These 8 growth hacking cases will help you burst out inspiration and leverage users

Growth is like a sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of Internet people, forcing them to never relax. The company was apparently thriving today, but in one mistake it could end up at the front of the death list.

Growth is like an indescribable metaphysics. You never know which point can produce a conversion . Those growths of several hundred percent belong to other companies.

Growth is like the life of a child from a poor family. You have no money (even if you have it, it won’t be given to you), and you have to do more work without money.

Even so, there are still many companies that have grasped one or several key details and achieved explosive growth.

We have reviewed 8 classic cases to see how the growth masters came up with their ideas.

1. The unexpected “aha moment”: How Airbnb increased bookings by 30%

If you were an Airbnb employee, what would be a good way to increase bookings?

A new employee who just came to work on the first day discovered a detail: users can mark the rooms they like with stars and add them to their wish list. This unconventional employee told his supervisor that the driving experience was great, but the potential of this feature could be further explored! So – he changed the symbol into a heart shape.

Guess what? By tracking user reactions, the final number of reservations increased by 30% - from stars to hearts, it's magical!

2. A/B Testing: Upworthy’s Double Headline Method

A/B testing may sound old-fashioned, but it works every time. The rise of Upworthy is a testament to this.

Upworthy is the fastest growing media in the world, relying on eye-catching headlines. Their editors take at least 25 headlines for each piece of web content, and then finally select the two most promising headlines and create their own Bitly links (short links) for them.

Then, we selected two groups of fans with common characteristics from Facebook (such as being in similar cities) and posted the Bitly links we created earlier to them. Next, the staff only needs to set the timer and wait to count the number of clicks and shares of the two titles. When the time is up, the title with the most clicks and shares wins.

In addition to greatly promoting the viral spread of an article, such experiments can also continuously enrich their collection of the most attractive words and phrases for future use.

It’s for this reason that Upworthy founder Eli Pariser notes, “A good headline can mean the difference between 1,000 people reading it or 1,000,000 people reading it,” and any extra effort is worth it.

3. Language-product matching: The surprising effect of Tickle changing the slogan

Do you know the longest time a person takes to pay attention to a piece of information?

The answer is 8 seconds (in 2000 the answer was 12 seconds).

We all know that this is an era of scarce attention, but do you really realize that you only have 8 seconds to catch the user's attention?

Therefore, you must have the language ability to accurately inspire users, and use one sentence to attract them, encourage them, and fascinate them.

Tickle is a photo social networking company (PC version of Instagram, founded in 1999 and acquired in May 2004). Its initial slogan was "Store your photos online". It seems to be fine, but users just can't do it.

So the founder James Currier (also a god-like growth expert) suggested changing "storage" to "sharing" - so that users will be happy to recommend it to those around them. With just one word difference, the number of users increased by 53 million in 6 months.

Through this case, let’s think about this: if the slogan of the dating app you are responsible for is “Looking for a date”, do you have any ideas for optimization? (Answers are included at the end of the article).

4. User Behavior Classification: The Secret of LinkedIn’s Growth from 100 Million to 400 Million

Finding the right promotion channel based on user behavior is a great way to save money, allowing you to decide which channel to invest your limited budget in. Atif Awan, LinkedIn's head of growth and international business, helped the company grow from 100 million users to more than 400 million.

He created a handy table of user behavior types:

Do people use search engines to find solutions?

If yes, focus on SEO / SEM . (This is a common tactic used by the Putian system. If you are used to searching on Baidu, I will place my ads there.)

Are existing users sharing your product with their friends through word of mouth?

If yes, focus on viral marketing or referral programs. (Yeah, I know you're thinking of WeChat red envelopes )

Will an increase in the number of users improve the user experience ?

If yes, use a viral approach. (Think about the earliest gmail registration and the invitation system of kaixin.com)

Are your target users already using other platforms?

If so, why not integrate and cooperate? (Have you ever heard of the Camry advertising at airports? That’s right, growth hacking methods are not just for tech companies.)

Does the user have a high lifetime value?

If yes, pay for it. (Platform companies’ favorite)

Yes, the above questions seem simple, but if you can test and ask yourself these questions before taking action, believe me, you can save a lot of money that might otherwise be wasted.

5. Questionnaire method: Revolution Golf’s user activation method

Questionnaires are very annoying, especially for some products with rogue genes. In the name of surveys, they ask you to click at least a dozen times before you can uninstall a software. And you have to be careful, otherwise you will accidentally click "Continue to use".

But there is one case where investigation can be very useful in improving activation.

Online golf retailer Revolution Golf requires users to fill out a survey when they sign up, which covers questions such as the visitor's gender, age, average driving distance, average score through 18 holes and the biggest problem with their swing. The move helped the company surpass $20 million in annual revenue.

This type of questionnaire makes users feel that you are interested in them personally and that you are willing to do your best to provide them with the best service. So users are willing to take the time to answer, and at the same time, a deeper relationship is established between users and you and your product. (The same approach is used by apps like Clue to predict menstruation. Collecting information is only the first step, and the purpose is to prevent users from going dormant.)

6. Gamification : No one does it better than Starbucks

Gab Zicherman, a gamification expert, has found that the most effective rewards in gamification practices include status, authority, power, and tangibles (referring to monetary rewards or gifts).

The Starbucks Rewards program encourages 12 million members to earn a "star" for every cup of coffee they buy using a Starbucks gift card or mobile app. Members can redeem stars for free coffee and other Starbucks merchandise. The more stars accumulated, the greater the value of the gifts users can redeem, and they can also obtain higher membership levels and become more loyal Starbucks customers with higher status.

Starbucks' rewards program has been so successful that customers have now topped up more than $1 billion on Starbucks gift cards and the app.

Needless to say, supporters of this method also include credit card companies that allow points to be exchanged for gifts, hotels that allow points to be accumulated in exchange for accommodation, and so on.

7. Retaining users: The real purpose of Amazon Prime membership program

When Amazon Prime membership was first launched, many analysts were pessimistic, believing that it cost too much in terms of free two-day shipping and discounts on Prime-covered items, so the program was not sustainable.

Amazon Prime has proven to be a huge success in terms of retention : 73% of free trial users become paying customers , and 91% of users who subscribe to Prime in the first year renew their subscription in the second year.

Even more amazing is that the longer users join Amazon Prime, the higher the retention rate , with the renewal rate for those entering their third year reaching an unprecedented 96%.

In addition, Amazon Prime members spend more than twice as much as non-Prime users, and high retention rates can also bring compounding revenue growth. Therefore, the purpose of launching the Prime program is not to earn $99 in membership fees, but to greatly improve user retention.

8. Focus on group contributions: HotelTonight’s targeted delivery strategy

When it comes to increasing profitability, HotelTonight has done a meticulous job.

This mobile app allows users who need a place to stay on the spur of the moment to book a hotel room at a deep discount. It creates groups based on whether users connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi or 3G or 4G network connections when using the app and analyzes the purchasing behavior of different groups.

The results revealed a major and unexpected finding: those who used the app over 3G or 4G networks were twice as likely to book a room as those who used the app over Wi-Fi. (Shouldn't booking with Wi-Fi be easier?)

So it came up with a hypothesis: Users are more likely to comparison shop on other travel sites when using Wi-Fi than when using an unstable data connection, because when the data is unstable and the competitor's website is slow and unreliable, users will be more willing to use HotelTonight to book a room, but if they are using fast Wi-Fi, then users will do comparison shopping.

Based on this insight, HotelTonight served targeted ads only to users who were not using Wi-Fi, ultimately increasing the purchase rate of new users who saw the ads.

Peter Drucker said: “The purpose of business is to create and keep customers.”

It seems that growth hacking is the winning formula for revitalizing business. On the road to growth, it is always the case that "the revolution has not yet succeeded, comrades still need to work hard." Growth hacking is a door, and how you walk after it opens depends on you.

Oh yes, in the case of the dating app, after the founder changed the slogan from “finding a date” to “helping others find a date”, users began to invite their friends, even married friends, because married people could also help their single friends find a date. Eight months later, the service had 29 million new users.

The author of this article is @网络 and it is compiled and published by (Qinggua Media). Please indicate the author information and source when reprinting!

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