This document provides information on growth hacking strategies and tactics. It discusses: 1. The speaker's experience growing traffic and followers for various websites and apps, reaching tens of millions of pageviews and followers. 2. An overview of growth hacking, which uses creativity, social metrics, and analytics to gain exposure and sell products. 3. Ten "rules of growth hacking" including speaking to customers first, investigating different channels, setting goals, and focusing resources on the most effective tactics. 4. Specific growth channels and tactics discussed include content marketing, email marketing, social media, influencer marketing, and customer acquisition tools. Paid advertising and automation strategies are also covered. 5. The presentation

1. Growth Hacking
Cross Campus, L.A.
vincent@magnific.com

3. 150,000,000+ Total
Pageviews
50 million+ unique visitors
200,000+ Likes/followers
50,000 client followers
1000’s of signups

5. 1.Traffic: Zero to 50,000 visitors a month
2.0 to thousands of followers in weeks
3.Apps - zero to 100-200 downloads a day
within the first 30 days
+Training, coaching, consultancy
+I teach people how to do what I do

6. I APPRECIATE YOU COMING OUT/MY PROMISES TO YOU
By the time you leave here tonight:
- You’ll understand what growth hacking is & growth
strategies you can set up tomorrow
- You’ll leave with at least three pieces of software or
tactics that you’ll want to set up tomorrow
- You’ll have ideas I haven’t even mentioned
- You’ll feel more confident you’ll succeed in your
business

7. What is growth hacking?
“A marketing technique initially
employed in tech startups that uses
creativity, social metrics and analytical
thinking as well as tools to sell products
and gain exposure.”

8. The golden rules of growth

9. The golden rules of growth
- Scalable

10. The golden rules of growth
- Scalable
- Repeatable

11. The golden rules of growth
- Scalable
- Repeatable
- Predictable

12. The 10 rules of growth hacking
“Grow fast or die slow” - Samir Patel

13. The 10 rules of growth hacking
“Grow fast or die slow” - Samir Patel
1. You do not talk about growth hacking

14. The 10 rules of growth hacking
“Grow fast or die slow” - Samir Patel
1. You do not talk about growth hacking
2. You do not talk about growth hacking (investors/public)
Read: http://bit.ly/songkickgrowthhack

15. The 10 rules of growth hacking
“Grow fast or die slow” - Samir Patel
1. You do not talk about growth hacking
2. You do not talk about growth hacking
3. Speak to customers & define messaging before you go viral
Read “The Mom test” (I can send it to you)

16. UX: “If the user can’t use it, it doesn’t work”
UX
9

17. 0. Tailorbrands.com: Create a free logo today!
Also: Logaster.com

18. 1) UXMYTHS.COM - Don’t believe the hype

19. 2) Balsamiq creates mockups the easy way

20. 3) KEEP YOUR SIGNUP TOTES SIMPLE
-One thing to type into/click only!

21. 3.5) Keep user onboarding easy
1) Auto-login after signup
Jump right into product :)
2. Send personal email
Within 24 hours (or even right away), send them a
personalized email asking them specifically why they signed
up.What made them pull the trigger? This is extremely
important data as you want to make sure that your product is
delivering what your marketing messages are promising.

22. 4) UX CHECKLIST via Github:
http://bit.ly/UXPLZ

23. 5) The 5 best call-to action buttons
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)

24. 6) See where your visitors hover/click
http://bit.ly/cr8zyegg - Free 90 day trial!

25. 7) helps you A/B test key messaging

26. 8) You need this website checklist in your life:
http://bit.ly/ch3cklist

27. 9) Analytics tells you what people do on your
site. Qualaroo tells you WHY

28. 10: Test your site
with just 5 different people
“5 users can pick up 85% of User
Experience Issues” -Neilsen Study
http://usersthink.com

29. Bestaboutpages.com

30. UX SECTION
COMPLETE!

31. The 10 rules of growth hacking
“Grow fast or die slow” - Samir Patel
1. You do not talk about growth hacking
2. You do not talk about growth hacking
3. Speak to customers & define messaging before you go viral
4. Investigate & map channels easiest - hardest

32. The 10 rules of growth hacking
“Grow fast or die slow” - Samir Patel
1. You do not talk about growth hacking
2. You do not talk about growth hacking
3. Speak to customers & define messaging before you go viral
4. Investigate & map channels easiest - hardest
5. Set S.M.A.R.T. goals
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Relevant
- Time-based

33. Plan out every single user!
You can download the above template here.

34. Advanced level: Detailed as fuck for every part of the funnel

35. The 10 rules of growth hacking
“Grow fast or die slow” - Samir Patel
1. You do not talk about growth hacking
2. You do not talk about growth hacking
3. Speak to customers & define messaging before you go viral
4. Investigate & map channels easiest - hardest
5. Set S.M.A.R.T. goals
6. Read the basics for your channel(s) on growthhackers.com
https://growthhackers.com/must-read/

36. The 10 rules of growth hacking
“Grow fast or die slow” - Samir Patel
1. You do not talk about growth hacking
2. You do not talk about growth hacking
3. Speak to customers & define messaging before you go viral
4. Investigate & map channels easiest - hardest
5. Set S.M.A.R.T. goals
6. Read the basics for your channel(s) on growthhackers.com
7. Don’t sweat the small things on day one

37. The 10 rules of growth hacking
Don’t sweat the small things on day one

38. The 10 rules of growth hacking
Don’t sweat the small things on day one

39. The 10 rules of growth hacking

40. The 10 rules of growth hacking

41. The 10 rules of growth hacking
Don’t sweat the small things on day one

42. The 10 rules of growth hacking
Don’t sweat the small things on day one

43. The 10 rules of growth hacking
Don’t sweat the small things on day one

44. The 10 rules of growth hacking
Don’t sweat the small things on day one

45. The 10 rules of growth hacking
Don’t sweat the small things on day one

46. Copy Pasta
This is just another one of those little moments you can delight customers
with your brand instead of just sending out another blah marketing word
puddle. Other places include:
● Terms of service
● Text message reminders
● Webinar confirmation emails
● Abandoned cart emails
● Loading screens
These are SUPER IMPORTANT touch points.
Often they are extremely early in the customer journey, yet I see
businesses use standard templates or just let the system automatically
send the default. Boring. Does your business have a consistent
personality at every touch point? Do your confirmation emails make
people love your brand more? If not, it's time to dig in and level up.
You're missing out on a big opportunity.

47. You wanted to cancel? You thought wrong

48. Import a user’s address book = massive # of new users
Source: Fast Company

49. Import a user’s address book = massive # of new users
MICROSOFT
BUYS
LINKEDIN FOR
$36 BILLION

50. The 10 rules of growth hacking
“Grow fast or die slow” - Samir Patel
1. You do not talk about growth hacking
2. You do not talk about growth hacking
3. Speak to customers & define messaging before you go viral
4. Investigate & map channels easiest - hardest
5. Set S.M.A.R.T. goals
6. Read the basics for your channel(s) on growthhackers.com
7. Don’t sweat the small things on day one
8. Be a mixture of mad men & math men

51. Store Maven = A/B test App Store / Google Play pages
Be a mixture of mad men & math men

53. The 10 rules of growth hacking
Be a mixture of mad men & math men:
The $9 Marketing Stack
Analytics
● Segment (free for 100,000 events/mo) Single hub to collect, translate & route
your customer data
● Google Analytics (free as in beer)
● Mixpanel (free for 25,000 events/mo; 200,000 events with badge)
Marketing Automation (opt-in forms, email marketing, automation, and CRM)
● Perfect Audience (free to signup; CPM billing) for retargeting

54. The 10 rules of growth hacking
“Grow fast or die slow” - Samir Patel
1. You do not talk about growth hacking
2. You do not talk about growth hacking
3. Speak to customers & define messaging before you go viral
4. Investigate & map channels easiest - hardest
5. Set S.M.A.R.T. goals
6. Read the basics for your channel(s) on growthhackers.com
7. Don’t sweat the small things on day one
8. Be a mixture of mad men & math men
9. Pour more resources into the one(s) that work

55. The 10 rules of growth hacking
“Grow fast or die slow” - Samir Patel
1. You do not talk about growth hacking
2. You do not talk about growth hacking
3. Speak to customers & define messaging before you go viral
4. Investigate & map channels easiest - hardest
5. Set S.M.A.R.T. goals
6. Read the basics for your channel(s) on growthhackers.com
7. Don’t sweat the small things on day one
8. Be a mixture of mad men & math men
9. Pour more resources into the one(s) that work
10.Rinse & repeat - Think like Airbnb/Buzzfeed/Genius

56. The 10 rules of growth hacking
“Grow fast or die slow” - Samir Patel
1. You do not talk about growth hacking
2. You do not talk about growth hacking
3. Speak to customers & define messaging before you go viral
4. Investigate & map channels easiest - hardest
5. Set S.M.A.R.T. goals
6. Read the basics for your channel(s) on growthhackers.com
7. Don’t sweat the small things on day one
8. Be a mixture of mad men & math men
9. Pour more resources into the one(s) that work
10.Rinse & repeat - Think like the americans
IN SHORT, GO AND
GET USERS/
CUSTOMERS
FROM OTHER
PLATFORMS

57. If you have a milkshake...

58. Similarweb: Spying is officially “okay”

59. Reverse engineering growth:

63. Twitter :(

64. 5 Scams happening right now

67. Typical growth engine (for an app)

68. Sumome.com - Awesome widgets, no code

69. Sumome.com - Awesome widgets, no code (2)

70. The secret formula to getting returning users:

71. Automate emailing users when something
happens (signup, unfinished basket, etc)
=

73. YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE F
YOU’RE DOING (and that’s fine)

74. My reaction when a startup without
product/market fit
Starts growth hacking:
NET PROMOTER SCORE:
How likely is it that you
Would recommend our
product to a friend?
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
% promoters
- % detractors = NPS
Improve this Qr on Qr
What is your reason for
that score?
_____________________
What’s the main benefit
of our product to you?
If our product went away
tomorrow, how
Disappointed would
you be?
Not Disappointed at all
Disappointed
Very disappointed 🅧
...Once 40% are “very
disappointed, it’s time
to scale!

75. Targeting Blogs
Publicity
Unconventional PR
SEO/SEM
Social and Display Ads
Speaking Engagements
19 main channels of user acquisition:
Content Marketing
Email Marketing
Engineering as Marketing
Business Development
Affiliate Programs
Viral Marketing (customer invites)
Community Building
Sales
Existing Platforms
Trade Shows
Offline Events
Offline Ads
More info here

76. IRL
Social Media
Content Marketing :(
Email Marketing + Bonuses?
My preferred channels of user acquisition:

77. This is your site if you have
no pre-launch game:

78. “Boring” startups can growth hack too

79. Mint.com (Acquired in 2 years)
1. 9 month pre-launch strategy
2. Lots of written content and infographics to be shared on Reddit, Digg,
Facebook etc
3. Q & A’s with Finance bloggers (or Technology journalists with a big reach)
4. Email box at the end of every single blogpost - Acquired 20k-30k emails
5. To get mint first, bloggers put the “I want mint” badge on their blog
6. Founder spent one week out of every two months on a press tour
(disclaimer: They hired a PR agency to help with this, but you can do press
without) - PR sometimes added 20,000 signups a day post-launch
7. “Mint answers” section answered questions about finance (by experts)
8. SEO “For every popular finance query on Google, we had a page and
content for it, and iterated landing pages to optimize conversion.””
9. Cost of user acquisition was under $1

80. Get 25% off with ‘VINCENT25’ on www.maitreapp.co
Selected in the Top 50 products of all time by Product Hunt!

81. Get your skates on & hustle

82. Day 1 Feedback: http://bit.ly/5lack

83. Use Charlieapp.com

84. Become a hunter gatherer (of emails)

85. Voila Norbert: Find anyone’s email address

86. Check please

87. We are all connected

88. - Anything “sales” driven
- Business that rely on relationships
- A good first step if you don’t already
know where to find your users
IRL Types of businesses

89. This phone phobia must end
*Learn how to brain drain

90. Breathe. Stretch. Any Questions?

92. 1. Ideal User is critical
2. Reply and flood hashtags
3. Who says Instagram gets no clickthroughs?
Read: https://blog.gleam.io/foundr/
http://austenallred.com/user-
acquisition/book/chapter/instagram/

93. Who says Instagram gets no clickthroughs?
Create a quick, to-the- point bio (150 characters or less) followed by a direct
CTA that uses a memorable URL.
Use something like www.yourcompany.com/go or
www.yourcompany.com/startnow. The link should take users to a unique
page so you can track traffic you are generating on Instagram. This page
should offer them INSANE VALUE
Put your URL/emojis in your location!

94. Some (girls) have all the power on IG

95. 6.
Make your posts public! / FB is your biggest asset
Add me on Facebook here: Vincent Dignan

96. Hype your Facebook right now
1) Make personal profile your professional profile
2) Turn “follow” on so people who don’t want to friend you can
follow your posts, and vice versa
3) Write your blog posts as “notes” these are Google-able if you
turn them to “public” - cool extra traffic
4) Start joining and posting into groups
5) Add me - I’m in over 100 startup and marketing groups

97. The future of community - 5k users in 8 weeks

99. Custom Audiences is how you Facebook Ad:
Spaceship.rocks simplifies this
- Export competitors followers
- Turn them into emails
- Use emails?
- Feed into Facebook/Twitter
as ads

100. Businesses who may need Facebook
- Anything with a “product” that you can arbitrage
sales in the same way as adwords
- This can include apps in certain situations
- Basically everyone to a certain extent: Add the line of
retargeting code (+ Google’s) :-(
- Fanpagekarma.com - track other FB pages so you can
see which posts got the most traction

102. The best Twitter tool of all time
Search by gender, job title, location,
company/person - mad targeting

103. Activity: Finding your customers

105. Type your ideal user in this box!

107. Tweepi will get you followers.

108. Twitter basics
1. Steal the good stuff, only RT compliments
2. Tweet the same (article) 5 times
3. Pictures most likely to be retweeted
4. Tweet lots: 50 - 100 tweets a day is fine
5. Tweepi gets you followers literally today

109. Businesses who may need Twitter
- Apps/Software/Platforms looking to get a
large (as in tens of thousands) userbase
- Businesses where content is important
- Anyone looking to reach a certain job
title/location (basic demographics, Facebook
needed for complex targeting)
- Events businesses

110. 1.Probably not for you !
2.Great for personal brand. High engagement
3.Don’t spend time on here
4.Good for: Local businesses, fun businesses,
youth-focused businesses
5.Buying filters works

111. Businesses who may need Pinterest
- Anything beautiful, aimed at females 30+
- Use Buffer to easily setup a pinning schedule
- Remove any pin with less than 6 repins within
48 hours (Pinterest algorithm)
- Groups are easiest way to reach thousands
- Difficult to work out, so likely a big
opportunity here

112. Finding Influencers:

113. Finding Influencers (2)

114. Reach YouTube Influencers with
Famebit. YouTube ads can work too.

115. Post to multiple LinkedIn groups at once!
https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=http://yourwebsitehere.com

116. Top Linkedin channels by followers:
Find some Linkedin groups to post into here.

117. How to get your first 500 users (125 signups per
social network, takes an afternoon) (ASSETS)
1. Message LinkedIn contacts in batches of 20 using
the link I just sent you
2. Individually message all of your Facebook friends
3. Tweet @ all of your Twitter followers one by one
(Buffer can help you do this quicker)
4. Email all of your contacts one by one (we’ll get
into this later)
5. Read this

118. BEGINNING ACTIVITY - Search for your
niche, find 10 subreddits to post in to

119. Useful Subreddits
r/startups - r/entrepreneur - r/smallbusiness
r/engineering - r/hwstartups
r/AlphaAndBetausers (submit your app for feedback)
Marketing Advice: r/marketing, r/seo, r/bigseo, and r/askmarketing
Technical Advice: r/wordpress, r/iosprogramming, and r/androiddev
Learning: r/learnprogramming

120. Businesses who may need social news
- Anything where “tech” feedback is important
- Anything where techy early adopters are
important
- Apps/Software/Platforms looking to get a
large (as in tens of thousands) userbase can
seed initial users here

121. Social media level complete? Questions?

122. This will come up with ideas for you:
http://www.portent.com/tools/title-maker

123. Activity 3: Content: Answerthepublic.com

131. Now convert into gold...

133. Email is 40x as effective as Facebook
and Twitter combined
(Source: McKinsey, 2015)
Send people to Customized landing pages,
increases conversion rate by 25%+
45% of all e-mails are opened on mobile
-email automation

134. Say hello to hello bar

135. 5 Steps to getting your emails delivered
1) Use <first name> to make every email unique
2) "Warm up" the IP if a new email account - send it to 20 people, get them to
all reply to the email it sent from to make it look legit
3) Send in small bursts (Mailchimp does this automatically)
4) Don't use the word "free", "giveaway", or “discount” where possible
5) Clean your lists regularaly - consider booting out people who never open

137. Kickbox.io: Get rid of broken email addresses:
$10 to verify 1,000 email addresses

138. Does your email look like spam?

139. “Good Artists copy, great artists steal”

140. Stocksnap + Pixtabay = Free photos

141. Still too lazy?

142. Trade email lists = reach thousands

143. Connect 6 as you browse

145. Your inbox should be a to-do list

147. Redress the power balance

148. Sometimes you have to cold email

149. Chartgo: Create a chart in 30 seconds

150. Businesses who may need email mktg
- Anything where something is being sold
- Saas companies who don’t have sales people
- Authors, freelancers, contractors, designers,
etc

151. Kickstarter acquisition = PR
Kickstarter Marketing essentials - Must read marketing basics for anyone launching a campaign.
outgrow.me - For finished kickstarter projects
kicktraq.com - For estimations on how a project will do
crowdfundfusion.com - For seeing all projects from top crowdfunding sites in one place
CrowdDistrict.com - A news source covering projects across all platforms.
CrowdHub-Browse, upvote and save popular crowd-funding projects.
reddit.com/r/Assistance - For charity and GoFundMe campaigns
CrowdFundingForum - A place to discuss all things crowdfunding.
Herdsurf.com-A great source of interviews and news about current and successfully funded projects.
CrowdsUnite.com - The ultimate source for crowd funding knowledge.
Crowdcharts.com - Hour by hour crowdfunding tracking and analytics.
Stiqblox.com - News on crowdfunded gadgets, games and funded projects.

152. Thunderclap.it = Major key to success

153. PR Presshour: A starting point

154. Hey Press: Find any journalist, anywhere

155. Summary: Growth Hacking Day 1 Cheat Sheet
Type of business Acquisition channel
Publishing
Facebook/SEO/Email
E-Commerce Paid
social/Adwords/IRL
Social Network/B2C App Social/IRL/Internal
virality
Consulting/Freelance Public speaking
Saas
All of the above!
Enterprise companies

156. Insert Emojis into Email,
Twitter, Instagram…
Ctrl + command
+ spacebar =
https://www.emojibase.com/emojis-on-twitter -
Find Emojis you can put in your Twitter bio 📈🔥
🙏🔑✔

157. Insert .gifs into Email, iMessage,
Twitter, Facebook...
Reactiongifs.com:
Also: turn any
Youtube video into
a gif by adding “gif”
before the url e.g.
www.gifyoutube.com/url

158. Bonus mosh!
- THE IOS APP MARKETING STRATEGY GUIDE
- Typosaurus: R.I.P. Spelling errors on your site
- Xendpay: Send money worldwide free!
- 33 ways to get more clients - Worth reading

160. Stop straining your eyes, go to bed earlier, sleep better

161. Find your .com: leandomainsearch.com

162. Be charming, be bold: investorlist.co

163. Bonus mosh 2: Read all about it
- “The 48 laws of power” - Robert Greene
(Psychology/Strategy/Essential for any person)
- “How to win friends and influence people” - Dale
Carnegie (networking/partnerships/sales)
- “Trust Me I’m Lying” - Ryan Holiday (P.R.)
- “Zero to one” - Peter Thiel (Getting Investment)
- “The Four Hour Work Week” - Tim Ferriss (strategy)
- “The hard thing about hard things” Ben Horowitz
(Management)

164. What should you do on your to-do list?
Answer:

165. Startups are a race against time:
Have a board meeting with yourself

166. Are we in a bubble? and other lies
Stop watching the news/reading blogs
- Don’t listen to
most people
- Build and sell/
grow users

167. Personal Branding Equation
Vanity + Value - time spent
= Good Personal Branding

168. The 10 rules of personal branding
1. No-one cares about you.
2. People only care what you give them
3. Be everywhere, but choose Text/Video/Photos (or all three)
4. Use influencers, but don’t rely on them
5. Building your brand is 10% content, 90% distribution
6. 1 in 5 good posts is all you need/people will remember
7. Copy until you develop your own style

169. I’m looking to meet:
- Interesting companies looking for marketing
innovation (growth hacking) consultancy
- Places/meetups/conferences to give talks
- Introductions to your network, particularly in
the internet marketing space
- People who can help me build my network/
particularly in growing my personal brand

170. Http://bit.ly/secretsaucenow
Biggest-selling
growth hacking
Product in the
history of
crowdfunding
$85,000
in
Sales for
a book
we
haven’t
even
finished

171. You’re very privileged...
- This is the last slide then the next has my email & Q & A
- It’s not about a lack of funding or market size
- There’s no-one to blame
- I did it on my own
- Tonight has been pointless if you don’t execute
- Growth hacking can change your life like it did mine
- Amp up the FEELING of success

172. GROWTH
HACKING

173. GROWTH
HACKING

174. GROWTH
HACKING

175. + Tweet me your feedback: @vincentdignan
THANK YOU!
EMAIL ME FOR SLIDES
vincent@magnific.com