Large corporations have already understood this methodology (Growth Hacking Marketing) and are leveraging its advantages. In fact, the profile of a Growth Hacker is now one of the most desired by companies seeking innovation and growth.
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are very vulnerable, with one of their most critical points being their reputation, as they lack a track record, success cases, and very few referrals. According to BrightLocal, 88% of consumers trust reviews as much as personal recommendations.
A hack available to this segment can be to focus on their reputation, as this will positively impact their sales and positioning.
Additionally, Google considers good reviews as a trust signal, giving consumers more power. Therefore, businesses that are better positioned are those with more and better reviews on local search engines. According to ToolT, 50% of mobile searches are related to location proximity, hence the importance of optimizing Local SEO. Growth Hacking puts SMEs in the hands of those who need their services and are also nearby.
70% of jobs worldwide are generated by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and startups, which have achieved success through innovative ideas. However, having just a brilliant idea is not enough to achieve growth and profitability.
Thousands of companies are emerging and fighting to occupy a place of honor in the minds, cell phones, and computers of their potential customers. Unlike large corporations, they do not have the resources for data analysis and marketing teams to design strategies, let alone time to make mistakes.
It is precisely in that niche of companies with the need to make a presence, find clients, promote their services, and their competitive differences, that Growth Hacking emerges. It is a methodology that leverages critical thinking, data science, digital marketing, agile interactions, and custom software, with the sole aim of producing growth. “Growth Hackers generate millions of dollars in profits with almost nothing, only through an innovative strategy that grows businesses through continuous experiments – testing and discarding ‘hacks’ – until they achieve results and set new goals; it’s about having a hacker within the company, whose mission is to make it grow”.
These professionals have abandoned the belief that specialized marketing tools, such as segmentation, business intelligence, programmatic and advanced analytics, hypertargeting, as well as classic digital tools like SEO and SEM, were only used by large companies. Now, they are within reach of the smallest ones. And the way they quickly learn what it takes to grow, and use that same learning speed, is a competitive advantage.
Those who have already experienced it and have achieved their goals understand that this methodology is much deeper, and that digital marketing is just one of its facets. The Growth Hacker modifies and adapts the product and strategy, connecting the users’ needs directly with the growth of the business, iterating quickly until achieving results.
For example, Dropbox in 2010 managed to make its customers invite their friends in exchange for 500MB of extra space; and with this, it went from 100,000 to 4 million users in just 15 months.
Years later, Airbnb offered users with properties on Airbnb the opportunity to post them on Craigslist as well, incentivizing them to cross-list; and in a decade, it has reached the figure of 300 million guests hosted in over 4.5 million homes in 81,000 cities worldwide.
“SMEs are the ideal niche for Growth Hacking, especially for outsourcing; now this segment can count on the services of a Growth Hacker who accompanies them from start to finish, optimizing each step, increasing the acquisition of new customers, measuring, comparing, evaluating, and scaling, without the need for them to be part of their employee roster”.
At Iskali, we can explain this in more detail and offer a free initial consultation to review the status of your positioning on social networks or your website.
Kevin Villatoro, CEO and Partner of Iskali Integral Consultancy
