An Introduction to Growth Hacking Concept
What Is It?
Growth hacking is a relatively new term in startups environment and there are many definitions to describe it but the main idea is that it represents a process of testing different methods to achieve the growth in a business. In general, a hacker is more oriented on product because he is more concerned on the result then on the process to get there. So, growth hackers are hackers focused on growing the number of users for a product. A smart growth hacker is constantly learning and testing different techniques.
Why Products and Services Need It?
It is important for products and services to rely on a growth hacker because these professionals’ only goal is to bring success in a business. Their main skill is to handle a combination of marketing, data and product. They put their creativity in game to reach the best results.
How Can It Be Used In Mobile Platforms?
In mobile platforms one of the main goals is user acquisition. But it became a struggle to accomplish that with the common marketing strategies. According to TechCrunch, while consumers spend 85% of their time on mobile applications, only 5 applications installed from App Store are being used. A great solution for increasing the chances of a successful strategy is to apply some of the growth hacking techniques. Growth hacking strategy increases the effectiveness of marketing campaigns in a short period of time.
Examples
The person who created this term was Sean Ellis in 2010, when he was looking for a person to replace him on his job back then. He was looking for someone that possessed something more than marketing experience. So he created a viral article called Find A Growth Hacker For Your Startup. A good explanation of this term is presented by Noah Kagan with a subtitle for his blog: “About Marketing and More”.
A growth hacking strategy based on referrals increased the Sign Up numbers by 60% for Dropbox, according to Drew Houston. They offered incentives for customers to spread the word about the brand and, in the same time they made easier for users to share the link.
Growth Hacking Strategies for Increasing App Downloads
After creating an app, every developer wants to see a huge number of downloads in a short period of time. But, this rarely happens without a smart strategy. This come handy some growth hacking technics to make the app shiny.
Invest in App Store Optimization
When you decide to develop an app, it means you begin a fascinating journey. However, you know that completing the app development process is not the last step! Before and after you launch your app, follow some steps to achieve success and abstain from some steps as well. As we discussed in previous articles like The Latest Tips For App Store Optimization or What Are The Do’s And Don’ts Of App Store Optimization you have to discover the characteristics of current users to attract more customers like them. The most effective solution of a perfect ASO is to pay attention to keywords. A good strategy is to find keywords that appear very often in searches with a low level of difficulty for your app to rank in first 10 by that keyword. After that, add those keywords inside app name, app title and description. For more information on that you can check our infographic The Ultimate ASO Checklist.
Leverage Your Community
First of all, create a landing page for your app. This way you can approach your users and you can engage them by offering insights about the app. But, don’t stop there. Promote your landing page and implicitly your app, through social media platforms, like Facebook, Quora, LinkedIn, Product Hunt or Reddit. But before that, participate to discussions related to your domain and bring value to those sites if you want to be accepted with your own projects. For example, this strategy made wonders for Prime, bringing him 900 unique visitors after a link for its landing page appeared on ProductHunt.
Create Word Of Mouth
Never underestimate the power of word. We conduct our lives by our family and friends’ advices and the online world makes everything more obvious. This is why you should invest as much effort as you can to make people speak about your app in a positive manner, of course, because bad reviews are worse than no reviews at all. Hugo Damasio created a tool, Get Social Smart Invites that encourages users to invite their friends to use an app through popular social networks.
Localize Your App
Localization is a great blend of procedures to make sure that all your users have the best possible experience, no matter where are they from. Remember that localization is not just translating the app’s page; you need to modify the layout of the app and create resource folders for every language. Take care about languages that need right – to – left support.
Create Boost Campaigns to Boost Your App
Newly launched apps’ chances to be found is decreasing and ranking at the top of any app category is harder than ever. This is why, if you want your app to reach the success it deserves, you need to consider boost campaigns as a growth strategy for your app. Boost campaigns help your app to go viral, and it is also a chance to test your app with real users. If you want to learn more about boost campaigns, you can check this article from App Samurai.
Cross – Promote Your App
Find brands with the same values like yours and associate with them. If you will promote their products they will do the same for your app. It is a win – win situation both for you and your future partner even if you have a low budget.
Focus On Analytics
As we said earlier growth hacking is a continuous process of trying and testing different strategies. So, always you have to measure your metrics and act accordingly to go on with the growing plan. Just look at Lele Canfora, an expert in startup growth which says that his main focus is analytics.
Final Thoughts
Although a growth hacking strategy is not a magical formula, it is the answer for mobile issues in terms of creating a huge user base because it is a general fact that growth hackers are creative problem solvers. Growth hacking strategies have great results in a short period of time even without a huge budget for marketing.