It is estimated that about 20% of startups do not survive beyond their first year. Why? You may ask. The answer is simple. Startups need to focus their energy on what matters during the first year and prove their idea is required in the space they are in to get funding or establish a client base that trusts them enough to stay with them. The first year is the taxing period before takeoff; you need to get everything right so that your business does not collapse just after takeoff. Remember, surviving beyond the first year is great, but statistics have shown that 50% of companies do not make it past the fifth year. For this reason, companies need to be aware of growth hacking strategies to grow their business fast over a short period virally.
What is Growth Hacking?
Growth hacking is a term put together by the CEO of Growthhackers.com, Sean Ellis, to describe strategies and techniques marketing professionals can use to grow a business. Unlike traditional marketers, growth hackers are only focused on one thing, growing the business. The word hack is used as growth hacking involves using the cheapest means to produce the best results, with the result being an increase in client or user base. In the growth hacking funnel, there are five funnel stages mostly identified using the initials AAARR. These stages are as follows:
Acquisition-
This is the awareness stage and is aimed at getting as many people as possible to notice your business or product. The goal at this growth hacking funnel marketing stage is to ensure as many people as possible notice your product with the least cost possible.
Activation-This is the subsequent funnel stage. Once people have noticed your product or business, they should feel prompted to sign up or buy the product. Activation targets people who are already aware of the product to try the product. In this stage, you are trying to convert as many customers as you can.
Retention-
At this stage, you have done all the hard work and have the customers onboard. The next task is to find a way to keep them. You need to stay in touch with your customers at all times and remind them that they matter.
Referral-This is a technique where you use existing customers as a marketing channel. You can launch peer to peer referral programs or use influencers to reach out to peers who look up to them.
Revenue-
This involves maintaining a consistent revenue stream to make your business grow. This is the ultimate goal and is the most important as businesses exist to make a profit.
With these five stages in mind, you may be wondering what you can do to optimize the growth hacking funnel stages to get the highest revenues. In this article, we discuss ways to maximize the growth of hacking funnel to grow your business fast.
In general, growth hacking strategies are divided into three:
Content Marketing-This involves using targeted content to grow your business.
Product Marketing-
This involves using the product to promote the product, i.e., promoting the product within the product
Advertising-
Advertising is paying people such as influencers or media to promote your product
Below is a breakdown of some of the growth hacking marketing funnel strategies that will lead to sales and profits.
Personalize Your Customer’s Experiences
Pay close attention to your customer’s experience. It is essential to understand how they feel about your brand from the time they become a part of your family. Analyze how your site brings them on board through the stages of the growth hacking sales funnel. Ensure the basics are sorted out from the word go. These include ensuring your site is user friendly and understanding what the customer’s experience is on mobile as well. You should also pay attention to customer feedback regarding the website, what they dislike the most, what they like, and what they are suggesting. Many times, customers will give your ideas of what they would like better.
Ensuring users have a great experience will increase sales and improve your website’s ranking on Google as well. Avoid flooding the pages with ads that make it difficult for users to move around. To better enhance the experience of your customers, get rid of unnecessary items on your growth, hacking sales funnel and ensure users can move around without any interruptions.
Value at First Sight
It is estimated that the majority of customers rarely purchase a product during the first encounter. Most customers would buy the product after two to three months of seeing it. As a marketer, it is essential that you tap on this and be there when they are ready to bu. How do you do this? Engage the customer from the beginning. Ensure your customers sees value in your product from the first time they hear about it. Show them your value before asking them to buy. A great lead magnet that will catch your customers’ attention from the beginning is essential. The lead magnet should be easy to read and very insightful. Do not give too much information on the lead; it should be simple and precise. Tell the customer what they will get.
Hack Your Email List with Exit Intent For Growth
One way to directly growth hack is to stay in touch with your subscribers. This may sound too basic. If you constantly keep in touch with your subscribers, they will, at one point, feel the need to subscribe or buy.
Your Email sequence should not spam your subscribers with too much information that may be unnecessary. Instead, customers should find it valuable and feel the need to connect with you. Avoid emails that appear as though they were blasted randomly. Instead, personalize your emails. You can use words such as dear or acronyms, such as TTYL.
Email marketing should be a long term revenue return plan. Email marketing research statistics have shown that
$1 can return $44 in revenue. The email list is, therefore, a high growth hacking sales funnel platform to utilize. The best part about email marketing is that you do not need to spend money when you get started. You can optimize your email list further using the exit intent pop-up with a lead magnet.
Exit intent will detect when visitors are about to click off the site and will prompt a lead magnet pop up campaign before they leave. This has been proven to re-divert customers’ attention back to your site. The more extended customers linger on your website, the better as they are likely to learn a thing or two in the long run.
Section your lists based on actions
Sectioning your communication will give you a picture of what is bring in more customers and how you can communicate with your customers best. In some instances, communication via messaging, email, and campaigns should be separated to get the best of your campaigns. This is an excellent way to hack your way to fast growth.
Go Viral
Do not hesitate to make use of any opportunities that will get you noticed in the crowd. In an open market, the loudest caller is likely to have the attention of their customers, the same as that screaming discount code at a sales window. Apply the same strategies in the online space, and that means going viral. You do not necessarily want to come across as though you are lying to your customers. Have a message that will get you the publicity you need; then, once you have your customers’ attention, get into the details, and share bring them on a journey with you.
These are some of the growth hacking marketing funnel strategies that you can take implement to grow your business fast and set the right foundation as your business grows. With time, you will be able to see what works best and get rid of what is not working.
