The Myth of Growth Hacking
It’s not new, no matter what you think
Steve Jobs was arguably the best Marketer of all time. He was certainly the best technology Marketer of all time. Although he was not a hacker or programmer, and was primarily a “tweaker” he is revered by nearly everyone in our community, hacker and marketer alike.
And yet, Silicon Valley thinks that marketing sucks. Is unnecessary. Unimportant. Filled with charlatans and people who use red blink tags. Populated primarily by stupid women. Expensive. Untrackable.
Growth Hacking is then presented as the salvation. The opposite. The New. But it’s never presented as what it really is.
Growth Hacking is Direct Marketing.
Recent apologia for growth hacking conveniently define Mad Men style advertising to bash marketers, but withhold an important truth: direct marketing—growth hacking’s parent—has been part of Marketing for a long, long time.
A Quick History Lesson: Because We Apparently Need It
Marketing as a profession has been around as long as invention and entrepreneurship. With the invention of new media and methods of communication, marketing has evolved with the times. From newspaper ads and sidewalk signs to sophisticated…
