How to use Growth Hacking to get real results

The growth hacking approach (also referred to as ‘agile marketing’ and ‘growth marketing’) has generated a lot of excitement as a dynamic approach to boost awareness, lead generation and conversion. Sean Ellis, a marketer and entrepreneur who has worked for companies such as Dropbox and Eventbrite, devised the term ‘Growth Hacking’ in 2010. Originating from Silicon Valley, growth hacking has successfully been used to build high-growth companies such as Hotmail, PayPal, Twitter, Airbnb, Instagram and Uber. Ellis says: “Startups live and die by their ability to drive customer acquisition growth…[they] are under extreme resource constraints and need to figure out how to break through the noise to let their target customers know they have a superior solution for a critical problem…the best growth hacks take advantage of the unique opportunities available in a connected world where digital experiences can spread rapidly.” Growth hacking is…

Does the age of the employees affect the culture of the company?

The average age of the engineers that built the most powerful rocket ever built in human history, which landed a man on the moon, had an average age of 28. Now the average age of a NASA engineer is 47. I don't want to sound ageist, but it's been a good long while since anyone's been on the moon. So does the average age of a company's employees say anything about its dynamism? Well, maybe I'm a little biased because I'm still a little wet behind the ears, but I think it might just have something to do with it. The chart below shows innovative companies like Facebook, LinkedIn, Salesforce and Google all having considerable younger median ages than the likes of IBM and Oracle. Don't get me wrong, the latter two are great companies, and probably have a fair…

A 3 layer compliance model you can use to check that you're ready for the GDPR Countdown

When it comes to European data protection, things are changing faster than ever! The countdown has officially started for the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), with this coming into force on 25 May 2018. This will bring in greater protection for consumers, giving them more control over how their personal information is collected, stored, shared and used. In the UK, the ICO will be stronger in their enforcement of the GDPR, meaning marketers will need to ensure they comply with the laws before the deadline date. What many companies fail to realise is that collecting consumer information for email marketing campaigns in particular is valuable, however it’s easy for this information to be neglected. One area where companies can, and are, abusing the value of data is within their deployment of privacy information…

Does your business need a Head of Growth Hacking?

Have you noticed the emergence of the term “growth hacking” for describing a marketing approach. I did and dismissed it as a fad most relevant for SaaS (Software as a Service) / single product startup businesses. But recently, I’ve noticed some new job descriptions in this area which prompted me to take another look. In particular, I noticed that The Guardian is currently advertising for a Head of Growth Hacking... “The Guardian is committed to a “digital-first” strategy and in order to support this, we are seeking a Head of Growth Hacking to manage a virtual, cross functional team focused on GNM’s growth hacking plan. This role is responsible for finding innovative ways to accelerate adoption, use, and retention to drive up audiences to the Guardian’s digital product portfolio”. There are other jobs available too in UK-based startups such as Gumtree, MyBuilder and…

What marketers can learn from Wendy's Vs Burger King, Dunkin Vs Starbucks and General Motors Vs Ford

Coke Vs. Pepsi, Wendy’s Vs. Burger King, Mac Vs. PC… What do these things have in common? They are examples of some intense rivalries between powerful brands. As long as advertising has existed, companies have engaged in fierce competition with one another, and they haven’t shied away from calling one another out. There are examples of this in print advertising, and television and radio commercials. Today, the fight has been taken to social media where brands are duking it out on platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. Keep reading to take a look at some of the most intensive advertising wars over the past decade or so, and get some insights into what marketing professionals can learn these intense rivalries.

Starbucks, McDonald's…

Lessons to learn from Start-up failure

This week we are releasing our new growth hacking guide and have a bit of a growth hacking and start-up theme across the blog. Although we focus on the marketing side of start-ups pretty exclusively, it interesting to look at why start-ups fail, and see how this fits in with marketing issues. A study by Quartz looked at 87 bootstrapped (that's Californian for growing without venture capital funding) start-ups which failed, to find out what caused their eventual downfall. Only 2 explicitly blamed poor marketing, which isn't a huge amount, although is above pricing issues, legal challenges or burn out, which are no small matter. If you're running a start-up or work for one it's a great chart to spur thinking and maybe even do a bit of soul-searching to think about where your weaknesses are and how you can avoid the most common traps. …

Showing the variation in the decision process within different international markets

Luxury brands are on an upwards trajectory, with a recent McKinsey report showing that online sales are expected to double in the next 5 years – from the 6% to 12% in 2020, before tripling in 2025 to 18%. It's easy to see that the world of digital is currently, and will continue to impact the luxury goods market. McKinsey discussed the impact of Digital on the Luxury goods market and unearthed some interesting data about how the buying process differs between different countries. When intending to make a luxury purchase, we automatically default to thinking about pre-selected brands, of which 75% of the purchases will come from. Once deciding upon the brands, customers will have multiple touchpoints, or interactions, with brands before making the final decision to purchase. On…

Customers want good customer service, and don't like being passed between channels

On average, customers interact with four different channels when seeking customer service related enquiries from a business. The types of channels they use or expect to be able to use when contacting a business is changing too. Any marketer worth their salt knows that word of mouth and online reviews are some of the most critical channels for any business, and customer service is key to getting good results. Delivering good customer service now requires a presence across a range of channels, but in a way that allows them to be mutually supportive and helpful, rather than working at cross purposes. This isn't just a 'nice to have', it really is a must, given 97% of people say that customer service is important to their choice of brand. That's according to a study by Microsoft, which asked 4,000 people across the…

Diversify your brand narrative with a multi-platform marketing campaign strategy

“The attention economy is not growing,” asserts CRM Essentials’ co-founder, Brent Leary, and many marketing strategists would agree. In today’s fast-paced mobile world, it’s become increasingly difficult to make an impression with traditional marketing techniques, as ever-more sophisticated methods - incorporating multiple formats and publishing platforms - take hold and make their presence felt. This is known as nonlinear marketing, and in this article we’ll explore how and why the use of such abstract strategies can be so successful, and how you can start to incorporate nonlinear into your narrative.

The value of video

Cisco has predicted that 80% of all Internet traffic will be video content by 2019, revealing a growing trend for smartphone streaming that has put advertisers the world over on hot alert. There are many other reasons to embrace video marketing, and I’ve gone to the trouble of collating…

Our summary of the wide number of changes to Google AdWords and Analytics announced at the Google Performance Summit. 

Value: [rating=5] (Webmasters, Account Managers, SEM Professionals, PPC Professionals) Recommended  links: Google Analytics blog & Google AdWords Blog Yesterday (24th May 2016) Google announced a whole host of changes to their AdWords and Analytics platforms, citing the shift in mobile as the reason. "The shift to mobile is no longer a change on the horizon. It’s here." During the Google Performance Summit, the likes of Jerry Dischler (VP for Search Ads) & Brad Bender (VP for Display & Video Ads) talk through the steps and the processes involved in the decisions behind the changes. Skip to around the 27 minutes to get into the nitty gritty. For the sake of not making this article too confusing I'm going to split the changes up into two sections: …