8 Tried & Tested Growth Hacking Strategies [+ Examples]

Growth hacking is about finding cost-effective, repeatable strategies to grow your business. 

It's not shortcuts, but efficient hypothesis testing for scalable growth, as Alex Garcia notes.

To do this, you need to strike a balance between cost and betting on success. But hey, it doesn't hurt to look at what's worked before.

For some inspiration, let's dive into eight examples that hit the mark.

8 Creative Growth Hacking Examples That Worked for Brands

1. Demo Led SEO

Traditional SEO is all about keywords and content marketing.

But with Demo-Led SEO, we add interactivity to the mix. This growth hack involves creating interactive demos or tutorials for your product and targeting specific keywords. 

This way, you drive traffic with the right keywords and also provide an interactive, user-friendly experience for your audience and search engines alike. 

Example: Storylane's Demo-Led SEO project

Not to toot our own horn, but as a company in the interactive demo space, who better than us to test our own theory?

We implemented Demo-Led SEO by adding interactive demos to tutorial pages. This is what it resulted in:  

• 91% of pages ranked in the top 20 search results
• 53% of pages ranked in the top 10
• 19% of pages ranked in the top 3
• Monthly traffic increased from 25,000 to nearly 150,000 in just three months

🍿Bonus watch: Get the webinar recording here!

We also saw a dramatic reduction in bounce rates. While the industry average bounce rate is around 70.3%, Demo-Led SEO pages have achieved an impressive 28.8% bounce rate.

For the curious peeps, here’s what a tutorial looks like:

While this strategy worked well for us, the bottom line is that it’s a win-win situation for any brand that can showcase its product with demos while targeting the right keywords that drive organic traffic.

You also see an increase in PQLs as users interact and engage with your product demo.

How you can implement it:

• Pick key product features for demos
• Create interactive demos or tutorials for these features (Create one in under 10 minutes with Storylane!)
• Optimize these demo pages for relevant search terms
• Keep demos user-friendly 
• Include clear calls-to-action (CTAs) to guide users toward signing up or trying your product
• Monitor performance metrics like bounce rate, time on page, and conversion rate
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2. Create brand awareness with social media

Social media posts and platforms are the perfect platform for creating buzz around your product or service, especially during a launch or major update.

Example: Loops' Twitter and Product Hunt Campaign

Loops, a startup in the customer feedback space, effectively used Twitter and Product Hunt as growth hacking tools to grow a following during their pre-launch campaign. 

They started by offering startups a chance to appear on a Times Square billboard they had rented out. This offer generated buzz, and they used this opportunity to build their email list with potential customers.

They also created digital "golden ticket" invites- a creative marketing strategy for early access. 

The result? Loops achieved #1 Product of the Day and Week on Product Hunt, thanks to the audience they had already built. 

How you can implement it:

• Choose the right social media platform based on your audience demographics
• Create unique content or hashtags for brand recognition 
• Use a mix of content types: videos, images, stories, and live streams
• Engage with your audience through contests, polls, and Q&A sessions
• Leverage user-generated content to build authenticity

Also read: Best Pre-Launch Marketing Campaigns for 2024

3. Be where your customers are, with social listening 

Social listening monitors online conversations about your brand, industry, or competitors. 

For instance, if your potential customers frequently mention a problem that your product can solve, you can develop content or solutions that directly address these concerns. 

You can then use social seeding- a concept to distribute your content through social media in a targeted way. 

The goal is to "plant" your content in the right places to gain visibility, which can lead to increased traffic, shares, and engagement.

Example: Airbnb's #WeAccept Campaign

Airbnb's #WeAccept campaign joins the list of creative growth hacking strategies.

After noticing conversations about discrimination on its platform via social listening, Airbnb launched a campaign promoting diversity and inclusion.

They created a powerful video and shared it across social media platforms- a social seeding technique. 

The result? The #WeAccept hashtag saw viral growth, trending globally with the video being viewed millions of times. Airbnb also saw a significant increase in bookings and positive brand sentiment.

How you can implement it:

• Use social listening tools to track mentions of your brand and relevant keywords
• Identify trending topics and pain points in your industry
• Create content for user engagement that addresses these pain points or join popular conversations
• Engage in relevant online communities, multiple channels, and forums

4. Use Referral Programs for Incentives

Referral programs use your existing customer base to bring in new users, often at a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising.

Example: Dropbox's Classic Referral Program

Dropbox's referral program is popularly cited as a great example of a successful growth hacking strategy.

They offered a simple yet powerful incentive: both the referrer and the new user would receive 16GB of extra storage space.

This program was an effective growth hacking strategy because:

• The incentive was directly tied to the product's value
• It was easy to understand and participate in
• It was a win-win situation for all parties involved

Through this program, Dropbox increased signups by 60% and went from 100,000 to 4 million users in just 15 months!

How you can implement it:

• Offer a compelling incentive for both the referrer and the referee
• Make the referral process simple
• Track referrals and rewards 
• Continuously optimize your program based on data and feedback

5. Create free tools for lead generation

Let’s be honest- users love free tools (and search engines too). This is also because they do the job- solving immediate problems for users, fulfilling user intent, and establishing your brand as an authority in your field. 

They also help collect leads and demonstrate the value of your paid offerings.

Example: Ahrefs’s free SEO tools

Ahref's suite of free SEO tools is a prime growth-hacking example of how free tools can drive significant traffic and leads. 

These tools are optimized for commonly searched keywords in SEO and allow users to simply enter their website URL or the required data and use the tool. 

This tool:

• Provides immediate value to users
• Demonstrates their expertise in the digital marketing space
• It is also a sneak peek at the potential pain points that Ahrefs’s main products can solve
• Collects valuable lead information for customer acquisition

Infact, here's traffic from just one of their tools, backed by their own data, to prove how growth hacking strategies like these work-

How you can implement it:

• Identify common pain points or needs in your industry
• Create simple, useful tools that address these needs
• Ensure the free tool is easy to use and provides immediate value
• Collect user information in exchange for access to advanced features

6. Use the Power of Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing can help you reach new audiences and build trust quickly, compared to traditional marketing, especially when planned well.

Example: Bokksu's Food Influencer Strategy

Bokksu, a subscription box service for authentic Japanese snacks and teas, uses influencer marketing to grow its brand. 

Their approach is to partner with food influencers who have an audience interested in international cuisines and snacks.

They provide each influencer with a unique discount code with the influencer's name, making the offer feel personal and allowing Bokksu to track the performance of each partnership.

How you can implement it:

• Define your goals for influencer marketing (e.g., brand awareness, sales, user-generated content).
• Identify influencers whose following audience aligns with your target audience
• Reach out to influencers with a personalized pitch highlighting mutual benefits
• Develop a clear brief for influencers but allow room for their creativity
• Amplify influencer content through your own channels to target more leads

7. Use Data-driven experiments for A/B Testing

A big part of growth hacking is testing hypotheses and iterating based on data. In short, A/B testing. 

Running continuous experiments on your landing pages can help you optimize every aspect of your funnel and improve your Conversion rate optimization (CRO) metrics. 

With this data, you can create the best version of your product by tailoring it to the consumers’ needs and wants.

Example: Booking.com's Culture of Experimentation

Booking.com is known for its rigorous approach to A/B testing as a growth hacking strategy. At any given time, it runs hundreds of minor and concurrent experiments on its website and app.

One famous example is their experiment with urgency messaging. They tested various messages indicating limited availability (e.g., "Only 2 rooms left!") and found that these messages significantly increased bookings.

This culture of experimentation has helped Booking.com optimize every aspect of its user experience, from browsing through search results to the booking process.

How you can implement it:

• Identify key metrics you want to improve
• Develop hypotheses or growth strategies about how to improve these metrics
• Design and run A/B tests to validate your hypotheses
• Analyze the results and implement winning variations
• Continuously repeat this process for ongoing optimization

8. Go for Community and creator-led content 

Combine your product’s existing user base with the right platform to reach new users, and you have a content goldmine at hand. 

When you make it easier for users and creators to generate content about your product, this can lead to authentic growth and increased engagement.

Example: Clay's Creators Program

Clay's community-led content strategy is a growth hacking success. They enrolled LinkedIn-savvy creators in the program and gave them access to special product features.

Given that Clay's product is relevant to B2B brands, the creators they enrolled posted on LinkedIn, where their target users are most active.

“It doesn't matter if you're an IC or at a larger company or a founder. As people see the top-of-funnel content creation happening on LinkedIn, they naturally get interested in seeing this product,” says Bruno Estrella, Head of Growth Marketing at Clay, on the Exit Five podcast.

The result? This growth strategy helped them go from 8000 followers on their LinkedIn page to 40,000 over the course of 10 months. 

How you can implement it:

• Create a platform or program for users to share their experiences
• Provide tools and resources to make content creation easy
• Foster a sense of community among your users and creators
• Use this content across your social media accounts and marketing channels

Start with Growth Hacking Strategies that Work for You

Put simply, you do you. What works for your brand may just be a unique mix of one or two growth-hacking tactics. 

So go on- take inspiration from here, add your ideas to the mix, and experiment with your own growth-hacking techniques!

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