3 Growth Hacks for Product Marketers

Businesses are competing for the highest user traffic and content sharing. There are a few tips that each growth-oriented marketer should know and use. Applying growth techniques simply makes perfect sense. A lesson for marketers: Marketing is fundamentally the same, but its techniques, priorities, channels and tools have changed. What is growth hacking all about? It is about understanding human psychology when engineering products or content, to drive maximum traffic and attention from your audience. 1.  Keywords for Success Understand the importance of optimizing Google keywords. Choosing the right keywords will keep you in touch with your audience. The market is driven by users, so choose keywords they are most likely to search for. Google Adwords can be used to generate perfect keywords for your users. Other resources are WordPress SEO Plugin and Scribe.com that help you to make sure that your content stays true to its keywords. The same can be done for headlines. It is recommended to write at least 25 headlines for each post before choosing the one that works best. Consider Inbound.org for voting on content based on its headlines. Both techniques should be implemented consistently throughout your networks. 2.  Aim to Go Viral Upworthy.com has many tutorials about content-sharing motivators. Users won’t stick around if features take too long to load, or if share buttons aren’t readily accessible. Personal devices and social networks allow users to engage with content on the go, so allow sharing, commenting and even voting on posts. While not always able to read a full text, a user will hit “Like” and “Share” on Facebook or re-tweet a headline that stuck (don’t forget to use Google+). Social networks rely on repetitive posts – let your users give you a hand! Gartner recommends encouraging your target audience to share your idea. Share buttons placed at the top show best results, but they can also be locked to the side as the user scrolls through. Create in-text links between related posts, as well as in-text share options on specific topics, and include infographics for visual learners. 3.  Balance Personal and Professional Your loyal followers deserve to know the story behind your vision, as well as the inspiration behind it. Aside from self-promotion, write about products you love and people you respect. Transparency makes users feel as participants within your business, generating long-term trust and respect. For a real life example of this technique, read the story of Groove. Create a reward system for loyal users. Celebrate them with discounts and free offers on their birth dates and anniversaries of signing-up for your site. Exclusive contests and premium products at high discounts will ensure constant following, especially when posted during holidays! To Sum Up Growth hacking came from startups, desperate to gain exposure at any cost. Some techniques might seem counter-intuitive at first, but successful businesses using them are living examples of why growth hacking works. While it is more and more important now to get the most out of your content, growth hacking is something that every smart marketer should embrace.