For product managers, especially those working in the information technology sector, the most important attribute of their product is its features. It is an accepted phenomenon that software will sell more if it runs fast, does not crash, and provides loads of useful features for its users.
However, in this competitive and information-driven market, features are not the only things that guarantee high sales. I believe product managers should do more than just ensure the high quality of the item produced. Increasing sales is dependent on how organizations can use ‘growth hacking’ to introduce their product to every single individual in their target audience.
How does growth hacking work?
A growth hacking team consists of individuals from multiple departments including marketing, engineering, product development, and sales. The group members collaborate to build a strategy on how to maximize user experience and ultimately generate more sales. The strategy can range from providing free trials to upgrades and incentives for referrals. Eventually, growth hacking allows business development teams to experiment with new ideas and identify the most effective ways to grow their business.
My top three growth hacking strategies
I would recommend business developers to be creative and bold while experimenting with their product go to market strategies. Here is how I would engage my audience using some of the most effective growth hacking strategies in the market today:
Agile marketing – constant innovation for attracting more customers
As the word suggests, agile marketing reflects how swiftly managers can tweak their marketing strategy with every trial and release, appealing to a greater proportion of the user base. Two critical elements of this type of marketing are sophisticated data and creativity.
Business development teams need to come up with creative ideas to attract their audience. This could include rewards for being loyal to the brand such as free subscriptions and product upgrades. Once the marketing campaign launches to attract customers, the next step is to record every response in a database. After a regular interval, business development teams will need to sit down and study the results.
The useful insights gained from the growth hacking technique will benefit the product management team in many ways. For example, it allows them to be more creative in their future campaigns by using strategies that better suit their customers’ needs – identified through this feedback loop.
Technical marketing – engaging potential clients through product improvements
This type of growth hacking strategy would be a dream for any technical product manager. It focuses on continuous innovation in the product. The strategy requires marketers to work closely with their product designers for optimizing the product’s technical features.
Every improvement in the product needs to be capitalized in the form of customer communication and product promotion.Product managers can use tag lines such as ‘faster processing’ or ‘added features’ to engage their audience with the product. But in the end, it is easier to “sell” a new feature that customers have specifically asked for, than to convince them they need a new feature that you just delivered.
Behavioral marketing – devising marketing strategy based on customer behavior
For product managers, it is vital to understand the behavioral psychology of their target market before they can increase their product sales. This involves understanding what they like and dislike and what features of the product they find most useful.
This helps the business development team in designing a marketing strategy that will have the maximum effect on their audience. The most important result achieved through this growth hacking strategy is a higher conversion rate.
To ‘hack’ the audience, product managers need to devise a campaign that spreads like wildfire in the market. An effective strategy that can be used to witness exponential growth in a number of customers is called the viral loop. Through a viral loop, marketers are able to link each of their existing customers with a potential client. An example of this could be rewarding customers based on every referral they bring in the company.
Foundations of Growth Hacking
The effectiveness of a growth hacking strategy depends on the product manager’s mindset. In order to decide whether they have what it takes to introduce growth hacking in their marketing strategy, product managers need to ask themselves the following questions:
- Can they execute an effective marketing campaign within a limited budget?
- Are they curious enough to experiment with new ideas in every marketing campaign?
- Can they sell their experimental idea to their management?
If a product manager is able to answer all these questions clearly, they should take a step forward in growth hacking.
Challenges Associated With Growth Marketing
Although growth marketing has proved to be quite effective in many industries, it comes with its own share of challenges. Some of the issues that can create a roadblock for product managers in implementing this business development technique include:
Engaging internal and external stakeholders
For successful implementation of growth hacking, it is critical that each member of the team shares the same vision. The level of determination to achieve the end goal should be the same at all levels. Since this technique requires a great deal of innovation and creativity, it is often hard to sell it to management. Even the team members may give up along the way and lose interest, which can be a challenging situation for any product manager.
Coming up with ambitious and innovative ideas
With so much competition in the market, product managers have to devise growth hacking strategies that are one-of-a-kind. They need to deliver the best result in each scenario, which is a tough ask even for the most experienced business development staff members.
Growth hacking is one of the most effective revenue generation strategies in the market today. However, it requires constant innovation and a high level of motivation. While implementing growth hacking strategies, product managers need to be patient and open to feedback. If implemented properly, growth hacking can boost the sales of any business.