Taylor Chiyangwa
Are you looking for ways to grow your startup? Off course you are. Growth increases the chances of survival which is critical.
In this article, we will share with you some of the tips and tricks you can use to growth hack your startup for better chances of survival.
What is growth hacking
Growth hacking is a term that covers a wide range of strategies focused solely on the growth of a business. It is usually used in relation to early-stage startups who need massive growth in a short time on small budgets.
The understanding behind growth hacking is that your budget as a startup is usually small and stretched so much that you won’t have enough for marketing and growth activities.
The goal of growth hacking strategies is generally to acquire as many users or customers as possible while spending as little as possible.
The assumption behind the tips we are giving you is that you already have a scalable product that people want and are prepaid to pay for. Without these two ingredients, these tips won’t work.
- Offer related products your current customers
It’s way easier and cheaper to sell to your current customer than to get a new one. Thus you should look for ways to retain and sell more to your current customers.
For example, if you provide web development services, which is a once off transaction, you can provide website management services on a monthly basis.
Your customers will be more likely to engage you for this new service and you will have money coming in on a regular basis.
Find Networking Events Where Your Target Consumers are Likely to be Found
It’s more productive to market to people who are likely to be interested in your product as the conversion rates tend to be higher.
Seek out industry events and where possible elect to speak for free just to get the exposure you need. Learn the art of effective networking and use this to get the most out of these events.
Create In-depth Buyer Personas
You cant market effectively if you don’t know your target market. Take the time out to create buyer personas/customer profiles that will inform your marketing activities.
Don’t make the mistake of trying to market to everyone. Rather, narrow down and make sure you target the right people.
The following questions can help you get started in creating a buyer persona.
- Who will derive the most benefits from our products?
- What are our customers’ pain points?
- What problem does our product solve
- What sets us apart from our competitors?
- What are the demographics of our target customers? Etc
This knowledge will help you market better and thus grow faster.
Use Content Marketing To Grow Your Visibility
Content marketing is a great way to spread the word about your product. Typical content marketing activities include:
- Starting a blog and creating valuable, shareable content
- Guest blogging
- Creating social media content
- Writing ebooks and white papers
- Podcasting
- Getting bloggers to review your product
- Improving content visibility with SEO
- Getting listed in relevant marketplaces and sites
Choose some of the content marketing activities that you can undertake. You may have to hire consultants to help you. If done well, content marketing can be a cheap way of getting noticed.
Use Paid Advertising Campaigns
Cost per click (CPC) advertising on Facebook and Google can help you get noticed quicker. In a country like Zimbabwe where there isn’t a lot of competition for advertising space on these platforms, you can get exposure for a song.
The trick is to make sure that your advertising campaigns are well tailored and managed so that you effectively use your ad spend. Again, you may need to hire consultants to help you in setting up effective ad campaigns.
Incentivise Distribution by Current Customers
Word of mouth recommendations are trusted by consumers and can help you grow faster. Look for ways you can encourage your current customers to share your product with others. For example, Dropbox rewards existing users for inviting new ones with additional storage.
This means that they have outsourced a part of their marketing to their existing customers.
Build an Email List
Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to connect with your customers. That is why a lot of sites ask for your email at the outset.
According to some reports, a customer needs to be exposed to your brand for at least 7 times before buying from you. Email marketing can help expose your brand to potential customers for that amount of time.
From the first day, you should be building your email list with both current and prospective clients. There are a few ways to build this list. You can create a valuable e-book that you give away for free in exchange for an email address.
You should then take the time to create an engaging email marketing campaign that turns subscribers into customers. Again you may have to engage experts to help you craft an effective email marketing campaign.
For starters, you can use MailChimp as your email marketing platform. It offers a free plan up to 2000 subscribers and 12 000 emails a month. This is more than enough when you are starting out.
Offer Free Products that Go Well with Paid Products
Who doesn’t like free products? No-one! Use this to your advantage. For example, if you offer digital marketing services you can offer an obligation-free digital presence assessment to clients.
The assessment will help you show your customer that you are an expert before they engage you. The time you expend doing that will be more than paid back by the business you get.
Take the risk from your customer
As a startup, you will be unproven. This gives risk to potential customers who may engage you when you are incompetent. This risk may push some potential clients away.
One way of countering this is to take the risk from your customer. For example, if you build websites you can elect to build a dummy website for a client before they pay anything.
You can also offer free trials, and test runs. This will help you earn the trust of your potential customers.
Get Endorsed by Influencers
Another way to get the trust and business of potential customers is to be endorsed by influencers.
Knowledge of your buyer personas will help you understand the kind of influencers they follow. You can then approach the influencer with a partnership proposal. If done well, influencer marketing can be a great part of your content marketing strategy.
Use Surveys to get Feedback from Existing Customers
Your existing customers can provide you with valuable information that can help you improve your products so that it appeals to more customers. Look for ways to get feedback from your customers and always treat it seriously. In the same vein, you can also listen to complaints that other customers have about your competitor products and use that feedback to improve and refine your own products.
Conclusion
These tips if used effectively, can lead to massive growth for your startup? Do you think you can use any of these tips in your business? Share your thoughts on our Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/techhubharare/
