Hacking Growth Book Summary - Hacking Growth Book explained in key points

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Hacking Growth summary

Name: Hacking Growth
Rating: 4.5 (162 reviews)
Author: Sean Ellis & Morgan Brown

Sean Ellis Morgan Brown

How Today's Fastest-Growing Companies Drive Breakout Success

4.5 (162 ratings)

23 mins

Brief summary

Hacking Growth by Sean Ellis & Morgan Brown is a guide for startups to achieve rapid growth by focusing on user acquisition and experimentation, using data-driven methods and a growth mindset.

Topics

Growth Hacking Success Strategy Entrepreneurship

Table of Contents

Hacking Growth
Summary of 9 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 9

What’s in it for me? Make your product the next big thing.

Any business owner from any generation will tell you that growing a small company into a big one isn’t easy. But now, with so many new possibilities in online marketplaces, it’s a whole new ball game.

Online business may present a host of new problems, but it also provides an unprecedented amount of data, not to mention the ability to communicate with customers in amazingly useful ways. These opportunities – to test your product and learn from customers – are two of the key factors in hacking growth.

These blinks explain the growth hacking playbook. They provide a systematic way of collecting, analyzing and testing data that just about any business can use to quickly make the most of its time and resources.

In these blinks, you’ll also find out

what a college football team can teach us about efficient business practices;
how data about your customer’s internet connection can be a game changer; and
how to find your company’s North Star.

Growth teams use inter-department collaboration and strong leadership to get results.

Here’s a common scenario that any number of entrepreneurs face today: you’re the CEO of a small business, and though you’re making a nice profit, you need to find a way to take it to the next level.

What you need to do is prioritize growth by establishing a growth team. A growth team is made up of members from different departments within your company, and it harnesses the power of collaboration to focus exclusively on finding ways to grow.

Let’s look at a real-world example. Prior to forming a growth team, the software company BitTorrent had 50 employees working in the traditional departments of engineering, marketing and product development. This brought them good results until 2012, when their growth plateaued.

The problem was that too many customers were using the basic, free version of their product. And despite making improvements to the premium, paid version, few people were making the upgrade.

Things changed, however, when an innovative project-marketing manager (PMM) came aboard, created a growth team and sparked the kind of fresh perspective they needed. By looking at engineering issues from a marketing point of view, it became clear that the lack of upgrades wasn’t due to a quality issue. Most customers were simply unaware of the premium version and what it offered.

Armed with this insight, the marketing and engineering teams joined forces to raise awareness by prominently promoting the premium version to users of the free version. As a result, upgrades skyrocketed, and revenue increased by 92 percent.

But in order for your growth team to succeed, it needs to have a strong leader. It needs someone who can unite the interdisciplinary team and keep them on course for improvement.

This leader will identify the target area, set clear goals and establish a time frame for the accomplishment of these goals. For example, he or she may decide it’s best to focus on developing new marketing channels and set a goal for the team to come up with three potential new ones by the end of the month.

The growth leader is also responsible for keeping the team focused on moving forward and steering them clear of distractions. While attractive new ideas can be distracting, the team leader must recognize when these ideas don’t serve the current goal and need to be put on the back burner.

To develop a must-have product, you need to know your customers well.

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.

Identify key data metrics to track growth-hacking progress.

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.

Rapidly develop new ideas in the first two stages of the growth-hacking cycle: analyze and ideate.

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.

Rapidly test new ideas in the last two stages of the growth-hacking cycle: prioritize and test.

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.

Attract customers by creating a message that resonates and narrowing down your marketing channels.

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.

Make it easy for fans to become customers.

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.

Keep customers loyal and active by creating customer habits.

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.

Understand your customers, and you’ll earn more from them.

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.

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What is Hacking Growth about?

Hacking Growth (2017) provides online business owners with a game plan for taking their company to the next level. Sean Ellis and Morgan Brown give readers a step-by-step guide through a dynamic and endlessly repeatable process that will spark growth and transform any sluggish business into a vibrant, growing enterprise teeming with loyal customers.

Hacking Growth Review

Hacking Growth (2017) is a book that delves into the world of growth hacking and offers practical strategies for rapid business growth. Here's why this book is worth reading:

Packed with insightful case studies and real-life examples, it provides actionable takeaways that can be immediately implemented to drive growth.
Written by industry experts, Sean Ellis and Morgan Brown, the book draws from their vast experience, making it a reliable and valuable resource.
The book explores innovative growth techniques and creative marketing strategies, keeping readers engaged and ensuring that the content is anything but boring.

Best quote from Hacking Growth

The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.

—Sean Ellis & Morgan Brown

Who should read Hacking Growth?

Entrepreneurs and CEOs
Business students
Anyone hoping to grow a business

About the Author

Sean Ellis is cofounder and CEO of GrowthHackers.com. He’s responsible for the term “growth hacker,” as well as organizing the Growth Hackers Conference.

Morgan Brown specializes in marketing for start-ups and has given talks around the world on how to grow a business. He is also a cofounder of GrowthHackers.com and the COO of the real-estate news company Inman News.

Categories with Hacking Growth

Marketing & Sales Entrepreneurship

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