As an early stage start-up, growing a loyal customer base and retaining them are at the forefront of your strategic goals. To outsmart your competitors even with a small budget, you need to follow a set of rules and techniques in order to thrive online. Trending on LinkedIn or Twitter does not require lack or magic. There is a science behind why influencers share your content. That’s where growth hacking comes to play.
Everybody wants an edge. Even if you’re among the lucky ones that thrive, there are no guarantees for the future. The best way to beat your competition is to create a killer product or service, sell it in a unique way, delight your customers, take their feedback and do it all profitably. Simply being good enough and relying on word of mouth are not enough to survive let alone outsmart your competition.
Push Boundaries & Generate Awareness
The number one piece of advice I would have for someone looking to start an online business today is not to quit. That sounds so simple, but I’ve seen so many people try different ideas, and only give their business six months before quitting. Success doesn’t happen overnight. Sometimes it takes a lot longer than you think before everything clicks into place. It took years for Instagram to grow and achieve the success they have now. By sticking with its core concept and brand identity, they eventually achieved the results they wanted.
Finding the right formula to sell online takes time. It’s important to combine your sales and marketing techniques to craft unique strategies that work for you and attracts the right customers. No matter what business stage you’re in, smart growth is key for guaranteeing a solid future for your company. After all, while increasing revenue streams can add to your income, it also requires internal expansion within the company itself. Don’t be afraid to fine tune your positioning if something needs to change.
Use available online tools to penetrate the market, apply SEO techniques and invest in your digital reputation to blindside the competition. Seize on all possible opportunities that open up for you. If there aren’t any, create them. You don’t have to fight every battle that comes your way. By arming yourself with business intelligence, you will be able to choose your battles. Never lose heart. The battle is long and arduous, that’s a given. But if you maintain your courage and determination, no obstacle will ever be insurmountable.
Foster a Unique Company Culture
Your culture is your identity. It conveys your shared values, style as a firm, how you work, how you interact with each other and the outside world and how you overcome challenges and celebrate successes. These are all part of your company’s culture. It’s always taken into consideration when investors do their due diligence before investing. Survey people to uncover their frustrations and you will get even more ideas. Some of the most successful digital ideas arose from unmet needs. Tell your story and get your staff as invested as you are. Make people aware of your exponential opportunity for growth.
Joining a rising start-up with fewer employees means a greater opportunity to do and learn more and to have a bigger impact in your company. True talent doesn’t want to be another cog in the wheel of a large organisation. Make sure you have a defined mission, and explain your company’s potential to sought-after candidates.
When you can't compete on salary, benefits or name recognition, competed by offering employment that is mission-driven, that rewards results and that is flexible. Offer the chance to build something, to have an impact and to be a key player in your business. Someone who is motivated by more than money is someone a protective startup founder can confidently delegate to.
Encourage Open Communication
Keep the lines of communication open among departments to help your organization work together more fluidly. Being able to leverage different resources internally creates an environment of collaboration and breaks down barriers that prevent you from working toward your overall revenue goals. For better communication, hold quick weekly meetings to recap and highlight each business department. Hire people from diverse backgrounds to create a healthy mix of ideas and experiences.
It’s important to invest in productivity tools. For example, if someone is accustomed to using a PC at home but uses a Mac at work, they might feel their workflow is disrupted because they’re spending time adjusting to a different computer system, rather than focusing on their job. Encourage your employees to suggest new tools and systems that they feel would enable greater efficiencies and allow them to make a bigger difference.
You can always incentivise your current customers to share your brand with special discounts, free service offers or even include affiliate programs. As you drive customer growth and fine-tune your company’s internal structures, you can scale successfully and plan for lasting success.
Leverage Growth Hacking
Growth hacking is a set of metric based and ROI driven experimentations across marketing channels to find the most efficient ways to scale and grow a business. For too long, attracting customers and getting product attention used to be a blind guess and a huge gamble.
Growth hackers have displaced the traditional marketing playbook and substituted it with only what it is trackable, testable and scalable. Amongst the tools that are used are online & offsite SEO, guest posting, pay-per-click ads, viral content management and affiliate marketing. The end goal of all these techniques that are used by growth hackers is to build a strong marketing machines that reaches millions on a consistent basis.
“The Growth Hacking Book: Most Guarded Growth Marketing Secrets the Silicon Valley Giants Don’t Want You to Know” is a fascinating read loaded with practical ideas. If you wonder how to sell your product online without a big ad budget, this book is for you. The Growth Hacking Book is the collaboration of 35 experts in their own niche from all around the world. The book is already a #1 Amazon best seller across different categories.
All start-ups deserve the opportunity to flourish, and the Growth Hacking Book offers that possibility to anyone that has a good venture or project idea.
Is growth hacking part of your digital marketing strategy and what are your favourite entrepreneurial books? Please share your thoughts, I would love to know your views.
The Growth Hacking Book can be bought as Paperback, Kindle or free on Kindle Unlimited
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