It is very common to confuse Growth Hacking with Marketing. This is due to the fact that the classic way for businesses to grow is by increasing sales; however, growth hacking encompasses much more than sales. 

To explain it in a few words, we can define Growth Hacking as that discipline whose purpose is the maximum optimization and profitability of the business in pursuit of continuous growth of its benefits. 

A Growth Hacker is a transdisciplinary profile that requires a technical and analytical part as well as a curious and creative part. It is a professional who knows how business works but who will always dare to go outside the norm and try new things. It is, in short, that person whose ultimate goal will be, with the least possible expense and effort, to achieve the greatest possible business growth.

Can we then apply Growth Hacking to a sector such as marketing and advertising?  Of course, below we explain the steps to grow a business in this sector. 

The first step is to look at the funnel of the company and see what is the most critical part of the funnel. Is there a problem in getting new customers? Or is the critical area where our current customers are going to other companies? There may be more than one critical part and in a certain case we will have to select one. 

Once we know which part of the funnel to act on, we should establish a growth objective. This should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound. 

An example would be: "We want to increase loyalty by 15% in the next 3 months and we will monitor this through the number of customers from last year and this year".

Once our objective has been set, we must establish a strategy to achieve it. This strategy, called a growth driver, is the one that allows us to achieve the greatest results with the least possible expenditure. We must bear in mind that this strategy can be a product or marketing strategy; it is not just a matter of advertising our brand. 

• What could we use to build customer loyalty?
• Can we increase our catalog of services?
• Or do we choose to create a rebranding campaign?
• Can we achieve this through customized strategies and actions?
• Is our PR optimal?
• Can we suggest more daring marketing proposals?

Once we have selected the driver we are going to use, we move on to the experimentation part. Experiments are all those tactics by which we carry out the execution of the strategy. If, for example, we have chosen to act on the driver of personalized actions,

• What actions could we carry out?
• Could we offer a free meeting to clients where we show them the trends in the sector and explain how we consider it appropriate to act in the coming year?
• Can we proactively create a customized campaign for them based on the results obtained in the last one?
• Can we offer them customized work?

All those experiments we conduct must be monitored and analyzed in order to execute the last phase of the process. 

Finally, each and every experiment must be recorded, explaining what action we have carried out, what the results were, what data we have obtained and what we have learned. This will help us to avoid repeating mistakes in the future and to begin to detect what works and what does not. 

For more information on the most effective drivers and experiments for the marketing and advertising sector, all you need to do is register at Hypertry. There you can also request personalized consulting for your company.