18 Growth Hackers That You Should Follow In 2016
Are you starting with growth hacking and don’t know where to look?
Or, have you just run out of ideas?
I compiled this list of growth hackers you should follow for those exact reasons. It doesn’t matter if you’re a seasoned pro or just starting, following and reading from these people will give you new ideas and approaches that will really move your needle — if you take their advice seriously.
To become a better growth hacker, you need to study. A lot. But it’s all worth it to learn from best and grow your business. There’s no single tutorial about how to grow your business, since your model is unique to you, your environment, and your vision. That’s why you are the best person to tailor your growth strategy to your business.
Discuss your idea in forums or online communities like Growth Hackers, where you can engage others to help you think through your growth.
We’ve also created #growmance — a Slack community built specifically for growth hackers to hash out growth ideas in real time, with input from around the world. You can sign up here (it’s free to join).
Growth hacking is relatively new niche in Silicon Valley and the term has become a buzzword in its own right. Most professional growth hackers will tell you that growth is less about reading and finding one miraculous hack, and more about implementing it and waiting for dollars to come (or rapidly pivoting in the case that the hack failed).
It’s more about implementing a process and coming up with new ideas than simply implementing those ideas to your new process. Consistency is key to growth. Start your growth by finding small, consistent, compounding wins. Then set up consistent and repeatable processes.
The key: Create not tactics, but processes.
So enough chit chat. Here’s the list of 16 growth hackers that you should follow if you want to take your strategy-making seriously:
#1 Sean Ellis
Founder and CEO of Qualaroo and GrowthHackers.com, startup advisor and angel investor, Ellis first coined “growth hacker.” After repeated unsuccessful hires, he figured out that marketing today means something quite different than in the past. What he wanted was the right person for the job, which meant being growth-oriented, not just focused on pretty packaging.
Ellis also founded the web community growthhackers.com, which is an incredible source of materials for studying. Most growth hackers mentioned in this article are also active in GH community.
#2 Morgan Brown
Former Head of Growth at Qualaroo and GrowthHackers.com, Brown is a growth marketer with 15 years of experience. He is currently working as the growth-oriented CEO at Inman.
He is the co-author of “Unlocking Growth,” along with Sean Ellis. Brown is, of course, an active member of GrowthHackers.com community. You can sign up for his personal newsletter, a daily email with growth hacks and other valuable insights.
Brown’s new project on Snapchat, where he talks about growth and responds other people’s questions, is also worth a follow. Add him: morganb180.
#3 Brian Dean
Founder of Backlinko.com and SEO That Works, Dean has never actually referred himself as a growth hacker. However, if you want to grow your online business, following this guy is an absolute must.
He’s not just some theoretical blogger that doesn’t know what he’s doing; rather, he’s the best resource on the internet in getting your website ranked on Google. He’ll give you tips and complex strategies on getting backlinks, improving your website’s SEO, and growing your email list in a fast and efficient way.
You can sign up for his newsletter, where he regularly sends out tips about SEO and growing your online biz.
#4 Neil Patel
He’s the Founder of QuickSprout.com, co-founder of Kissmetrics and CrazyEgg.
If you’ve never heard of this guy, you probably haven’t read anything marketing-related in the last 5–6 years. His blog QuickSprout.com is more than just blog. It’s a reference for every online marketer.
Patel also co-founded two companies, CrazyEgg and Kissmetrics, from scratch to multi million dollar businesses. He probably knows what he’s doing. In 2015 he published a series of articles called “From 0 — $100,000/month in 12 months” where he describes in high detail his quest to bring in $100,000 monthly.
#5 Noah Kagan
Kagan is the Founder and Chief Sumo at SumoApp, former Product Marketing at Facebook, and a self-described “taco eater.”
He started working at Facebook when it had only 30 employees, and was then fired because his boss didn’t like Kagan’s business decisions, particularly one involving leaking important info before Facebook’s official notice.
Kagan’s blog is full of great ideas and helpful insights. I especially recommend signing up for his Traffic1m email course.
He founded SumoApp, which is currently installed on 280k+ websites.
#6 Paul Jarvis
Founder of creativeclass.com, an online course for creative freelancers, Jarvis isn’t exactly a growth hacker the way others on this list are. However, Jarvis’ approaches are extremely useful for anyone building any kind of online audience. On his personal blog, he describes how to build up your presence, starting from zero.
His methodology applies for both online businesses and freelancers starting without clients, making his posts a must-read for every startup owner.
#7 Hiten Shah
Co-founder of Kissmetrics and CrazyEgg, Shah’s personal blog provides weekly curated content on marketing, entrepreneurship, and product marketing. He’s #4 Neil Patel’s partner.
Following this guy will give you useful insights from a person who built his first SaaS business in 2006.
#8 Ryan Hoover
He’s the Founder of Product Hunt.
Hoover started with sending simple email digests with new apps to his list. Today, 300k+ readers get his emails, and the list is still growing. Check out his Medium profile where he writes regularly updates from ProductHunt, interesting interviews, and stories on how it all began.
His personal story is also fascinating. Rejected, he built his own way to the top. Read more.
#9 Nate Desmond
Associate Product Marketing Manager at Google, Desmond started GrowthChats.com — basically a place to schedule meetups for growth marketers in San Francisco.
He writes weekly emails with curated content that he enjoyed from the last seven days
#10 Pierre Lechelle
On his personal blog, Lechelle writes mostly about SaaS marketing and growth hacking. He provides useful tips on setting up your analytical tools and showcasing the most common mistakes that startups are doing. Lechelle is an expert and authority, which is why he should be on your radar.
#11 Pieter Levels
Founder of NomadList.com, remoteok.io, #nomads community, and many other projects, Levels is a world-renowned digital nomad. He became famous on the internet in the nomad and entrepreneur communities with his goal of 12 startups in 12 months. Not all of his projects were successful, but the aforementioned three look really promising.
On his personal blog, you will find marketing and life hacks. His ambition and vision earn him a place on our list.
#12 Sujan Patel
Author of the book “100 Days of Growth,” which has sold over 20,000 copies, and co-founder of ContentMarketer & Narrow, Patel is currently the VP of Marketing at When I Work. His life is inspiring, with a relatable up-and-down career story.
#13 Peep Laja
Laja is the Founder of ConversionXL.com. This guy knows everything about improving your site’s conversion rate. He may not be a traditional growth hacker, but he is one of the best in optimizing your conversion rate, one of the most direct ways to impact your business growth.
#14 Mitchell Harper
Founder & CEO at PeopleSpark, and co-founder at BigCommerce, Harper’s Medium channel features useful hacks and frameworks for your bootstrapped startup. In easy, actionable steps you will discover how to grow your email list and get the attention you want, even if you don’t have a big budget for marketing.
Harper also posted the startup idea valuation framework that you should try. It’s purpose? To determine whether your idea is going to change the world (or if it’s garbage). Mitchel also wrote a book on hacking your productivity, “#DoItAll.”
#15 Mariah Coz
The Founder of Femtrepeneur.
I first heard about Coz from Paul Jarvis. After reviewing what she does and has done in her past, she is total must on this list. On her blog she shows how to grow your blog and grow your revenue. I would call her female Brian Dean in female version. I’m sure we’ll see many great ideas from her for years to come.
#16 Brian Balfour
If you don’t know Hubspot’s Growth VP you probably never saw this excellent video on creating a growth framework. This is a must-watch for every beginner and master in growth hacking. I also strongly recommend reading through his blog CoElevate.
#17 Andrew Chen
He’s the guy in charge of Supply Growth at Uber.
If you look at where this guy works, you’ll see why he deserves to be on this list. Uber has grown massively over the last few years. Want to know why? Check Andrew’s personal blog and his essays.
#18 Ivan Kirigin
Founder of Yesware. Worked at Dropbox.
I didn’t know about Kirigin until few days ago when other growth marketer (Morgan Brown) was talking about him on Snapchat. If you’d ever consider creating referral program for your product go ahead and read through his blog. I’m sure you’ll find extremely useful informations.
Conclusion
So now you know who to watch. It’s all here. You can start growing your blog or online business. I’m not saying it’s easy job and that only thing you have to do is to start following these people, but one thing is sure: Following these people you’ll give you a clear idea about where to start.
Learn how to grow and experiment and test the things you think should help your business. Review all your implemented practices and think about how you can make them better.
Have some insights you’d like to share with the growth world? Join our Slack group #growmance. Our goal is to create a discussion about growth and unlock the growth together. Sign up here.
If you find this list helpful, please hit the “Recommend” heart to help others find growth hackers to follow.
Originally published at audienti.com on January 20, 2016.
