25 Growth Hacks You Can Use Today

Growth hacking is not a project that has to be planned months in the future. It is all about small, continuous, iterations that will add up to substantial success. In this article, I will describe 25 growth hacks that you should implement today.

I learned to hack growth when working as an executive at Google, a market player that understands the importance of testing, both for themselves as well as for their clients.

Take for example Google Analytics. The “Content Experiments” feature in Analytics allows you to test which version of a landing page results in the most significant improvement in conversions or metric value. You can test up to 10 variations of a landing page. With Content Experiments, you can:

• Compare how different web pages or app screens perform using a random sample of your users;
• Define what percentage of your users are included in the experiment;
• Choose which objective you’d like to test;
• Get updates by email about how your experiment is doing.

So the next time that you want to run a test to determine which version of a web page is the most effective consider using Google Analytics. I am sure you already have it in your toolbox.

Gamification is the use of game principles and playing techniques in a non-game context to influence human behavior. There are great applications related to education and health, but of course, gamification can also be applied to marketing.

A famous example is the LinkedIn progress bar that encourages users to complete their profile. The aim is to gather as much information as possible about every individual on LinkedIn because this will result in more networking, more interaction, and more visits to the site.

You can weaponize the power of games, too! Here’s how:

1. Determine which behavior you want to influence. For example: You want visitors to spend more time in your app.
2. Link this behavior to an abstract reward, like the ones you see in a game. For example: if the user is busy with the app for more than an hour a day, she gets 100 points.
3. Link this abstract reward to something concrete, a prize that the user desires, something like, free features that are released when you reach every 1000 points, and discounts granted on paid options.
4. You can monitor whether your scheme continues to influence behavior the way you want. If this is not the case (anymore), start over with step 1 again.

If you want to make your business grow, the gamification approach can work miracles.

At RevelX, we like to be nice for our talented employees.

Why?

In the first place, because we are nice people ourselves.

In the second place, because we want our staff to perform excellently. As an HBR study showed, the highest performing teams give each other 5 compliments for every criticism.

So, next time that you want your people to be more productive, you know what to do: be more friendly!

There are two ways to approach social media: sharing your copy or being an expert curator of other people’s content. What is the most effective method for your business?

I think the best way is to combine both approaches of communication: share great third-party content and your own content at the same time.

The tool Sniply allows you to accomplish this. How does it work? The tool generates unique links for you to share. Anyone clicking on your links will see the content along with your call-to-action inside.

So from now on you will never have to ponder: “Does the content that I share boost another organization’s reputation instead of my business’ thought leadership?” Because all content that you share from now on will include your CTA.

In his classic best-seller Influence, Dr. Robert Cialdini describes 6 weapons of persuasion.

The 2nd of these excellent growth hacks is “commitment and consistency.” It is our nearly obsessive desire to be (and to appear) consistent with what we have already done.

One way to harness this weapon is to ask a person for a little concession, for example, a signature in support of a charity. If he is asked for a 2nd concession, for example, a donation to the charity in question, it is hard to say “no.”

So, hook your customer with a free trial, and then don’t let him go.

Why do you read this blog? Hopefully, the information that the other RevelX partners and I present is of use to you. Our ideas may even inspire you.

But, would you want to read the same content written poorly? In other words, the same copy using too many complicated words and sentences and formatted in a few, long-winded paragraphs? The ideas would be the same, but this verbal diarrhea would make you lose all interest.

Of course, that is a pitfall we want to escape.

Grammarly is one of the tools that help us write better content. It corrects our spelling, suggests synonyms, and gives suggestions about the quality of our writing. The software is brilliant; it even alerts us when our copy is gender-biased.

So, whether you are a native English speaker or not, Grammarly will make your next article better!

Do you know the “cheerleader effect?” It is the cognitive bias which causes people to think individuals are more attractive when they are in a group.

The phrase “cheerleader effect” was coined by the character Barney Stinson in How I Met Your Mother in 2008. Barney points out to his friends a group of women that initially seem attractive but who all seem to be disappointing when examined individually.

So, if you want your team to be more appealing, make a group photo for your website. The same goes for testimonials: never show just one client case, display groups of testimonials.

Studies have repeatedly shown that people don’t scan an entire webpage before leaving it.

Instead, people scan pages in an “F” or “E” shape. This means they focus more on the left side of the screen, only moving horizontally to the right when something piques their interest.

The takeaway? If you want your ads and content to be noticed, try moving them to the left — or adding attention-grabbing elements to that side of the screen.

Does your competitor have many clients?

Nice!

And is his newsletter awesome?

Even better!

This gives you the opportunity to target your competitor’s audience.

How does it work?

Gmail Ads allows you to bid on keywords in recipients’ mailboxes. You can choose to target the keywords of your competitor which is a simple way to target their contacts.

So, the next time you are jealous of your competitor’s many, high-quality contacts, target them in this way, and they will become your contacts!

In his classic best-seller Influence, Dr. Robert Cialdini describes 6 weapons of persuasion.

The 4th of these magnificent hacks is about people that you like and the influence they have on your actions.

As Cialdini puts it:

“Few people would be surprised to learn that, as a rule, we most prefer to say ‘yes’ to the requests of someone we know and like. What might be startling to note, however, is that this simple rule is used in hundreds of ways by total strangers to get us to comply with their requests.”

Hence, in “meatspace,” you will buy Tupperware products you don’t need because you like the hostess who invited you.

But this technique can be used online too: ask your customers to invite their friends to use your service. Of course, you can use an incentive like a commission or a prize. The chances are that you will see a massive increase in new users.

So, the first agenda item for your meeting today should be: “Which possibilities do we have to ask customers to refer their friends to us?”

Congratulations, there is a visitor on your website!

But wait a minute; she might leave at any moment…

An exit intent pop-up tool such as Optimonk, GetSiteControl, or Sumo.com comes to the rescue.

These tools will show a popup box with your customized messages when readers are about to leave your page. “At our site, shipping is free,” is a very compelling example of such a message.

If there is one thing you can do today to make your website more effective, you should add this tool.

“Fail fast, fail often” is one of the maxims of growth hacking (because failing means that you learn something).

Furthermore, the charm of errors – if they are small enough – is that they make you seem more human.

(Some people think this is the reason why Barack Obama stumbled over his words at his inauguration as US president in 2009.)

Did you ever see a marketing automation system that makes errors?

Maybe there should be one!

Try this: incorporate a “human error” into a marketing email, for example, “forgetting” a website link?  The trick is to automate a follow-up email a couple of minutes later, in which you will send the missing information.

According to our brothers in growth hacking at Wishpond, conversions for the second e-mail tend to skyrocket.

So, next time that you compose a marketing email try to forget that you are perfect. (-:

Embedding a tweet on your website can be a great idea, especially when your business is mentioned favorably in the message.

It can also be a way to give your website an interactive feel.

The embedding process might seem complicated, but in fact, @jack makes it very simple. Click here for the instructions.

So next time someone on Twitter nicely mentions your organization, don’t waste the opportunity; embed the tweet on your site.

Here’s how to harvest as many relevant email addresses as you can. Many online tools help you to accomplish this.

But an “old school” trick may be the most effective: ask people to fill out their email at an event on a paper list. The great thing is that the people who sign in will have a real interest in your organization.

The next time you organize an event, pen and paper should be in your action plan!

If your website features great content, don’t let it sit on the shelf!

For example, you can bundle your best blog content in a white paper or e-book. This way you don’t have to start from scratch. A different form of content can pique the interest of a new customer group.  

Furthermore, white papers and e-books will reinforce your position as an authority in the area you are writing about.

So next time that you write an article try to see it as a building block for a bigger project.

Do you have customers who leave items in their shopping carts, but don’t complete their purchase?

If they logged in to your website, you could send them an email (“Hey, you forgot something!”). 

If this is not the case, it becomes tricky.

But you don’t need Sherlock Holmes to solve the Mystery of the Abandoned Shopping Cart.

Just deploy Google Analytics to create remarketing audiences and share them with your advertising accounts. This will allow you to display follow-up ads to these potential customers.  

The percentage of abandoned shopping carts ranges anywhere from 50% to 80%, an enormous drain on earnings. That’s why I recommend you create remarketing audiences today!

A live chat option is an almost frictionless method to establish contact with potential customers. 

According to an ATG global consumer trend study, 90% of consumers consider live chats helpful. Furthermore, 62% are more likely to purchase again from a site that has a live chat feature, and 38% made their purchase due to the live chat itself.

Now you understand why the chat functionality on our website is displayed so prominently. 

Do you say that you don’t have that feature on your website? You should add one today!

If content is a big part of your website, you have to measure scroll depth, which is how far users are scrolling down your site and which subpages they visit. This gives an indication of how they use your content, and which wishes and interests they have.

You can track scroll depth through Google Tag Manager, a tool that also adds and updates AdWords, Google Analytics, Floodlight, and non-Google tags on a website. A great way to understand your website visitor’s behavior!

When creating registration forms, having too many fields can reduce the sign-up rate. That will hurt the number of leads that you will generate. So, optimize your forms to only request information that is needed for the registration process.

Of course, you want as much information as possible about your possible customers, but that can be done later. 

It can be compared with dating: a telephone number is the first step; the life-story will come later. 

So, re-evaluate the forms on your website, asking yourself the question: “Would this be a nice date?”

List Builder for Sumo is a simple email popup tool for your website. In particular, I like the tool’s “Welcome Mat” option.

Welcome Mat displays a full-screen call to action that shows when visitors land on your site. This can encourage your visitors to join your email list, check out a popular blog post, or make an appointment with you.

You can even show different Welcome Mats for different kinds of visitors. An A/B testing option completes this must-have tool.

If you want to increase the effectivity of your website today, you should deploy Welcome Mat!

Holding a competition is a simple but effective method to create engagements with your customers.

You really should use this opportunity to the fullest. Why not organize a raffle among the new subscribers to your newsletter? This is a low-threshold method to engage with your fans and grow your email addresses.

So next time that you hold a competition, you know what to do!

The longer a user visits your website, the bigger the chance that they will buy something. That’s why you should optimize the so-called “time on site.” Using videos is a sure way to keep those eyeballs on your website longer!

This is easily accomplished by embedding YouTube videos as accompaniments to the writings on your website. Because it is standard practice to embed other people’s videos, it is an easy way to increase the quality of your content without much hassle. Of course, the content creators will be rewarded by getting more views.

Finding effective social media influencers in your market can seem challenging. But I have a straightforward method to accomplish this. Buy a trade publication about your industry in the bookstore, and enter the names of the experts that are mentioned in this magazine in a social media monitoring tool.

You will immediately see who has a big following on social media. Furthermore, after a couple of days, it will be crystal clear who generates a lot of buzz. Those will be the people that will help you grow!

Google Analytics is a fundamental tool for every marketer and growth hacker. Still, many features are almost unknown. Take for example the pro tip that I will describe below.

Each day, around noon, you should open the Google Analytics dashboard. The first thing you will see, situated top left, is the graph that represents the number of users. Now, select “Today” in the menu on the lower left. Subsequently, the chart will now show this day’s website visitors until approximately 12:00 p.m., overlayed with the user graph of the same day a week ago.

In a glance, you will see if your user base is growing or not. If so, keep doing what you are doing. If not, publish new content on your site, create engagement through social media, and deploy any other legal means to get better numbers today.

If done every day, this approach will result in tremendous growth of your user base.

Do you remember Welcome Mat (tip #20)? Let’s delve deeper into this tool!

Welcome Mat’s “Instant Landing Page” feature allows you to lock the login page in place so that users cannot scroll down without signing in. It can feel a little bit heavy-handed, but a minimalist landing page like this will undoubtedly boost your activation rates!

If there is one thing you can do today to make your website more effective, you should install the Instant Landing Page feature on your site.

Well, that’s it! 25 great ways to improve your digital presence and to improve traffic flow, get more followers and more customers. Just try one or two. Better yet, try them all and see which ones work best for your unique situation. Start growing your company’s digital presence today!