Sometimes you just need a short term response that changes the business growth momentum.
This could be to arrest a decline or possibly to accelerate existing growth rates. So we’ve put our collective wisdom together to create this list of tactics (yes, that’s what they were called before being renamed as hacks!) to help out with those tense situations that often occur in meeting our KPI’s and commitments to stakeholders.
Growth hacking is a methodology that uses behavioural data to test and measure one creative idea over a short period of time. Growth hacking is designed to have immediate impact and is ideally suited towards online business models, however the principles can be utilised in any industry.
Growth hacking is a 5-step process:
- Assess current marketing and sales results
- Set your SMART goals
- Hypothesise business problems and solutions
- Ideate and run experiments
- Measure and review
Book your free 30-Minute Sales Strategy Consultation and assess the strength of your sales process.
20 growth hacks to acquire more customers and sales [Infographic]:
(Click infographic to enlarge.)
Explaining the 20 growth hacks to acquire more customers and sales:
- Bundling products and services
Buy this and get extras free or at a reduced cost. This is a well known and used tactic in both offline and online business models. The watch out here is not to construct an offer that is unprofitable. Bundling represents a great way to trial new features of products and provides the customer with something of tangible value to walk away with. - Increase price to high demand segments
In this competitive world it seems like no one is increasing price anymore. Pricing is the most valuable tool you have to increase profitable growth, particularly if you have a high demand product. Increasing pricing to high demand customers may cool off demand however; it will deliver significant profit growth. This also represents an opportunity for your communications to reinforce the premium and exclusive value your product represents. - Work the long tail customers
Often sales teams are encouraged to apply Pareto’s rule and focus on the large recurring customers almost exclusively. A great way to generate short term growth, however, is to reset your sales team for a short period of time focusing on the long tail customers. Often these customers feel unloved and with a little effort and incentive are willing to switch their purchases and drive your short terms sales. - Incentivise referrals
Referrals are like gold for a sales person. The lead is warm as opposed to being completely cold. So why not include incentives for your customers to refer similar friends and colleagues to your business. Growth hacking different incentive types and mechanics is easy to do and measure. - Leverage seasonal peaks and holidays
Many products and services have natural seasonal peak. These peaks could be weather dependent, holiday dependent or even retail dependent e.g. Click Frenzy, Black Friday. An easy growth hack is to ideate ways to leverage these events by extending the selling period and or getting customers to purchase more during these peaks. - Run a proof of purchase promotion
A well used tactic is to run a proof of purchase promotion. E.g. ‘Buy this and receive this’. There are literally hundreds of options to select from here and the mechanics can cover Gift with Purchase, Sweepstakes, Instant Win, Judged Competitions and hybrid versions of the above. Think about how these types of promotions can be socialised on the most appropriate social media platform for greater reach and engagement. Keeping the time period short and emphasising the exclusivity of the offer is key to driving a short-term sales spike and a positive ROI. - Post entry campaign offer
Often when customers enter promotions like the above they don’t win or receive anything. This can be a let down. So why not offer something at either the post entry level or once the campaign has closed. A simple goodwill gesture at these points is likely to drive sales, particularly if they are tied to purchase. - Product discount coupon codes
For online businesses in particular, this is an easy tactic to implement. At your discretion you can target segments like light buyers with coupon codes. Be warned though. Be careful not to train your customers to expect them. Keep them random and for those times when nothing else will drive short term sales growth. - Secret codes to customers
If you have already issued coupon codes or are running a competition of some sort offering secret codes is a great way to further incentivise your customers, further engage behavioural change and drive offline to online. These secret codes could be event based and have a surprise and delight effect on your customers. - Sales force bonus incentive
Most sales teams are incentivised by bonus systems. These tend to be tied to the overall business results or overall sales result. As a product marketer, you may wish to bring some focus to a product launch or you may need to arrest some competitive inroads. Creating a short-term bonus incentive that’s focused on your product is a great way to get extra attention onto your product and therefore drive short term sales effects. - Free samples
Everyone loves a free sample, so if you believe in your product a surefire way to drive initial sales trial is via sampling. This could be instore/mall, via the letterbox or online. Whatever the medium the important thing to remember is follow up via a survey, an education offer and or a personal interaction. This will close your information loop and encourage repeat purchase, which is what you are sampling for. - Geo target with specific offers
The ability to target media towards customers in certain geographies is a great way to drive growth. Even better if you can personalise the messages and offers through eDM and video. This provides cut through and increases the likelihood of your content converting to a lead status. - Implement abandon cart tactics
It’s estimated that 70% of online shoppers will abandon carts at checkout. This represents more than a leaky bucket for your communications budget. An abandoned cart email is a follow up email to someone who has added items to their cart and as they have progressed through the checkout they have abandoned the site without buying. An email like this will help you recover up to 15% of this lost revenue opportunity. You could focus on one particular product or even offer a bundle or discount to close the sales loop. - Retargeting site visitors
Bounce rates on websites are still incredibly high and the sad fact is that most visitors won’t convert on their first visit. With a growth hacking mentality you can retarget these visitors with display advertising. To avoid wastage, be specific and target specific URL visits with creative offers tailored to these URL visits. - Build lead magnets
A lead magnet is a compelling call to action offer for site visitors in the form of a popup or highlighted box in the middle of your content. Effectively this is a growth strategy that builds prospects for your inbound funnel. You can test lead magnets that focus on you most valuable content, case studies and perhaps a free trial. Even in outbound sales these tactics are great for sales teams to ensure they offer something of value in order to convert their efforts. - Craft persuasive homepage messages
Let’s face it, the homepage is your best opportunity to convert. It is surprising that few companies don’t actively change up the home page messaging testing different calls to action. This is your growth hacking opportunity to drive short term sales. Bring forward bottom of the funnel messages to gauge their effectiveness or create a new lead magnet and feature that. The opportunity is there to reduce bounce rates and convert. You just need to be creative! - Use exit messaging to capture the leaking bucket
Why not have one last attempt at converting visitors as they leave the site. Again research suggests 15% of lost visitors can be retrieved by an exit intent pop up. Some people aren’t keen on any pop ups, however here we talking about short term hacks. Leaving visitors are just that, so one more attempt is worth a try. Test different messaging such as content offers, discount coupons or simply opt in subscriptions for non eCommerce based sites. - Zero in on a niche segment
‘There’s riches in them niches’! As the saying goes, tailoring your offer to specific segments, showing them that you understand is a great way to drive short terms sales growth. You will also build you knowledge quickly in the segment, which is useful to share with potential customers. Targeting industry events, target advertising at vertical industry types and create specific offers that answer niche pain points will all increase your sales conversion. - Co create with customers
Sometimes the trick to unlocking customer growth is working with them rather than telling them. No matter whether you are a B2B or a B2C business, sitting down with customers and getting creative is a growth experience for everyone. It’s interactive learning at its best and a great way to build relationships that last. Simply setup a workshop time, prepare the inputs and go for it. You’ll find your customers extremely appreciative of the experience and you will generate loads of growth ideas. - Dominate one channel
This hack takes inspiration from Al Reis and Jack Trout’s book, ‘The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing’. In particular, ‘The Law of Focus’. Some businesses work across multiple sales channels and as a result resources can be stretched. As a short-term measure, pick a channel you have expertise in and focus your resources. In fact don’t just limit it to your sales resources – involve the entire company across production and other service functions. It’s only for a short time, however the cross function sharing will breed a collaborative culture you can take forward.
Of course, many of these ideas can also be part of a traditional long-term plan. However, why not test them out using the growth hacking methodology before committing on a larger, long-term scale.
Results matter. And perfect doesn’t exist. So why not try some of these hacks today and drive the momentum of your business in the right trajectory! If you would prefer to talk through which hacks would be suitable to trial within your business, why not Book your free 30-Minute Sales Strategy Consultation with us!
