Hacking Growth summary

There are countless entrepreneurs hoping to come up with the next Airbnb, Yelp, Facebook or Amazon. Each of these companies experienced rapid growth, and that’s probably because they all have something in common. They each released a must-have product or service that people loved.

Even if you’re already sure that people love your product, you’ve got to get a grasp on your customers’ experiences and opinions by reaching out to them. Only then will you really know if your product is a must-have.

In the movie Field of Dreams, the main character hears a mysterious voice: “If you build it, they will come.” And, sure enough, after spending every penny he has to build a baseball park on his property, people miraculously arrive.

While this might make for an inspirational Hollywood story, in reality, you’ve got to do more than just build something great if you want people to come and keep your business thriving.

At the start of the 2008 season, the Baylor University football team had been struggling for over a decade. But things changed that year: the new head coach, Art Briles, introduced to the team a fast-paced, no-huddle offense.

This new high-speed game helped Baylor not only out-hustle its opponents on game day; it also allowed the team to run more plays during practice. In other words, Baylor was able to learn more in less time. And this is the kind of efficiency you can implement by embarking on the four-stage growth hacking cycle.

While the first two stages of analysis and ideas are about finding and implementing growth hacks, the final two stages are about testing your new ideas.

The third stage is to prioritize, which involves putting the ICE scoring system to use. To prioritize your ideas using the ICE system, each member of the growth team rates their ideas based on three factors: impact, confidence and ease.

Attracting new customers is always a challenge. But, as crazy as it sounds, it’s not always worth the effort. These days, a lot of businesses spend more money on acquiring new customers than those customers will ever generate in revenue. This raises a pressing question: How can you attract new customers without going bankrupt in the process?

The first message your business presents to a potential customer plays an extremely important role. It must quickly communicate information and resonate with them in a meaningful way.

Even if you succeed in attracting potential customers to your product, the next challenge is to turn them into purchasing customers. Only 2 percent of most sites’ web traffic leads to an actual sale. But look on the bright side of this teeny percentage: there’s lots of room for improvement.

A great way to help bring in customers is to create a funnel report, which allows you to pinpoint where customers tend to drop off.

If you’ve ever struggled with a big lifestyle change, like trying to start a new diet or exercise regimen, you know that the first couple of weeks are the toughest. But if you’ve managed to stick with it, then you also know that it gets easier over time.

This process is known as the power of habit formation, and it applies to growth hacking as well. Many businesses have found success by helping customers form habits by offering rewards through a process known as engagement loops.

At this point, you might be thinking that all these tips are great, but when do we get to growing revenue? Indeed, increased revenue can be one of the best signs of company growth, and knowing where the majority of your revenue is coming from is truly valuable information.

That’s why identifying and understanding your customer segments is a growth hack that will lead you to increasing your best revenue streams.