Businesses are hard to set up. Laying the foundation of a successful business is a nerve-racking exercise in itself, let alone taking things to the next levels. Every entrepreneur whether big or small wants to establish a business that gets a consistent stream of revenue and that won’t happen unless there are a clear sales funnel to drive engagements from users and turning them into paying customers.
However, a struggle most business owners come face to face with the lack of sufficient funds to keep the cogs of their marketing wheels running. While marketing products and services have become fairly easier in the times we are in today – given the multitude of channels available such as social media; it can still be an uphill task to transform a business from being a start-up to a self revenue-generating one. This is precisely why many companies, even the big ones, rely on what is commonly known as growth hacking.
For those not initiated with the term, growth hacking is when businesses leverage various available strategies to quickly spiral and gain considerable growth and fan-following in a relatively short span of time on modest budgets.
As a social media marketing company in Mumbai, we constantly help clients to use some of these growth hacking techniques to help them get a foothold in their industry and bounce off thereon. In this article, we bring you 3 solid growth hacking tricks that you can easily employ in your marketing strategies and witness a quick start in your business while leaving your competitors scrambling away.
1) Use Quora to rank on the first page of Google
We know this takes might take you by surprise but Quora can be a God-sent gift for your business. It may not work for all the niches but there are plenty of industries (and keywords) out there who can take full advantage of this massively popular platform.
What you need to do is to head to Google and search for the keyword you want to rank for. If you see some available spots that result from either Quora or Facebook or a blog that isn’t authoritative, then it’s a good keyword to start with. Next, you’ll need to go to Quora and find a question that you can answer with your keyword placed in.
For instance, you may want to rank for the keyword ‘how does soda machine work’. On Googling, you see an answer from Quora. You’ll have to find a similar question and write a better (and keyword optimized) answer that will eventually take precedence on the first Quora link you came across. Of course, needless to say, that you’d have to insert a link to your website in your Quora answer for interested people to contact you. If you do not have a website yet, having a credible website development company by your side will be very handy in creating one.
2) Use influencer marketing…but smartly!
We all know the number of sway influencers holds on their audiences. It can truly be a great way to somehow use their audience to promote your product or service. However, as with most instances, influencer marketing can get expensive – unless you know how to play with their psychology.
This neat little growth hack does just that. You will have to choose a topic for a blog post that is very specific (let’s say: one SEO tip you always put to use). Then reach out to at least 50-100 SEO gurus (aka influencers) who have a decent crowd behind them. Ask them for their opinion on this topic and wait for their responses to trickle in.
Once you have compiled a list of at least 25-30 responses from these SEO wizards, you’d want to create a blog post on your website with the responses you just curated. Send them the link to this blog post without asking them to promote it. You’ll be amazed by how many of them will happily post this link on their social media and email campaigns to let the audience know what they think about it. And what do you get? Their audience on your website which you can lure further down your sale funnel.
3) Increase the chances of email CTR
One of the most powerful methods in any marketer’s toolbox is to effectively use email marketing. Emails are truly a great way to keep in touch with your audience and engage with them on a more private level. However, at times you may struggle to get decent open rates on your emails. This growth hack can double or triple these rates if used correctly (and it is dead simple to implement).
Let’s assume that you want to send a link to your email list and drive them to a landing page that has your offer displayed. Instead of sending the link in the email straightaway (as one would assume is the correct thing to do), let the email go to your subscriber without the link. Yes! Hear me out.
Next, follow up with a second email with the link placed in it, with a subject line that states “oops, I forgot to send the link” (or whatever you think is appropriate). What you are doing here is connecting with your audience on a very personal level. If the link was sent in the first email, it would have looked like a typical marketing email with no human touch to it. When you mentioned “oops, I forgot to send the link”, you are lending a voice to your email that resonates with your audience as we’re all craving to connect on a human level in one form or another.
Growth hacking can be an incredibly powerful way to quickly grow your audience and subscribers if implemented correctly. A lot of these hacks are downright easy to put to work but the reward you’ll gain will be immense. I hope you found these hacks beneficial and you witness a spurt in your business post-implementation.
