"Growth hacking" has become a buzz-word in recent times. But how can marketers maximize customer acquisition, and what are some examples of early growth hacking tactics employed by now radically successful companies? Based on Neal Taparia's article on Forbes, this set of slides combines growth hacking lessons from Sean Ellis, relevant statistics, real life examples, and quotes, to form a visually stunning experience. Enjoy!

1. 5
TIPS TO
MAXIMIZE
CUSTOMER ACQUISITION
VIA GROWTH HACKING

2. Chatrooms
Social Media
Paid
Ads
1
TRY EVERYTHING.
FIGHT FOR TRACTION.

3. 1
TRY EVERYTHING.
FIGHT FOR TRACTION.
Chatrooms
Social Media
Paid
Ads
You can't get traction without hustling.
“Airbnb now seems like an unstoppable juggernaut, but early on
it was so fragile that about 30 days of going out and engaging in
person with users made the dierence between success and failure.”
Paul Graham
Co-Founder, Y Combinator
Source: http://paulgraham.com/ds.html

4. SHOPIFY SOCIAL COMMERCE STUDY
Which Social Media Platforms Lead To Sales?
Facebook dominates Shopify’s
overall social media trac (2013).
63% of Shopify visits from
social media came from Facebook.
But Reddit grew the most in
terms of Shopify purchases (2013):
152%
79%
122% 129%
Orders from Reddit grew 152%!

5. SHOPIFY SOCIAL COMMERCE STUDY
Which Social Media Platforms Lead To Sales?
Facebook dominates Shopify’s
overall social media trac (2013).
Remember, these are general statistics.
Your target audience may dier!
Source: http://www.shopify.com/infographics/social-commerce
63% of Shopify visits from
social media came from Facebook.
But Reddit grew the most in
terms of Shopify purchases (2013):
152%
79%
122% 129%
Orders from Reddit grew 152%!

6. SEEDING THE TIP JAR
Co-founder of
Flickr!

7. SEEDING THE TIP JAR
In the early days, co-founders Stewart
Butterfield and Caterina Fake frequently
commented on users’ photos to keep the
community engaged. Their team spent nearly
24 man-hours a day leaving comments.
Source: http://kottke.org/06/11/hosting-a-party
Co-founder of
Flickr!

8. SEEDING THE TIP JAR

9. SEEDING THE TIP JAR
To promote their product (a bibliography tool),
the team behind EasyBib invaded educator
resource blogs, AOL chatrooms, sent emails to
publications. Their eorts landed them on the front
page of the Chicago Tribune’s business section.

10. HELP YOUR PRODUCT
MARKET ITSELF
Everyone's gonna
be talking about
this killer left hook!
2

11. HELP YOUR PRODUCT
MARKET ITSELF
Everyone's gonna
be talking about
this killer left hook!
2
Hotmail’s Get your free email at Hotmail footer
helped them get 20,000+ signups a day.
“We would notice the first user from a university town or from India, and then
the number of subscribers from that region would rapidly proliferate. From an
epidemiological perspective, it was as if Zeus sneezed over the planet.”
Steve Jurvetson
VC investor in Hotmail
Source: http://techcrunch.com/2009/10/18/ps-i-love-you-get-your-free-email-at-hotmail/

12. DROPBOX CASE STUDY
Dropbox's Signups Increased Permanently
by 60% After Incorporating Referrals
2.8 million referral invites
were sent out just 30 days
after the campaign launched.
Source: http://www.slideshare.net/gueste94e4c/
dropbox-startup-lessons-learned-3836587
Conversions
1x
1.6x
Before After
Dropbox CEO Drew Houston
cited Sean Ellis's surveys, split
tests and landing page
optimizations as “big wins” in
encouraging word-of-mouth.
30 Days
Referrals
2.8 million!

13. BAKING REFERRALS INTO PRODUCTS

14. BAKING REFERRALS INTO PRODUCTS
Lunatik’s mobile app encourages you to share its
products with your friends. If your friend enters her
email into the app and makes a purchase, she gets a
discount while you get a cash reward.
Source: https://www.lunatik.com/rewards

15. BAKING REFERRALS INTO PRODUCTS

16. BAKING REFERRALS INTO PRODUCTS
Copy, a filesharing service provider, encourages
referrals with Fair Storage: a file shared between 3
friends only takes up a third of its size on each account.
Source: https://www.copy.com/about/pr

17. 3
TALK TO YOUR
CUSTOMERS
Thanks for your
feedback, buddy!
#1
FAN

18. 3
TALK TO YOUR
CUSTOMERS
Let them tell you how to position your product.
Thanks for your
feedback, buddy!
We did a survey of our 1,000 most enthusiastic customers. I only
really cared about one thing: the freeform box with a 500-word
limit that asked, “Why do you shop Bonobos?” I spent a weekend
reading all responses. There were three things that stuck out and
those became the three pillars of our brand: fit, fun and service.
#1
FAN
Andy Dunn
CEO Co-Founder, Bonobos
Source: http://www.businessoashion.com/2013/07/founder-stories-andy-dunn
-on-building-the-giorgio-armani-of-the-e-commerce-era.html

19. VALUABLE FEEDBACK
LogMeIn Increased Conversions by 300%
Conversions
4x
Free Free or
Premium
1x

20. VALUABLE FEEDBACK
LogMeIn Increased Conversions by 300%
Conversions
LogMeIn learnt that their users
weren't converting because they
thought the free oer was too good
4x
Free Free or
Premium
1x
to be true.
When a premium option was added,
conversions increased 300%.

21. USER ANALYSIS

22. USER ANALYSIS
Food on the Table found a mom in their target
market, shadowed her for 3 weeks, and used what
they learnt to build the first version of their website.
They reached 1 million users in early 2012!
Source: http://conversionxl.com/how-to-identify-your-online-target-audience-and-sell-more/

23. 4
THINK BEYOND CONTENT
Social Media
Engagement
Collaborations
Community
Building

24. 4
THINK BEYOND CONTENT
Inbound marketing is more than
Social Media
Engagement
Collaborations
just content marketing.
“Inbound marketing is based on earning attention rather than
interrupting, while content marketing is about producing and
Community
Building
promoting content to earn customers.”
Rand Fishkin
Founder, Moz
Source: http://www.business2community.com/inbound-marketing/whats-dierence-inbound-
marketing-content-marketing-0960376#!bBv8Ie

25. HUBSPOT SURVEY (2013)
20% of Marketers Surveyed
Ignorant About Inbound Marketing
“Does Your Company Engage
in Inbound Marketing?”
??
Yes
or No
In a 2013 survey, Hubspot
found that nearly 20% of
surveyed marketers didn’t know
if their company engages in
inbound marketing.
This is despite the fact that
inbound marketing doubled
companies’ conversion rates.
Conversions
6%
12%
Outbound
Only
Outbound
+
Inbound

26. HUBSPOT SURVEY (2013)
20% of Marketers Surveyed
Ignorant About Inbound Marketing
“Does Your Company Engage
in Inbound Marketing?”
??
Yes
or No
In a 2013 survey, Hubspot
found that nearly 20% of
surveyed marketers didn’t know
if their company engages in
inbound marketing.
This is despite the fact that
inbound marketing doubled
companies’ conversion rates.
Conversions
6%
12%
Outbound
Only
Outbound
+
Inbound
Source: http://www.stateofinboundmarketing.com

27. BUILDING A COMMUNITY
GrowthHackers

28. BUILDING A COMMUNITY
GrowthHackers
To promote Qualaroo (a website testing tool), founder
Sean Ellis created GrowthHackers.com, a platform
for the discussion of online marketing techniques.
It has since grown into a brand of its own.

29. 5
ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS
TEST.
CONVERSIONS
00..55%% 11..11%% 11..66%%

30. 5
ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS
TEST.
CONVERSIONS
00..55%% 11..11%% 11..66%%
Testing your ideas is a core tenant of growth hacking.
“What worked for us is most likely not the same as what works for your organization.
The key here is to be open minded and let the data tell you what to do, as opposed to
listening to some self-proclaimed faux-guru (or in some cases, even your customer
prospects) who says something has to be done a certain way!”
Larry Kim
Founder CTO, WordStream
Source: http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2012/09/25/a-b-testing#Kim

31. UGLY CAN WIN TOO
Landing Pages Don’t Have to be
Pretty to be Eective
Conversions
1x
1.4x
Version 1
(Pretty)
Version 2
(Ugly)

32. UGLY CAN WIN TOO
Landing Pages Don’t Have to be
Pretty to be Eective
Conversions
In testing 2 versions of a landing page,
WhichTestWon found that the less appealing
one had a surprising 38% higher conversion rate,
simply because key features were bolded there.
Source: http://unbounce.com/a-b-testing/shocking-results/
1x
1.4x
Version 1
(Pretty)
Version 2
(Ugly)

33. IT’S NOT ALWAYS SIMPLE

34. IT’S NOT ALWAYS SIMPLE
Groove HQ did A/B testing on 6 of the most popular tests
they could find, but got inconclusive results for all of them.
Testing can deliver great results, but you must be ready for
a long, slow haul.
Source: http://www.groovehq.com/blog/failed-ab-tests

35. Proper application of growth
hacking tactics can help you
acquire customers quickly.
Visit ReferralCandy.com
to learn how you can use existing
customers to do the same!

36. CRAF T ED BY
Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/nealtaparia/2014/07/22/5-things-i-learned-about-growth-hacking
Source: -from-the-man-who-coined-the-term/