Post on 11-Aug-2014
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GROWTH HACKING Morgan Brown
ABOUT ME
• 12+ years of user acquisition, social and product marketing for startups.
• Grown companies from 0 – 100k+ users in months 3 times.
• Get geeked out about viral growth and product-oriented hacks.
• 2nd time here at OCPM – hoping to earn a 3rd.
WHAT IS GROWTH HACKING?
• A methodology that leverages strategies aimed at unlocking growth at scale.
• Growth by being smarter, not spending more, than the other guy.
• The practice of finding exponential upside to marketing investment.
WHAT IS A GROWTH HACKER?
• Hybrid skill set of marketing, product & engineering.
• Ability to optimize for user acquisition at scale.
• Ability to drive exponential growth from efforts.
WHY GROWTH HACKING?
• Traditional marketing and growth channels are expensive and hyper-competitive.
• Companies that are resource constrained can’t compete effectively in crowded spaces.
• It’s about creating an unfair advantage by leveraging asymmetries in the market.
TENENTS OF GROWTH HACKING • OBSESS OVER DATA
– Know your customer exceptionally well. – Measure everything.
• CREATIVITY
– Think different. – Push the limits.
• CURIOSITY – Learn early, learn often. – Poke around.
• DIRTY HANDS – Get in at the code & product level. – Make, launch and break stuff.
CATEGORIES OF GROWTH HACKS
• Platform integrations
• Viral Growth
• Analytics
• Grab bag
PLATFORM INTEGRATION
Leveraging Super Networks
AIRBNB & CRAIGSLIST
• Insight: – Craigslist is where people were looking for rooms to rent, short
& long term. – They could cross-post to Craigslist and tap a huge traffic
source.
• Hack: – Even without an API the AirBnB team figured out a way to
hack the Craigslist submission process.
• Result: – AirBnB drove more bookings (making customers happy) &
created new users at the same time.
AIRBNB & CRAIGSLIST
1.
2.
AIRBNB & CRAIGSLIST
3.
4. Source: http://www.quora.com/Airbnb/How-does-Airbnb-automatically-post-on-Craigslist
BRANCH OUT & FACEBOOK
• Insight: – People maintained a professional network on Facebook that was
often more engaged than on LinkedIn. – They could leverage the size of Facebook and its Open Graph
permissions to drive growth.
• Hack: – One click invite send and account creation with Facebook
Connect. – Which friend would you rather work with mechanic.
• Result: – Doubled size in a month. Went from 1MM to 10MM users in 3
months. Raised $24MM. – BranchOut mostly irrelevant now. Why?
BRANCH OUT DOUBLES IN 1 MONTH
http://www.quora.com/How-did-BranchOut-double-within-a-month
YOUTUBE & MYSPACE
• Insight: – MySpace was where fans connected with musicians, but bands
couldn’t post video. – If YouTube could make it easy to share video on MySpace
they’d instantly scale.
• Hack: – One click, Flash-based embeddable widget for video. Bands
and fans could finally watch and share music videos. – Which friend would you rather work with mechanic.
• Result: – By 2006 YouTube’s reach grew past MySpace. The rest is
history.
TAKEAWAYS
• Integrations should make both products better
• Study (and ask about) user behavior to determine promising integrations
• Test and discover valuable use cases
• Measure conversions and revenue
VIRAL GROWTH Leveraging Friend Networks
DROPBOX • Insight:
– Traditional marketing wasn’t working. Were spending $300+ to acquire customers for a $99 service.
– Activating customers was the key to paying accounts. – Their asset had a very low marginal cost to give away.
• Hack: – Giving away free space in exchange for word of mouth referrals. – Giving away free space in exchange for activation.
• Result: – Users sent 2.8 million direct referral invites in April 2010. – In Sept. 2008 the service had 100,000 registered users. – In Jan 2010 (15 mos.) the service had 4,000,000. – No traditional ad spend.
http://www.quora.com/What-are-the-dos-donts-of-referral-invite-programs
DROPBOX MAKES INVITES FUN
http://www.quora.com/What-are-the-dos-donts-of-referral-invite-programs
LIVINGSOCIAL
• Insight: – Building an audience can be outside of the core product
experience. – The cost of giving away a deal is shared by the merchant, giving
away deals cheaper than giving away cash.
• Hack: – Building a purely viral Facebook app called Pick Your 5, and
growing virally until pivoting to daily deals. – A new twist on refer-a-friend with the 3-and-free dynamic.
• Result: – 10’s of millions of Facebook app installs – 70MM users as of 11/12
LIVINGSOCIAL’s PICK YOUR 5
TAKEAWAYS
• Viral growth doesn’t exist for every product.
• Viral growth comes from value being created for the existing and new user.
• Viral growth doesn’t have to come from your core product.
• So many people use refer-a-friend. A twist is required to stand out.
DATA Deep insights to drive growth.
AIRBNB
• Insight: – Listings with better photos get more bookings.
• Hack: – Hacked product and customer experience to drive professional
photos for listings. – Saw that listings with pro photos received 2-3x more bookings.
• Result: – Went from 20 photographers in the field in 2011 to doing 5,000
shoots per month. – Traffic takes off.
Source: Analytics Lessons Learned
AIRBNB CRACKS THE PHOTO CODE
Source: Analytics Lessons Learned
Photographers
CIRCLE OF MOMS
• Insight: – Not all users are created equal.
• Hack: – Discovered that moms on Circle of Friends were far more
active than other users: – Pivoted entire company from Circle of Friends to Circle of
Moms.
• Result: – Grew from 2MM monthly active users to 4.5MM – Sold to Sugar Inc.
Source: Analytics Lessons Learned
HOW MUCH BETTER WERE MOMS? • Their messages to one another were on average 50% longer.
• They were 115% more likely to attach a picture to a post.
• They were 110% more likely to engage in a threaded (i.e. deep) conversation.
• They had friends who, once invited, were 50% more likely to become engaged users themselves.
• They were 75% more likely to click on Facebook notifications.
• They were 180% more likely to click on Facebook news feed items
• They were 60% more likely to accept invitations to the app.
Source: Analytics Lessons Learned
• Insight: – It’s not how many Tweets you send. It’s how many people you
follow that determines success. – When users follow 5-10 people they are far more likely to
remain an active user.
• Hack: – Drive product onboarding not around publishing or building an
audience, but following the right people.
• Result: – 40% of Twitter’s users use Twitter without publishing. – 4x number of monthly visitors who don’t login, just read the
stream.
http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2011/09/the-logged-out-user-continued.html
TWITTER’S TRY FIVE
Photographers
TAKEAWAYS • Sometimes growth doesn’t come from where you expect it.
• Leverage data to identify unique insights and opportunities.
• If you think you have a worthwhile idea, test it quickly and
with the least effort possible.
• Have a game plan of what to do if the idea succeeds and how to scale it.
• Iterate the product to solve for that use case that drives growth.
• Engagement is the rocket fuel to give you escape velocity and long-term sustainable growth.
PHYSICAL & OTHER HACKS
Growth Hacking requires creativity.
HACK GRAB BAG
• Embeds – YouTube, SlideShare, Vimeo – Keys are: remove friction, optimize for SEO
• Powered By – Freemium with branding, CTAs & backlinks: MailChimp, UserVoice – Keys are: identify what you “power”, track and test CTAs
• Free Stuff – Viral tools that play to vanity/exclusivity: Klout, Twitter Grader – Keys are: Identify value/desire, provide reward or currency
Source: Hiten Shah’s Growth Presentation (see notes)
WALL STREET JOURNAL
• Insight: – Busy business people are constantly searching for ways to
connect to the Web.
• Hack: – Offer free WiFi at popular spots across New York City. – Create email capture and activation funnel as part of
connecting to the Web.
• Result: – Every user an opportunity to build their email marketing lists.
Source: GrowHack.com
DOLLAR SHAVE CLUB
• Insight: – In a massive CPG category traditional advertising will never work,
you need to build a cult following. – The big players are actually terrible at branding and marketing.
• Hack: – Upend the business model for razors. – Use viral video to acquire customers at low cost and create that
cult following.
• Result: – DSC video viewed 5MM+ times – 30,000 subscribers in first week – Raised $10MM to take on men’s category
ZAPPOS
• Insight: – With items that are hard to shop for online, superior service, not
price, will win. – Removing friction from online shopping is more important than
price.
• Hack: – Reinvent what customer service means. – Bake cost of incredible service into product, position as free.
• Result: – World renowned brand built on service. – Charge a premium on every item sold. – $800 million exit to Amazon.
TAKEAWAYS • Growth Hacking isn’t just for consumer companies. B2B and
physical product manufacturers can hack growth.
• Physical product hacks are harder, but not impossible. They just require creativity and insight on how to reach users.
• Hacks that make use of digital networks eliminate overhead
costs and find scale.
• Same rules apply: creativity, data, curiosity, dirty hands.
BECOME A GROWTH HACKER
Or at least a growth beginner.
YOU NEED A TEAM & A HYPOTHESIS
• Create a growth team. – Marketer – Product person – Engineer – Sales
• Create hypotheses about growth. – What changes do you think will move the needle? – What types of customers do you need to sustain growth? – What types of habits and behaviors do you need to engineer? – Map to customer decision making.
Source: Adam Nash http://blog.adamnash.com/2012/04/04/user-acquisition-viral-factor-basics/
GET DOWN IN THE DATA
• Know your customers inside and out.
• Go where your early adopters are.
• Go niche first, the world second. – Hipsters – Moms – Geeks
• Look for insights and patterns that represent opportunities.
Source: Zero to a Million Users: http://www.slideshare.net/adamsmith1/from-zero-to-a-million-users-dropbox-and-xobni-lessons-learned
ID HACKING OPPORTUNITIES
• What platforms could I integrate into that would bring instant scale? – Don’t depend on just one. – Don’t just think Facebook.
• What are the core features of my product?
• Which ones drive growth? How can I optimize those?
• How can I build distribution into inherent actions?
ID HACKING OPPORTUNITIES
• What is the value to the user for reaching out to non-users?
• How does a hack align with my value proposition?
• How does this hack improve the experience of the user?
• How can my product help others while gaining distribution?
LEARN EARLY, LEARN OFTEN
• Test and measure ideas on the cheap.
• Build MVP versions, concierge versions.
• What’s the easiest and fastest way to ship an idea?
• Numbers are your guide to everything.
• Iterate like your life depends on it.
GET STARTED Get Hacking.
GIDDY UP! • Review product and marketing opportunities.
• Build your team.
• Read and learn.
• Become a growth beginner.
• Celebrate growth in your organization.
• Make 2013 the year of growth!
THANKS.
DESIGNING FOR VIRAL GROWTH • Get the inside scoop on designing for viral growth with this
infographic from Digital Telepathy:
• http://www.dtelepathy.com/blog/design/design-viral-growth
GET IN TOUCH Morgan Brown morgan@digital-telepathy.com @morganb Digital Telepathy www.dtelepathy.com @dtelepathy
REFERENCES // RESOURCES • Taking your site from One to One Million Users – Kevin Rose • Hacking Growth at SlideShare • Growth – Hiten Shah • From Zero to One Million Users – DropBox and Xobni
Lessons – Adam Smith • Growth Hacking 101 – Your First 500,000 Users – Yong Fook • Lean Analytics – Alistair Croll & Benjamin Yoskovitz • Andrew Chen’s Blog