Vincent Dignan - Growth Hacking
London-based Vincent Dignan helps grow early-stage companies through a combination of rapid social media growth, guerrilla community management tactics, and growth hacks which have seen companies go from zero to thousands of signups/followers/users virtually overnight.
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33: Growth hacking funnel
34: Typical growth engine (for an app)
Starts at 00:23:30
How to attract humans → 1-3
vincent@magnific.com - Tweet me throughout my talk: @vincentdignan
- 150,000,000+ Total Pageviews
- 50 million+ unique visitors
- 100,000+ Likes/followers
- 50,000 client followers
- 1000’s of signups
Agenda → 4
- What is growth hacking?
- How to growth hack IRL/social
- Activity: Finding customers on Twitter
- Social news, content marketing, email
- Productivity, psychology and more
What is growth hacking? → 5
“A marketing technique initially employed in tech startups that uses creativity, social metrics and analytical thinking as well as tools to sell products and gain exposure.”
The golden rules of growth → 6-9
- Scalable
- Repeatable
- Predictable
The 10 rules of growth hacking → 10-35
“Grow fast or die slow” - Samir Patel
- You do not talk about growth hacking
- You do not talk about growth hacking - Read: http://bit.ly/songkickgrowthhack
- Speak to customers & define messaging before you go viral - Read “The Mom test” (I can send it to you)
- Investigate & map channels easiest - hardest
- Set S.M.A.R.T. goals
- Read the basics for your channel(s) on http://growthhackers.com
- Don’t sweat the small things on day one
- Be a mixture of mad men & math men
- Pour more resources into the one(s) that work
- Rinse & repeat - Think like the americans
6 main channels of user acquisition → 36
- IRL
- Social Media sites
- Social News sites
- Content
- SEO
Get users! → 37-.....
1. Get your skates on & hustle
2. Use Charlieapp.com → 38
3. Use Emailhunter.co. Become a hunter gatherer (of emails) → 39
4. Use VoilaNorbert.com. Find anyone’s email address → 40
5. Use Discover.ly. We are all connected → 41-55
IRL Types of businesses: → 42
- Anything “sales” driven
- Business that rely on relationships
- A good first step if you don’t already know where to find your users
This phone phobia must end → 43
Social Media → 44
- Get a following
- Broadcast to them
- Reap the benefits
- Profit?!?!?!?
It's All About Me! → 45-49
- I searched for curiosity killed the cat, I was not disappointed
- Momma I made it! - Vincent Dignan, @vincent dignan is now trending in #London trendsmap.com/gb/london
- Graffiti removal guy comes back to discover image of himself in the same spot
- Welcome to the Internet
Instagram → 50-53
- Ideal User is critical
- Reply and flood hashtags
- Who says Instagram gets no clickthroughs? - Read: https://blog.gleam.io/foundr/ http://austenallred.com/user-acquisition/book/chapter/instagram/
- True leaders work for peace
- Scheduling posts on Instagram! - Use Canva.com to make & Hootsuite to schedule posts.
- Businesses who may need Instagram:
- Anything with a “product” that looks cool e.g. fashion, technology, personal brand
- Apps/Software/Platforms looking to get a large (as in tens of thousands) userbase
- Anyone “building a brand”
6. Facebook → 54-58
Your Facebook Group: Get 1,000 members in 30 minutes:
- Create group, image, description, etc
- Click "Add people to group" on top right
- Press "a" key to bring up all of your friends who start with the letter a, click them one by one, eventually after selecting 8 or so it will say it is full
- Then type "b" and click all of those, and so on, all the way through the alphabet
- When you get to z, add a vowel to each letter, so firstly "ao", "bo", "co" etc
- Repeat for a, e, i, and u after the first letter
Businesses who may need Facebook:
- Anything with a “product” that you can arbitrage sales in the same way as adwords
- This can include apps in certain situations
- Basically everyone to a certain extent
7. Twitter → 59-62
- This tweet got 58,000 retweets: A guide on how to get more free space with Dropbox! http://bit.ly/twQLKP Retweet for a chance to get +100GB!
- Companies that use Twitter average double the amount of leads per month than those that do not.
8. The best Twitter tool of all time → 63-67
Socialbro.com: Search by gender, job title, location, company/person - mad targeting
- Activity: Finding your customers. Type your ideal user in this box!
9. Tweepi will get you followers → 68
Twitter basics: → 70
- Steal the good stuff, only RT compliments
- Tweet the same (article) 5 times
- Pictures most likely to be retweeted
- Tweet lots: 50 - 100 tweets a day is fine
- Tweepi gets you followers literally today
Businesses who may need Twitter → 71
- Apps/Software/Platforms looking to get a large (as in tens of thousands) userbase
- Businesses where content is important
- Anyone looking to reach a certain job title/location (basic demographics, Facebook needed for complex targeting)
- Events businesses
Businesses who may need Tumblr→ 72
- Anything youth orientated
- Anything aimed at America/worldwide and youth orientated
- Fashion/music
Businesses who may need Pinterest→ 73
- Anything aimed at females 30+
- Anything that looks beautiful e.g. furniture, fashion, weddings, etc
- Use Buffer to easily setup a pinning schedule
- Difficult to work out, so likely a big opportunity here
Reach YouTube Influencers with Famebit → 74
LinkedIn Hack → 75
Build a robot that looks at people’s profiles - 15,000 views a day = 9,000 people looking at your own LinkedIn page!
Social News → 76-78
Three functions:
- Read/View
- Comment
- Post
8. Social News 101 → 79-82
Posting to social news sites can bring users/customers:
- Hacker News - “Show HN”, technical blogposts
- Producthunt - One-time posting for launches
- Reddit - Content or feedback
- Growthhackers.com - Blog posts on growth
Useful Subreddits:
- r/startups - r/entrepreneur - r/smallbusiness - r/engineering - r/hwstartups - r/AlphaAndBetausers (submit your app for feedback)
- Marketing Advice: r/marketing, r/seo, r/bigseo, and r/askmarketing
- Technical Advice: r/wordpress, r/iosprogramming, and r/androiddev
- Learning: r/learnprogramming
Businesses who may need social news:
- Anything where “tech” feedback is important
- Anything where techy early adopters are important
- Apps/Software/Platforms looking to get a large (as in tens of thousands) userbase can seed initial users here
Content Marketing basics → 83-85
- Don’t be “business guy”
- Know your audience
- Write something people want to read
- Distribute it on your own channels, measure results
- Distribute it on other peoples
Writing the damn thing:
- For whatever industry start by identifying the problems of the audience of the story you’re writing for
- Passion! <3
11. How to come up with content marketing ideas → 86-89
- Read this: http://backlinko.com/viral-marketing
- Go here: http://app.buzzsumo.com
- Activity: Come up with fresh ideas! - http://www.portent.com/tools/title-maker
Writing the damn thing:
- Personal brand (I) vs business brand (we), pick one style and stick with it (pertains more to someone blogging on behalf of company)
- Write simple
- No more than 25 words in a sentence
- Keep paragraphs short for people’s short attention span
- People love quizzes. Use riddle.com
12. Hemingway lives on → 90-95
Introduction to destruction:
- Intro paragraph is most important because it will determine if someone reads the article.
- Open by starting right in the middle of an interesting story or give an amazing fact. “When he leaned across the table and told me my startup was doomed…”
- Make them forget what they are doing and HAVE to read
How to have an amazing body:
- Since they just decided to read the article, now let the reader breathe, insert great graphics
- Ease up and slow down. Write even simpler sentences. Keep your paragraphs shorter and your message even more to-the-point when possible. End on a high note.
- With all the distractions and short attention spans, in 2015, we need to start becoming better storytellers.
- Don’t go crazy with links, keep them in-house
Here comes the choo-choo train: Spoon-feeding the reader what you want them to do next
- If your goal is, let’s say, to get your “second chance” on Twitter put your Twitter handle in the author byline
- Just like you can turn visitors into subscribers with email, with other engines you can turn them into social media followers, customers, watchers, or members.
- At the end of every article ask the reader to share.
Outsource writing:
- Places to find writers: Craigslist, Problogger ($30), gumtree (UK), some job sites like Indeed (UK)
- Pay influential bloggers $25 - $50 per article
You will write 25 headlines! 1!!!1 Otherwise, people won't click your links.
13. Bitly → 93-98
Here comes a new challenger! Meetedgar sends updates on repeat
15. Huffingtonpost → 103-108
jody.thompson@huffingtonpost.com http://techcrunch.com/got-a-tip/ 600-800 words
editorial@techcitynews.com 400-500 words
Businesses who may need content
- Anything where domain expertise is important
- Saas companies who don’t have sales people
- Authors, freelancers, contractors, designers, etc
P.r. 1/2/3...8
- My Company <name> is developing <offering> to help <target audience><solve a problem> with <a secret sauce>.
- Make a Hit List of Most Relevant Reporters - enter niche &/or competitors into Google News, note 20 reporters who have covered it recently
- Find their email (many tools do this) and email them in the morning. Consider:
- How does your startup/pitch relate to what the reporter has written about before and the news today?, Your startup Name:, Your website URL, #CrunchBase Profile URL if pitching TC
- Description of your startup in 75 words or fewer from your 1 sentence pitch section,
- Founder bios if relevant
- Have you launched? Did you get funding? TC won’t cover you if you have undisclosed funding.
- Your main competitors? and why are you better?
Hey Press sounds like Hey presto Find relevant journalists. For free. https://www.hey.press/
Bonus mosh! P.R. reading list:
- http://austenallred.com/user-acquisition/book/chapter/press/
- http://startupworkout.com/traction-list/
- Skyscraper content: http://backlinko.com/viral-marketing
- 10 ways to get press: http://pitchpigeon.com/blog/the-10-types-of-startup-press-release.html
- https://blog.kissmetrics.com/overcome-content-distribution/
- http://www.criminallyprolific.com/ - good blog posts on pr tactics
- http://www.criminallyprolific.com/2014/02/6-steps-of-do-it-yourself-pr-why-you-dont-need-to-hire-a-firm/
- Tech Press ideas: http://www.quora.com/Tech-News-and-Journalism/How-do-I-get-in-touch-with-tech-journalists
- http://ovoice.net/32-places-can-submit-launching-startup/
- http://www.beingpractical.com/2013/10/12/100-startup-directories-to-submit-your-startup-for-free/
16. SEO is not dead - it just smells funny → 107-113
- If you hate yourself: theshortcutts.com
- Awesome SEO checklist: clickminded.com/seo-checklist
- The best $75 you’ll ever spend: Startuplister
- Rank for your keyword? - Senuke.com/xcr
Your SEO probably sucks, try this:
- SEOSiteCheckup - Instant site checkup
- Yoast - Best Wordpress SEO Plugin
- KeywordTool - Find SEO keywords
Businesses who may need SEO:
- Content companies e.g. magazines, or user generated content sites/forums
- Emerging markets e.g. 3d printing
Now convert into gold... I'm bringing email back
17. MailChimp → 114
“Good Artists copy, great artists steal” - http://reallygoodemails.com/tag/mailchimp/
18. Here be photos: StockSnap → 116
19. Still too lazy? → 117-118
- Revue - Your weekly digest. Automated
- Wavelength - Trade email lists → reach thousands
20. → 119
21. → 120
22. → 120
23. → 121
24. → 122
25. → 123
26. → 124
27. → 125-126
28. → 127-128
29. → 129-130
30. → 132-134
59. Bonus: 17 ways to build amazing email lists: http://backlinko.com/list-building Sorry this slide doesn’t look good :-(
62. 23. Say hello to hello bar 63. 24. Your inbox should be a to-do list
65. 26. Redress the power balance 66. 27. Sometimes you have to cold email 67. Businesses who may need email mktg - Anything where something is being sold - Saas companies who don’t have sales people - Authors, freelancers, contractors, designers, etc 68. 28. Start slacking off at work 69. 29. 70. 30. Have one more hour in your day. You’re welcome! ;) 71. + Tweet me your feedback on my deck: @vincentdignan Get in touch if you’d like coaching vincent@magnific.com