This document discusses growth hacking and how companies can take their business to the next level. It describes how competition for attention is increasing while channels are rapidly evolving. Some startups have found huge success with little traditional marketing by using growth hacking, which involves experimenting with all growth levers through a process of idea generation, prioritization, testing, analysis, and optimization. The document provides examples of growth hacks from companies like Dropbox, Hubspot, Yammer, and LinkedIn and outlines a process for companies to find their own growth hacks through exploration of areas, inspiration from success data, and relentless experimentation.

1. Growth Hacking Magic?
Sean Ellis
September 17, 2014
CEO of Qualaroo,
GrowthHackers.com
Twitter @seanellis
Going Beyond the Hype to Take Your Business to the Next Level

2. About Me
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Founder/CEO of Qualaroo & GrowthHackers.com
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Previously VP Marketing for customer zero to NASDAQ IPO filing at LogMeIn and Uproar.com
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Then interim marketing exec roles at Dropbox, Lookout and Eventbrite

3. Extreme Competition for Attention
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3.5x
@seanellis

4. Rapidly Evolving Channels
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James Currier @seanellis

5. Yet Some Huge Startup Successes
Little or no traditional marketing…
@seanellis

6. GROWTH HACKING
MAGIC?
@seanellis

7. No –Rigorous Process of Experimentation
1. Ideas
2.Prioritize
3.Test
4.Analyze
5.Optimize
@seanellis

8. The Dropbox Growth Story
• Freemium reduced allowable CPA
• Natural advantages to grow with
collaboration and sharing
• Catalyze sharing with double sided
referral program
• Optimize conversions on sharing
loops
• 300 million users with no traditional
marketing
@seanellis

9. Desperation Drove Startups to Innovate
• Aggressive targets, tight resources
• Traditional approach not realistic
• Had to think rethink growth…
@seanellis

10. The Growth Hacking Playbook
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Experiment with all available growth levers
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Understand what’s driving growth, test to improve it
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Heavy focus on product and optimization
http://www.michiganemploymentlawadvisor.com/

11. B2B or B2C?
• Growth hacking isn’t just for consumer-focused
companies.
• B2B often requires integration with sales process.
@seanellis

12. HubSpot’sGrowth Hack –Free Tools
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13. Yammer –Engineered User-Get-User
@seanellis

14. LinkedIn -Engineered User-Get-User
@seanellis

15. PUTTING GROWTH HACKING TO WORK FOR YOUR BUSINESS @seanellis

16. Finding Your Own Growth Hacks
• Areas of exploration
• Process, team and tools
@seanellis

17. Some Areas of Exploration
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Platform integrations
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Engineered user-get-user
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Free tools
Examples
25+ M users
@seanellis

18. Areas of Exploration (Cont)
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Powered by
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Reverseengineer success
Examples
@seanellis

19. Success Data: Airbnb’sPro Photos
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Airbnbdiscovered that listings with high-quality photos received 2-3x bookings
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Airbnbinvested in professional photography
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Booking activity explodes as desire increases
@seanellis

20. Other Growth Studies for Inspiration
@seanellis

21. Experimentation is Key to Success
• Generate many ideas for experiments
• Prioritize by impact, confidence & effort
• Balance high impact & high probability tests
@seanellis

22. GOAL: INCREASED UNITS OF GRATIFICATION

23. Double Down on Success
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Challenge is not finding many channels that work, but rather finding one.
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Often your best growth opportunity is to double down what’s already working.

24. Growth Team Often Needed
• Multi-disciplinary
• Cross functional
• Evangelize experimentation
culture
“Growth team” complements existing marketing team
@seanellis

25. Some Helpful Tools
• Analytics — Identify drop-off points and under-performing
pages (e.g. Google Analytics,
KISSMetrics)
• Qualitative Insights — Uncover the why behind the
numbers (e.g. Qualaroo, SurveyMonkey)
• A/B Test — Find better performing combinations to
drive conversion rate (e.g. Hubspot, Optimizely)
@seanellis

26. Relentless Execution of Growth Process
1. Ideas
2.Prioritize
3.Test
4.Analyze
5.Optimize
@seanellis

27. Key Takeaways
• Emerging marketing challenges require all to rethink growth
• Growth hacking is based experimentation, not silver bullets
• Add process/team to maximize number of experiments
• Get inspiration from data, VOC and what’s working for others
@seanellis

28. Questions?
THANK YOU.
Sean EllisCEO of Qualaroo & GrowthHackers.com
Twitter: @seanellis