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Lets Try Something Different

by savidge4
4 replies
So far we have had some great shares on what "Growth Hacking" is. There has been some discussion about how "Growth Hacking" is just a new name for old methods.

So the "Lets Try Something Different" portion of the post. For those of use that believe Growth Hacking is more than A / B testing and making things go viral, lets share some Growth Hacks that we may use to develop any of the aspects of AARRR.

Ill start with a YouTube Growth Hack. I have in recent months been involved with a website that produces a considerable amount of video related obviously to the sites topic. So getting someone to watch YOUR video is a battle in un itself. But what can you do to Retain that viewer, Aquire that viewer and ultimately get that viewer to Refer?

I made a simple suggestion of adding 15 seconds to the end of each video that links to other related videos. Much like YouTube does once your video has ended. Our first efforts broke the screen into quarters upper left and right, and then lower left and right. We placed some text in the upper left and then filled the remaining 3 spots with related video links. The overall channel views increase.

We then went a step further with the topics that we could, and split the screen in thirds horizontally. So top section middle and bottom. The top section we placed some text, and the mid and lower section we placed 4 video links each to replicate Youtubes format. Needless to say with this format, A / B testing wasn't needed.

The lower setup did a number of things. It Retained the visitor, to our content. It acquired that user at a far greater percentage to become a member of our list, and we are finding that the videos in this setup arer being linked to far more than any other. ( cant really explain the last point, but the numbers don't lie! )

Ok so there it is.. an actual usable Growth Hack. Got any to share?
  • Profile picture of the author savidge4
    Since this discussion is going so well, I thought I might throw in another suggestion.

    I have been using this one for YEARS. going way back to 1997 or so when I was involved in the Las Vegas Market. Specifically for me, I was involved in hotel websites. All of this being the precursor to Expedia, and Hotwire and the like.

    So even back then there was a understanding that the "Internet" was only going to get you so far. but the ability to pass information from your online users to their offline friends was a big step.

    I was involved in a little startup, that after a few years got bought out, by one of the biggies in the industry. They were more interested in the actual software that drove the site IE the ability for the direct access given to hotels to control rates etc.

    I was the geek off in the back office with no windows sitting with the server racks doing everything I could to bring in as much traffic as I possible could. At the time I recall there being a rather large rivalry between ME ( my department ) and the other guy in the corner office controlling the PPC purse strings.

    We were growing and taking on new cities. Reno, Tahoe, Laughlin etc. These markets as much as they were the same as Vegas, they were also different. Many of the "Peak" weeks in these locations were event driven. Be it skiing in Tahoe or Hot August Nights, the Balloon Race, or the Plane Races in Reno and the 2 bike weeks a year in Laughlin.

    I started creating these info packets that could be downloaded for free with information about each event. Which hotels were closest to what etc. The download rate on these files was quit staggering fast. The only issue we had was determining the conversion rate of these files. One of the other genius's in the other corner office suggested we place a different phone number on the files to keep track.

    Needless to say the first corner office genius with the PPC purse strings was not happy with the results ( Still brings a smile to my face ) After about 6 months or so, started the phone calls inquiring on what other packets that were available. So we started printing the files out and sending them "snail mail". This newly created department after the addition of a new phone number and a listing of the other available offerings were added to each of our free guides was sending out about 500 guides a week. ( Keep in mind that was from phone inquires alone )

    By early 98 we had converted these "Files" to full blown printed pieces. Just at the time of the buy out in 99 we were sending on average 2000 of these out a week and charging $5.00 each to cover postage etc. Who would have thought that a simple report would gross $100,000 a year. and the online versions you ask. Including all 190 guides that we had produced, collectively they were being downloaded at a rate of 30,000 a month!

    So spring forward to today. It is common practice to offer "Freemiums" in trade for an e-mail address. To be honest, this is something that I DO NOT do. I do however offer well branded FREE REPORTS ( no strings no conditions - your basic heres a link and thank you for stopping by ). The link tracking that I do with these suggest that I get a 3 to 1 return. Meaning I get 3 visitors for every report downloaded. I will tell you that I get spikes in that number from time to time. I had a report on UHDTV's about 3 months ago that is STILL getting about a 100 to 1 return. It has been downloaded 45k times btw.

    Some will call it going Viral... I call it a referral!

    Hope that Helps!
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  • Profile picture of the author biitchcakes
    Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

    Ill start with a YouTube Growth Hack. I have in recent months been involved with a website that produces a considerable amount of video related obviously to the sites topic. So getting someone to watch YOUR video is a battle in un itself. But what can you do to Retain that viewer, Aquire that viewer and ultimately get that viewer to Refer?
    I know it doesn't account for many views, but ANY are better than none, right? Besides, you never know who will or won't be interested in your videos, share them, or even subscribe and keep coming back for more.

    I am a writer, and I YouTube. So, any given chance that I have to grow my network of followers and viewers, I write for someone, and advertise myself (if asking for videos I have made on something directly related to the subject).

    I don't do it where it doesn't work, but when it does, it gets me MAD views and a few subscribers along the way, and very happy clients as well.

    Idk if that counts, but for what it's worth...
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    • Profile picture of the author savidge4
      Originally Posted by biitchcakes View Post

      Besides, you never know who will or won't be interested in your videos, share them, or even subscribe and keep coming back for more.
      This I believe is the "Essence" of Growth Hacking. Its getting PAST the "never knowing", and through testing and discovery ( I will get back to this one ) KNOWING where and who the people are that WILL Like your material, will SHARE your material, and WILL subscribe.

      I am speaking for myself and my process. Discovery is the first phase is successfully Growth Hacking. I generally start with websites. Specifically websites catering to a subject. I go through these sites, taking notes, what they link to, what they write about, where they have social linking etc. I start developing a user profile to these sites. I will seriously look at 50 to 100 sites in total in this process. You start seeing the patterns in subject matter, the images used, where they share, where they link etc.

      I then do the same process on social platforms. look for groups etc. I also look at what images are shared the content that I shared and where these folks link to.

      I then will look for forums on the subject. exact same process.

      I now after a few days have a roadmap of the internet and where people that are interested in MY subject are located. I have a really good idea of the content they want and share. I have a good idea of the product that these people look at and buy.

      Now I break down all of this data and develop a plan. what to post, where to post, and if you are really paying attention you will know WHEN to post.

      The initial content on my site is DRIVEN by this discovery stage. Its sets my site up in theory with the best of the best context, and a good path to move forward with.

      I do this "Discovery" process across all of my sites about 2 to 3 times a year. As much as looking at your own content and communication on your site is a good guide to the directions you should be going, I can turn up great content directions on other sites.

      always trying to stay ahead of the rest or at least breaking even is a goal. Staying within your own closed world web community can and will over time be detrimental. I call this "Pigeon Holing". Just locking your self in as an expert on Y when you could be stretching that to an expert on X Y and Z. ( doubling and tripling your reach and customer base! )

      Growth Hacking is a science. Just throwing content up with the hope that it will stick, is not to scientific. Setting yourself up with a better target and "Placing" your content in the right places, with the right content is a sure fire way to breed success.
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      • Profile picture of the author savidge4
        Has anyone played with IFTTT? If there was ever a tool that had Growth Hack written all over it, this would be the one! I have started using a bit for some of my clients. Specifically integrating WordPress posting with Twitter, and the twitter SMS hack. By posting to a specific Category, it will send an SMS to anyone that is subscribed to get SMS feeds to the corresponding Twitter feed.

        There are current 110 different "Ingredients" ( Apps, Phones, devices, programs ) that can be connected with IFTTT ( If This Than That ) There are more than a few good articles on the setup and use of this, and if nothing else you can get an idea of what it does!

        Hope that Helps!
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