Hiring Another Traditional Marketer? Stop Right There! What You Really Need Is…
October 4, 2013
Adding more leads to the funnel and building brand awareness is top of mind for executives at any expansion-stage company.So why on earth would you hire another traditional marketer for your team when what you really need is…
Definition of a Growth Hacker
According to Aaron Ginn, a very well known growth hacker, here’s what the role is all about:
“A growth hacker finds a strategy within the parameters of a scalable and repeatable method for growth, driven by product and inspired by data. Growth hacking’s goal are based in marketing but driven by product instincts. A growth hacker lives at the intersection of data, product, and marketing. A growth hacker lives within the product team and has a technical vocabulary to implement what he or she wants.
The essential characteristic of a growth hacker is creativity. His or her mind is the best tool in their war chest. A growth hacker looks beyond adwords or SEO for distribution. Traditional marketing channels often means high cost per acquisition and low life-time value due to high saturation. In an age of social users, the right growth strategy with the right product-market fit will lead to massive scale through viral loops.”
Or, to put it another way:
Growth hacker is a term that is more commonly used in the B2C landscape, but, in my humble opinion it is VERY applicable to B2B players, as well. Particularly a B2B startup or expansion-stage company that doesn’t have the brand recognition yet and is aiming to drive thousands of (legitimate) leads to its website each week.
What We’re Looking For: Growth Hacking and Demand Generation
The Sales and Marketing Support Team here in the Labs is looking to hire a new member of the team: a Demand Generation Manager. This this is definitely a key area where our portfolio would like additional support and expertise.
What we’ve learned during this search, however, is that demand generation means a LOT of different things to a LOT of different people.
At the end of the day, what we are really looking for in this hire is — you guessed it — a growth hacker.
The Caveat: this Labs growth hacker also has to be an exceptional communicator (written and verbal), super disciplined, and able to develop a comprehensive how-to framework for our portfolio companies (so they can select tactics that make the most sense given their customer segment and buyer profiles), and provide the companies with a launch pad to begin executing. This will not be an easy feat! But there is someone out there who fits the bill. And we will search high and low until we find him/her.
So my new obsession with growth hacking has had me scouring the web looking for information on the topic, and I’ve come up with these amazing resources that I want to share with you so that you can also implement these strategies on your team — and start thinking outside of the box to drive more leads into your pipeline.
3 Must-Read Growth Hacking Resources
1) The Definitive Guide to Growth Hacking by Neil Patel and Bronson Taylor
First up, you should absolutely check out Neil Patel and Bronson Taylor’s The Definitive Guide to Growth Hacking. The chapters include topics such as:
- The profile of a growth hacker
- The growth hacking process
- The growth hacker funnel
- Pull tactics for getting visitors
- Push tactics for getting visitors
- Product tactics for getting visitors
- How to activate members
- How to retain users
- Tools and terminology
Can you say amazing?!
2) Jon Yongfook’s 21 Growth Hacking Tactics
Next, here are 21 growth hacking tactics as described by Jon Yongfook, the CEO of Beatrix. Outstanding.
[slideshare id=19926662&doc=growthhackingextended-130424223221-phpapp02]
My challenge for you: select 2-3 of these tactics in Q4 and NAIL them. Oh, and don’t be afraid to fail. Either way, you will learn something that will help you in 2014.
3) The Growth Hacker’s Dilemma: Process vs. Tactics by Bronson Taylor
Last but not least, here is a great article by Taylor on Dharmesh Shah’s OnStartups blog: The Growth Hacker’s Dilemma: Process vs. Tactics. In my opinion, there needs to be a healthy balance. (And someone who has this balance will be best as the newest member of our team).
What other growth hacker tactics have you tested for your company? Please share!