Presented at Microsoft's 'Ativar Portugal' conference.

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24 Growth Hacking Tips
Survival Book

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ACQUISITION

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1. How to blog relevant content?
Tip for keyword research and get content
creation ideas:
1) Go to Keyword Planner (it’s free)
2) Click on “Search for new keywords” and
enter your product or service. Choose the
targeting country and language.
3) Clicking on “Get ideas” and then on
“Keywords Ideas” tab you’ll see the most
searched terms that people use related with
your product or service.
4) You just found new ideas to create
relevant content to answer your user needs.

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But please, don’t copy content or abuse of keyword stuffing,
repeating the same keyword in content over and over again.
https://youtu.be/jH8dejYGa5A?t=35s

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Alternative ways to distribute your content
Guest blogging in 7 known websites :
1) http://www.entrepreneur.com/page/236106
2) http://www.inc.com/about/contact_us.html
3) http://www.businessinsider.com/contribute-to-business-insider
4) http://www.fastcompany.com/3008467/guidelines-submitting-contributed-articles-
fast-company-and-tips-getting-published
5) http://mashable.com/submit/
6) http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2014/02/03/submitting-an-article-to-forbes-
opinion/
7) http://techcrunch.com/got-a-tip/
Source: http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/guest-writer-popular-websites

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Shareable content
1) To get content ideas, go to
www.buzzsumo.com
2) Make a search for your related topic.
3) Analyze the results with the most shares.
4) Create a blog post, infographic, video
more appealing, updated and easier to read
and share.
“Top 10” Lists, “How to [solve a problem]”
are examples of the most shared content.

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You can always use humor to make it more
entertaining and shareable
https://youtu.be/fme4i4-UOmY?t=4m1s

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2. Comment in forums and blogs with
users questions
1) Search on www.google.com or www.quora.com
2) Make a search for questions on a topic related with
your services.
3) Choose the most qualified sites (use Moz Toolbar)
4) Comment related questions on your topic and promote
your services.
5) Add value to the discussion, help others, don’t just
copy/paste. You’re not just driving traffic, you’re
building a reputation.

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3. Trick to gain prospects from Twitter
1) Let’s say you sell “business cards”
2) Go to Twitter and search:
“need business cards”
“want business cards”
3) You just found your target market
ready to buy from you, right now!
Source: http://austenallred.com/user-acquisition/book/chapter/twitter/

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Trick to gain prospects from Twitter

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4. Get to know your users and attract
them with the right triggers
Whitney Wolfe, Tinder co-founder went to chapters of her sorority, do
her presentation, and have all the girls at the meetings install the app.
Then she’d go to the corresponding brother fraternity—they’d open the
app and see all these cute girls they knew.
When Wolfe returned from her trip, Tinder had grown from fewer than
5000 to almost 15000.
Source: https://growthhackers.com/growth-studies/what-ignited-tinders-explosive-growth

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Go «make love» with your users
- Building Supply (girls)
- Word-of-mouth
Network effect
Get value from first interaction
Principles behind Tinder growth

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5. Hack ProductHunt.com
1) Do not submit by yourself. Reach out to
influencers on ProductHunt (>1000 followers).
2) Make a win-win offer, ask to submit your
website and mark you as the Maker
3) Give a specific offer for ProductHunt members
4) Comment quickly. Comments count as much
as upvotes.
5) Notify your community, but do not ask them to
upvote. It’s forbidden.
6) Do not promote a direct link to your service on
ProductHunt, otherwise you will be blocked.
Promote the homepage and let your users
find you in the list.

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NomadList got to #1 on Product Hunt by
accident
When uploading a file to the server,
NomadList founder published the site
live by accident. Suddenly he started to
get tweets and on the same day it was
featured on TechinAsia and submitted
by a random “fan” of Nomadlist.
Only after NomadList founder started to
promote his Product Hunt submission
without linking directly to it.
Source: https://levels.io/product-hunt-hacker-news-number-one/

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6. Integrate with popular platforms
Providing simple, zero-development integrations to popular platforms removes a lot of friction
with your activation process and exposed you to a huge audience.
1) Ask for a listing in their Integrations directory
2) Push for a blog announcement to their user base
Integration with Slack, anyone?

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ACTIVATION

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Go deep into the user’s mind
We are not as rational as we think when making
decisions
Hacking the user brain (and heart) is fun
And pays off in growth and UX
Learn about:
Beahvioral economics
Persuasion
Perception
Emotional triggers
danariely.com

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Which ad copy had an higher conversion
rate (free trial signup)?
The ads were communicating a billing software.
The landing page had information about the product,
a call-to-action for a 14-day free trial, and information
about the pricing.
In English:
Billing Software PHC
Try for free now!
Certified Software.
www.phcfx.com
In English:
Billing Software PHC
Includes Hosting and Installation.
From 19€ per month.
www.phcfx.com
7. Optimize Pay-per-click for conversion,
not just CTR

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Both ad and page copy can
influence on converting users
The ad copy with the value to pay had a conversion
rate (free trial signup) 2x higher than the “Try for
free” ad copy version.
If you prepare the users to pay and surprise with a
Free trial, they will feel much more tempted to try the
product, than if you push them with a “try for free”
and realize they have to pay a lot more later on.
In English:
Billing Software PHC
Includes Hosting and Installation.
From 19€ per month.
www.phcfx.com

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8. Add Context to the Ad Copy
Which ad copy had a lower cost per
conversion (get a quote)?
The ads were communicating an auto insurance and
the 1st main objective is to make users to get a quote.
In English:
Promotion OK! Teleseguros
Until 28th Feb, 3 months offer
For free on your Auto Insurance!
www.okteleseguros.pt
In English:
OK! Teleseguros
If you have car in Braga
Get a quote on your Auto Insurance.
www.okteleseguros.pt

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Add Context to the Ad Copy
The ad copy with a touch of personalization
(user location) performed better (80%
decrease on cost per conversion) than the
3months for free promotion
Context matters…a lot!
In English:
OK! Teleseguros
If you have car in Braga
Get a quote on your Auto Insurance.
www.okteleseguros.pt

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9. Add Context to the promotions
FC Porto has some website traffic spikes once in
a while. They are caused by foreigners in Mexico,
Colombia, Algeria that visit mostly the FC Porto
website right after a player of that country scores
a goal in a match.
That is probably the best timing to promote
content and merchandising about that player to
those specific users.

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10. Listen to your users and use their
words in your marketing
1) Send an email to every new customer simply
asking them why they signed up.
2) Use some of the most used words/expressions
on your landing page and marketing campaigns.
Speak your customer language, not the industry
jargon.
Source: https://www.groovehq.com/blog/growing-a-business-to-100k
GooveHQ Original Headline:
2% conversion rate
GrooveHQ Current Headline:
+4% conversion rate

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The words you use will impact on
user behavior and conversion
Which call-to-action button
generates more leads (contact
form submissions)?
HIDDEN

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The words you use will impact on
user behavior and conversion
“Submit” doubled the leads
compared to “I pretend to be
advised”.
The last one generated false
expectations since users
expected to be taken to an
advisor page once they clicked
the button and didn’t realize
they had to fill a form.

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11. Drip Email for great on-boarding
Evernote’s Onboarding Drip Framework
Day 1. Get Started with Evernote
Day 3. Evernote Tip 1 of 5: Create your first note
Day 10. Evernote Tip 2 of 5: All your stuff, everywhere
Day 17. Upgrade your Evernote experience with Premium
Day 19. Evernote Tip 3 of 5: Accomplish more with Evernote Checklists
Day 27. Evernote Tip 4 of 5: How to Email into Evernote
Day 29. Save this Email to Evernote
Day 31. Own the workday for $5. Evernote Premium.
Day 33. 4 Tips for Emailing into Evernote
Day 36. Evernote Tip 5 of 5: How to Find Anything
Source: https://www.getvero.com/resources/guides/evernote-onboarding

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Try different approaches
Forget html emails and images, make it a
human-to-human conversation

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RETENTION

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12. Can your product be gamified?
People love to be measured.
People love to compete.
Give them points, badges, a meaningful
leaderboard/ranking system and they’ll play
the game.

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13. Push notifications of product activity
Show people events that interest them.
Show people things that will boost their ego.
Show people things that urge them to take action
NOW.

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From push notifications to Cards
Source: https://blog.intercom.io/the-end-of-apps-as-we-know-them/
Users will open less apps because they will interact
directly on the notification stream.
Take advantage of this opportunity to build a better User
Experience.
Better UX always means happier and returning
users.

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14. Daily or Weekly Digest
1) Promote your blog content or Curate others
content
2) Share the most relevant or the most popular
news (“the biggest contributor on the team”;
“how many tasks were completed this week”;
“digest of key metrics from the dashboard”)
Source: http://www.whosbloggingwhat.com/
Always-on A/B Testing your emails

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15. 1 minute to increase your email
open rate
1) Use the same email you sent and change the subject line to
something new.
2) Email it out a week later ONLY to your non-opens.
3) You just got 30% more opens
Source: http://okdork.com/2015/05/22/double-your-open-rate

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REVENUE

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16. Test with pricing strategy
Which The Economist subscription would you
choose?

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84%
16%
0%

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84%
16%
32%
68%

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1) Create 3 different plans and intend to sell mainly the middle one.
2) The 1st plan is a decoy. It’s similar to the middle plan, but offers visibly less value while
costing almost as much.
3) 2nd plan, the one you want to sell, offers good value for money. The price ends with 9.
Maybe it even shows that it has been reduced from a previously higher price or it’s a sale
4) 3rd plan is to serve as a contrast to the middle one, its role is to anchor in a high figure.
Make it much more expensive than the middle plan. You don’t actually intend to sell in
high volume.
Source: http://conversionxl.com/pricing-experiments-you-might-not-know-but-can-learn-from/

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17. Increase Lifetime Value x20
1) Reducing prices to reduce churn is the worst thing you can do. If a customer is not
finding value in your product, they’ll cancel even if it’s 50 cents per month.
2) Slidebean increased their prices >4 times
Results:
$5.99/MO > 25% CHURN > $22 LTV
$29/MO > 6.53% CHURN > $444 LTV
Source: http://slidebean.com/blog/startups/500-startups-pivot

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The thing about pricing is…
Discount Price
(0,89€)
Premium Price
(1,89€)
- Two groups.
- A water that enhances intellectual performance
(just tap water really).
- At the end, both groups made the same test.
- The discount group had lower results and took
more time.
Cheap price = Cheap product = Cheap outcome ?
Hack the right price to the sweet spot.

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18. Free? Know your market.
Source: https://blog.mailchimp.com/subject-line-data-choose-your-words-wisely/

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19. End their Trial Early
You don’t have to wait until the end of the trial to get
the user onboard. An active user who loves using
your app can be converted quicker with an incentive.
Send an email, text or show it right inside your
app: "End Trial Now - Get 1 Month Free. This
special offer expires in 19:59 minutes
(countdown)".
Source: http://blog.crazyegg.com/2014/09/19/convert-trial-users/

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20. Try using text messages
The communication with the user is mainly by email. But text
message can be another way to convert users, since there is less
competition and it is a guaranteed read (99% open rate and 19%
click rate on text message vs 22% open rate and 4% click rate on
emails).
1) Use text message for feedback from inactive users or expired
trials.
2) Or to communicate payment fails.
Source: http://blog.crazyegg.com/2014/09/19/convert-trial-users/

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REFERRAL

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21. Ask for reviews in exchange for a free
limited-period premium subscription
Postcron asked some users if they could make a short
YouTube product review in exchange for a free 6 month
premium subscription. The answer in most cases was a big
YES. (Many people even wrote lengthy blog posts about
the product.)
This marketing strategy alone made word of mouth around
Postcron spread like crazy, and after 5 month, they went
from 150k social accounts in 30 countries, to more than 2
millions social accounts in 170 countries.
Source: http://500.co/social-tools-growth/

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22. How to optimize referral programs
1) Personalize referral codes (startup.com/r/username)
2) Personalize landing pages (photo+name)
3) Create a referral competition among users
Airbnb increased bookings via referrals by over 25% in
some markets with this tactic.
Source: https://medium.com/@inaherlihy/how-to-optimize-182250e499d7

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23. Accelerating viral growth
1) Don’t ask your members to invite a lot of friends to unlock something valuable.
2) Start with a simples task. Ask them to invite just one friend.
Result: +250% increase
Source: https://growthhackers.com/videos

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24. A giveaway. From zero to 500k
subscribers
Giving away something (Premium account, etc.) to people in
exchange for a visitor signing up for your newsletter.
1) “Some Premium Giveaway”! Enter your email
2) You have 1 entry. Get X more entries for every friend you
refer. And a list of sharing buttons.
3) Set up the timer. It will encourage urgency.
4) Seed the initial users in hoping it goes viral.
After 25 giveaways, Appsumo got 528k subscribers and
$866k revenue
Source: http://andrewchen.co/early-traction-how-to-go-from-zero-to-150000-email-subscribers-guest-post

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Growth Hacking
½ Metrics
½ Feeling