You know what hacking is. You associate it with a data hacker or a computer hacker.
Have you heard about “Growth Hacking”?
A misnomer you may think. How can somebody hack growth?
Well, that is not the case. It is a new buzzword in the Internet marketing world.
A growth hacker uses tools, technology, and marketing ideas in an innovative way to drive up user acquisition.
Today, The Internet has redefined the term ‘product’. It is no longer restricted to toothpaste or shampoo you use or the car you drive. But also, the software products you use – YouTube, Instagram, Twitter….. There are so many of them.
If software programs are the products, then Internet is a highway that takes you to those products. You will find most of Macdonald’s restaurants at major city junctions.
Growth hacking can do the same to your online business as Macdonald’s has done to its Burger business.
Growth Hacking helps you get your ‘product’ at a strategic crossroad on the Internet highway.
Get out of that old mindset of 'product' and think like a growth hacker if you are a start-up and want to flourish in the world of e-commerce.
Many e-commerce start-ups disappear before they get noticed because they fail in user acquisition.
Growth hacking can reverse that and bring it to limelight like did to Dropbox.
If your store's customer base is shrinking and profits falling, then you have real pain points to address.
This is how you do it.
- Poor Usability
The Pain points
- The visitors come to your website and lose their way. The navigation is confusing. The one-click- goodie experience (that should be) turns into multiple-click-headache. People vanish from your website
- The product pages take time to load. Users lose their patience and quit.
- The content does not connect with readers. They do not turn into buyers.
The Solution
- Simplify navigation, make it user-friendly. It drives your visitors, right where they ought to be in no time.
- Find a good host for your e-commerce website. Get cracking at the landing page (traffic’s gateway to your website). It can be a home page, product page or any other page. See it loads fast. Tools like Unbounce help you do that.
- Chalk out a sound content strategy, hire a specialist and create content that connects with users. Remember content is the voice of your e-commerce business. Content does not mean text only (product descriptions, blog post, newsletter, etc.) but the design, colors, video and graphics.
- Poor Optimization
Your competitors beat you in the search results. Your website is poorly optimized.
Pain Points
- No perfect keywords and phrases in your website content. They neither match your customers’ search nor mirror your business offerings.
- Duplicate content; not creative and not engaging. Neither Search engines nor readers latch on to it. You lose content (and off-course you store) in the Internet Black hole. Buyers do not go there for shopping.
- Nonsense URLs that do not lead the specific product category.
- Too many of CTAs packed on the page, it confuses the customer and dilutes the will to press them.
The Solution
- Find the right keywords. Use tools like SEMrush, Buzzsumo, Ubbersuggest, Google Keyword Planner.
- Write a creative web copy, product description and other content that binds the customer to your website. Hire a copywriter if you cannot write one.
- Get unique URLSs that are product-specific.
- Follow the 1:1 Ratio rule – Each page you create should only have one action (CTA) on it.
- Lack of Continuous Engagement
Your customers do not stick around with you and client retention is a big challenge for you.
Pain points
- No quick response to customer’s first touchdown at your website. The prospective clients feel unwanted.
- Subdued presence in the social media. Your business, products or brand have very less following.
Solution
- Creative and proactive customer engagement strategy that includes fully automating your response to them. The moment visitors fill an “email opt-in-form” they get a welcome email, even when you are away in your bed.
- Automate your CMS. Fire newsletter, blog posts, marketing e-mailers and flyers on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Share them on the social media circuit, RSS feeds and other content sharing platforms.
- Invite your clients to free Webinar sessions. Speak up and listen to their problems. Offer them solutions and create a strong bond with them.
- Hook up with top influencers on Social media platform like LinkedIn and let them speak for you and your business. It takes time but be patient.
- Poor Traffic acquisition
A poor marketing strategy deflects the traffic from the website.
Pain point
Dwindling new traffic to the website
Solutions
- Hire a content strategist and spend more on content marketing. Invest time and money in Ebooks, tutorials, SEO, infographics and Crowdsource manual. Share with your readers and motivate them about your business and its offerings. Content marketing is the best pull tactic. If done right, you can see your traffic acquisition head north.
- Use push tactics like Google Adwords and affiliate marketing. Offer returns to get the results you want.
- Ask customers to share ‘pass it on’ offer with family members and friends, and get a huge discount on the first shopping.
- Award existing customers with loyalty bonus points or free gifts if they share your store with new customers.
- Find the busy online traffic junctions where all potential customers gather. Automate the incentive distribution there and lure new customers to your business.
- Get into the API domain. Hire a coder and create a smart bot or software to do the business for you. Like what a bot from Airbnb (into rental business) did to get this start-up grab top place in Craigslisting.
- Swap your Facebook post, Tweet or Adspace with other businesses that do not compete with you. Ask them to provide freebie offer as an add-on or incentive to your customers, who buy from your store. In return, you offer a freebie to their customers. This deal mechanism will pull new traffic to your website.
- No Mobile Commerce
The e-commerce world is seeing a paradigm shift in buying behavior of buyers. Mobile commerce apps and smartphone have made it easy for users to buy on the move.
Your analytics graphs show negligible, converting traffic from the mobile users
Pain Points
- Your e-commerce website is not mobile friendly. The web responsive design is missing and that makes it difficult for users to view it or shop on it.
- You have no app to offer to your customers to download on their mobile phones.
Solutions
- Get a responsive web design for your e-commerce store. It will look same on the desktop, laptop, and smartphone. Mobile users will be at ease to browse and shop on your website. You get new traffic in volumes.
- Offer mobile users a free download of your e-commerce store app for iPhone and Android. It will enhance user experience on the mobile devices and drive up truckloads of converting traffic.
Growth hacking gives your business the opportunistic growth in e-commerce ecosphere. It helps you tap untapped opportunities and create new ones, as well.