GROWTH HACKING A 2 hr. introduction to the definition, concept,

mindset, and process

Christopher L. Sparks for the MC4E

INTRODUCTION

Intro: Who Am I?• From the U.S.

• Small Business Owner 7 years

• Several Failed Startups

“There is no such thing as losing. You either win or learn.”

- Multiple sources

• Corporate & SME Training- Effectuation- Growth Hacking

Intro: My Goals

Demystify Growth hacking

Clarify the definition

Introduce a mindset & process

Show you how professional growth hackers prioritize important decisions

Problems with authority, centralized power,

Out with the old, in with the new = Constructive Progress

Intro: Why Growth Hacking Gets me excited?

Intro: Who are You? Quickly! EVERYONE!

Cultural & KnowledgeBasis?

How many people have a business?(Identify yourselves, you are now team leaders)

Your Expectations, What are they?

• Startups stealing market share & innovation potential

• Corporate interest & demand

• Standardizing methods, proving value

• One can now do the job of many, You can “do more with less”.

Intro: Why should you care about Growth Hacking?

OVERVIEW

Overview: 2 Hours

• 30:00 – 45:00 of Information

• 1:15:00 - 1:30:00 Mini-Hackathon

• + :15 of ‘Optional’ Overtime

Be prepared to not relax, to take notes, & brainstorm

PLEASE ASK QUESTIONS, ESPECIALLY WITH REGARD TO LANGUAGE!

DEFINE

Growth Hacking: Defining ‘Growth’

• “Growth of a business is the only thing that matters in the startup world.”

• In the entrepreneurship world, this is not always the case

– i.e. This does not mean that a Small Business Owner cannot use this process, mindset, and tools.

Growth Hacking: Defined

Lifehacking ≠ Growth Hacking

NOT A SET OF QUICK FIXES, MAGIC.

It is not• Whitbies Fish & Chips “What a brilliant

hack!”

This is a great “hack”, but it falls way short of qualifying as “Growth Hacking”

Growth Hacking: Defined

• What it is: Testable, trackable, scalable.

• It is an update:• Rewriting the best-practices of marketing. The

death of business as usual.

• Lets re-define growth hacking:Growth Hacking = 21st Century Marketing = Zero

Budget Marketing

“Entrepreneurial Marketing”

Growth Hacking: Defined

“Everything works with everything else. In other words it’s a system, and a system is no big deal to use. Look, with any new [system] you’ve gotta learn a few new things.”

-Alan Alda

• Who is a growth hacker? T-Shaped Individual

Broad Range Generalist W/ Deep Expertise in one area

“… someone whose true north is growth”

- Sean Ellis, 2010

Growth Hacking: Who?

Engineering & Testing mindset, not necessarily an engineering degree.

A person who embodies the Socratic method.

The person(s) within a company who find(s) the customers and leads them through a sales funnel, and hopefully

creates a k-factor.

Growth Hacking: Who?

Growth Hacking: Defined

“The end goal of every growth hacker is to build a self-perpetuating machine that reaches millions by itself.”

-Aaron Ginn

CONCEPTS

The Mindset – Growth Hacker Marketing by Ryan Holiday

[GH Needs More Women]

Entrepreneurial Marketing: Concepts

“Look at what everyone else is doing, and walk the other way.”

Not every saturated channel is your best fit for growth.

Find out who & where your customers are, by any means necessary, and go directly to them. Everything is testable & malleable.

Forget about gut feeling. Test all of your assumptions. The best validation is a scalable sale.

Entrepreneurial Marketing: Concepts

‘To do it correctly, one must spend 50% of her time on product development, and 50% of her time on Growth Hacking.’

These efforts run parallel to one another.

This is not business as usual.

Entrepreneurial Marketing: Examples

Piggybackingon an existing

network

CraigslistNetwork

Systematically tested the

Market

Observed mostactive users

THE FULL GROWTH HACKING SYSTEM

Entrepreneurial Marketing: What a full Growth Hacking campaign looks like (Growth Tribe Model)

LET’S FOCUS!And get into workshop mode!

Entrepreneurial Marketing: Choosing Channels with Traction

Today we are going to focus on prioritizing growth channels using the

Traction method and the BRASS framework.

Why?

Well, time and money of course!

Entrepreneurial Marketing: Choosing Channels with Traction

Also…

Traction is also a great place to start for learning

purposes!

Entrepreneurial Marketing: Traction & where to begin

• This book is canon for the growth hacker – buy it, seriously

[Or read my summary @ chrissparks.nl/blog]

• Book Structure:– 1 Chapter summarizing growth channels– 4 Chapters practical processes– 19 Chapters in-depth describing growth

channels

Traction: Defined

Traction = Growth = Quantitative Demand Indicators

• Rigorous , scientific testing process & exploitation of multiple (3-4) channels

Replaces that ‘gut feeling’ with science!!!

• Testable, track-able, scalable testing.

Traction: Strategies & Tactics determined by your bird in hand

Sometimes you have to do things that don’t scale at first (Trade Shows),

Sometimes someone on your team has to learn something new (Word Press),

BUT!

Always, your team is your Bird in Hand!

SO ALWAYS WORK FIRST WITH WHAT YOU HAVE INFRONT OF

YOU

OR

WITH WHATEVER IS WITHIN ARMS REACH

WHEN YOU FIND THAT YOU

CANNOT

MOVE FORWARD WITH YOUR AVAILABLE MEANS,

THEN YOU CAN LOOK OUTSIDE OF YOUR TEAM FOR HELP (QUILTING)

EXERCISE TIME!

Traction Process Step 1: Set Analytics

Begin Google Analytics or Kissmetrics on your landing page, website immediately.

- Passive: You will begin collecting data that will later serve as a baseline for your actions.

- Active: begin learning how to use analytics, get cozy with interpreting statistics, a/b tests.

Traction Process Step 2: Critical Path

Begin By setting a quantifiable goal: ex. ‘X number of subscribers’

This will be the focus of your critical path, OMTM, and all efforts here forward to “move the needle”

Determine the steps necessary to reach your goal in the fewest number of steps. All activities are either on or off path.

Determine the steps necessary to reach your goal in the fewest number of steps.

All activities are either on or off path,

Don’t waste money, time, or resources with off-path or non-quantitative milestones.

Traction Process Step 2: Critical Path

Traction Process Step 2: Critical Path

We are going to test traction channels to see which ones will best get you going on

your critical path (on a small scale).

…And eliminate from curiosity those which will not.

Traction: 19 Channels• Targeting blogs- Using the social capital of niche leaders, bloggers.

• Publicity- Traditional channels, mostly media, and building a public identity.

• Unconventional PR- Publicity stunts and customer service.

• Search Engine Marketing- Paying search engines for high rankings.

• Social & Display Ad’s- Paid, digital ads where your potential customers hang out online.

• Offline Ad’s- Mainly print advertising & ‘traditional’, often local, channels. Good for getting the less tech savvy customers.

• SEO- Search Engine Optimization. Ranking high for your keyword. Very Important.

• Content Marketing- Build trust with your blog.

• Email Marketing- Convert prospects & monetize existing customers.

Traction: 19 Channels• Engineering as Marketing- Widgets, plugins, features, etc. that make your customer

happier & drive your perceived value, trust, & utility.

• Viral Marketing- Your K-Factor. If for every customer you recruit, you get X+1 back, you are doing it right.

• Business Development- Creating strategic relationships w/ (often) larger players, symbiotically.

• Sales- Early customer conversions & scalable, sustainable sales.

• Affiliate Programs- Getting someone else to push your product. Affiliate marketing.

• Existing Platforms- API’s. Piggybacking on someone else’s user base. Air Bnb.

• Trade Shows- Does Not Scale. Good for established companies to show off what is new.

• Offline Events- Meet ups. Events with the goal of recruiting local evangelists.

• Speaking Engagements- Ted Talks. Growing your startup’s profile at speaking events.

• Community Building- Any effort that recruits passionate communities around the startup. Build your army before you ‘cross the chasm’.

Exercise: Join your Glorious Team Leader

Now we are going to run a Traction exercise.

DOES EVERYONE HAVE THEIR DOCUMENTS (Packets & Voting

Sheets)?

Exercise: Step 1

Founders: Introduce your concept to your team (10 minutes)

- Describe your Offering & Value Proposition.

- Describe your intended customer/ market

- Declare your goal (1) or develop one.

Exercise: Step 1

Select a member of each team to Present their case in 2:00. You have :30 to select.

- Offering- Value Proposition

- Customer- Market

- Goal (quantitative)

Exercise: Step 2

FIRST ELIMINATION ROUND – 15:00

IMPORTANT!

Don’t forget that some of the best growth hacking channels are the ones that everyone else ignores!

(offline events create evangelists!!!)

Exercise: Step 2

FIRST ELIMINATION ROUND – 15:00 – Open Discussion

- Brainstorm: which channels are within the reach of your team? Bird in Hand.

- Which serve as direct distribution channels between your product and your market? Path of least resistance.

- Choose a TOP SIX!!! Do not rank them.

• Targeting blogs• Publicity• Unconventional PR• Search Engine

Marketing• Social & Display Ad’s• Offline Ad’s• SEO• Content Marketing• Email Marketing• Engineering as

Marketing

• Viral Marketing• Business

Development• Sales• Affiliate Programs• Existing Platforms• Trade Shows• Offline Events• Speaking

Engagements• Community Building

Choose Six that 1) You can immediately start using, 2) are direct channels between product and market. Spend no more than XX on each.

Exercise: Step 3

Isolate your top 6 on your score card in no particular order

Now you are going to turn a brainstorm session into a

quantifiable ranking system.

Have you selected six?

Traction Process Step 4: BRASS Framework

Using the BRASS framework

When brainstorming a channel, team members should ask themselves these three questions:

1) How much will it cost?2) How many customers are available?3) Are these the customers I need right now?

Traction Process Step 4: BRASS Metrics by David Arnoux [Growth Tribe]

• B- BLINKGut feeling. Don’t think, just vote!

• R- RELEVANCERelevance to your customer base. Is this channel directly delivering my message to where my customers hang out?

• A- AVAILABILITYInternal resources (team) & expertise vs. cost. Exploitable with your bird in hand?

• S- SCALABILITYCan you go big if this channel proves effective?

Exercise: Step 3

Each of the BRASS metrics gets a vote of 1-5 for each of your six

channels.

Vote BLIND by writing your vote on your provided voting card.

DON’T LET POLITICS SKEW YOUR DECISION

Exercise: Step 3

You have 15 minutes.

Start the clock

Exercise: Step 4

Rank your top Six, Individually!

B x R x A x S = S(core)

Average your top six S(core)’s, Collectively. 5 minutes

CUTOFF POINTAdina, are we good on time? If so, let’s go!

Exercise: Step 4

Order your top Six Scores,

Your top three scores are your focus channels.

For these top three you will begin a 2 week to 1 month testing cycle

Exercise: Step 5

Set goals for each Tests

Minimum Viable Performance

The best performing is your core channel and your next step on your

critical path

Exercise: Step 5

After your testing you will know which of the three is the one with the most

promise.

Move forward with this one!

The rest are insurance.

DISCUSSION, Q&A

DANK JE WEL!!!

+31 616 10 85 77

LSparksV@gmail.com

ChrisSparks.nl

/in/christopherlsparks

Feedback is a gift. Please send some.