The Growth Hacking Book 2: 100 Proven Hacks for Business and Startup Success in the New Decade

By Parul Agrawal, Rohan Chaubey and Sourabh Goyal

Imagine what is possible if you discover the growth hacks tried and tested by the world's top 100+ experts from 20 countries. The book presents 100+ battle-tested growth strategies categorized under the concept of GrowthSet: Acquire the SkillSet + Install the MindSet + Employ the

• Language: English
• Publisher: GrowthMedia.AI
• Release date: Jan 12, 2021
• ISBN: 9781736441206

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Disclaimer

The entire content of The Growth Hacking Book 2, must be considered as exclusively informative and cannot in any way be understood as a substitute, alternative or supplementary of professional opinions.

Despite the scrupulous care used in the preparation of The Growth Hacking Book 2, drawn up with the utmost accuracy and diligence, it is not possible ensure that the information contained within it is free from errors, omissions or inaccuracies. The Publisher GrowthMedia.ai, Parul Agrawal, Rohan Chaubey, Associate Partners Sourabh Goyal and Pia Singh, authors of the book disclaim any liability, direct and indirect, towards readers, regarding inaccuracies, errors, omissions, damages, deriving from the aforementioned contents.

The authors of The Growth Hacking Book 2 cannot guarantee the users of the book to obtain the same results of personal, character growth, psychological, motivational, physical or any other nature or denomination on a par with as set out in this work.

Within The Growth Hacking Book 2 the ideas of consultants and experts are cited and hosted which in an absolutely free form, not constituting what they affirmed an opinion of a professional or similar nature, offered their contribution for information purposes only, without any presumption or willingness to place oneself above the recognized traditional system. This book is an anthology, and not the reflection of the knowledge of the publisher GrowthMedia.AI and its employees. It is at the free discretion of the user of The Growth Hacking Book 2 and its absolute responsibility for any willingness to follow or replicate some of the advice proposed therein or to contact other competent personnel, according to your own beliefs, knowledge, habits and wills.

Everything included within The Growth Hacking Book 2 must always be understood as the subjective opinion of the author, given that these considerations can also run counter to the precepts of knowledge taught in universities and / or in the scientific world and therefore go there considered as simple expressions or controversies of a personal and in any case non- professional nature, having to make exclusive reference to/and reliance solely on traditional and recognized fields of knowledge.

Publisher, Growth Media.AI

Hello From The Publisher’s Desk

Facebook friends are not your real friends!

How many times have you heard this statement, believed in it and then shunned away from engaging in establishing a connection with your social space circle?

In December 2016, I had the golden opportunity of moving back to India after living in the United States for almost 14 years. Me and my family (husband and son) moved back with mixed feelings. On one hand we were excited to be back in our mother country and live closer to our families while on the other hand we were worried about starting afresh leaving the place we had called home for over a decade.

Even amidst all this uncertainty one thing I was positive about was my stay in India, no matter how short will be a cherished phase in my life because this would give me an opportunity to meet some of my social media friends in person.

And then finally in December 2017 just a few months short of my return back to the US, I met some of the best digital marketers, growth hackers, social media genies, podcasters and young entrepreneurs I had been in touch with online at a network meeting that I co-hosted in Bangalore, India.

I had been following the work and even stalking most of these amazing entrepreneurs online but when I met them in person my jaw literally dropped. I had not anticipated that the average age of some of these talented entrepreneurs would be 20 years.

A new wave of inspiration dawned at me after this meeting. Collaboration and not competition has always been my business mantra and I started thinking of ways that I could collaborate with these amazing entrepreneurs.

That’s when I reached to Rohan Chaubey, India’s most followed Growth Hacker whom I had also met at that network meeting and proposed him the idea of doing a collaborative book as a way to give a platform to the talent taking internet world by storm not only in India but other parts of the World as well.

Being an established author and publisher I had the book publishing and marketing knowledge whereas being the community leader Rohan had the right network and contacts who could share their expertise in the book.

We spoke about this idea back and forth for about a year and then around December 2018 we started reaching out to contributors to be part of The Growth Hacking Book 1. After months of hard work, patience and sleepless nights we released The Growth hacking Book 1 on July 13, 2019 both online and at an in-person event in Delhi. The book was very well accepted by both the growth hacking and internet marketing fraternity as well as by the people who wanted to learn more about scaling their business using the power of new ways of marketing. We also received tons of support from the Government of India with Amitabh Kant, CEO of Niti Aayog, the policy making division of India, personally endorsing the book.

This was truly unexpected! When we have the right intentions, the Universe gives us back multifold. We started with the sole mission of giving a platform to the young and upcoming digital marketers, content writers, social media geniuses and growth hackers to share their expertise and received the support and appreciation from all sectors including the Government of India.

After the success of The Growth Hacking Book 1 our circle expanded and people started asking us about The Growth Hacking Book 2. In December 2019 we decided to make an open call for the second series and within 2 weeks we had 50 contributors enthusiastic to be part of the book. Writing, publishing, marketing a book and that too a collaborative book is hard work and takes lots of effort, planning, coordination and cooperation so Rohan and I had no plans of doing The Growth Hacking Book 2. But the love and support we received from the community gave us the motivation to publish The Growth Hacking Book 2.

We started reaching out to the contributors of this book in February 2020 and after a year of continuous labor, communication, collaboration and dedication we are proud to present you THE GROWTH HACKING BOOK 2.

Within the pages of this book you will find 100+ battle-tested growth strategies categorized under the concept of GrowthSet (Acquire the SkillSet + Install the MindSet + Employ the ToolSet) that will help you grow professionally and personally in the new decade.

It’s our sincere hope that you will find at least one strategy that will help you achieve new heights through the information provided in The Growth Hacking Book 2.

Yes, Facebook friends can be real support and allies so do not shun away from reaching out to them just like we did which gave way to The Growth Hacking Book Series and community.

Thank you for your support and welcome to the World of Growth!

Cordially,

Parul Agrawal

Author & Publisher

www.parulagrawal.com

www.growthmedia.ai

Dedication

Dedicated to all our readers who work

passionately crafting their dreams, building their

empire and leaving a legacy...

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our deep and sincere gratitude to all our authors who believed in The Growth Hacking Book. Thanks to all our contributors for authentically sharing their invaluable insights and growth recipes in their chapters.

The completion of this resourceful book could not have been possible without the efforts of all the wonderful people whose names may not all be enumerated but their assistance is greatly appreciated.

We would especially like to thank the following friends who have been working tirelessly behind the curtains:

Sourabh Goyal and Pia Singh: Our associate partners who were as involved as us and went out of their way generously investing their efforts and time to bring this project to successful completion.

Angela B. Spragg: For her enthusiasm, her encouragement, her positive vibes and interviews with the contributors of the book.

Anu Bansal: For helping with content writing and beta reading.

Abishiekh Jain: For helping with content writing.

Anitha Ghantasala: For helping us with valuable administration work and for providing another set of eyes to the edited chapters.

Deepak Gupta: For helping with the formatting of the manuscript.

Dhanur Sehgal: For building the Facebook chrome extension FB Toolset as a lead magnet for The Growth Hacking Book.

Hardik Lashkari: For helping with his legal advice and copywriting skills.

Haswata Prasanna: For helping with graphic designing.

Kunal Aggarwal: For graphic designing and marketing lead magnets.

Raghavendra Devadiga: For social content, chapter formatting and admin tasks.

Rahul Chavan: For designing the website.

Vagisha Arora: For helping us edit a significant set of first drafts.

Yash Fatnani: For initial social media graphics design.

Kushagra Sharma, Piyush Kukreja, Ruchi G. Kalra, Ruchi Singh & Tameka Chapman: For interviewing the authors and helping them shine in the online space.

Invincible Winners: our online family of high achievers for their constant support, feedback and encouragement.

We would also like to thank our parents and family members for their support, patience and dealing with our crazy schedules as we burnt the midnight oil while working on this book.

Above all, thanks to the Great Almighty, the author of knowledge and wisdom for showering his love and countless blessings.

To the Growth Hacking and Marketing community for their moral, financial and emotional support - thank you!

It truly takes a village to build a dream, raise an empire.

Sincerely,

Parul Agrawal & Rohan Chaubey

Compilers of The Growth Hacking Book Series

Founders, Growth Media AI

www.growthmedia.ai

The Growth Hacking Book 2 Introduction

By Rohan Chaubey

Imagine how it would feel if every time you launched a product, published content, or offered services, you get an overwhelming response from your target audience.

Everything you touch turns to gold. You built an engine to achieve product-market fit.

You get overbooked even before the launch — no questions asked.

This book will show you how.

Prerequisite for Growth Hacking:

The prerequisite to hack growth is to understand that growth hacking is not a pipedream or a silver bullet.

Aren’t we tired of hearing so-called experts telling us:

A one-trick pony that can make everything better.

If you do this one thing your startup will become a billion dollar company.

No time or effort required, acquire paying customers while you’re sleeping.

I don’t believe it. Growth Hacking requires hard work. Instead of asking, Will this work?, ask yourself, Are you willing to put in the work to make it work?

Growth Hacking is not magic. There are no shortcuts. Growth Hackers do things that maybe traditional marketers wouldn’t think about doing.

If you’re reading this, I bet you are someone who thinks differently; you’re not afraid to take the unconventional path to growth.

All that’s required of you is a willingness to think about growth and marketing in a different way than you’re probably used to.

Since the launch of The Growth Hacking Book 1, I have been invited to hundreds of events, podcasts and YouTube shows to talk about Growth Hacking. In this introduction chapter, I have answered the most commonly asked questions about Growth Hacking.

If you’re able to consume and retain the knowledge and the information presented in this introduction chapter, you will be counted in that small section of the professionals who truly understand Growth Hacking.

If you say I know everything, that process blocks you from learning. And even if you know something, you can recap. And after reading this chapter, if you say you didn’t learn anything that means you weren’t reading attentively. Because if you are attentive while reading, you will learn at least one new thing. So be open when you consume this book.

If you don’t use it, you lose it. So keep using and sharing the golden nuggets you find in this chapter and the book.

Everybody is looking for hacks but sometimes simplicity beats any hacks as per this quote by Sir Richard Branson: Complexity is your enemy. Any fool can make something complicated. It is hard to make something simple.

In this intro chapter, I have tried my best to explain Growth Hacking in the simplest terms.

What is Growth Hacking?

Growth Hacking is conducting fast-track marketing experiments to uncover unconventional or underexploited marketing strategies to acquire and retain customers/users/followers using data and minimum resources (time, team and money).

With marketing budgets shrinking and channels saturating, Growth Hacking is the need of the hour.

It can be anything - viral marketing, publicity stunts, leveraging trends or other people’s audience, inbound/outbound/automated, copywriting, gamification, etc. The possibilities are infinite.

A growth hacker is someone that operates at the intersection of product, marketing, and technology to methodically acquire, activate and retain users/followers/clients.

Marketing: Growth Hacker uses inbound and outbound strategies to attract traffic.

Technology: Sometimes, growth is achieved by building growth tools, APIs or no-code tech solutions. It is not necessary for growth hackers to be coders, but a growth hacker should be able to write pseudocode to implement code-heavy solutions and they should be able to figure out the technical possibilities and limitations of the platforms.

Product: Growth Hackers should also be able to suggest or discuss product level decisions that can be used to activate and retain users. Example - UI/UX, gamification, copywriting, referral system within the product, etc.

A growth hack is an unconventional + creative approach to marketing a startup.

A growth hacker is someone that operates at the intersection of product, marketing, and technology to methodically acquire, activate and retain users/followers/clients.

Growth Hackers are in demand. Growth Hacking is among the top 15 emerging jobs by LinkedIn. And it is among the highest paying marketing / digital skills.

What’s the difference between Growth Hacking and Growth Marketing?

There is no legal definition of Growth Hacking or Growth Marketing. Don’t let others hypnotize you into thinking that you do not have the power to define Growth Hacking or Growth Marketing. There are no boundaries. Don’t let them box you into their idea of what Growth Hacking should be.

Sometimes Growth Hacking is also referred to as Growth Marketing. However, some marketers may want to convince you that Growth Hacking is short-term tactics and Growth Marketing is long-term strategies. That’s their point of view.

In my opinion, Growth Hacks can be short-term or long-term. Ideally, they should be repeatable, measurable and scalable.

Sean Ellis coined the term Growth Hacking a decade ago (in 2010) and here’s what he published in one of his LinkedIn articles:

Ultimately I care most about how to drive rapid, sustainable growth for great products that provide real value. In my experience, breakout growth happens when you experiment across all growth levers and this requires close coordination between marketing, product, engineering, UX, data, design teams…. When you call something growth marketing, it leads many teams to add roles for growth product management, growth engineering, etc. This is OK as long as people are working effectively cross-functionally to experiment and accelerate value delivery (critical for sustainable growth). But for many companies, cross-functionally working to drive growth has been a huge challenge.

Is Growth Hacking Illegal?

There is a negative connotation to the word Hacking because we all hate hackers that steal our private data, money or identity. However, Growth Hacking is different.

Growth Hackers are not black hat hackers. Growth Hacking is not hacking in a literal sense.

Growth Hackers do not adopt fraudulent means to grow a business. Growth Hackers can find three types of growth hacks:

Creative, innovative or novel marketing strategies.

Pushing the boundaries or going to the edge or finding loopholes on platforms, APIs, etc. But they will stay within legal boundaries.

Leveraging technology (scripts, codes, APIs, softwares, etc.) to achieve growth goals.

Difference between Growth Hackers and Digital Marketers?

The main differences between Growth Hacking and Digital Marketing:

How Digital Marketers can become Growth Hackers?

Growth Hackers are Digital Marketers with strong analytical and technical skills.

Digital marketers can become growth hackers if they relentlessly work on developing their GrowthSet™.

What is GrowthSet™?

GrowthSet™ is represented with a mathematical formula.

GrowthSet™ = Skillset + Mindset + Toolset

GrowthSet™ will fuel your rise to stand out in a crowded marketplace and become one of the finest growth hackers of the industry.

Acquire the SkillSet. Install the MindSet. Employ the ToolSet.

One of the top three reasons startups fail is they do not have the right team with members having mutually exclusive traits.

GrowthSet™ is a recipe for startup success. GrowthSet™ is the foundational principle on which successful cross-functional teams are built.

Expanding the GrowthSet™ Formula:

Skillset: Copywriting, SEO, Content Writing, Content Marketing, Design, Conversion Optimization, Email Marketing, Outreach, Social Media, Analytics, Marketing Automation, etc.

Mindset: Behavioral psychology, lean startup methodology, agile marketing, data-driven decision making, experimental mindset, resourcefulness - achieving growth with optimal usage of resources (time, money and team).

Toolset: Leveraging the latest technologies and employing the right tools and APIs to automate or systemize or optimize functions for fast-paced experimentation.

What is the job of a Growth Hacker?

Your job as a Growth Hacker is to discover / ideate and experiment measurable + scalable + repeatable processes to grow an important metric (North Star Metric) for a business.

Once you find a proven process that delivers predictable results, you either try to automate it or systemize it by creating a SOP (Standard Operating Procedure).

Growth Hacking Funnel

Difference between a growth hacker and a digital marketer is that the growth hackers work at all stages of the AARRR (Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue) funnel.

The goal of the growth hacker is to move the website visitors down the funnel.

Acquisition - Generating awareness and targeted traffic to your website.

Activation - Turning casual visitors into users.

Retention - Making users come back and keep them as long-term users.

Referral - Users recommending your product to others.

Revenue - Turning users into paid customers.

The revenue stage can come before or after the referral stage.

*The above list is suggestive, not exhaustive.

How to become a Growth Hacker? How to learn Growth Hacking?

In 2016, I got my first (remote) job with a SF-based SaaS startup.

The founder and CEO called himself a Growth Hacker. He rarely spoke to us, most of the time his wife (CMO) conveyed important information. So I started Google searching and self-educating myself.

Being an autodidact it wasn’t difficult for me to understand the fundamentals through the limited information on the internet. It can be difficult for the newcomers who are keen to learn Growth Hacking, but can’t find a definite path.

I’m sharing my learning path with an intention that it might help those who are just starting out.

1. Spend time consuming content about Growth Hacking as much as you can!

Take notes. Record the best ideas you have read.

Put knowledge into action. Everything you do should be repeatable, measurable and scalable.

I consume blog posts, videos, podcasts, books, webinars, event replays, social media posts, etc.

2. Find someone who has been there and done that.

Look for mentors. If need be, hire them or work with them to learn from them.

Growth Hacking is methodical. Learn about their lesser-known strategies, tools, tactics, framework, processes, etc.

3. Cultivate Growth Hacking Mindset.

Leverage other people’s time, money, talents and network.

Leverage the power of scalable tools.

Look for trends, patterns and ways to systemize, optimize and automate.

As they say, The ‘secret’ is the mindset, not the toolset.

4. Experiment and find your own Growth Hacks.

Come up with your original growth tools and tactics.

Sharing a few examples:

Twitter - I built a SaaS platform that helped my clients boost their organic reach using Twitter influencers by automating cross promotions via Twitter API.

LinkedIn - A client wanted to onboard 1000+ beta users for their SaaS platform. I created a high-quality lead magnet, posted it on my LinkedIn profile and it went viral receiving 330,000 views and 1000+ comments. We invited all the commenters to join our beta platform.

Instagram - Instagram doesn’t have a friendly web interface to access the contact information of your followers or influencers. So we developed an in-house tool that helps you get the email and phone numbers of Instagram accounts on scale.

5. Understand marketing and analytics.

Know the rules to bend them to your will.

Harness the power of analytics.

Conclude based on data, not instinct.

Always be learning.

It doesn’t require any special qualifications to be a growth hacker. All you need is a growth mindset. Anyone can learn growth marketing.

Learn from people who are better than you.

Collaborate with your peers.

Teach those who are new and need your help.

When to use Growth Hacking?

Identify if your product is a must-have or nice-to-have. Must-have products are pain-killers and nice-to-have products are vitamins.

Growth Hacking works best for companies that have achieved the product-market fit with their must-have products.

As Matt Brocchini, Co-Founder of Tinkering Labs defines:

Product Market Fit is a magnetic force that attracts and binds customers to products. The better the fit, the higher the market share, the more loyal customers tend to be, and the more difficult it is for a competitor to lure customers away. High fit means low customer acquisition cost, high loyalty, and high lifetime customer value. Low fit means high customer churn, high customer acquisition costs, and low loyalty.

Growth Hacking Process

The 3-step simplest Growth Hacking process:

Know your customers (Customer Profiling)

What channels you can find your customers online (not restricted to social media, it can be an off-beat or non-mainstream channel too)

How you are going to reach out to them on scale (growth experiments to systemize your outreach / marketing)

Growth Engine (Distribution Channel and Tactics) -> Traffic -> Sign ups (Funnel) -> Sales / Customers -> Engagement / Retention -> Referral / Word-of-mouth (Repeat)

Architecture of a Growth Engine

Come up with ideas / experiments (based on hypothesis)

Prioritize growth experiments

Run / Execute / Test

Collect data

Makes sense out of the data and analytics

Iterate, scale / double-down, optimize, eliminate

Prioritization Frameworks to Prioritize Your Experiments Backlog

In case you have a ton of ideas and practically not everything can be executed simultaneously, you use following popular prioritization frameworks:

ICE = Impact