Start-ups have the potential to conquer the market with innovative offers. What is missing, however, is the right marketing budget. In order to be attractive to investors, growth is needed with the lowest possible budget. The answer is Growth Hacking.
Start-ups arouse curiosity with innovative products and trendy offers. However, the idea alone is usually not enough to attract investors, because production and sales have to be financed. In order to increase the attractiveness, maximum growth is therefore required, and this at the lowest possible advertising budget and as quickly as possible. Classic marketing won’t get you very far here. The alternative is: Growth Hacking!
Take the shortcut!
Growth Hacking is, of course, in a way just a marketing buzzword and nothing revolutionarily new. But there are significant differences from traditional marketing. First of all, Growth Hacking is a clear mindset, with a clear reference to an “entrepreneurial marketing approach“. In other words, a proactive way of thinking that can be used to master the dwindling reach of classic media and target groups that are becoming increasingly difficult to retain. The special thing about it is that the methods and measures used can be implemented with the lowest possible budget and without a large marketing department or advertising agency. Developed in the start-up scene, it is aimed at newly founded companies that do not have large marketing departments or cannot afford advertising agencies. The focus here is on a very fast and unbureaucratic implementation of marketing measures. The main goal is fast growth, because a fast growing start-up is interesting for investors. Growth Hacking aims at exactly that. It is not about long-term brand or image building, but about measures that can be used very quickly and in the short term to increase sales or, in most cases, above all to increase the number of customers. Hence the name “hacker”: they are considered clever, resourceful, creative and original. They do not necessarily have to be programmers, but they do have to be close to data-based work.
What successful Growth Hacking is: agencies on the rise?
The methods of Growth Hacking are not clearly defined. Essential is that start-ups can implement them themselves and do not need a large (data-driven) marketing department. Guerrilla marketing-like measures are often used. Storytelling and content marketing are also part of the natural repertoire. For many start-ups, however, data-driven marketing is the only relevant type of marketing – especially in the area of online marketing and e-commerce – because start-ups usually do not focus on target figures such as image or reputation. No, it is much more about provable growth in the sense of conversion rates and clear ROIs.
The ideal Growth Hacker should therefore be a team-oriented person who has experience in digital marketing, has an affinity for analyzing data, knows the tricks of the trade, and can then derive individual measures for companies that they can implement themselves without spending a lot of resources. Experience shows that this type of consulting is not free of charge, but it is often less expensive than a traditional agency service. When selecting an agency, however, it is important to remember that the term Growth Hacking could also be used as a sales tool to sell services that have been offered before.
In this first part of our new series, we introduced the Growth Hacking mind-set. Look forward to learning more in detail in our sequel!
Contact:
Dr. David Dobrowsky
Head of Competence Center for Marketing
Phone: +43 690 40 476 018
david.dobrowsky@fh-wien.ac.at