Growth hacking is a combination of marketing, data-driven decision, and technology.

Growth Hacking has become the buzz word in the industry. Every enterprise, organizations, and startups are looking for an individual who has the necessary technical skills to analyze the technical data and chalk out a strategy to promote business. There has been an exponential demand for growth hackers and growth hacking skills in the industry. And while many businesses are looking out for a growth hacker, the others consider growth hacking and marketing to be similar. Undoubtedly both the skills expand the business and engage customers, but they are not minutely similar. Hence for any business to flourish, knowing, and understanding about growth, hacking becomes important.

What is Growth Hacking? 

Even though Growth Hacking is perceived to be a new field, its germination traces to the early to mid' 1990s, when startups' were on the rise in Silicon Valley. In 2011, Sean Ellis, the then marketing manager of Paypal, coined the term Growth Hacker while looking for a successor. He is the first growth hacker and, at that time, was looking for someone with excellent knowledge of data, product, tech and marketing, with a focus on sustainable growth.

Growth hacking is a combination of marketing, data-driven decisions, and technology, where the growth hacker runs experiment-based methodology for increasing customers' engagement. Though it was initially used by startups' to beat the competition with limited resources and innovative products, this approach is now permeating among larger companies.

Attributes of Growth Hacking

Here are the important attributes of growth hacking described by Ward Van Gasteren, Europe's first growth hacker. He helps businesses to implement growth hacking.

• Marketing and Psychology
• Lean Startup
• Technical Marketing
• Data and experimenting
• Tech, tools, and automation
• Conversion Rate Optimization

The mindset of a Growth Hacker

A growth hacker focuses on the overall development of the organization instead of the assigned part. They set the goal to aim at achieving North- Star Metric, which is an analysis by startups to count the amount of value their business is giving to the customers. It assists the company to plan out a strategy for long term growth and success. As the North-Star Metric becomes paramount in growth hacking, it also helps the organizations to have single focus and clarity. Unlike the One Metric that Matters Approach(OMTM), NSM allows businesses to plan out a long-term strategy, i.e. 10-15-years.

Skillset for a Growth Hacker

The growth hacking demands prompt and smart-decision making and quick solutions for the underlying problem. A growth hacker must be able to program, handle data, and design. Moreover, they need to invest in the biggest part of themselves as a T-shaped Player.

Coined in 1991 By David Guest, a T-shaped Player is viewed as a generalist instead of a specialist. The main skills required for a T-shaped player as described by David Arnoux are:

• Front end Coding
• Service Design
• Wire Framing
• Behavioral Psychology
• Branding/Storytelling
• Stakeholder Management
• Web Analytics
• Conversion Rate Optimization
• Experiment Design
• Funnel Marketing
• Automation API's
• Social Networking
• SEO Management
• Tools, Mobile, Email, Content and Lifestyle Marketing
• Virality
• App Store and Landing Page Optimization

Difference between Marketing and Growth Hacking

Ward Van Gasteren has laid out five points that make growth hackers different from marketers. These are:

• Unlike Marketers who focuses on the specific task of the funnel-like Aware and Acquisition, a growth hacker uses the entire funnel
• Instead of focusing on one method like Marketers, a growth hacker runs experiments with different methodologies.
• Unlike marketers, the growth hackers make data-driven decisions
• Growth hacker must have skills such as automation, programming, and tools
• A growth hacker is involved in the product and is attentive towards active customers.

A growth hacker is naturally curious and can help organizations in revenues with that of marketers. If you have all the skills that are mentioned above, your career awaits a bright future.