Growth hacking: A marketing strategy that aspiring entrepreneurs must know about

The term ‘growth hacking’ is at least a decade old. However, it has only recently gained prominence. By definition, growth hacking is a data-driven marketing strategy that involves low-budget tactics and constant experimentation to figure out the most effective ways that will boost the growth of a business. In other words, it is a marketing designing philosophy that incorporates aspects of marketing into the design of the product itself.  

Who is a growth hacker? 
A growth hacking expert, or a growth hacker is someone who is skilled in both marketing and coding, and utilises both these skills to grow the userbase of a start-up. This strategy is the differentiator between a traditional marketer and a tech marketer. If a youngster is a budding coder with a knack for marketing, growth hacking is a suitable career option for him or her. 

3 popular growth hacking techniques 
There is a lot of growth hacking techniques which focus on business growth across all metrices. Here is a low-down on the three most popular ones:  

Locating social media platforms unexplored by competitors: All kinds of businesses have competitions. This is why it is crucial to find social media platforms that are still unused by the competitors. While it is mandatory to tap established platforms like Facebook and Twitter, emerging social networking sites like Profit.ly or The Dots can be tried out for better scope of marketing. The key is to dominate a social media platform with unique business ideas to soar over the competitors and have unrestricted access to customers. Funnelling traffic across social media sites is also beneficial.  

Partnering up with competitors to share prospective customers: A start-up owner can focus on locating businesses that might complement his own. For example, if someone has a cosmetics business, he or she can look for business houses that sell jewellery, because the target audience is more or less the same for both. A collaboration in this case will include sharing social media followers. Ideas like tagging each other on social media and organizing joint exhibitions can work wonders.  

Giving away product samples for free: Giving away freebies once in a while are tried-and-tested method of growing your business and that too at a rapid rate. Well, it is one of the most popular growth hacking methods, especially for start-ups. This tactic promotes participation by announcing rewards for lucky winners who can also advertise for the brand. Another well-established way to promote business is to offer something extra. It has been seen that this strategy works wonders This works wonders for cloud kitchen businesses. Say, a customer has ordered pasta and a box of garlic sticks comes as a complementary dish. This will not only ensure his loyalty but also add to your goodwill and further your promotion.