GROWTH HACKING
Morgan Brown

ABOUT ME
• 12+ years of user acquisition, social and
product marketing for startups.
• Grown companies from 0 – 100k+ users in
months 3 times.
• Get geeked out about viral growth and
product-oriented hacks.
• 2nd time here at OCPM – hoping to earn a 3rd.

WHAT IS GROWTH HACKING?
• A methodology that leverages strategies
aimed at unlocking growth at scale.
• Growth by being smarter, not spending more,
than the other guy.
• The practice of finding exponential upside to
marketing investment.

WHAT IS A GROWTH HACKER?
• Hybrid skill set of marketing, product &
engineering.
• Ability to optimize for user acquisition at
scale.
• Ability to drive exponential growth from
efforts.

WHY GROWTH HACKING?
• Traditional marketing and growth channels
are expensive and hyper-competitive.
• Companies that are resource constrained
can’t compete effectively in crowded spaces.
• It’s about creating an unfair advantage by
leveraging asymmetries in the market.

TENENTS OF GROWTH HACKING
• OBSESS OVER DATA
– Know your customer exceptionally well.
– Measure everything.
• CREATIVITY
– Think different.
– Push the limits.
• CURIOSITY
– Learn early, learn often.
– Poke around.
• DIRTY HANDS
– Get in at the code & product level.
– Make, launch and break stuff.

CATEGORIES OF GROWTH HACKS
• Platform integrations
• Viral Growth
• Analytics
• Grab bag

PLATFORM
INTEGRATION
Leveraging Super Networks

AIRBNB & CRAIGSLIST
• Insight:
– Craigslist is where people were looking for rooms to rent, short
& long term.
– They could cross-post to Craigslist and tap a huge traffic
source.
• Hack:
– Even without an API the AirBnB team figured out a way to
hack the Craigslist submission process.
• Result:
– AirBnB drove more bookings (making customers happy) &
created new users at the same time.

AIRBNB & CRAIGSLIST
1.
2.

AIRBNB & CRAIGSLIST
3.
4.
Source: http://www.quora.com/Airbnb/How-does-Airbnb-automatically-post-on-Craigslist

BRANCH OUT & FACEBOOK
• Insight:
– People maintained a professional network on Facebook that was
often more engaged than on LinkedIn.
– They could leverage the size of Facebook and its Open Graph
permissions to drive growth.
• Hack:
– One click invite send and account creation with Facebook
Connect.
– Which friend would you rather work with mechanic.
• Result:
– Doubled size in a month. Went from 1MM to 10MM users in 3
months. Raised $24MM.
– BranchOut mostly irrelevant now. Why?

BRANCH OUT DOUBLES IN 1 MONTH
http://www.quora.com/How-did-BranchOut-double-within-a-month

YOUTUBE & MYSPACE
• Insight:
– MySpace was where fans connected with musicians, but bands
couldn’t post video.
– If YouTube could make it easy to share video on MySpace
they’d instantly scale.
• Hack:
– One click, Flash-based embeddable widget for video. Bands
and fans could finally watch and share music videos.
– Which friend would you rather work with mechanic.
• Result:
– By 2006 YouTube’s reach grew past MySpace. The rest is
history.

TAKEAWAYS
• Integrations should make both products
better
• Study (and ask about) user behavior to
determine promising integrations
• Test and discover valuable use cases
• Measure conversions and revenue

VIRAL GROWTH
Leveraging Friend Networks

DROPBOX
• Insight:
– Traditional marketing wasn’t working. Were spending $300+ to
acquire customers for a $99 service.
– Activating customers was the key to paying accounts.
– Their asset had a very low marginal cost to give away.
• Hack:
– Giving away free space in exchange for word of mouth referrals.
– Giving away free space in exchange for activation.
• Result:
– Users sent 2.8 million direct referral invites in April 2010.
– In Sept. 2008 the service had 100,000 registered users.
– In Jan 2010 (15 mos.) the service had 4,000,000.
– No traditional ad spend.
http://www.quora.com/What-are-the-dos-donts-of-referral-invite-programs

DROPBOX MAKES INVITES FUN
http://www.quora.com/What-are-the-dos-donts-of-referral-invite-programs

LIVINGSOCIAL
• Insight:
– Building an audience can be outside of the core product
experience.
– The cost of giving away a deal is shared by the merchant, giving
away deals cheaper than giving away cash.
• Hack:
– Building a purely viral Facebook app called Pick Your 5, and
growing virally until pivoting to daily deals.
– A new twist on refer-a-friend with the 3-and-free dynamic.
• Result:
– 10’s of millions of Facebook app installs
– 70MM users as of 11/12

LIVINGSOCIAL’s PICK YOUR 5

TAKEAWAYS
• Viral growth doesn’t exist for every product.
• Viral growth comes from value being created
for the existing and new user.
• Viral growth doesn’t have to come from your
core product.
• So many people use refer-a-friend. A twist is
required to stand out.

DATA
Deep insights to drive growth.

AIRBNB
• Insight:
– Listings with better photos get more bookings.
• Hack:
– Hacked product and customer experience to drive professional
photos for listings.
– Saw that listings with pro photos received 2-3x more bookings.
• Result:
– Went from 20 photographers in the field in 2011 to doing 5,000
shoots per month.
– Traffic takes off.
Source: Analytics Lessons Learned

AIRBNB CRACKS THE PHOTO CODE
Photographers
Source: Analytics Lessons Learned

CIRCLE OF MOMS
• Insight:
– Not all users are created equal.
• Hack:
– Discovered that moms on Circle of Friends were far more
active than other users:
– Pivoted entire company from Circle of Friends to Circle of
Moms.
• Result:
– Grew from 2MM monthly active users to 4.5MM
– Sold to Sugar Inc.
Source: Analytics Lessons Learned

HOW MUCH BETTER WERE MOMS?
• Their messages to one another were on average 50% longer.
• They were 115% more likely to attach a picture to a post.
• They were 110% more likely to engage in a threaded (i.e. deep)
conversation.
• They had friends who, once invited, were 50% more likely to
become engaged users themselves.
• They were 75% more likely to click on Facebook notifications.
• They were 180% more likely to click on Facebook news feed items
• They were 60% more likely to accept invitations to the app.
Source: Analytics Lessons Learned

TWITTER
• Insight:
– It’s not how many Tweets you send. It’s how many people you
follow that determines success.
– When users follow 5-10 people they are far more likely to
remain an active user.
• Hack:
– Drive product onboarding not around publishing or building an
audience, but following the right people.
• Result:
– 40% of Twitter’s users use Twitter without publishing.
– 4x number of monthly visitors who don’t login, just read the
stream.
http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2011/09/the-logged-out-user-continued.html

TWITTER’S TRY FIVE
Photographers

TAKEAWAYS
• Sometimes growth doesn’t come from where you expect it.
• Leverage data to identify unique insights and opportunities.
• If you think you have a worthwhile idea, test it quickly and
with the least effort possible.
• Have a game plan of what to do if the idea succeeds and
how to scale it.
• Iterate the product to solve for that use case that drives
growth.
• Engagement is the rocket fuel to give you escape velocity
and long-term sustainable growth.

PHYSICAL &
OTHER HACKS
Growth Hacking requires creativity.

HACK GRAB BAG
• Embeds
– YouTube, SlideShare, Vimeo
– Keys are: remove friction, optimize for SEO
• Powered By
– Freemium with branding, CTAs & backlinks: MailChimp, UserVoice
– Keys are: identify what you “power”, track and test CTAs
• Free Stuff
– Viral tools that play to vanity/exclusivity: Klout, Twitter Grader
– Keys are: Identify value/desire, provide reward or currency
Source: Hiten Shah’s Growth Presentation (see notes)

WALL STREET JOURNAL
• Insight:
– Busy business people are constantly searching for ways to
connect to the Web.
• Hack:
– Offer free WiFi at popular spots across New York City.
– Create email capture and activation funnel as part of
connecting to the Web.
• Result:
– Every user an opportunity to build their email marketing lists.
Source: GrowHack.com

DOLLAR SHAVE CLUB
• Insight:
– In a massive CPG category traditional advertising will never work,
you need to build a cult following.
– The big players are actually terrible at branding and marketing.
• Hack:
– Upend the business model for razors.
– Use viral video to acquire customers at low cost and create that
cult following.
• Result:
– DSC video viewed 5MM+ times
– 30,000 subscribers in first week
– Raised $10MM to take on men’s category

ZAPPOS
• Insight:
– With items that are hard to shop for online, superior service, not
price, will win.
– Removing friction from online shopping is more important than
price.
• Hack:
– Reinvent what customer service means.
– Bake cost of incredible service into product, position as free.
• Result:
– World renowned brand built on service.
– Charge a premium on every item sold.
– $800 million exit to Amazon.

TAKEAWAYS
• Growth Hacking isn’t just for consumer companies. B2B and
physical product manufacturers can hack growth.
• Physical product hacks are harder, but not impossible. They
just require creativity and insight on how to reach users.
• Hacks that make use of digital networks eliminate overhead
costs and find scale.
• Same rules apply: creativity, data, curiosity, dirty hands.

BECOME A
GROWTH HACKER
Or at least a growth beginner.

YOU NEED A TEAM & A HYPOTHESIS
• Create a growth team.
– Marketer
– Product person
– Engineer
– Sales
• Create hypotheses about growth.
– What changes do you think will move the needle?
– What types of customers do you need to sustain growth?
– What types of habits and behaviors do you need to engineer?
– Map to customer decision making.
Source: Adam Nash http://blog.adamnash.com/2012/04/04/user-acquisition-viral-factor-basics/

GET DOWN IN THE DATA
• Know your customers inside and out.
• Go where your early adopters are.
• Go niche first, the world second.
– Hipsters
– Moms
– Geeks
• Look for insights and patterns that represent
opportunities.
Source: Zero to a Million Users: http://www.slideshare.net/adamsmith1/from-zero-to-a-million-
users-dropbox-and-xobni-lessons-learned

ID HACKING OPPORTUNITIES
• What platforms could I integrate into that would
bring instant scale?
– Don’t depend on just one.
– Don’t just think Facebook.
• What are the core features of my product?
• Which ones drive growth? How can I optimize
those?
• How can I build distribution into inherent actions?

ID HACKING OPPORTUNITIES
• What is the value to the user for reaching out to
non-users?
• How does a hack align with my value proposition?
• How does this hack improve the experience of
the user?
• How can my product help others while gaining
distribution?

LEARN EARLY, LEARN OFTEN
• Test and measure ideas on the cheap.
• Build MVP versions, concierge versions.
• What’s the easiest and fastest way to ship an
idea?
• Numbers are your guide to everything.
• Iterate like your life depends on it.

GET STARTED
Get Hacking.

GIDDY UP!
• Review product and marketing opportunities.
• Build your team.
• Read and learn.
• Become a growth beginner.
• Celebrate growth in your organization.
• Make 2013 the year of growth!

THANKS.

DESIGNING FOR VIRAL GROWTH
• Get the inside scoop on designing for viral growth with this
infographic from Digital Telepathy:
• http://www.dtelepathy.com/blog/design/design-viral-
growth

GET IN TOUCH
Morgan Brown
morgan@digital-telepathy.com
@morganb
Digital Telepathy
www.dtelepathy.com
@dtelepathy

REFERENCES // RESOURCES
• Taking your site from One to One Million Users – Kevin Rose
• Hacking Growth at SlideShare
• Growth – Hiten Shah
• From Zero to One Million Users – DropBox and Xobni
Lessons – Adam Smith
• Growth Hacking 101 – Your First 500,000 Users – Yong Fook
• Lean Analytics – Alistair Croll & Benjamin Yoskovitz
• Andrew Chen’s Blog