6 Growth Hacking Strategies for Small Business

Starting a business is like assembling a car. First, you get the proper pieces in place. This the product development stage. Next, you take the car for a test drive. This is when your business makes its first sales and starts to gain traction. When you know everything is working properly, the next step is to rev the engine and accelerate. This is when your business starts to grow.

Growth hacking is like putting the pedal to the metal. Most businesses grow at a slow and steady pace. Businesses that employ growth-hacking strategies tend to speed off into the sunset like an Italian sports car.

Growth Hacking Starts Before Your Business is Ready to Grow

Your business won’t be ready to grow until it has traction. Gaining good traction is a primary concern of growth hackers.

Think about it like this: How can you speed off into the sunset like an Italian sports car if you’ve been building a minivan from the start? You can’t. This brings us to growth hacking strategy number one:

1. Make a Product People Actually Want

Creating a product people want ensures that when you start giving your business a little gas, it will move forward. Businesses that fail in the first year have no traction. Often this lack of traction is a direct result of attempting to sell something nobody wants.

To avoid this roadblock altogether, you have to know your target demographic. You should know them well, down to the very last detail. Then, you can tailor your product to their desires.

Once you have a product, you need a message:

2. Create an Irresistible Offer

Making something irresistible is both an art and a science. The more you know your customers, however, the more scientific your decisions will be. Your message needs to alleviate your audience’s pain points.

Here are a few ways to make your offer more desirable:

• Make it clear and concise
• Demonstrate powerful social proofs
• Deliver incredible value
• Employ scarcity to instigate immediate action
• Ensure you have a punchy call to action

Nailing every bullet above will send conversion rates skyrocketing. More importantly, it’ll allow your message to really sink in.

3. Set Clear and Attainable Growth Goals

The top 1% of successful people write down their goals and read them often. Goals focus your mind and efforts on what really matters. Entrepreneurs who struggle to find success are often very busy, but they never get anything done.

Young entrepreneurs are especially prone to this problem. They want to micromanage every detail of their business, put out every small fire, and solve every little problem. This bad habit wreaks havoc on productivity.

By setting goals that are focused, clear, and attainable, you can concentrate your efforts on growing your business.

4. Build a Strong Email Nurturing Campaign

Email is the cornerstone of countless marketing strategies. In fact, 3/4 of companies agree that email offers “excellent” to “good” ROI.

Email works wonders if you do it right. Consider these statistics when putting your email campaign together:

• Notifications about abandoned carts have a 40.5% open rate
• Email subject lines that include the words “thank you” have the highest engagement level
• Emails that incorporate the first name of the customer in the subject line have higher click-through rates than emails that don’t
• 78% of consumers unsubscribe from emails because brands send too many

With that in mind, it’s important to craft email campaigns that are personal and appropriately spaced. You want to develop a meaningful relationship with the customer, so avoid bloated sales pitches. Opt for content-driven emails that offer significant value to recipients.

Of course, the needs of one recipient will be different from the needs of another.

5. Segment Your Email List

According to a study from 2015, segmented and targeted emails generate 58% of all revenue. It’s crucial that you take time to segment your email list to reflect sections of your sales funnel. Truly nurturing a lead means taking the customer by the hand and walking with them every step of the way.

Most customers don’t buy after their first interaction. It can take days, months, and sometimes years of interaction before they make a purchasing decision. Segmentation and personalization are powerful tools that allow you to walk every customer down your sales path—even the slow ones.

6. Start Blogging

53% of marketers say blog content creation is their top inbound marketing priority. It’s a priority because it gets results. Blogs boost your SEO, nurture your leads, and give you a reason to post on social media every day.

That’s not to say that you need to blog every day, but companies who publish more than 16 blog posts per month receive almost 3.5X more traffic than companies who publish 4 or fewer. That’s a huge difference.

Remember, Google is monitoring your website for user experience, so if you’re going to start attracting people to your site using blog posts, make sure the content gives them a reason to stay. If they’re bombarded by ads, sales pitches, and a buggy website, Google will know and your SEO will tank.

Good content, fast internet, and minimal ads will ensure that users will want to return to your site.

Growth Hacked

Great businesses aren’t made overnight. They’re forged in the fires of savvy growth strategies. If you’re ready to accelerate your business—put the pedal to the metal—then it’s time to start growth hacking.

There are plenty of growth-hacking strategies, but the ones detailed above are some of the most effective. Companies that hack their growth show exponential results both in the present and in the years to follow.