Growth Hacking Blue Paper

© 2015 4imprint, Inc. All rights reserved
Growth Hacking
Hear the word “hack,” and it’ll likely conjure up thoughts of computer hackers,
forcefully making their way into a computer system to take or manipulate data. If
you hear the term “growth hacker,” are you to extrapolate a similar concept with
growth? If so, how does one “hack” growth?
Growth hacking is a relatively new strategy in business, and like computer
hackers, growth hackers do their work swiftly but strategically. And, data is their
friend.
What exactly is growth hacking? While the term can be
defined in a broad sense, growth hacking differs from
company to company. It’s marketing, yet it’s not. It’s
engineering, yet it’s not. What growth hacking does is use
data to put focus on reaching people, generating leads and
growing companies—quickly.1
This Blue Paper®
will define growth hacking by showing
examples of successful hacks, describe the phases of growth hacking, identify
traits of successful growth hackers and provide techniques to start growth
hacking in your company.
Focused yet not complex
The term “growth hacker” was coined in 2010 by startup entrepreneur and angel
investor Sean Ellis from a concept born with startup companies that didn’t excel in
marketing or have the dollars to hire a marketer or a marketing consultant.2
In describing a growth hacker, Ellis said it was neither a marketing replacement,
nor someone better than a marketer. A growth hacker is simply different from a
marketer.3
Whereas a marketer looks at the big picture, a growth hacker hones in
on a single—usually digital—focus to achieve a single goal—company growth.
While growth may be the result of a growth hacker’s efforts, the speed at which
these hackers achieve the growth is far faster than traditional means. A growth
1 Tjepkema, Lindsay. “What Is Growth Hacking and Why Should You Care?” Business 2 Community. N.p., 3 Aug.
2015. Web. 30 Aug. 2015. http://www.business2community.com/strategy/what-is-growth-hacking-and-why-
should-you-care-01292059.
2 Holiday, Ryan. “Everything Is Marketing: How Growth Hackers Redefine The Game.” Fast Company. N.p., 17
Dec. 2012. Web. 30 Aug. 2015. http://www.fastcompany.com/3003888/everything-marketing-how-growth-
hackers-redefine-game.
3 Ibid

hacker begins with focus on a single metric, takes a technology-centric approach,
leverages multiple disciplines to identify insights and finds a workable solution.4
A
growth hacker may use traditional marketing methods, but he
or she is more likely to implement innovative ideas.
In the case of growth hacking, innovative doesn’t necessarily
mean complex. Looking back at business successes, growth
hacking can be identified well before the term came into vogue.
Hotmail®
often is cited as one of the best examples of growth
hacking. By simply adding, “P.S. I love you. Get your free email
at Hotmail.” to e-mails in 1996, the startup boasted 3,000 new
users in one day, grew to 1 million users within six months, and
was purchased by Microsoft®
within 18 months, when it logged
8.5 million users.5
Other social media platforms followed with their own growth
hacking strategy. Twitter®
added more than 60,000 users in one
day with one data point—the fact that new users were more likely to return to
the social media platform if they followed a minimum of 10 people upon signing
up. Twitter excelled at signing up new users by including suggestions of people to
follow as part of their signup process.6
Before you hack
The secret to growth hacking is the willingness and ability to be nimble and
creative, because your growth hack probably won’t look like one from the
business across the street or from your biggest competitor. In addition, growth
hacking may likely be the most exciting and most frustrating business venture
you’ve ever done, as it involves testing and possibly failing.7
No matter what your product or service, you’ll get the most out of growth
hacking with the following strategic map:8, 9, 10
Before you can attract users, you need a good product. Traditionally, marketing
kicks in after the product is developed, leaving marketers scrambling if the
4 Relander, Brett. “How Growth Hacking Is Redefining Marketing.” Entrepreneur. N.p., 27 Jan. 2015. Web. 30
Aug. 2015. http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/242034.
6 Ibid
7 Ibid
8 Holiday, Ryan. “The 5 Phases of Growth Hacking.” Mashable. N.p., 2 Sept. 2013. Web. 30 Aug. 2015. http://
mashable.com/2013/09/02/growth-hacking/.
10 Schwarzapel, Josh. “How to Start a Growth Team - Android Tech News.” Medium. N.p., 09 July 2015. Web.
30 Aug. 2015. https://medium.com/android-news/how-to-start-a-growth-team-ff70cd29c0f2.

product doesn’t fit the market. Successful growth hacking needs a great product,
so step one is to test and improve the product.
Have an executive cheerleader, ideally the founder or CEO. Growth hacking often
strays into methods that are unconventional or controversial. You need the ability
to experiment without constraints.
Have measureable, trackable goals.
Find your hack. Hacks are opportunities. What opportunity can you leverage to
get more users? Find it, optimize it and be able to discard it if you hit a dead end.
To reiterate, growth hacking cannot reverse a decline of a poor product. It’s more
like adding fuel to a fire—in a good way. Like Twitter’s example, it works best
when it builds on successes, using small changes on an already-established user
base.11
A successful hacker
Growth hacking is important to companies in both stages of development—
startup and those established and looking to grow.12
Traditional marketing tools
are seen as both expensive and unreliable, whereas growth hacking is inexpensive
and has proven success.
Melinda Byerley, in a Venture Beat article, describes two of the most famous
growth hackers, Andy Johns and Sean Ellis, who have very different approaches.
Neither approach is wrong, but each has its place in
companies with specific needs. Byerley describes each
approach using the analogy of the California gold rush:13
The Prospector (Ellis): Does best in startup or early-stage
companies to find product-market fit.
The Miner (Johns): Does well in large or fast-growing
businesses. Miners excavate data and turn learnings into
new growth.
Mix the two by putting the prospector into an established
company or vice versa, and you may find your strategy headed for failure. Make
a miner do prospecting, and he or she will spend time digging without striking it
rich. Likewise, a prospector told to mine gold will spend time looking for silver.
11 Byerley, Melinda. “Why Growth Hacking Is Failing Most of Us.” VentureBeat. N.p., 12 July 2015. Web.
30 Aug. 2015. http://venturebeat.com/2015/07/12/why-growth-hacking-is-failing-most-of-us/?utm_
campaign=Submissionutm_medium=Communityutm_source=GrowthHackers.com.
12 Ibid
13 Byerley, Melinda. “Growth Hacking Has Two Phases — and Using the Wrong One Will Sink You.” VentureBeat.
N.p., 11 Aug. 2015. Web. 30 Aug. 2015. http://venturebeat.com/2015/08/11/growth-hacking-has-two-phases-
and-using-the-wrong-one-can-sink-you/?utm_campaign=Submissionutm_medium=Communityutm_
source=GrowthHackers.com.

Therefore, not everyone is fit to be a growth hacker. It takes a person or team
that possesses a myriad of soft skills that complement hard, technology-based
skills. Successful growth hackers often are identified by the following traits:14, 15, 16
Creative. Growth hackers must be naturally curious and good at problem-solving.
They ask questions and find answers. They also are creative in finding inexpensive
answers and are able to deploy new tactics without a big budget to sustain them.
Open-minded. Sometimes, great ideas are counterintuitive, so those who are rigid
in their beliefs may likely miss great opportunities. Open-mindedness also is key
because growth hacking is constantly evolving—what worked for one product
may not work for another, or what worked six months ago may not work today.
Think for themselves. Growth hackers need to be skeptical of company truths and
test their own theories by using and testing data.
Quick learners. Growth hacking doesn’t involve strategic planning or action
mapping. Those are the umbrellas under which growth hackers work. Instead,
they work quickly in the now. To that end, they need a variety of skills, from
copywriting to data mining. Not all growth hackers are deep in all skills, so they
have to adapt and learn new skills quickly.
Tech and data savvy. They analyze and measure data with an understanding of
search engine optimization, social media marketing, conversion rates and digital
marketing.
Team player. Growth hackers don’t have big egos because they can’t generate ideas
and implement them. They need a team to design, execute, measure and improve.
Focus and discipline. Either they or a team working
for them need excellent detail-oriented project
management skills that include follow through.
Grit. Growth hacking may lead to failure—many
times. Hackers need the tenacity to keep trying.
Getting started
You have a great product, a leader who supports
you and a hack-worthy team behind you. Now what? Josh Schwarzapel, who has
experience on a growth hacking team, says there are three things you should do
in the first month of your project:17
16 Byerley, Melinda. “Growth Hacking Has Two Phases — and Using the Wrong One Will Sink You.” VentureBeat.
N.p., 11 Aug. 2015. Web. 30 Aug. 2015. http://venturebeat.com/2015/08/11/growth-hacking-has-two-phases-
and-using-the-wrong-one-can-sink-you/?utm_campaign=Submissionutm_medium=Communityutm_
source=GrowthHackers.com.

Focus on one metric. A hotel may focus on nights booked. A social media content
team may focus on increased engagements. By starting out with one metric, the
team can prioritize, focus and allow for contributions from all members.
Get high-impact wins and spread the word. You will have doubters, so you’ll
want to pick a metric that you can change quickly. Test copy or implement calls to
action. When you have a win, promote the results.
Invest in the right tools. Simple, quick wins should “create compound interest”
with many small or medium wins rather than fewer large ones. For this, you
need tools to help you identify and mine wins quickly. The tools will differ from
company to company, so watch what others are doing to get referrals on the best
tools for your data analysis.
Once you have a baseline metric for which to move the
needle, you’ll need specific tactics. The ideas are endless,
but again, they don’t have to be complex. Analytics expert
Neil Patel says one way to move the needle is to develop a
content marketing strategy.18
Three tactics may be included
in your content strategy:
Write a blog and promote it. Even in our harried, busy
world, people crave good content.
Guest blog. In the same vein, he also suggests writing guest
posts on websites that fit your niche. Pitch the site owners,
write a post and promote it to your users.
Engage online personally. Develop your social profiles carefully to enhance your
personal brand, with the intent to become a “celebrity in your own right.”
Patel also says to look past the social media hype to a more traditional digital
communication technique—e-mail. The number of e-mail users exceeds that of
social media, and it’s still most effective at lead generation. A simple growth hack
is creating an e-mail opt-in function on your website.
Patel cautions that the data growth hackers seek may not always come in forms
of numbers. Data may include content performance or customer information.
Traditional analytics platforms and dashboards may not be enough. Dig deep, and
find data that is actionable.
Once you land on a tactic, don’t rest your laurels on initial results—whether good
or bad. Do further testing. If you’ve decided to send an e-mail or post on a social
media platform, do A/B testing by changing the content, reviewing the results
18 Patel, Neil. “6 Growth Hack Techniques You Can Try Today.” Entrepreneur. N.p., 06 Jan. 2015. Web. 31 Aug.
2015. http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/241142.

4imprint serves hundreds of thousands of customers with promotional items throughout the United States,
Canada, United Kingdom and Ireland. 4imprint offers corporate gifts, personalized gifts, custom T-shirts,
promotional pens, travel mugs, tote bags, water bottles, Post-it®
Notes, custom calendars, custom shirts
and much more. For additional information, visit www.4imprint.com.
and improving based upon what you learn.19
Finally, if you’ve had a successful growth hack, find a way for your past and
new users to help you do the heavy lifting. Dropbox®
did it by giving users more
storage space when they referred friends. Find what works for you and your new
users. As marketer Ryan Holiday says, “It’s the growth hacker’s job to engineer
virality.”20
Final thoughts
Traditional marketing efforts often cost significant amounts of money, so that
failures can be disastrous to a company. Holiday argues in favor of growth
hacking because it’s cheap, effective and practical:21
“Instead of putting the cart before the horse and promoting a half-baked idea,
growth hackers are intimately involved in product development. Instead of
chasing vague notions like branding or awareness, a growth hacker drives users
and clients. Instead of spending money, growth hackers look for scalable growth
from viral factors and social sharing. Finally, instead of hoping these things
magically happen and customers organically stick around, they ruthlessly optimize
and improve efforts based on data.”
You shouldn’t expect growth hacking to be
easy, but if done right with the right team, it
may likely be the most effective way to drive
growth at your company.
20 Holiday, Ryan. “The 5 Phases of Growth Hacking.” Mashable. N.p., 2 Sept. 2013. Web. 30 Aug. 2015. http://
mashable.com/2013/09/02/growth-hacking/.
21 Ibid

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