Table of contents
Key takeawaysCollaboration platforms are essential to the new way of workingEmployees prefer engati over emailEmployees play a growing part in software purchasing decisionsThe future of work is collaborativeMethodologyIntroduction
Jonathan Aufray, the CEO of Growth Hackers joined us on the Engati CX Show to shed some light on the science behind growth hacking. He shows us how its a larger concept than marketing. It's more along the lines of Marketing with a Cause. So, welcome to Growth Hacking 101, class is in session!
Jonathan is the co-founder and CEO of Growth Hackers.
He is an enthusiastic consultant, helping startups, fellow entrepreneurs & SMBs grow with digital marketing & growth hacking.
He helps businesses succeed by building brand online, communities, generating leads, customer acquisition and retention.
Originally from France, Jonathan considers himself as a 'global guy'. He's worked with businesses from 70+ countries, lived in 7 countries, and speaks 4 languages.
Interview with Jonathan Aufray
This section will contain a quick summary of our interview with Jonathan Aufray on growth hacking. But, if you'd rather listen to the entire interview, our Spotify Podcast will be embedded below this summary.
Growth Hacking was created around 10 years ago, but it was always supposed to be there. Everyone seems to have a different idea of what it's all about.
Jonathan used work in Marketing earlier. Whenever he took customer feedback to the product team, they'd tell him that his job was to market the product, not try to improve it.
He noticed that there was a disconnect between Marketing and Product Development. That's when he got into Growth Hacking.
He didn't want to be limited to simply marketing. To him, the marketing department needs to collect data to improve the product, making it more user-centric.
Marketing needed to focus on growing the product too.
And that's what Growth Hacking is to Jonathan. It isn't just about growing the customer acquisition or retention. It also involves growing the product.
It's not just a buzzword for marketing. It's a bridge between marketing and product development. it's all about marketing with a cause.
Automation is very important, but many marketers don't do it the right way.
You need to find out what is working before automating anything. Automating something that isn't working is essentially a waste of time and energy.
Experiment with different things. And when you find something that works, then find a way to automate it. And when it comes to marketing, you want to automate something, but not everything.
You could automate lead generation, but reach out to the leads with personalized messages. And not just with their names. Talk about what they do. Frame your message around their actual profile.
If you work in B2B, LinkedIn is where you want to connect with people. But, don't connect with everyone. Define your target audience and reach out to them.
While starting a conversation, don't lead with a pitch. Build the customer relationship. Talk about what you do tell them why you found their profile interesting and then, if it's a good fit, you could get some business out of them.
Don't be too salesy. You can share tips, tricks and strategies with them. Give them value.
Ask them questions. Listen to what they say. And don't just sell to them irrespective of their answer. Understand what they want, whether you can help them and if you could refer them to someone else who could help them where you can't, it builds a relationship. And they may end up referring others to you.
Growth Hacking and Automation are helpful in both B2B and B2C marketing.
The main difference is that in B2B, you don't need to sell as much. It's more about quality than quantity. B2B contracts tend to be for a larger sum of money.
B2C marketing is more about quantity than quality. You need to sell a lot. B2C products are generally inexpensive and you need to sell larger quantities.
With B2C, you have to be careful, especially in Europe with the GDPR.
For example, cold emailing is fine if it's personalized and if it's for B2B marketing. But it's not exactly legal for B2C marketing.
Once again, you need to know where your audience is.
You can't expect to sell swimwear on LinkedIn. Your chances of connecting with your target audience would be much higher on Instagram.
If you sell marketing services, being on LinkedIn is very important.
You need to create good content. Funny, engaging, helpful content.
But don't just create content. You need to promote your content too.
Jonathan believes in spending 20% of your time creating content and 80% of your time promoting it. You need to make sure that your content is seen.
So, spend time promoting your content. Run ads if you have the budget for it. Research and use the right hashtags.
And connect with the influencers in your industry. Sometimes they can be expensive, but it's possible to work something out with them.
And you can even engage and interact with their followers and people who comment on their posts. These are the people who would actually be interested in your content.
It depends on where you are in your journey.
When Slack was in beta, they worked end to end with a lot of small startups and small teams. They were getting feedback from them to understand what they really needed to incorporate in the product.
So, from the very beginning, they built a community around their target audience. They essentially growth hacked their product by working with the community.
But, if you didn't do that from the beginning, get in touch with your customers and offer them something for free in exchange for their feedback. Give them a reason to engage with your content and your business and they will gradually transform into loyal customers.
If you want to start a business right now, don't stretch yourself too thin by creating multiple startups at the same time. Everyone has ideas, but execution is what counts.
It takes focus, dedication and effort. And don't give up too soon. If it doesn't work out for a long time, you could consider pivoting.
