7 Business Growth Hacking Tips You Need to Know in 2018

After attending one of Vin Clancy’s signature Growth Hacking talks, we walked away with multiple actionable tips.

We boiled it down to 7 main points that Vin highlighted that can help you shift into a growth-focused mindset to help your business thrive.

1) You don’t need a million followers and viral content, you just need a solid foundation of 1,000 true fans.

A common misconception that Vin talked about is how entrepreneurs and start-ups think the goal should be millions of followers if they want to stand out in a noisy, competitive landscape.

Vin points out that this isn’t the case. In his experience, it’s more powerful to build a community of even just 1,000 people to start who genuinely believe in/advocate for your product/service.

He gave the example of his Facebook group which has seen considerable success called Traffic and Copy, which he co-founded with another marketer/content creator, Charlie Price. To be accepted as a member of the group, you need to be vetted by the Facebook group admins.

They’ve purposely kept the group at around 11,000 members (they even decreased the number of members at one point) to ensure that the people contributing are actually authentic and add value.

2) Create a Facebook Group to foster a lucrative online community.

Vin said he’s a big proponent of online groups (especially on social networks like Facebook) or even industry-specific forums.

It makes sense that people are more likely to exchange their best ideas and professional tricks of their trade with a familiar group of individuals who share some mutual interests/goals.They are far more likely to share this kind of information in a closed group setting instead of publicly.

The smaller and more serious group of people creates an environment for sharing ideas, support and problem solving.

Not only does this kind of online group clearly benefit Vin and Charlie’s business, but also there’s bound to be a natural exchange of products/services between the members in addition to words of advice.

3) Social media news feed visibility is key (and easier to hack than you think).

You definitely shouldn’t spend the majority of your time trying to hack algorithms. At the same time, Vin points out that if you have the ability to jumpstart your visibility and traffic, it would be crazy not to do it.

If you have a network of people to help you get more shares and likes on a post after the initial launch of a product, it can make a world of difference in the number of people you reach overall.

Social networks like Facebook tend to favor content that gets a high amount of engagement right away. Those early views/likes/comments can push a post to a larger audience and majorly increase exposure.

Timing is incredibly important when it comes to making the most of your company’s social media presence.

At the end of the day, if you know your target audience extremely well, you have the power to mold your social media strategy to fit their behavior and preferences as accurately as possible.

4) Use every single lead generation technique you can

(without being spammy).

Vin’s growth hacking techniques all revolve around lead generation. There is a fine line between using these techniques in a productive, consistent way that builds connections and using them in a borderline aggressive/spammy way that has negative effects.

Vin pointed out that you can get away with a lot more outreach than you think. People are generally more forgiving than you would think when it comes to receiving emails on an almost daily basis. The caveat is that your content has to be relevant to them and they have to have opted in originally. and You will need a budget to try out difference “hacks” to figure out the best one for your situation. Naturally, not everything will work and there will be a lot of trial and error.

Here are five names of lead generation software that Vin recommended:

1) Find that Lead

2) Lead Feeder

3) Sniply

4) Rebump

5) Drip

5) Make sure you’re mastering the basics before focusing on details that might not help you at all.

If you don’t have a steady stream of traffic coming to your site but you’re obsessing over the placement of your Calls to Action, it’s not a good sign.

Design and user experience are extremely important, but without enough people visiting your site, how can you figure out what they prefer and what works best? You can always improve your conversion rate strategy and change things to be more effective. However, if you don’t even have the volume of traffic necessary to identify trends, there’s no point.

Honing in on one goal or channel at a time is critical. For example, Vin talked about how he 100% focused in on acquiring web traffic for his online magazines planetivy.com & screenrobot.com at the beginning of his career. With traffic as his sole, primary goal, he received nearly 20 million page views with zero marketing spend.

This gave him the momentum he needed to further grow. When you do everything in your power to accomplish your main priority (and don’t waste time over-analyzing other vanity metrics) there’s a much better chance you’ll succeed in the long run.

6) Write in an easy-to-understand way.

When you’re writing content or copy for your target audience,Vin encourages his clients to keep it super simple and straightforward. Big, fancy industry buzzwords won’t help you if you’re using them just to use them.

In fact, Vin pointed out that speakers, including politicians, resonate more strongly with their audience when communicating at an elementary school reading level.

People want to know the basics about why they should care about your product/service (and they want to know it fast). When it comes to lead generation, you’re better off boiling everything down to the bare minimum.

It’s better to generate interest and make sure they’ve opted in to learn more before giving the full rundown of why they should be your customer.

7) Be selective about what advice you decide to follow.

Vin emphasized in a memorable way how many “gurus”, “experts” and other generally well-meaning bloggers who make false promises. He started his presentation by providing a reality check for the audience. He began by painting a bleak picture of the unprecedented competitiveness out there today, reminding the audience how easy it is to fail and be led astray.

Vin wants to avoid at all costs having more entrepreneurs and young agencies/businesses fail after jumping on the bandwagons of fad marketing trends. Instead of blindly heeding advice even when it comes from reputable sources) make sure the advice is applicable to your niche or situation.

Vin’s reminder to do as much as humanly possible before spending money on consultants and advertising and outside promotion. There are a ton of tactics you can implement on your own and see incredible results.

Wrapping it up…

Vin’s candor, work ethic, and no-fluff approach to giving business growth advice has made him a well-respected marketer. Whether you’re an agency, an ecommerce brand, or even a Fortune 500 company, you can apply at least some of his tips to take your business growth to the next level.

At Chainlink, we also believe in growth hacking for our clients’, using cutting edge digital marketing technology and tactics.

Our passion is helping businesses stand out as industry leaders by increasing their online visibility, traffic to their site, email campaign success rate, and ultimately conversions. We can provide you with the tools and guidance you need to make sure your SEO is up-to-date and competitive.

Reach out to us today to learn more about how we’ll help your business grow online. We’d love to chat and give you a free consultation. Don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter for more exclusive tips and strategies, too.