Growth Hacking Essentials: Engineer Massive...

Along with "minimum viable product," the term "growth hacking" is all the rage among tech startups. It purports to deliver to early stage startups rapid yet sustainable growth. And what's not to love about growth? 

Sean Ellis, the originator of the term, recently appeared at Percolate's Transition Conference to discuss the finer points of a role that is disrupting the traditional path of marketing for startups. His ideas can be applied to a number of small businesses. 

Growth hacking was developed to deal with a couple of peculiarities of venture-backed startups. Namely, that when you have a new company, you have no "brand equity" or imprint on the minds of consumers. At the same time, you have no legacy baggage, no ingrained way of doing things. You're fighting for survival and are therefore in the perfect place for experimentation and hopefully growth. 

Is Growth Hacking Marketing By Another Name? 

Not exactly. Ellis explains that traditional marketing has certain limitations. "It fails to teach traction," he said. "And it favors proven techniques over experimentation." 

When you are a young company fighting for attention, experimentation might be your ticket to the top of the heap. Ellis describes himself as a "self-taught marketer" and has learned over the years, to focus on what he calls "units of gratification" to drive repeat visits and therefore growth. In other words, how can you make your product experience "sticky" and therefore irresistible?

He points to success stories such as Dropbox (file sharing) and Uber (alternative to taxis). Ellis worked with Dropbox to create more prompts for sharing, but he says the startup had natural advantages because sharing is baked into the product design. 

So How Do You Become a Growth Hacker?

In Ellis' mind, it all comes down to being "obsessed with driving massive growth." You'll use whatever tools you can find -- whether it's email marketing, referral bonuses, or social media -- to make that growth happen. 

You also must be a "tenacious tester," that is, capable of creating hypotheses, testing them and evaluating your results, and then optimizing. 

Finally, you need to understand the online space and how it can be used to create word of mouth. 

Sean Ellis' Tips for Accelerated Growth

Be API-friendly: "Advanced Programming Interfaces" or APIs allow different websites and platforms to "talk" to each other -- for example, Yelp uses MapQuest to give you directions to your local restaurant. Using APIs on your site means it's better integrated into a suite of services and therefore more useful to a user. Hitch Your Wagon to a Star: Many contemporary startups attains massive growth by being a part of a larger marketplace such as Facebook, Salesforce or Google Apps. Farmville and Candy Crush Saga are two examples of products that have Facebook to thank for their astronomically market capture. Build in Conversion and Engagement Tools: Your app or company won't grow if it's not habit forming. So build in referral bonuses (like Dropbox) or simple delight and social sharing (Instagram) to keep users coming back.Leverage Users: "Double-sided referrals" in which a current customer gives a reward to a new customer and receives one herself are a prime way of leveraging users to create growth. But really anything you can do to stimulate repeat business is a key way of leveraging users. Create Spreadable Experiences: The car service Uber quickly gained traction in its major markets because it was a much easier way to get around than hailing or even calling a taxi. And because the experience of taking an Uber to a party or a club is so social, it became a "spreadable experience." The double sided referral strategy didn't hurt either.  Obsessive Optimization: Nothing that remains untested and unobserved can create massive growth, or so say the Growth Hackers. So if you'd like to become one, you'll need to know and love metrics like conversion rate, bounce rate and others. Pick a metric important to your business and come up with ways of optimizing it.