Methods • Sampling • Qualitative approach: 11 face-to-face interviews • Semi-structured (7 open-ended questions) • 2 questions used dimension cards with key growth hacking terms on them (Rowley et al, 2012) • Average length: 41 minutes • Thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006)
- 17. Interviewees
- 19. Findings Definitions of Growth Hacking: • It’s become a buzz word (6 participants) • Mind-set is extremely important – focus on accelerated growth on a minimum budget • Being curious is key • Internal culture: being open to experimentation • Needs a good (T-shaped) team
- 20. Findings Definitions of Growth Hacking: • It’s become a buzz word (6 participants) • Mind-set is extremely important – focus on accelerated growth on a minimum budget • Being curious is key • Internal culture: being open to experimentation • Needs a good (T-shaped) team
- 21. Findings • MVP • Viral growth • Effective offline channels • Agile Marketing: TEST, LEARN & COMMIT’ loops
- 22. Findings Michael Birch, Co-founder of Bebo: “Budgets make people lazy. They begin to think in traditional terms and don’t innovate.”
- 23. Social Media
- 24. New Framework(s) Technologist Coder/ Developer Marketer Data Analyst Growth Hacker Ideal role of a growth hacker
- 25. New Framework(s) Processes • Rapid A/B experiments to test hypotheses • Use 19 traction channels (Weinberg & Mares, 2014) to test, measure, learn and iterate • Continuous focus on conversion improvement Skills • Focus on growth • Curiosity & understanding of technology • Understanding of branding • Know what data to collect & ability to interpret it • Pi-Shaped people (Mortimer, 2012) Tools • Google Analytics • Mixpanel • Kissmetrics • Optimizely • Gekoboard • Adjust • Qualaroo Metrics • Tailored to business-type • KPIs per channel • Prioritise a few metrics (e.g.Gekoboard have two per year) • Use pirate metrics framework – AARRR (McClure, 2007) Growth Hacking Operating System
- 26. New Framework(s)
- 27. Conclusions • Growth hacking can only be done with a good product that has achieved product market fit • Growth hacking is most effective when it’s implemented by a multi-disciplined team • The core principle behind growth hacking is to quickly and cheaply test a marketing idea, use data to analyse the outcomes and to: iterate, optimise, implement or change the experiment • Running A/B tests and using analytical software such as Google Analytics, Mixpanel and Optimizely are essential to this process
- 28. Conclusions • Despite the high data analysis element of growth hacking, it’s a extremely creative process that requires people to “swim against the flow” and spot emerging opportunities before anyone else does • Although digital marketing is a key element of growth hacking it is also important to use traditional marketing methods to bridge the gap between the physical and digital world
- 29. @DigitalTanya