Gmail and Mailbox now use the simple idea from Hotmail: placing a line at the bottom of an email. In this scenario, Hotmail would write “PS: I love you—Get Free Email,” which tremendously helped the company grow—
somewhere around a mil ion members within the first six months after implementation.
Shortly after, the company doubled and eventually sold to Microsoft for somewhere around $400 mil ion. Google presented a similar idea but with the twist of an invite-only scenario.
These types of key strategies greatly trump hiring a PR firm because they begin within the organization and grow out. By growing from within in this manner, these organizations determine the presentation of the product as well as the inner workings of the product.
Essentially, these organizations are providing free data or free products to simply help the company spread the word on products and services that customers already enjoy.
28
Not just any product or video can be shared overnight to mil ions. It is important to have an enthralling reason for the community to share any specific item. Virality is an engineered procedure and not an accident.
29
Step-by-Step Hacking Process Much like any successful enterprise, it is best to begin with a narrow focus on specific, realistic goals. When individuals focus on too broad a spectrum, focus becomes meaningless because of its vagueness. Also, while large growth is of course the hopes of the end result, achieving smaller tasks must develop it.
Much like driving a car on a long journey, the end result only occurs after understanding the route.
Once potential growth hackers have defined a realistic, actionable goal, the next step is to implement analytics in order to track the process of goals. Without having precise analytics, goals are essentially empty.
It is, of course, possible to hit certain goals working without an outline, but structure is vital for success. Analytics provide a definitive answer to prove that a result has or has not been reached.
They also provide the information for the suggestion of which aspects to change in order to test another hypothesis. Much like a sculpture, the unnecessary elements must be stripped away for the ideal end result.
After analytics have been put into place, the next step is to analyze the startup or company to find out which elements are possible to use as leverage for the company.
Every company has the ability to have something unique to help define or enhance the organization. In the example of mass email marketing, the 30
answer is usually within the question. Certain companies would require one strategy while others another.
Always plan growth by building upon strengths and remember that each company features a different type of fulcrum for their specific leverage.
Before moving forward, it is best to create a hypothesis. Much like scientific method, a hypothesis is a strategic guess at potential results from a procedure.
After writing down the hypothesis, begin the experiment. When conducting any experiment, make sure not to be naïve when considering resources required for predicted results.
If the organization requires thousands of users to work, do not expect it to work with a few hundred. When all of the data is in place and resources aligned, learn from any successes or failures and remember that the data wil provide information as long as you are wil ing to use it.
Experiments, in science or business, are meant to be performed repetitively until successful. This may require minimal tweaking or full-blown remodeling.
In the case of using email marketing, consider creating a control group.
This group wil help track the exterior environmental factors that are more difficult to track in even the most optimal settings.
It’s important to know when an outside factor greatly affects the sales of a product. Consider companies who wish to spread to another region of the world, only to find out their products offend aspects of certain cultures. This 31
may be overlooked and thought of as a failure without a control group narrowing down the results.
Finally, make sure to repeat the process. While certain experiments do not work, others simply need to be tweaked and adjusted. Use the data and continue to repeat experiments until reaching success.
Much like the gold-hunter giving up his dig inches from richness, the answer is usually within reach, so make sure to continue the hunt for a successful growth hack, as long as you believe in your product and your company.