Growth Hacking: Your Market is People.

Growth Hacking is a Buzzword, it is one of those phrases that is turned out of startup like; unicorn, freemium and pivot. What Growth Hacking really translates to is: how do you make your business expand as quickly as possible, which inevitably is what every founder wants.

I was at a talk by Chris Out recently: the brains behind Rock Boost. The core 7 pillars of his Growth Hacking are the correct place to start for any business. It methodically, clearly and articulately lays out where you start laying out those points. Those in the innovation business might be more familiar with them. (Check out the website I would strongly recommend it to any startups).

All growth of the company is utterly dependant on the people that the company tries to sell to. This may seem relatively easy to comprehend. The relationships, professional, are the central hook to the growth of your company. It is within these professional communications between your team, your dev ops, your clients, and businesses which you associate that will ultimately underpin the success of your company.

Target Markets, overview of markets and total market validation can only come into play if your company can fully utilize them and this is utterly dependant on the communication and relationships that you form with these people. This means that you must be able to socialise, negotiate, brainstorm and effectively communicate with every person that you come into contact with. There is no person or a view who cannot bring something to your business.

Your market is people: whether it is an enterprise client or a direct to client product. The relationship that you foster with your clients is simple: make or break. Creating an integral customer feedback loop into your product, is key to retention. Acquisition is, has been, and always will be hot. Retention is where your meat and potatoes come from. It is the experience and the communication with the clients, who are putting their hand in their pocket, which is the single most important thing.

Any market is guarded by those who are in it. Thinking like those who are in it is vital. Chris Out, rightly pointed out, during his presentation that product market fit is the number one reason that startups fail. Lack of communication with the people in that market, cannot but, be one of the reasons that these startups fail. Find efficient ways to get information from that market. Is that going to a conference that is around that market? Is it going out on the street talking to people? Is it watching trends? Is it scraping data? How can utilise this data?

Growth Hacking, to me, is utilising the people around you to maximise your business potenial. Identifying those key people, contacting them, and keeping in contact is the most important thing. Why else do you think that founders are forever on the phone? Immerse yourself in your target market, try on competitors, talk to the people in the market. Your early adopters are your first insight: how can you retain them? How can you grow them? How can you make them talk about your product?

Growth Hacking can only be achieved when it is centric to the client and the UX. This is the market. The communications when speaking directly to your customer, face to face or through your product underpins the growth that your company will achieve. Understanding that at the end of the day, your market is people and hacking that oh so juicy growth will always be solely dependent on the on people, not a market.