Growth Hacking

What is growth hacking?

Growth hacking is the preparation of planned growth strategies to bring a business model to its users. Although the concept is relatively new, many companies have run similar projects under the name of “growth strategy” for many years.

When we split growth hacking into two parts, we first need to look at “growth”. Growth here is directly tied to real growth metrics such as internet traffic and the number of social media followers.

The second part of the term, “hacking”, is quite different from what you might think. Hacking here does not mean software piracy or seizing free resources; it means using unconventional methods instead of standard ones in order to produce the most effective and innovative solutions to identified problems.

Who is a growth hacker?

People who work in growth hacking are called “growth hackers”. As digital marketing specialists, growth hackers have particular skills in SEO, using analytics tools and analysis, user testing, social media planning and viral content.

Growth hackers actually work in online marketing; what sets them apart from online marketers is that they analyse and test everything and base their decisions on measurement. SEO, Google Analytics and other analytics tools, content marketing, A/B testing, viral marketing and social media marketing are among the most widely used concepts in growth hacking.

Growth on a smaller budget

Growth hacking is associated more with internet startups than online marketing is because it can be applied with smaller budgets. Large companies such as LinkedIn, X (Twitter) and Facebook are also known to have used this approach during their growth phases.

Limited budgets and capital in internet ventures create the need for growth hacking and make it possible to plan growth on smaller budgets. Not only small social media projects and firms, but also the social media and data storage sites we use every day actively use this strategy.

Data analysis

To find growth problems, you need to analyse both your marketing efforts and how users behave on your website or app in fine detail. To do this, growth hackers need to master globally popular tools such as Google Analytics, Hotjar, Mixpanel and Kissmetrics.

In the first stage, they need to set up these analyses technically. In the second stage, the data coming from these tools needs to be read and interpreted. When interpreting the data, both statistical data and non-statistical written and verbal data, such as user research and surveys, should be examined.

Technical knowledge

The growth process continues by testing ideas quickly, analysing failed ideas and turning them into learning, and implementing successful ideas in more detail. During this time, growth hackers are expected to have strong technical knowledge of the growth work being carried out.

Creative thinking

Successful growth hackers bring different solutions to problems beyond the ones others come up with. This is only possible through creative thinking. They need to know solutions from different sectors and be able to think about how to adapt them to the problems they are tackling.