Massively Epic List of 125 Growth Hacks
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This document provides 125 growth hacks for SaaS startups related to acquisition, activation, retention, referral, and revenue. It begins by introducing the author and acknowledging others who have contributed to growth hacking concepts. It then outlines the purpose and organization of the growth hacks list and encourages connecting with the author. The majority of the document consists of individual growth hack suggestions organized under acquisition growth hacks and provided in bullet point form with brief explanations.
Massively Epic List of 125 Growth Hacks
- 1. Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, and Revenue Growth Hacks to Propel SaaS Startups Massively Epic List of 125 Growth Hacks
- 2. About Me My name is Justin McGill. I have owned a digital marketing agency since 2008 now called Upswing Interactive, built a SaaS tool for marketers to better organize their marketing campaigns called Workado and blog regularly on SaaS, growth hacking, marketing, and more over at www.JustinMcGill.net.
- 3. Quick Note of Thanks Sean Ellis should be thanked for shedding light on growth hacking and just how valuable it can be for businesses (and startups in particular). His 2010 blog post introducing the concept of growth hacking can be found here: http://www.startup-marketing.com/where-are-all-the-growth-hackers/ Dave McClure coined the term Pirate Metrics (which is how this presentation is organized). Looking at your analytics through the lens of these metrics will forever change your business. He coined the term in 2007 with this now famous slideshare presentation.
- 4. What You Should Know As I prepared to launch Workado, I began planning out all the different growth hacks I could implement. This led to a rather large collection of actionable growth hacks that Iâve come across in addition to several more that I came up with myself. I decided to put them all together to hopefully help someone else in a similar situation. I give some examples on various slides that are exclusive to how I plan on using various growth hacks on www.Workado.com. I do this in hopes of giving you some ideas on how to best implement it for your purposes. FYI - Nearly 100 hours have gone into this presentation when factoring all the research, testing, note taking, talking with other entrepreneurs, design time (the pirate metric slide graphics), etc. You can give me thanks by signing up to my blog at www.justinmcgill.net I am looking to connect with like-minded founders who are interested in growing SaaS apps, so hit me up on Twitter, Google+, or LinkedIn!
- 6. 1. Launch on a Tuesday! Almost ALL websites see a dip in traffic on the weekend. Fridayâs get lost in the weekend excitement as well. Mondayâs are catch-up days for most. Tuesdays allow you to capture most of the week. This is why most music artists release their work on Tuesdays as well.
- 7. 2. Slideshare Commenting Be noticed by commenting on slideshare presentations. Go aheadâŠtry it on this one!
- 8. 3. Amazon Book Review Commenting If there are books published in your niche on Amazon and youâve read them, start reviewing them. If there arenât any booksâŠwell then write one!
- 9. 4. Signup Functionality that Stays at the Top www.groovehq.com does a good job of this.
- 10. 5. Add Exit Intent to Website Whenever someone lands on your page and mouses back to the URL bar, a pop-up with a great last ditch offer can be a way to capture someone who was planning on leaving. Doesnât have to be an offer for your product, could just be to capture their email to add them to your list. Then you can let an autoresponder try to convert them.
- 11. 6. Submit the App to Award Sites Maybe your app looks really good. Maybe you had a cool explainer/teaser video done. Submitting them to award sites can give you recognition, awareness, and links!
- 12. 7. Use the Thank You Page When someone does sign up to your blog, take them to a killer Thank You page that references the app with screenshots, highlights the benefits, etc.
- 13. 8. Wavelength by MailChimp This handy tool lets you find similar email blasts to yours. http://blog.mailchimp.com/introducing- wavelength/ These could be potential customers, or you could try building partnerships this way.
- 14. 9. Startup App Directories I have compiled a list of startup directory websites in this blog post.
- 15. 10. Pay for Triberr Influencers If there is a little room in the budget, paying for influencers to push your app through www.triberr.com can help.
- 16. 11. Viral Content Buzz and JustReTweet Share other content and earn credits. Then offer those credits for others to retweet your Twitter posts. âą www.viralcontentbuzz.com âą www.justretweet.com
- 17. 12. Virtual Assistants Use oDesk (or Elance type websites) and hire a low cost virtual assistant to go to the websites of your ideal customers and fill out web forms/collect/send emails. Warning: This is a little spammy, so donât overuse. Hereâs a post I put together on how I use oDesk.
- 18. 13. Put >> at the End of Your CTA Buttons A really great breakdown of some CTA tests can be found here: http://www.copyblogger.com/call-to-action-buttons/
- 19. 14. Tweet Embeds of Social Proof HubSpot put together a great walkthrough here: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/29822/7-Epic-Uses-of-Twitter-s-New-Embeddable- Tweets-Feature.aspx
- 20. 15. Require Shares for Your Best Content If you have a piece of high quality content (blog post, infographic) that has proven to be popular and frequently read, use Social Locker or http://www.paywithatweet.com/ or http://clickandsave.eu/ to require people to share it in order to access it.
- 21. 16. SellHack for LinkedIn Find hidden email addresses on LinkedIn with the SellHack browser extension prospecting tool.
- 22. 17. LinkedIn Group Owners Send exclusive offers to LinkedIn Group owners (active/engaged ones only).
- 23. 18. LinkedIn Group Blog Promotion Join groups on LinkedIn (you can join up to 50) that are in your niche. When you make blog posts, be sure to use a social sharing plugin to promote to your groups.
- 24. 19. Old Tools That No Longer Exist Search for blogs about products in your space. If there are products listed that don't exist anymore, email the author telling them that X product no longer exists. Suggest replacing X product with your product and provide brief description and link, or at least getting your product added to the list.
- 25. 20. Discounts to Influencers Find influencers in your niche and offer them heavy discounts (or even a free account) in exchange for some promotion.
- 26. 21. Submit to Social Bookmarking Type Sites Submit your blogs to StumbleUpon, Reddit, GrowthHackers.com, HackerNews, Inbound.org, BizSugar, etc. âą Just make sure your content is relevant to whatever community you submit your content to.
- 27. 22. SnapGuide and Guides.co Post How-Toâs to SnapGuide and Guides.co
- 28. 23. Email News Publishers for Your Industry Use this handy little tool to scrap Google News API - http://press.customerdevlabs.com/ Then find a virtual assistant (through Mechanical Turk or oDesk) to find the author name and email for all the authors who have covered your niche.
- 29. 24. Ad Placement Get banner ads placed on key blogs or websites where your users visit.
- 30. 25. Upload Training Videos to Lynda Upload your training videos to www.Lynda.com
- 31. 26. Reach Out to Other Guest Bloggers Find people who contribute guest blogs and ask them to contribute a piece to your blog. You may have to pay them if you are starting out as there isnât anything in it for them if you have a small audience. Start by findind people who already contribute to other websites in your niche.
- 32. 27. Leverage Your Existing Providers For example, with Workado, I plan on reaching out to Jon Henshaw of Raven Tools. My digital marketing agency has been a customer of Raven for years and I actually did a guest blog with them a long time ago. I plan on trying to get another guest blog posted where my author byline will then link back to Workado. If you use tools for the target market you service, use this strategy to get key guest blog placement. And Mr. Henshaw â if you read thisâŠIâll be in touch soon
- 33. 28. LaunchBit You need a $1,000/mo budget to use this, but you can get your app featured in other companyâs email blasts.
- 34. 29. HARO 1. You can try and respond to any press inquiries for things in your industry. 2. You can get ad placement and be talked about before the list of press inquiries. 3. Use a tool like https://www.bitesizepr.com/ to automate this process for you!
- 35. 30. Sponsored Content Use http://www.postsgenius.com/ or https://izea.com to get links in content.
- 36. 31. Fiverr Promotion For $5 you can get someone with thousands of followers to tweet your content or do other forms of promotion. Just make sure their audience is who you are trying to appeal to.
- 37. 32. SponsoredReviews.com Pay for reviews of your app on www.SponsoredReviews.com
- 38. 33. Showoff Your PR or Customers Used by a recognizable brand or get coverage from key news sources? Feature it on your website!
- 39. 34. Pop-ups Use OptinMonster, or other pop-up solutions, to provide attention getting calls to action for your app or your email newsletter.
- 40. 35. Hellobar Use Hellobar, or a similar tool, on your website to always have a CTA on the screen.
- 41. 36. Get PR Use a service like www.PRServe.com or www.Publicize.co or www.PRLeads.com to try and get PR. DIY options like PressFriendly or JustReachOut.io can help.
- 42. 37. Discounts for Beta Testers Give half off or some other deep life time discounts to beta testers who helped you validate your model.
- 43. 38. Colibri.io Use www.colibri.io to monitor conversations about your industry/product and jump into the conversation.
- 44. 39. Create Templates Use free templates (like Bidsketch does here) in exchange for an email. Then use autoresponders and email marketing to upsell them.
- 45. 40. Chrome Webstore Create a chrome extension to open your web app when opening the browser. Costs just $5. Base CRM did this and got over 30,000 downloads!
- 46. 41. Paid Advertising âą Ads using StumbleUpon/Reddit (instead of Outbrain) for more targeting of digital marketers âą Remarketing (AdRoll to visitors who visited the site, but did not sign up for a trial) âą Twitter ads âą Facebook ads targeted to your niche âą LinkedIn Ads specific to your niche âą BuySellAds (http://buysellads.com/buy/detail/64828, http://buysellads.com/buy/detail/18771, http://buysellads.com/buy/detail/138680) âą Ad.ly â Pay for Tweets âą SponsoredTweets.com âą Adwords to target Gmail users âą TubeMogul with our teaser video âą Outbrain
- 47. 42. Daily Deal Sites If you have an app, you can use sites like: âą www.AppSumo.com âą www.Rewardli.com âą www.MightyDeals.com
- 48. 43. Roundups If people put together roundups (whether in blogs or email newsletters), reach out to them to try and get your app, blog, etc featured in the roundup.
- 49. 44. UserOnboarding.com Assuming you have a killer onboarding process (which is part of the activation growth hacks), then you can submit it to UserOnboarding.com to try and get it featured there.
- 50. 45. Guest Blog Find blogs that your target customer visits and ask them if you can submit a blog post. Make sure itâs your best and donât self promote. Youâll get a link to your app in your Author Byline. For every 1 blog you post on your own blog, try and write 1 or 2 as guest blogs.
- 51. 46. Use Paid Ads to Promote PR If you are able to land coverage in news outlets, or get a sweet review of your tool posted somewhereâŠuse paid ads to promote THOSE pieces of content. Having a third party promote your app is much better than you trying to self promote.
- 52. 47. Conversion and A/B Testing You should always be testing. Using tools like www.Optimizely.com or www.VisualWebsiteOptimizer.com can help you perform split tests. Use a tool like www.CrazyEgg.com to see where visitors are clicking (or not clicking).
- 53. 48. Ask for Beta Users on Social Use your social profiles to ask for beta users. Post in LinkedIn groups, Google+ communities, Facegook groups, etc. Donât advertiseâŠask for help.
- 54. 49. Handwritten Notes Send handwritten letters to key accounts / influencers. Actual handwritten letters are extremely rare these days so you will stand out.
- 55. 50. Blog Commenting If you spend time reading blogs in your niche (you should!), leave thoughtful/relevant blog comments. Use the Website/URL field to link to your app. Bonus tip: In the âNameâ field - use your âname @ companyâ for more brand awareness.
- 56. 51. Utilize an FAQ Page Create a separate page on your website specifically for FAQâs. âą Position questions around your key selling points. âą Monitor search queries to your site and build content specific to those queries âą Make note of actual issues or questions your customers are having and address them to lessen support requests.
- 57. 52. Ask Users to Take Pics w/ Your Product If you have some enthusiastic customers, ask them to take pictures with your product and have them share it on their social feeds. You can then use this social proof on your website!
- 58. 53. More Engaging Signup/Login Page Show a picture of your app in the background. Make sure it is faded so it doesnât interfere, but show off the product. For Workado we have an announcements area on the login page where we post our latest updates, new features, link to new blog posts, etc.
- 59. 54. Use Google Hangouts/Skype for Support Use software your customers are familiar with to provide support. This builds a stronger relationship with your customers and free trial users and allows you to collect live feedback. You can also use these technologies for a more streamlined onboarding of new users early on.
- 60. 55. Downsell Maybe you have potential users who arenât ready to commit just yet. Try to offer them something else. Maybe an ebook or training course? A very limited version of your product? You can then try upselling to this list later.
- 61. 56. Host Your Videos on Wistia By hosting your videos on www.Wistia.com when someone embeds your videos on their site, you get the link and SEO juice (versus YouTube). For this reason, you should also put a link at the beginning of your description.
- 62. 57. Converse with Authors not Publishers Find the authors of blogs or news articles and converse with them directly. This greatly improves your chances of getting coverage with the publisher or potentially being introduced to key third parties.
- 63. 58. Communicate Communicate as much and as early as possible (live chat, personal emails, etc). By communicating directly with new users, you greatly increase your odds of them converting to a paid user. This is especially true when it comes to free trial users.
- 64. 59. Interview Users Then feature their stories on your blog and in your emails. Even better if you can tie in how they are utilizing your product successfully.
- 65. 60. Repurpose Content Convert blog posts into presentations, infographics, etc. Transcribe video and audio. Take sections of blogs posts and spin them off on their own.
- 66. 61. Feature Key Figures in Your Niche This could be a joint webinar, or maybe just advice that is applicable to your userbase that you are sharing.
- 67. 62. Training Courses Put up training courses within your niche on sites like Udemy or SkillShare. You can choose to charge for the course to add a new revenue channel or give it away to have more people learn about your product.
- 68. 63. Third Party Partnerships Look for products in your industry that do not compete and try to integrate with them. âą Joint ventures âą Joint webinars âą Exchange guest blogs
- 69. 64. Interviews Influencers Interview influencers and then do a write-up. Link to them within the write-up and them let know when itâs published. They like to demonstrate their expertise and theyâll be promoting you while doing so.
- 70. 65. Cold Emailing with Personal Messages Send 10 to 20 emails per day. It isnât scalable, but thatâs ok early on.
- 71. 66. Brand Key Features âą The text message function on Apple devices is iMessage âą Wells Fargo has SurePay and Chase has QuickPay â these are the same thing and it allows you to send money to someone.
- 72. 67. Case Studies for Different User Types If you have multiple user types or subsets of users then try showcasing each of them with their own case studies. For example, Workado appeals to digital marketers, but those digital marketers might be SEOâs, content marketers, social media marketers, small digital marketing firms to large digital marketing agencies.
- 73. 68. Give Key Bloggers Discount Codes Bloggers like to be able to provide special offers to their readers. Create exclusive discount codes for them to share with their audience.
- 74. 69. Target Influencers with Ads/Videos For example, I am thinking of creating a YouTube video specifically for Rand Fishkin or Neil Patel to get on their radar when they Google themselves or if someone alerts them of the video. You can also create a Facebook ad and target specific people so when they are on Facebook they may see your ad.
- 75. 70. Siphon Competitor Links If you feel you have a better product and you have some courage â reach out and ask them to link to you instead! This is especially helpful if the competing product is no longer being sold or looked after.
- 76. 71. Create a Fiverr Offering If it relates to what your product does, you can create a fiverr gig to generate some exposure and cross sell.
- 77. 72. Create a Fiverr Offering If it relates to what your product does, you can create a fiverr gig to generate some exposure and cross sell. For example, with Workado, I might offer to come up with a digital marketing strategy that someone can then take and place into a campaign within Workado.
- 78. 73. Create a Free Tool Develop a free tool that might compliment the main product in some way. The free tool would then be a feeder to the main product. An example would be HubSpotâs Marketing Grader tool.
- 79. 74. Ebook Catered to Your Audience Use Gumroad and/or Amazon to sell an ebook that helps build your authority within your niche.
- 80. 75. Ebook Locked Behind Social Shares If you donât want to sell an ebook, you can use a tool like www.virallyapp.com to require a social share before granting access.
- 81. 76. Marketplace Integrations w/ Other Apps Integrate with well known products that might add in the reach of your product. CRMS, billing systems like Freshbooks, popular tools like Evernote, etc. Sometimes you can get featured in their marketplace which opens you up to their customer base.
- 82. 77. Industry Research Once you have a decent size user base of a few hundred users or more, you can send surveys out to collect data. Or, use the data that your product provides to be able to provide new research. For example, with Workado, we will be able to tell the average # of clients per digital agency, the average tasks completed per campaign, etc. These are things other digital marketing agencies would find interesting and something that could lead to lots of social shares or lead to us being quoted in other blogs and news outlets.
- 83. 78. Have a Cause (aka Rally the Troops) Have something worth standing behind. One of our motivating factors was an opportunity to bring more transparency to the agency/client relationship. This is important due to the poor perception of internet marketers/SEOâs as a whole within the business community.
- 84. 79. User Generated Content Have a product where users create something (like proposals, portfolios, etc) that get shared amongst their audience.
- 85. 80. Special Offers w/ Landing Pages Create a different landing page for each special offer that you run. This way when doing any paid advertising you can be sure the content on the page speaks directly to the offer the visitor was promised in your offer. Another way of using this would be for key integration partners or large referral sites. For example, if we integrated with Moz, we might be able to speak directly to how Workado works well for people who use the Moz ecosystem of products.
- 86. 81. Help Third Party Tools Who Need It If you know of a tool that you use thatâs missing a nice feature, and that feature would compliment your product â then build it out for them. For example, we might want to build a much better reporting layout for Authority Labs for keyword tracking. It would just be for our users, but by letting Authority Labs know, they might be more willing to recommend us to their customers who are looking for such a thing.
- 87. 82. List Swaps You will want to be bigger for this and only ask other people who have lists close to the same size. Otherwise, you run the risk of annoying that other person. They arenât going to promote you to their list of 30,000 when you have a list of 300.
- 88. 83. Post Sign-Up Recommendations After a user signs up, give them a special offer for a third party tool. That third party then does the same for you. Again, you will want to find tools which have a similar size user base.
- 89. 84. Create a Community This doesnât have to be a forum or something you manage like Moz does. You can create a LinkedIn Group, Facebook Group, Google+ Community, etc.
- 90. 85. Use Specialized Contractors Instead of looking for a âSocial Mediaâ person, you might want to look for different individuals: âą Twitter expert âą Google+ expert âą Facebook expert Likewise, you can find someone with specialized skills for email marketing, content writing, editing, etc.
- 91. 86. Scrape for Leads Use a tool like import.io to scrape data and compile a list of leads. Hereâs an example of how someone targeting specific types of freelancers could scrape oDesk profiles: http://www.slideshare.net/parrs1/importio-hustle-con-10000-leads-in-10- minutes?next_slideshow=1
- 92. 87. Target Specific Social Networks Find which social network your users are most likely on, then direct your blog post call to actions (or emails) to that network to build that specific following. Once you have a large enough following on one, you can focus on another.
- 93. 88. Purchase Niche Blogs Purchase heavily trafficked blogs in your niche in the 4 to low 5 figure range. If they have traffic/visitors in the 5 figure a month range, this is a good source of potential customers for you.
- 94. 89. Recognize Guest Bloggers Publicly Give key guest bloggers special recognition if they had a guest blog that drove the most traffic, or converted into the most signups, or got the most comments. You may want to send them a gift card, feature them on a wall of sorts. This promotes the best work on your site, while also encouraging greatness from the content.
- 95. 90. Target Facebook Ads to Specific Users Use a tool like http://facebookidscraper.com/ to find specific user IDâs of people in groups within your niche. Then use them to create a custom audience for your Facebook ads.
- 97. 91. Make Signing Up Easy Just require an email (that will be their username) and one password input initially. Donât have them confirm the password, donât have ask for an email AND a username. Make it as quick and painless as possible.
- 98. 92. Auto Login After Signup Donât require a confirmation and instead just get them right into your product.
- 99. 93. Send Personal Email Within 24 hours (or even right away), send them a personalized email asking them specifically why they signed up. What made them pull the trigger? This is extremely important data as you want to make sure that your product is delivering what your marketing messages are promising. Ideally, your analytics software (we use Trak.io and can create events for individual profiles) you can save the note to their user profile. This is important so you can ask them why they canceled or chose not to continue and compare those answers. Early on you can do this manually, and look to automate this (so long as it shows from you) later.
- 100. 94. Send Gifts Send new users real life gifts. Even better if the gift helps them to get more out of your product.
- 101. 95. Engage Influencers Who Signup Track influencers using IFTTT. Have a script check their email address, track their Klout score. Then go and follow them, tweet and comment where possible. You always want to be connected with the influencers who are using your app or product.
- 102. 96. Tweet or Mention New Users Tag new users (or oneâs with the biggest following if there are lots) in tweets and on Google+ after they sign up and thank them for the signup.
- 103. 97. Map Out Your Email Sequence Have your drip campaign in place before you launch. You need to walk users through your product when they are free trial customers. Add a win back sequence after 60 days (and/or 6 months) after a user cancels. Let them know youâve added new features.
- 104. 98. Extended Free Trials If a free trial user doesnât convert, send them an email and let them know youâve added X number of days to their free trial. Be sure you use this email to guide through getting the most out of your product.
- 105. 99. Personal Outreach Beyond your initial personal email asking why they signed up, continue the conversation (or try and start it again) by asking them to help spread the word and to give you feedback. Give them your cell phone #. They will feel special and will be willing to help you out if you show this personalized effort, while simultaneously being more engaged with your product.
- 106. 100. Find Your âAhaâ Moment This will take months of evaluating your analytics to find that one element that leads to the highest activation rate. Once you have found what it is, focus on guiding your free trial users to that point as quickly as possible. For example: âą For Facebook itâs having 10 friends in 7 days âą For Twitter itâs following 30 people.
- 107. 101. Find Your âAhaâ Moment This will take months of evaluating your analytics to find that one element that leads to the highest activation rate. Once you have found what it is, focus on guiding your free trial users to that point as quickly as possible. For example: âą For Facebook itâs having 10 friends in 7 days âą For Twitter itâs following 30 people.
- 108. 102. Automated Webinars Use www.stealthseminar.com or www.webinaragogo.com to record a webinar once, but have it replay at designated times to give the feeling of a live webinar.
- 109. 103. Great Onboarding Experience Donât leave any questions or doubts about how to use your product. Provide a rich onboarding experience, then follow that up with an email drip that walks them through using your app to itâs fullest capabilities.
- 110. 104. Spruce Up the Boring Pages Use log in pages, log out pages, forgot password pages, etc to expand on in-app features, testimonials, and maybe even little easter eggs. For example, with Workado we have a box under the login details that keeps users informed of new feature rollouts, upcoming maintenance, new blog posts, etc. You may be familiar with this concept if youâve ever done any online gaming.
- 112. 105. Report on Positive Statistics You donât want users to have a negative feeling when they see an email from you, so report on positive statistics first and foremost, then the negative things can be below that and not stand out as much. For example, with Workado, our users can choose to send monthly activity digests to their clients. Their clients will receive an email that shows all of the work completed by our user for their account, but they wonât see anything that may have been missed or delayed.
- 113. 106. Email, Email, Email! Donât be worried about âspammingâ your users. If you are able to provide value to them they will want more of it. Here are some examples of companies using email to the max: âą Youâve been outbid (eBay) âą Year in Review, or Group Discussions, or Connection Requests (LinkedIn) âą New friend/follower (Facebook/Twitter/Google+) With Workado, I plan on sending daily email digests to users showing them their overall campaign progress, task completions, etc.
- 114. 107. Customer Thank You Cards Send hand written notes to customers thanking them for being a valued customer. âą Could be setup where you get an alert once they hit a certain revenue earning and then you send it to them.
- 115. 108. User Exclusives Send your users exclusive content that no one else gets, provide a member only community or forum, tools, webinars, hangouts, gifts, etc.
- 116. 109. Credit Card Expiration Notices Donât let the credit cards expire. Send email reminders about the value they get and what they risk losing if they donât update their credit card details.
- 117. 110. Leaderboards Think of ways to showcase your users in a leaderboard format. Give awards to most active users. For Workado, we may eventually implement leaderboards/awards for most active campaigns, most users, most timelines, most tasks completed, most hours logged, etc.
- 118. 111. Gamify Gamify elements within your product/app for discovery. For example, as users use certain features it may unlock a badge. They can then show off the badges to other users.
- 119. 112. Inform Users What They Missed When users log back in, have a message that informs them of new things going on. For Workado, we may implement something like this: âWelcome back! There have been # tasks completed since you last logged in. Keep clients loving you by doing moreâŠâ
- 121. 113. Double Loop Referral Program Dropbox made this technique popular by rewarding you with more storage when you refer someone, while at the same time giving that new referred user more storage as well. The genius in this particular example is that it doesnât cost them any revenue. Whereas most double loop referral programs offer to give users a discount and then give a discount to the new referred users. This is still a good option, but does your product/app offer something else that users will find of value?
- 122. 114. In-App Sharing Allow users to share milestone achievements or something they can be proud of and will want to share. For example, Workado may implement a sharing option when: âą Users achieve a certain % of growth in task completions over the previous month (showing off how much their agency does for customers) âą Users add a certain % of new campaigns (showing off how big their agency is getting)
- 123. 115. Two Way Sharing Does your app/product facilitate communication in any way between two parties? If not, is it possible/does it make sense for you to add this functionality? For example, with Workado we send activity digests to clients on behalf of the user. This means not only does our user know of the app, but then their customers get exposed to it as well.
- 124. 116. Ask for Shares at top of App Add a message to the top of the interface to encourage social shares. âHelp us spread the word by tweeting this messageâ. If youâve built up a relationship with your user base and they like and trust you, they will be much more willing to help you.
- 125. 117. Affiliate/Referral Progam Use systems like www.HasOffers.com, www.GetAmbassador.com, or www.referralpop.com (if you use Stripe) to track everything. Keep affiliates engaged with email drips and regular communication. You will want to have product/market fit first, and you will want to make sure you have optimized the onboarding experience before rolling out a program like this.
- 126. 118. Use Links in Your Email Signature I use WiseStamp and include social media links, as well as a call out to the latest blog post from our RSS feed.
- 127. 119. Ask for Shares in ALL Emails On ALL email correspondence, ask for tweets/shares. This includes your email drips and onboarding type emails as well as transactional emails (receipts, forgotten passwords, etc).
- 128. Revenue Growth Hacks
- 129. 120. Downsell When a user goes to cancel, offer to keep/store data or push them towards a lower tier instead. If a user has been a customer for X number of months, offer a big discount (50% or so) to stay on their current plan. Make sure itâs understood this is a one-time offer.
- 130. 121. Verified Program With Workado, we plan to eventually roll out a âVerified Marketerâsâ program based on our research, Workado usage, etc. We will refer agencies based on who is in the verified program. Agencies will need to pay for inclusion as well making this an added revenue channel. If your app works with consultants, business coaches, freelancers, etc you can use something similar.
- 131. 122. âAt Riskâ Tagging Within your analytics you will be able to find obvious patterns from users who cancel. It could be something as simple as âhavenât logged in for 2 weeksâ. These should get an âAt Riskâ designation and be flagged in your system for immediate follow-up. You need to re-engage them.
- 132. 123. Exit Survey Make money from website visitors who leave by knowing why the left. âą Ask why they werenât interested and what they were looking for. âą Use this data to improve your marketing and/or your app with commonly requested features. âą Let them know you can follow up with them in the future as the product evolves to meet their needs.
- 133. 124. Add Professional Services Offer to provide services such as helping them get setup/integrated, contract work, complimentary services, etc to add revenue.
- 134. 125. Annual Payments Give customers the option to pay with annual payments. Reward them with X% off or # months free. This gives you a large sum of cash up front which can be put back into marketing.
- 135. Follow Along I plan on implementing most of these growth hacks on my latest product Workado. Follow along as I document the results of various growth hack tests on my blog at www.JustinMcGill.net. Manage your marketing campaigns with Workado, a campaign management system built specifically for digital marketers.
- 136. Thatâs All Folks! Like what youâve seen? Tweet it!