As marketers, I’m sure we’ve all heard about growth hacking. But do you really know what it is, how it originated, and how it differs from actual marketing? We’ve got the scoop for you.

The term growth hacking was first introduced by Sean Ellis in 2010.

Sean Ellis was the go-to guy for Silicon Valley startups when they wanted to grow their user base. For years, Sean helped a lot of internet startups grow their user base astronomically.

Basically, Sean’s job was to set up a system and mind-set on startup, focusing on growth. Once everything was set, he looked for someone as his replacement who could grow the company further in his absence. Then, he would hand over his job, and eventually leave the company.

While searching for his replacement, usually he’d end up with marketing resumes with years of experience. The only problem is that at the early stages of a startup, you wouldn’t need a typical marketing guy. What you would need is a person who obsessively focuses only on growth.

Instead of looking for marketers, Sean had to make things clear about what exactly he was looking for, and that is how the term growth hacking originated.

The difference

While comparing, you may find a lot of similarities between a marketer and a growth hacker. For example, both marketers and growth hackers are focused on acquiring new customers and retaining them as long as they can.

However, the main difference is that a traditional marketer is broadly focused whereas a growth hacker is narrowly focused. As you may know, the only ultimate goal of a growth hacker is growth. For them, nothing else matters.

It is true that marketers also care about growth but the difference is growth hacker neglects almost everything else, and focuses obsessively on growth.

Marketers can also be growth hackers

As mentioned above, though there are a lot of difference between marketing and growth hacking, some of the companies still refer to growth engineers as marketers.

Many of the best growth hackers working today still possess the title of “VP of Marketing” or “Chief Marketing Officer”.

In fact, some refer to growth hacking as “a marketing technique initially employed in tech startups that use creativity, social metrics and analytical thinking as well as tools to sell products and gain exposure.”

Growth hacking is not just about getting traffic

Many people assume that growth hacking is all about bringing more traffic on board and getting more signups.

Wrong!

Though the overall goal is growth, unless you break those goals into various actionable tasks, you couldn’t expand your user base further.

Here are various growth hacking phases. The phases may slightly differ for each startup.

• User acquisition: This is when you bring visitors to your website or app page. Next, you need to convert them to user.

• Retention: This phase is about keeping users with you as long as you could.

• Propagation: Bringing more users as referral from your existing users is the main goal of this phase.

• Monetization: This one is about generating revenue from your loyal user. Summary

Below is a quick summary about the differences between marketing and growth hacking.

• Marketers are generally broadly focused whereas growth hackers narrow their focus into one ultimate goal- growth.

• Though marketers also care about growth, the difference is growth hackers neglect nearly everything else, and focuses solely on growth.

• Breaking a misconception, growth hacking is not just bringing more traffic. It consists of many difference phases that depends upon each startup.

Have you ever implemented any growth hacking strategy to your startup to grow the user base? We’re eager to know. Share your story in the comments.

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