TL;DR: Growth hacking is an inexpensive means of acquiring revenue generating opportunities quickly for a company. Startups utilize various services such as content marketing, free tools, referral opportunities and community operating systems, to get the most bang for their buck.
Starting a business is an exciting endeavor, but how can you make a big splash without much money? Growth hacking provides the small, inexpensive solutions for fast expansions that startups need. Here are 10 inexpensive growth hacks for startups to consider.
What Is Growth Hacking and Why Is It Essential for Startups?
Growth hacking is a marketing process focused on inexpensive avenues for customer acquisition and retention. While traditional marketing relies on best practices and more general campaigns, growth hacking relies on iterative experimentation to find what works best for a particular audience. Essentially you take a guess, see if it sticks, and double down if it does.
For startups, growth hacking is ideal, as you don't need a set budget for marketing to make the playing field even. You can find your audience, acquire your user base and expand all without spending a ton of money. Instead, it's about being resourceful and strategic with the tools at your disposal.
10 Budget-Friendly Growth Hacking Strategies for Startups
Let's get your startup growth off to a fast start with these 10 effective hacks today!
1. Leverage Content Marketing and SEO
Gain an audience by earning traffic before you pay for it. Create meaningful blog posts or videos that people want to see. When you give away helpful advice, people learn to trust you. But then apply SEO so they can find you—targeted keywords help rank you higher on Google so people can stumble upon your website without any cost to you. When you answer people's questions first, they'll come to you.
2. Use Free and Low-Cost Marketing Tools
There's no need to have high powered software that costs thousands of dollars to be successful at marketing. Instead, rely on free items that do the work for you. Buffer or Hootsuite helps schedule social media posts. Mailchimp allows you to do email marketing (even for free!). Google Analytics is also free, giving website traffic data for better decision making.
3. Build a Viral Referral Program
A referral program is a unique way to exponentially grow your business for little cost because it encourages existing customers to seek out new customers in exchange for their own reward. Remember when Dropbox offered users additional free storage space if they referred friends? That small idea translated into exponential success. Offer your current customers a discount/free product/early access to something and make it easy for them to share it, and watch the growth happen!
4. Launch on Product Hunt and Reddit
Other platforms exist where you can launch your startup before paying thousands to get the word out through traditional means. Product Hunt is a very reputable place for smaller startups to gain massive traffic exposure and early adopters who want the latest and greatest. Similarly, niche communities called "subreddits" exist on Reddit where you can build a grassroots network by asking questions, getting feedback and becoming a loyal fan of other products and companies in return. Don't pay—leverage what exists first!
5. Leverage Influencer and Micro-Influencer Partnerships
Influencers seem like big money-making avenues for bigger businesses, however, micro-influencers (those with smaller followings) can provide just as powerful connections between start-up owners who are still working on their clientele acquisitions and influencers who are within similar niches. All it takes is one super trusted follower of the influencer to buy into your product for success! Find them, contact them, give them your product for review and watch growth explode!
6. Optimize for Conversion, Not Just Traffic
Traffic acquisition means nothing if no one is converting on your page. That's why Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) specialists exist—to test all aspects of a landing page to see what resonates most in terms of successful action. Rely on free tools like Google Optimize to test different headlines/button colors/calls to action until you've found the right combination that converts!
7. Engage in Community and Niche Forums
Your ideal community exists right now in communities such as Quora or industry forums or even Facebook groups that cater to specific content creation/sourcing. Become an active member—answer questions, be helpful—and while the goal is not to promote your business, over time people will trust your opinion enough that they'll appreciate learning that you have developed a solution for their common pain points. People like to do business with people they like!
8. Use Email Marketing to Nurture Leads
Email marketing is one of the least expensive ways to develop relationships with potential customers. Get them on the email list by offering something in return—an ebook, guide or checklist—and then use that list as an opportunity to convert them through help, resources and suggestions before they ever decide whether or not to buy into your brand! A great email generates brand loyalty before spending even begins!
9. Collaborate With Other Startups
There's no need for your startup to go at it alone! Find other startups targeting similar audiences; you can co-host a webinar in which your service assists another startup's acquisitions or you can co-author an ebook or run a giveaway together! Expose each other to potential audiences where new acquisition avenues reside without expanding costs—it will create a win-win situation!
10. Focus on Minimum Viable Marketing (MVM)
Much like a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Minimum Viable Marketing (MVM) allows marketers—especially those in startups—test waters with no sunk cost without worrying about failure right away. Instead of jumping in big with expensive costs right off the bat, start with something small that requires limited resources and serves as an experiment for messaging and messaging development to ensure profitability down the line with appropriate iterations made along the way!
Final Thoughts: Smart Growth Over Big Spend
The beauty of growth hacking is the ability to scale without spending much money and by being resourceful through research and implementation. These growth hacks will encourage startups to consider what's out there before investing heavily from the get-go. These 10 approaches are just scratching the surface; get in there and explore what works best for you! Your startup will be glad you did!
FAQs
What is the purpose of growth hacking?
The purpose of growth hacking is rapid user acquisition with minimal expenses incurred.
Does growth hacking work across all niches?
Yes! Growth hacking works for all types of startups from SaaS companies to eCommerce ventures to mobile apps—a tested implementation can work across all stages!
How can success be measured with growth hacking?
Success can be measured through user acquisition costs (UAC), customer lifetime value (CLV), conversion rates and viral coefficients (how many users existing users bring in based on referrals).
Do I need technical experience to be considered a growth hacker?
No! While skills like coding or data analytics can help, the most important part about being a successful growth hacker is having creativity, curiosity and a willingness to play around with testing different ideas over time to learn from the data collected!
Cover Image Credit: Photo by Artem Podrez on Pexels
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