Whether your start-up is in its early stages or you’ve been in business for a few years, there’s perhaps no better time than now to hop on the growth hacking bandwagon.

If you think that growth hacking is little more than a buzzword, think again: modern businesses are transforming their earning potential through the power of unconventional marketing and rapid-fire testing.

Chances are you have what it takes to become a growth hacker. Regardless, you should apply the six principles of growth hacking to your own business as a means of supercharging your productivity and uncovering new streams of revenue.

6 Principles of Growth Hacking

Be Prepared to Put in the Hours:

The “hacking” in growth hacking comes from the nature of entrepreneurs who will do whatever it takes to see results. In other words, long, laser-focused hours of work and plenty of all-nighters in pursuit of profits.

If you’re serious about growth hacking, you’re going to need an office environment that inspires productivity. Between shopping around for high quality office furniture that ensures your comfort and creating your own personal nest to get work done, you need to put yourself in the ultimate marketing mindset to make your business grow.

Think Outside the Box:

It may seem cliche to tell entrepreneurs to think outside the box; however, true growth hackers see opportunities where nobody else is looking. Consider, for example, how AirBNB hacked the hotel industry by stealing traffic from Craiglist. It was a brilliant move on their part; however, such tactics aren’t going to be found in the traditional marketing playbook.

If you do what everyone else is doing, you’ll be destined for unremarkable results. You don’t necessarily need to reinvent the wheel with your business, but rather take a different approach if you want to build a business that grows rapidly.

“Free” is Your Best Friend:

Growth hackers thrive on free platforms and traffic as a means of building their businesses. From social media sites like Facebook to content marketing through Medium, emphasize avenues of growth that won’t cost you a dime first before you consider scaling with paid traffic or ads.

Network Like Crazy:

Don’t be an island. Growth hackers network like crazy through sites like Facebook and LinkedIn to uncover opportunities and position themselves as bigger players in their own industries. The more relationships you have to leverage, the more likely your business is to get in front of new eyes.

Always Be Testing:

Growth is rooted in data, plain and simple. You need to check your analytics in regard to traffic, clicks, and conversions on a regular basis to understand which marketing channels are working and which aren’t. From marketing copy to products and deals, the only way to uncover what’s gaining you traction is by knowing what works by the numbers.

Once you do find what’s working to get the attention of your market, scale accordingly and exploit those channels.

Saturation is Key:

Dominating a niche requires saturation in terms of content and social presence. In other words, regular blogging and consistent social posts are an expectation of growth hackers looking to make their voices the loudest.

Consider how marketing techniques such as encouraging user-generated content and re-purposing blogs into videos, for example, can help you grow your presence without putting too much of a burden on yourself time-wise.

Much of your success as a growth hacker comes down to your mentality. That is, you’re willing to grind away until you find something that just plain works and attack it accordingly.

So ask yourself: do you still think you have what it takes to be a growth hacker? Put these principles into action and see for yourself.

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