Perhaps the most well-known push tactic would simply be to purchase advertisements, such as those mentioned that play before a YouTube video. While these seem more like marketing than true growth hacking, there is a time and place for everything and growth is the ultimate goal.
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With buying ads, however, there is stil the open invitation for creativity as well as strategy in terms of both when and where to place an ad. When placing ads, there are the giants like Google but there are also niche sites to consider that relate more specifically to certain products. When buying ads, also consider the platform, strategic calendar of ads and the personas of your demographic.
The next type of push tactic is the promo swap, where companies wil both mention one another’s product in order to quickly spread the word on a product while helping another company grow. This works best when you find another company that shares a similar demographic.
While there are many ways to conduct a proper promo swap, consider beginning by swapping tweets or Facebook posts. In terms of email, there are dedicated email swaps and sponsored emails swaps. With a dedicated email, the entire body is dedicated to another business whereas email swap usually only features a linking, “sponsored by” newsletter within the text. Other types include giveaway swaps and ad space swaps.
Another push method would be to recruit affiliates. Essentially, this method creates a sort of chart where you pay someone for each milestone they hit.
Milestones could be whatever you choose, but often result around examples such as bringing visitors to your site or activating current members.
Affiliates could use any number of method to bring traffic but the main idea is that you are paying them to do it instead of doing it yourself. When searching for a key affiliate, make sure to vet the individual thoroughly in 45
order to find somewhat that is a reflection upon yourself, your product and your company.
Finally, direct sales are also a form of push growth hacking. While direct sales teams do not work for every type of product, they do work more for some and should not be disregarded completely. While most startups these days tend to avoid these methods, consider appstack.com. This company began with mobile ads for local businesses and they actually began from telephone sales. In today’s modern digital world, this is less common but does stil exist and may work for some.
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Perhaps the most advanced method of growth is the product method. While push and pull methods are both effective, using the actual product is one of the most engaging methods for sharing a product and growing a business.
The vast effects that result from product methods are irreplaceable when compared to any push or pull methods.
Pull methods have the unfortunate side effect of potentially losing individuals that make up traffic. Consider using an infographic to build traffic, with the thought those inbound visitors may decrease daily because seeing any one graphic only relates to individuals a handful of times.
When using the product, however, it is entirely possible that each visit to the site wil not only mean a returned customer, it wil mean they bring their entire online network with them. If every one individual simply brings one additional individual with them upon return, then that product or service has then officially gone viral.
In industry terms, the viral loop comes into play. Basically, if a growth hacker is able to set up a network where every individual who enters a product brings another person with him or her, that equals a coefficient of over 1, known as “K,” which equals exponential growth.
In most scenarios, examples such as B2B enterprises, there are rarely coefficients as high as 1 because even the most expert tactics do not work for every product, nor do they work in every type of market. However, 47
despite the odds, it’s important to remember that any K factor above 0
results in positive growth.