Growth hacking strategies are extremely important for the success of your business. Some established companies might find it difficult to transition from their traditional marketing techniques to modern growth hacking strategies.
However, many businesses have successfully implemented them to propel their growth.
For startups, having a solid growth hacking strategy is non-negotiable since their viability depends on growth alone. Moreover, their growth hacking strategy should focus on increasing mobile conversions exponentially.
Why so?
Because research shows that more than 50% of website traffic originates from mobile devices. In essence, growth hackers need to build mobile-first growth hacking strategies if they want to stay in business.
If you thought that creating an awesome product would be enough to earn business, sadly you’re mistaken. Today’s consumers are spoiled with an overabundance of choices in almost every domain – a fact which is all the more evident in the world of mobile apps.
In 2020, there were 3.4 million Android apps and 2.2 million iOS apps available in the Google Play Store and Apple App Store respectively.
Image via Statista
These figures clearly point towards the need to create and execute growth hacking strategies to harness the potential of mobile devices. This involves a lot of different tactics, right from the stage of product development.
However, before I discuss these strategies, let me give you an in-depth understanding of growth hacking.
Table of Contents
Understanding Growth Hacking
Growth hacking is a fairly new term that was coined in 2010 by Sean Ellis, the Founder and CEO of GrowthHackers. He was responsible for the rise of many companies including Dropbox and Eventbrite.
He used the term to describe a sustainable growth approach used by successful companies such as Facebook and Amazon.
Simply put, growth hacking refers to a set of techniques focused solely on achieving rapid growth of a company. Unlike traditional marketing, it uses several innovative and aggressive strategies including social media marketing and viral marketing.
It begins right from the product development stage and continues even after product launch. Growth hacking focuses on giving your products a competitive advantage.
Who Is a Growth Hacker?
A growth hacker is often a unique blend of a programmer and a marketer. In the words of Sean Ellis, a growth hacker is, “a person whose true north is growth.”
Image via ShoutMeLoud
Growth hackers don’t restrict themselves with budgets and timelines. Their only aim is to take a product to greater heights and expand its customer base. They use all kinds of marketing strategies to attract more customers and retain existing customers, including:
- Social media marketing
- Guerrilla marketing
- Analytics
- SEO
- Email marketing
- And more.
A growth marketer has their sights fixed firmly on your business bottom line and they won’t stop before they improve your sales. Since conversions are their focus point, mobile devices are of utmost importance to them.
Let’s learn what kind of growth hacking strategies enable growth hackers to amplify mobile conversions.
10 Growth Hacking Strategies for Better Mobile Conversions
Here are some key growth hacking strategies that focus on growing mobile conversions.
1. Develop a Scalable Product
Your growth hacking strategies won’t yield any results unless your product achieves traction in the market.
In the age of social media, criticism and negative reviews spread like wildfire. Therefore, a mediocre product has little to no chance of survival. Thus, developing a unique and useful product is of utmost importance.
So, how can you create a winning product?
Analyze Market Demand
The first thing you need to consider is if there is a demand for your product at all. You can use various social media platforms to reach out to your target audience and understand the problems they are facing.
You should design a product to resolve their problems. This is the only way to tempt them to use it and perhaps, recommend it to their relatives and friends.
Run a Pilot Test
As soon as you have a viable product idea, test it in the market and pay attention to the feedback you start receiving. Use this feedback to improve your product and address the pain points faced by your target customers. This is the only way to get an edge over your competitors in a saturated market.
Need an inspiring example?
Kevin Systrom, Founder of the leading photo-sharing app, Instagram, began with a social networking app for whiskey drinkers.
Aptly named “Burbn,” it didn’t see an overwhelming response due to its complicated design. Instead of dismissing it as a failure, Systrom collaborated with another programmer, Mike Krieger. They studied the way their existing customers were using Burbn.
Image via PG Designs
The duo found that instead of using its check-in features, people were drawn towards the photo-sharing features of the app.
Even though there were a lot of mobile photography apps in the market, photo-sharing wasn’t their main feature. And many photo-editing apps had very complicated sharing processes.
Systrom and Krieger decided to address this problem by stripping Burbn of all its features except photo-sharing. They incorporated popular traits of photo-editing apps such as filters while keeping the sharing process hassle-free.
On the day of its launch in 2010, Instagram got a whopping 25,000 installs. Today, the mobile photo-sharing platform has reached 1 billion monthly active users.
Image via Statista
2. Create a Growth Hacking Plan
Growth hacking isn’t about aiming in the dark. To growth hack effectively, you need to create a systematic plan, even when you are still developing your product.
So how do you get started?
The first step is to define a few end goals and metrics that will help you evaluate the success of your growth hacking strategies.
Image via Buffer
The next step is to ideate and come up with as many innovative growth hacking tactics as you can.
Once you have fleshed out a few potential ideas, identify the most viable ones that will help you achieve your goals. Start testing these ideas by implementing them and analyzing the results.
Use these results to improve your practices and ultimately, design a sustainable growth hacking blueprint. Putting this plan together helps you concentrate on other aspects once your product is ready to hit the market.
3. Create Online Buzz
As growth hacking strategies go, creating online buzz for your app/website is probably the most important hack.
It takes time to build brand awareness and credibility for any product. So, it’s not advisable that you wait for your product to be ready before you start spreading the word.
So, what’s the action plan?
Use social media marketing platforms to generate awareness about your product even before it hits the market. This will help you build a loyal community of followers who are eagerly waiting for your app/website to be launched.
This is the exact growth hacking strategy that was adopted by the tech startup, Magic Leap. They used the power of social media to generate curiosity about their product and drive social media traffic.
Image via Instagram
It also gave them a forum to interact with their potential customers and understand their pain points.
In addition, you can use content marketing to talk about your product before you launch. You can publish guest posts on other blogs in your niche, adding a subtle backlink in the content.
It’s also recommended that you have a dedicated blog section on your own website. Use this space to share valuable insights about your new product. Apart from scoring some loyal brand evangelists, good content is an indispensable part of your SEO strategy.
Another of the best growth hacking strategies is to design an attractive landing page while your product is in the making. Use this page to highlight its unique features and include a call-to-action (newsletter subscription, test download). Your landing page can be made more engaging with the use of how-to videos and tutorials.
4. Proactive Execution
Getting bogged down with theoretical data about what your customers want will have a negative impact on your growth hacking strategies. When faced with a dilemma about product features and functionalities, launch quick split tests. These will help you analyze which version is working better.
For instance, Secret Escapes wanted to launch their mobile app. They were unable to decide whether to make user sign up mandatory. Instead of wasting time on gathering and analyzing data, the team tested two different versions of the mobile onboarding experience. This was done simultaneously.
The original app allowed users to skip the sign-up process and directly view the latest travel deals. The alternative version made registration mandatory. This experiment revealed that the second variation doubled the sign-up rate. It didn’t receive any negative feedback or criticism, making this a preferred choice for the company.
5. Don’t Ignore Search Engines
Growth hacking strategies should also aim to build a strong presence on search engines. Most of your potential customers are likely to do some online research before buying a product.
If your website fails to secure a high search engine ranking, it is not likely to be discovered by your target audience. So, SEO should be an integral part of your growth hacking plan.
Optimizing a mobile website for search engines requires some additional effort. In addition to keyword research and content creation, you have to make your website mobile-responsive.
Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool to identify the areas that demand improvement. Ensure that your mobile-responsive website also loads fast, in order to prevent visitors from moving away.
Image via Google
Mobile websites also require optimization for local search queries such as the “near me” ones. One way to optimize for local search is by claiming your Google My Business listing.
Provide the exact address and location of your business so that your listing is highlighted for relevant “near me” queries. Also, you can use a VPN to check, how your business working for multiple locations.
Another strategy I find useful is optimizing your mobile website for voice searches.
Identify the questions that are being asked on search engines by your target audience. Publish content that will answer those questions, thereby optimizing your website for such longer search queries.
In addition to these organic techniques, you can also use paid search ads. This is especially useful when you are launching a new product in a saturated niche. Your SEO efforts will take time to achieve the end goal. But search ads such as PPC campaigns can start delivering results right away.
6. App Store Optimization
Often overlapping with SEO, app store optimization (ASO) is becoming the buzz word for programmers and developers. In fact, search contributes to 65% of App Store downloads. So, I suggest that you spend some time researching the search queries used there.
There are many effective ASO tips that also help with growth hacking.
Like what?
Add an eye-catching icon and title in your app store description.
Image via Google Play Store
You can even add a tutorial video or an installation guide.
Use keywords to optimize your product description for search queries. Add screenshots highlighting various features. You should also pay attention to the user reviews, especially the negative ones. Use this feedback to improve your product and drive more mobile conversions.
7. Nurture Your Leads
When we talk about growth hacking strategies, your job doesn’t end with increasing website traffic or app downloads. Growth hackers need to convert leads into actual customers. For a mobile website, you can prompt visitors to subscribe to your newsletters.
As pointed out earlier, an impressive landing page is also useful to drive conversions.
To engage users on your mobile app, use push notifications to send them customized offers and discounts. Providing incentives for in-app referrals is another way to keep your users engaged. We will explore this strategy in detail in a section later.
8. Listen and Grow
According to Statista, one-third of the world population is on social media, as of 2021.
Image via Statista
This means you have access to an almost infinite pool of consumers, many of them being your potential clients.
You can use social media platforms to connect with this audience and understand their needs. Allow them to educate you on how you can improve your product.
Allrecipes, the popular food-focused social network successfully implemented this strategy to improve their mobile app.
They used more than 450,000 pieces of customer feedback to understand what their users wanted. They improved the mobile app by incorporating this feedback. As a result, their App Store rating rose from 2.5% to 4.5%.
Image via YouTube
9. Harness the Power of Referrals
Leveraging referral marketing is one of the safest growth hacking strategies.
If your customers are happy with your product, they may be willing to recommend it to their friends and relatives. However, they may not consider this option unless you offer them an incentive in exchange for each referral.
With the rise of social media, it is the right time to integrate referrals into your growth hacking strategies. In addition to acquiring new clients, it also boosts customer engagement and loyalty.
A great example of utilizing this technique can be seen in Airbnb’s in-app referral program. The best part about this program is that it rewards both the referrer and the referee with travel credits. Every new user gets $40 in credit when they sign up. The referrer gets $20 in credit whenever their referee pays more than $75.
Image via Airbnb
The app also makes it easy to invite new users by using a simple “Share your link” button. This link can be shared on various social networks, making it easy for users to invite their friends and relatives.
10. Use Influencer Marketing
You can up your referral game by collaborating with influencers in your niche. These are people with a loyal and engaged community of followers.
Since influencers are perceived as industry experts, they can add credibility to your referrals. Owing to their massive social media followings, you can also reach a far wider audience.
Partnering with influencers also allows you to create awareness about your product even before it has been launched. Product reviews and testimonials from influencers lure their followers towards your brand. When it comes to growth hacking strategies, influencers offer immense possibilities to scale your product. They help you achieve escalated growth.
FAQs
Q1. What are growth hacking techniques?
A. Growth hacking refers to a set of techniques focused solely on achieving rapid growth of a company. Unlike traditional marketing, it uses several aggressive strategies including social media marketing and viral marketing.
Q2. What are the three main types of growth hacking strategies?
A. Growth hacking strategies can be classified into 3 main types:
- Product marketing: This involves tactics for direct product promotion.
- Content marketing: This refers to content-based promotion tactics like blogging and guest posting.
- Advertising: This includes paid product promotions, both online and offline.
Q3. What is the best way to learn growth hacking?
A. There are many learning resources, guides, tutorials, and courses available to teach and train you in growth hacking strategies. Some of the top ones include:
- Growthmint (a 30-day free course)
- Growth Hacker Kit (free expert advice from professional growth hackers)
- Grow Hack (an online school to attract paid and free users)
- Growth Hacker Marketing: The Course (a brief course primer)
Q4. What is an example of growth hacking?
A. While there are many brilliant examples of growth hacking, Groupon’s growth hacking strategies stand out from the crowd for their innovation.
The coupon aggregator uses social rewards to incentivize people to share their coupons. That means a user doesn’t get a Groupon deal unless they share the deal with their friends and family.
Q5. How can I increase my mobile conversion?
A. You can increase your mobile conversions by using certain growth hacking strategies, such as:
- Creating a standout product
- Mobile optimizing your website
- App store optimization of your mobile apps
- Leveraging referral marketing
- Harnessing the power of influencers
- Seeking and implementing customer feedback proactively
Q6. Why are mobile conversions so low?
A. There are many factors responsible for low mobile conversion rates, including:
- Small screen sizes are not optimal for filling check out forms and payment information.
- Some websites are not optimized for mobile and bounce mobile shoppers.
- Distracting pop ups from other websites and tabs can impede successful conversion.
- Opening multiple tabs on browsers to compare products is a challenge in mobiles.
Q7. Is growth hacking good?
A. Growth hacking is not only good for your business growth, but also unavoidable in competitive markets. It is the best way to stay viable and grow your revenue and online presence, while keeping your existing customers happy and satisfied.
A business can draw many benefits when they growth hack, such as:
- Developing a growth-first culture in your organization.
- Discovering new business/product ideas.
- Building better products.
- Discovering data-driven growth strategies.
- Delivering and forecasting provable ROI.
Q8. What companies use growth hacking?
A. Growth hacking strategies are employed by companies of all scopes and sizes, from solopreneurs to SMBs and enterprises. In fact, any business that wants to stay competitive and viable in the long term uses growth hacking.
Some of the best examples of companies that leverage growth-hacking strategies are:
- Airbnb
- YouTube
- Hotmail
Q9. Is growth hacking dead?
A. Growth hacking is not dead. In fact, it is one of the top ways for a business to stay viable and relevant in the face of stiff competition.
For startups, having solid growth hacking strategies is non-negotiable since their viability depends on growth alone. Moreover, their growth hacks should focus on increasing mobile conversions exponentially.
Q10. What is growth hacking in social media?
A. Growth hacking strategies for social media include:
- Optimize your social profiles
- Keep tabs on your competitors
- Follow consistent branding
- Incentivize followers to share your content
- Use hashtags wisely
- Engage with your audience
Ready to Create a Mobile-First Growth Hacking Strategy?
Growth hacking strategies are absolutely mandatory for every new business. However, to skyrocket your mobile conversions, you need to tailor your growth hacking strategies for mobile devices and mobile users.
It’s wise to leverage the power of social media and influencers to generate buzz about your product right from the onset. However, at its core, growth hacking still requires a product that addresses the common problems faced by your potential customers.
Do you have any other growth hacking strategies to boost mobile conversions? Share your secrets in the comments section below.
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