Growth hacks – they’re not the end all be all of tech startup success, but they’ve certainly helped give a major boost to many companies that are thriving today. If you don’t know, a “growth hack” refers to a strategy used, often by tech startups, to rapidly sell products or memberships, and gain lots of exposure and a big following right off the bat. Growth hacks are usually clever, creative ways to maximize social networks, digital or literal, to gain customers quickly.
Quora recently listed a round-up of the “most ingenious” growth hacks. Let’s review three killer examples of growth hacking success:
Groupon remains one of the most obvious growth hack success stories.
In order to unlock Groupon discounts, you have to share them with your friends to reach a minimum number of people buying in.
Merchants can afford to give massive discounts, even losing profits, in exchange for the huge amount of exposure their brand gets.
Groupon and the brands offering coupons both win.
Airbnb’s business model has a built-in growth hack – literally anyone can list their apartment or house, meaning that the growth of Airbnb’s user base knows no bounds.
What is even more ingenious is that when you list a property on AirBnB, you have the option of also posting it on Craigslist.
You’d think more companies would have tried this hack by now, but apparently it took some pretty crafty coding for AirBnB’s tech geeks to figure out how to piggyback onto Craigslist’s audience.
One fabulous growth hacking idea comes from Dropbox. Refer a friend on Dropbox and get free extra storage space.
The storage space is relatively cheap for Dropbox to provide, but the referral is valuable.
This is exactly how I myself got into Dropbox, and every time I want to share a file with a friend, I recommend that they download Dropbox. As a file sharing platform, it makes sense for me to want the friends I share files with to be using the same platform. This model has worked out so well for Dropbox that other companies are now offerings freebies in exchange for referrals.
Growth hacks won’t save a company without a solid business plan and sound investments behind it – but they can be a great way to utilize social networks to boost growth and establish a broad audience right from the start.
Ellen Vessels, a Staff Writer at The American Genius, is respected for their wide range of work, with a focus on generational marketing and business trends. Ellen is also a performance artist when not writing, and has a passion for sustainability, social justice, and the arts.
