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A freelance growth hacker can
By Carsten Bjerregaard, Marketingcapacity.dk (Link to the article. Copying/publishing without agreement is not allowed)
A growth hacker's job is to create growth. Typically through digital tools and efforts. But not defined by methods. Because growth hacking - a term introduced in 2010 - is characterized by the fact that there is no one way to do it. It's a matter of looking for - and creating - the key to growth. Growth that exceeds the normal organic growth you can experience if you just keep doing business as usual.
What is growth hacking?
You can answer this with a question: When there are perhaps 100 more or less similar Apps for one need or another, why is it that App no. 71 suddenly takes off and gets far more customers than the others? Often, if you dig deeper, you'll find that it's down to a few factors:
- Luck/randomness
- A great product
- A large market
- Timing
- Good marketing
- Growth hacking
Growth hacking is the X-factor that can take a great product and create phenomenal success. If there was a standard recipe, anyone could copy and do it. But there isn't. Therefore, you don't know if a growth hacker will lead to the desired success. However, it increases the likelihood because:
- One person has growth as their 100% focus area
- The person understands data, functionality, testing methods and measurement tools such as Google Analytics
In principle, the growth hacker can be compared to a scientist. He understands how a product works and, to a certain extent, why it works. And he is driven by the question: "How can I get more people to use it?"
He looks for causal relationships 24/7. He comes up with creative ideas for what might break an upward curve, and he tests them in real life. He analyzes the results. And starts over or builds on what he learns.
Why growth hacking?
Every business needs growth, of course. And it's built into the normal functions of marketing, sales and customer service. Everything is basically as it should be. But some things have changed:
- The possibilities of the internet are vast - and complex
- Consumers can no longer see - or even find - the potential products they could use for a given need or problem
- We've all seen businesses explode overnight - and seen what virality is. From Google and Facebook to Angry Birds
- Google coined the term "Moon shot" - which means that you shouldn't look for incremental or linear growth. You should be looking for exponential growth. The idea being that if you're only looking for small improvements - you'll be satisfied when you find them
Most of the huge companies created in the last 25 years have been started by people with a growth hacker approach. Without having the title. And if we go back 20 years further, we have to say that Bill Gates was thinking like a growth hacker. IBM had imagined that the world market for the personal computer would be around 20,000 units. Bill Gates said 'a computer on every desk in the world'. And asked himself the question: What does it take? Well, it requires that they have something to use it for. That's why Microsoft invented the Office suite little by little.
Today, you can't help but think of Elon Musk or especially Jeff Bezos when we talk about growth hacking. They have each cracked the code - or rather the codes - to create exponential growth and value.
Moon shots or the desire for the famous hockey stick curve is what drives the need for growth hacking.
What does a growth hacker need to know?
A successful growth hacker has professional and personal qualities. The professional ones are especially about:
- Data
- Analysis tools
- Business understanding
- Insight into business models, such as subscription models
- Media and platform knowledge
And the personal attributes are all about:
- Curiosity
- The ability to think 'out of the box'
- Persistence, almost to the point of stubbornness
- Analytical thinking
- Competitive mentality
- Psychological insights
- The ability to see through conventions and habitual behavior
Without over-psychologizing, it's probably safe to guess that some growth hackers are considered by those around them to be borderline weirdos. If you think of the movie Alan Turing, who broke the German Enigma code during the war, you get the picture. He led a team of highly talented code-breakers, but he had that extra stubbornness that made him go to any lengths to succeed in his mission.
So, while all workplaces need good bedside manners, you shouldn't recruit a growth hacker on 'good bedside manners' alone. And it's important to realize that while they are in high demand today, these types of people are not driven by high salaries alone. They are driven by their inner motives to crack codes. To solve problems that no one else can solve. To find the secret key to success.
How does a growth hacker create value?
A growth hacker creates value by creating growth. Plain and simple. But that can be in 1,000 different ways. It can be anything from ingenious product development to ideas for new gimmicks, marketing tricks or anything else. Like the time someone decided to write 'Intel Inside' on the outside of computers. Or the famous example where a free email service only really took off when they added a single sentence at the bottom of all emails stating that the recipient could also get a free email account. So simple (once you think about it) and yet so effective.
Companies can deploy growth hackers for specific tasks or as a permanent role within a business area. In teams or as mavericks. And with more or less authority. But fundamentally, the work is:
- Understand the product
- Understand what it does for the customer
- Understand the buying process
- Understand customer interaction
- Understand the delivery
- Generate ideas - preferably along the way
- Design tests
- Perform tests
- Evaluate data
- Report any successes for implementation
- Repeat
When we talk about digital services, a key word is 'virality'. The question is; "how do we create
Why a freelance growth hacker?
In the past, most people might have thought of freelancers for one-off projects. However, many companies have now realized the benefits of working with freelancers on a long-term basis:
- You can cover needs that don't justify a permanent position
- In periods when you don't need it, you don't pay for the skill
- In a long-term relationship, the freelancer gets to know the company almost as well as a permanent employee
- Compared to buying the desired skill set from an agency - such as an advertising agency - working with freelancers is usually much cheaper
- You have the flexibility to rethink the overall competency profile of the person responsible for an area
- More and more really talented people prefer to work freelance
- A freelancer can still look at your business 'from the outside' - which is a valuable thing when thinking about creative
- Freelancers can bring fresh, outside inspiration to your business
How do you find a good freelance growth hacker?
Finding the right freelancer can be difficult. And above all, it can take a long time. Because there are many freelancers within the same field, and even if they boast the same skills, there can be a big difference when it comes to the way they work and the work they deliver. When you ask Marketingcapacity.dk to help you find a freelancer to work with, the process is simple:
- You describe your needs to us (either in writing or verbally - we'll confirm in an email)
- We screen the thousands of profiles on Marketingcapacity.dk and, if necessary, the market through our channels
- We nominate a list of candidates and talk to them according to your needs
- You will be presented with 3 candidates that seem to meet your needs
- During the 3 meetings (at your location or digitally) you can ask questions and see examples of their work
- You choose the freelancer you would like to start working with
- We set it up in our systems with time tracking etc. so you have an overview and full control
In other words: After describing your needs, simply set aside 2 hours to meet with 3 hand-picked and screened candidates. That's your guarantee of a good result with reasonable effort.
