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What is growth hacking?
Growth hacking is a marketing approach focused on rapid and effective growth, often used by startups and fast-growing businesses.
It's an innovative blend of traditional marketing, creativity, data analysis, and the use of technology to achieve specific goals.
Rather than following conventional marketing methods, growth hacking seeks less orthodox strategies, generally at reduced cost, to acquire, engage, and retain customers.
Growth hackers use A/B testing, viral campaigns, social media, search engine optimization (SEO), and other techniques to continuously test and improve their growth strategies.
Their ultimate goal is to find the most efficient and fastest ways to grow a business in an ever-changing digital environment.
List of famous Growth Hacking strategies
The examples below are some of the most well known growth hacks.
1. Puma
The term growth hacking wasn't even invented when Puma showed its marketing genius in the 1970 World Cup final.
They asked Pelé to lace up his shoes before kick-off and Pelé did. As expected, the cameras focused on Pelé and his Pumas and made people realize that the best soccer player in the world was wearing a Puma.
According to the book “Three Stripes Versus Puma,” Pelé was paid 120,000 dollars to squat and lace up his shoes. This is perhaps the best influencer marketing case to date.
Remember: Ask yourself who, when, and where.
Who can best present your product to your target audience? When is the right time and what online or offline platform can you use to get maximum exposure?
2. Dollar Shave Club
Fighting with a strong argument is a lethal growth hacking strategy. Dollar Shave Club used video marketing to declare war on the giants of the razor industry by asking these simple questions:
- Do you like to spend $20 a month on a designer razor?
- Do you think your razor needs a vibrating handle and a flashlight?
And Mike, the founder, gives the solution to his audience in a witty video.
The video went viral and got 26 million views. See if you're not one of these 26 million people, because it's the funniest of the 19 examples of growth hacking.
Takeaway: Think of a problem in your industry and, through content marketing, show how your product could solve that problem. Video marketing, in particular, is an effective way to show your brand personality and get your message across.
3. dropbox
Dropbox is known for its creative onboarding process and sponsorship program.
The marketing strategy is fairly simple. The product itself offers cloud storage space and rewards people who have more space by gamifying the integration process.
Like the Hansel and Gretel story, they embellish this difficult process by offering small treats. And the main course was their sponsorship program in which they offered 500MB of additional free storage.
Here's how it works: You recommend Dropbox to a friend, they sign up, and you both get 500MB of additional storage. One rock, two blows.
The cost of acquiring a customer for Dropbox is therefore 500MB. It is certainly one of the most well known and cheap growth hacking techniques.
Key takeaway: First, if you can provide added value, you can make the onboarding process fun and rewarding for your users. Second, design a dual-purpose sponsorship program. Offer something to the sponsor and the referred person.
4. Unsplash
Unsplash offers a space called “Collections”. They ask influencers (mostly micro-influencers) and invite them to choose their favorite photos and create a collection.
Then, Unsplash promotes the collection on the website, newsletter, and social media platforms. Flattering, no? Yes, at least that's what influencers think.
The chosen influencers will often share their collections with their followers. And Unsplash gets free exposure + tons of user-generated content.
Takeaway: People like to be praised and the center of attention. You can benefit from hearing others.
5. Hubspot
How powerful is your website? This question is hard to resist if you have an online presence.
Hubspot has created a free tool that measures the performance of your site by evaluating key factors such as SEO, mobile performance, etc. It then gives you tips for optimizing your site.
People shared this tool with each other, it got lots of backlinks and it also garnered a lot of attention on social media.
Unsurprisingly, Hubspot grew its email list and grew to 15,000 users using this tool alone.
Key takeaway: Creating free tools like this is one of my favorite growth hacking techniques. Many brands create small add-ons, apps, and tools that solve a problem for their target audience. Then, they launch them on platforms like Product Hunt to get free exposure.
6. Vitaly Uncensored
It's one of the less conventional growth hacking techniques.
Vitaly Uncensored is a strange platform for adult jokes. And people barely knew they existed until the Champions League final in 2019.
Until Kinsey Wolanski (co-founder and girlfriend of Vitaly) caused an international stir after running on the field wearing a swimsuit that read “Vitaly Uncensored.”
Naturally, people searched for the term and social media platforms like Twitter were inundated with reactions. Here was the peak in the volume of search terms (on Google Trends) at the time of the Champions League final.
Vitaly Uncensored now has over 32 million registered users and has collected up to £3 million in advertising (and only received a £13,000 fine).
Remember: A growth hacker doesn't always follow the rules. You can sometimes break them as long as it brings you growth. (Be careful not to end up in prison anyway...)
7. Ahrefs
Ahrefs, in my opinion, can win the gold medal in the Olympic growth hacking examples.
They are one of the most popular SEO tools and don't use Google Analytics. They don't use the Facebook pixel either. Instead, they hacked the biggest SEO conference (Brighton SEO) with a 10-cent coffee cup.
Imagine the interest they had at the conference. Everyone was instantly aware of the existence of Ahrefs; these cups helped break the ice and open up new conversations and possibilities.
Additionally, many people have shared this information within their social circle, whether it's word-of-mouth marketing or sharing on social media.
Remember: Make a list of conferences and in-person events that you can attend. And think about how you can direct interest to your brand.
8. gmail
If you were one of the first users of Gmail, you certainly remember it. You could only create a Gmail account if a friend invited you.
And each sponsor had a limited number of invitations, which made the event more exclusive and triggered the Fear Of Missing Out marketing technique (FOMO: Fear Of Missing Out).
The event was so exclusive and so viral that some people auctioned Gmail invites on eBay. This worked well because Gmail offered better features and better quality of service compared to other solutions on the market.
Remember: Knowing behavioral psychology is a great asset for a growth hacker. Even a little psychological trick can be the foundation of a new growth hacking strategy.
9. PDT
Gmail used exclusivity and FOMO triggers in its digital marketing strategy. What if you want to do it offline?
(It's one of my favorite examples of offline growth hacking).
Crif Dogs is a trendy spot known for its innovative hot dogs in New York. There is a strange vintage telephone booth corner in the restaurant.
One day, a person came in and used the rotating dial telephone and “CLICK”, a secret door opened into a cozy bar. The bartender gave her a delicious cocktail and gave a card to this lucky person that said, “Please don't say it.”
As you can understand, this person felt as if they had discovered the most astounding secret in the world. He then told all of his friends about this experience and it caused a social chain reaction.
This word-of-mouth marketing strategy has made this place the busiest bar in New York. So busy it's nearly impossible to make a reservation.
Takeaway: If you can make someone feel special with a big secret, you can create a community of valued brand promoters.
10. Hotmail
Hotmail's growth hacking strategy is super simple and many companies like Apple have copied it.
Hotmail placed a signature line by default on every outgoing email and invited recipients to create a free account. Subsequently, Apple and others used the same strategy ofemail marketing to raise public awareness and increase their clientele.
11. CD Baby
“Your order is on the way”, you probably received an email similar to this one. But I don't think you've ever received anything like what Derek Sivers wrote:
Your CDs have been gently removed from CD Baby shelves with gloves sterilized without contamination and placed on a satin pillow.
A team of 50 employees inspected your CDs and polished them to ensure they were in the best possible condition before sending them out.
Our Japanese packaging specialist lit a candle and there was silence in the crowd when he placed your CDs in the most beautiful gold box anyone could buy.
We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party made its way down the street to the post office where the entire city of Portland greeted your package “Bon Voyage” to your package, en route for you, in our CD Baby private jet on this day, Sunday, December 11.
Hope you had a great time shopping at CD Baby. That is the case for us.
Your photo is on our wall as “Customer of the Year.” We're all sold out but can't wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!
Thanks again,
Derek Sivers, President, CD Baby
He spent 20 minutes writing this masterpiece and it exploded on the Internet. This content has been transferred thousands of times, CD Baby has obtained billions of backlinks and new customers.
Remember: Differentiate your email marketing strategy or your writing efforts. Sometimes all you need to do is put a smile on your customers' faces.
12. Shazam
What do you do when you “Shazame” a song?
You're trying to suck all the sounds out of the music and Shazam does something pretty ingenious at that point. It encourages you to hold your phone in front of the speakers.
And this gesture arouses everyone's curiosity: “Why on earth is she raising her phone to the speakers?” So yeah, it's nothing but a thoughtful word-of-mouth marketing strategy.
It's not possible to measure analytics or conversion rates, but more than a billion downloads mean something.
13. Fortnite
Fortnite's growth hacking strategy changed the way games are sold forever.
This is the default strategy for all games up to the Fornite era.
- Develop the game.
- Spending millions to promote in conferences and advertisements of all kinds.
- Start the game, do some addons & bug fixes, raise money, and develop a new game.
That's why we see a new Call of Duty, Battlefield, and similar games every year.
Well, Fortnite wasn't even popular in its first year, but they found ways to keep their existing customers through three tactics.
- The game was completely free to play.
- They've put in huge updates to the game, which they've called “Seasons.”
Every ten weeks, developers introduce new mechanics, weapons, maps, characters, etc. They announce these seasons with trailers and encourage players to create excitement.
So if you're a Fortnite player, you know that every 10 weeks you'll have a new game to play.
3. Limited-time game modes
They regularly launched new game modes for a limited time to create a FOMO. And players kept coming back so as not to miss out on this unique experience.
At the same time, they monetized the game by selling in-game items such as skins for characters and weapons or dance moves.
In a very short period of time, they have acquired a huge fan base and created their own famous streamers. The rest is history.
Remember: Acquisition is often an overrated aspect of marketing. In growth marketing, it's just as important to keep your current customers happy and turn them into more loyal promoters. (Focus on retention)
14. Uber
How can a brand alone bring down the traditional taxi sector? By knowing the enemy and the customer.
Finding a taxi after a night out is a real ordeal, even in bad weather. Uber knew that, and at first they focused on these key events.
They have also waged a subtle fight against taxis by highlighting areas where Uber excels, such as ease of payment, lower prices, and the end of the “usual” taxi practice.
People who used the service were coming back, so they offered a $20 free ride to new users to attract them. After that, things went really fast, now we look at taxis as if they were an endangered animal.
Remember: It's always possible to adapt to your product and be smarter than the competition. Understand your competitors, customers, and the environment to develop smart tactics.
15. AirBnb
The AirBnb example is a good example of using an “other” audience. AirBnb used Craigslist in their early years. At the time, Craigslist was the biggest forum where people could rent a house. So it was the place where their target audience was the most active.
AirBnB started placing its listings on Craigslist with a link to their own platform for potential renters who wanted more information. In this way, they were able to attract a lot of Craigslist customers and people continued to use AirBnb.
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As an experiment, they initially did this work manually and only later built a bot that automatically added Craigslist users to their application.
16. AirBnb (cereal boxes)
Airbnb financed its startup with its political cereal boxes.
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The limited-edition boxes of Obama O's and Cap'n McCain's helped the founders pay off over $25,000 in credit card debt.
“You know those filing cabinets where you keep baseball cards? I had one, except it didn't contain baseball cards, it contained credit cards,” co-founder Joe Gebbia said in a podcast. “We went from Visa to Visa, then to MasterCard and finally to AmEx, stocking up on credit cards.”
Joe Gebbia and co-founder Brian Chesky piled up debt trying to fund their startup. At this point, the business was not generating enough revenue. The two men therefore found a way to develop the “breakfast” aspect of the business and were inspired by the 2008 presidential election.
Mr. Chesky explained that they made 1,000 boxes of cereal by hand, hot glued together and sold for $40 a piece. The boxes have been marketed as collector's items.”
The Obama O's sold out and the pair ended up earning 30,000 dollars with this publicity stunt. They then used the money to pay off their debt.
Today, Airbnb is present in more than 191 countries and was valued at nearly 40 billion dollars in 2019 - so cereals ended up being a professional success.
17. PayPal
This is a similar example to the Dropbox example.
PayPal wanted to be placed as a payment option on eBay, because they would receive a small commission per transaction.
Ebay had no interest at first. Then the PayPal team manually approached major sellers on eBay to buy their product with the question, “Can I pay you via PayPal? ”
The sellers did not know PayPal and therefore lost the sale. Sellers required eBay to integrate PayPal and after enough queries like this, eBay turned to PayPal.
Conclusion
The growth hacking examples we've explored demonstrate the power of creativity and innovation in digital marketing.
From Puma's simple tip with Pelé to PayPal's ingenious eBay strategy, these cases illustrate how unique, well-executed ideas can transform brands and revolutionize industries.
These strategies are not only success stories, but true sources of inspiration for anyone looking to take their business to new heights.
Whether you're a small startup or an established business, these examples prove that with a bit of audacity and a lot of creativity, the sky is the limit when it comes to growth hacking.
