Startups – they can either be exciting, scary or both at the same time. The prospect of getting into business to address a pain point someone or another has experienced can be daunting, and thinking about how to keep your startup sustainable and profitable can also be a little frightening. But growing a startup (and keeping it afloat) is easier now more than ever. For the past years, growth hacking has been the way to go to make even the newest startups flourish. 

Growth hacking is exactly what it sounds like — it means to explore, experiment with, and ‘hack into’ the most creative ideas that revolve around making your product or service appeal to your market so that they help key aspects of your business grow. We’re talking experience marketing, UX and UI, data, surveys, and trial and error of all sorts. Yes, it will take more than just one growth hacking strategy to find out what makes your market tick.

But don’t be intimidated. Although growth hacking sounds like it has to involve a lot of things a lot of times in order for you to succeed, there are some standard ideas you can try to help hack your startup’s fast growth and fast track it to your market’s radar: 

1. Freebies

One actionable growth hacking strategy you can implement right now involves a little tweak in your website’s landing page (if it’s not already been done): instead of showing your latest product or a sale first, show a freebie first. Who doesn’t love a good freebie? Attracting first-timers to your start-up with a no-strings-attached freebie will help you gather pertinent information easier because the front isn’t that you’re asking anything from them (even though in reality you’re essentially generating leads), but a free, ‘opt-out-able’ resource for them instead. This is an especially popular growth hacking strategy for life coaches and the like. Showcase your freebie via a lightbox or a pop-up every time someone visits your landing page. If your product or service really resonates with them, then your market will only look forward to your email communications more and more.

2. And while you’re at it… Loyalty Programs

If you’re giving out freebies to people who have discovered your product or service for the first time, then all the more should you give something out to the people who keep your business a part of their constants to capture loyal customers. Give your loyal users a reward for something as simple as a referral, i.e., customers can get their own referral links they can use to give out to their network and everyone gets a reward in return. This is a favorite growth hack strategy for retail stores and ecommerce sites to get more people to sign up and at least view their site. The rest will then be up to how appealing their site really is to their target market. 

You can also reward your loyal customers with points, freebies after a certain purchase, or even free shipping forever once they reach a certain number of years engaging with your business.

3. Make A Worthy (Marketing) Investment

If you’re really dedicated and hell-bent on growing your business, then investing in the experts will benefit your goals the most. Invest in working with marketing and growth experts, as they’re the ones who really focus on collecting and analyzing data, on discovering and infiltrating potential markets, and on opening new distribution channels to move your brand forward. They can probably do all the growth hacking ideas in this article better than the words could explain it. So if you really mean business, touching base with growth marketing experts who know product innovation, user experience management, and technical target marketing will earn you back more of what you invested in them in the first place.

4. Look Big

If you wanna be it, show up as it.

You can easily make your business look bigger than it seems (especially to potential investors) if you stay consistent and begin your marketing with premium aesthetics. Something as simple as a consistent branded look will have most consumers trusting your business just because you look credible. Apart from that, simply having multiple contact numbers or multiple addresses/P.O boxes across the country will make you look less of a startup and more of an up-and-running company. If your service is able to reach a wider area (i.e. you ship internationally), all the better to boost your business with. Finally, don’t be afraid to publish customer testimonials. Social affirmation can definitely make a company look big and credible.

5. Look Even Bigger with Premium 

A good growth hacking strategy to try as well, if your business model allows it, is to ‘split’ your product between free and premium. By allowing everyone to experience your product or service for free, you’re getting your foot in the door by giving them their most basic needs from your business. Strategically pepper this free version with invitations to go premium, constantly citing how it truly is an upgrade from the former. Several photo editing apps and music apps use this growth hacking strategy with much success!

Are you ready to make it big? Try these growth hacking ideas for your own start-up today and let us know just how well it worked out for you!